MCA takes Pakatan leaders to task for pandering to Dr M

PETALING JAYA: MCA has hit out at Pakatan Harapan leaders for breaching their pledge to restrict the powers of the Prime Minister in relation to his appointment at Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

The party’s deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said the leaders were silent when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad self-appointed himself as the chairman of Khazanah Nasional.

“Where is the spirit of collective responsibility of the Cabinet when Dr Mahathir self-styled himself into a position of power with zero regard to the Cabinet? What about your vows to check and balance Dr Mahathir’s reign and restrict his powers?

“You separated the portfolios of Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Yet now, you just roll over and let Dr Mahathir usurp the jurisdiction of the Finance Minister over Khazanah for himself,” he said yesterday.

He said Dr Mahathir had omitted the customarily essential Finance Minister in his selection of the board of directors and enforcing such a high-handed, sizeable alteration in the sovereign wealth fund was highly controversial.

“There were clearly six controversies in his actions, and over half of the Cabinet consists of PKR and DAP members. Yet despite their pledge to reduce the powers of the Prime Minister, not one of them have spoken up, or spotted even one of these glaring controversies,” he said.

Pakatan’s pledge to limit the power of the Prime Minister was contained in its 14th General Election manifesto, which also promised 10 important reforms, including to limit the tenure of the prime minister to two terms only and to restructure the Prime Minister’s Department and Cabinet.

Dr Wee also pressed DAP to state its stand on Dr Mahathir’s announcement that Khazanah was to help bumiputra only.

“DAP has kept completely silent

Where is the spirit of collective responsibility of the Cabinet when Dr Mahathir self-styled himself into a position of power with zero regard to the Cabinet. What about your vows to check and balance Dr Mahathir’s reign and restrict his powers

Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong

about this new bumiputra direction.

“If such an announcement was made in the past when DAP was in the Opposition, you can bet the house that DAP would have complained bitterly about this,” he added.