First job of reshuffled Cabinet is to prove that the Ministers of the Najib Cabinet 3.0 after the 13GE is not a “kafir harbi” Cabinet or like the traditional three monkeys, with eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not

The Najib Cabinet 3.0 after the 13th General Election, announced on Monday with the new Ministers and Deputy Ministers taking their oath of office yesterday, will meet for the first time today.

The first job of the reshuffled Cabinet is to prove that the Ministers of the Najib Cabinet 3.0 after the 13GE is not a “kafir harbi” Cabinet or like the traditional three monkeys, with eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not.

The Najib Cabinet 3.0 was a great disappointment for four reasons:

• Failure to end the disastrous combination of the office of Prime Minister and the Finance Minister which catapulted Malaysia to the world’s top nations notorious for global corruption with Najib’s RM55 billion 1MDB and RM4.2 billion “donation” mega financial scandals.
• Failure to trim the jumbo-sized Cabinet of 35 Ministers to a lean, smart and professional team based on the Ministers’ ability to end Malaysia’s decline in all fields of human endeavour and to take the nation to greater heights instead of their sycophancy to the Prime Minister of the day.
• A slap-in-the-face to Sarawak in dropping a Minister despite Sarawak BN’s “landslide” victory in the recent Sarawak state general elections, and the recycling of “half-past six” and “deadwood” Ministerial material.
• The inexplicable resignation of more technocratic and professional Ministers like the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, who must have gone through hell during the few months he was made Cabinet spokesman for the 1MDB scandal, raising the serious question about the moral compass of the present batch of Ministers.

Parliament had failed the nation – especially when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) under its “cari makan” Chairman, Datuk Hasan Arifin dared not even make the important recommendation in the PAC Report on 1MDB for the Prime Minister to relinquish the post of Finance Minister – and will the Executive in the form of Najib’s Cabinet 3.0 after the 2013 General Election be an even greater failure to the nation than the two earlier Cabinet versions in the past three years?

The calibre and placement of the Ministers and Deputy Ministers in Najib’s Cabinet 3.0 do not give ground for inspiration or hope – especially with the move of the Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Director, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, whose only political contribution so far are his disastrous “black” operations in the various media to defend the Prime Minister from his mega scandals by orchestrating baseless attacks against Najib’s critics and opponents from the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government to the only important Ministry in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Economic Planning Unit.

What does Abdul Rahman know about National Well-Being apart from Najib and his own well-being?

But all these four objections pale into insignificance compared to the test for the first meeting of Najib’s Cabinet 3.0 today, whether it could prove that it is not a “kafir harbi” Cabinet or like the traditional three monkeys, with eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not, the burning issues of the country?

I had been wondering what would have been the reactions of the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, if a state mufti had made an irresponsible, incendiary and seditious statement like the Pahang Mufti, Datuk Seri Dr. Abdul Rahman Osman six days ago, classifying DAP and non-Muslim Malaysians as “kafir harbi” who could be killed or slain and what is worse, such a statement had been given national prominence and front-page treatment by UMNO’s own mouthpiece.

The least Tunku, Razak and Hussein would have done would be to get the Cabinet to reaffirm the constitutional principles of the Merdeka Constitution 1957 and Malaysia Agreement 1963 which had not only made such classifications not only irrelevant but highly dangerous and subversive of the very nation-building process of a multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural Malaysia nation.

Going by the Pahang state mufti’s statement, Najib’s Cabinet 3.0 is no different from a “kafir harbi” Cabinet.

Let the Ministers of Najib’s Cabinet 3.0 individually declare whether they support or oppose Hadi’s hudud motion!

But even more serious and dangerous than a state mufti having a ISIS-mentality is for such ISIS doctrine to get front-page treatment in the UMNO mouth-piece, Utusan Malaysia.

Has such ISIS-doctrines surreptitiously found their way into the higher echelons of the UMNO and Barisan Nasional leadership?

Is the Special Branch Counter-Terrorism Division of Bukit Aman whose special responsibility is to be vigilant and prepared for ISIS threats opening a special file and going to interview every Minister of Najib’s Cabinet 3.0?