From YB Raymond New Home To New Cabinet Appointments

YB Raymond Tan and YB Au Kam Wah finally announced joining Gerakan.

Raymond told the press that he'd found a proper home for his followers and himself. He cited that many parties had been offering "shelter" but eventually he preferred Gerakan where he feels much “comfortable”, unlike some parties such as the Sabah MCA and LDP which had not been “friendly” to him.

It's all started with the incredible bond between him (Raymond) and the CM that the latter went all out to keep him from being pushed out (marginalized) by other components in the BN. Intense internal rivalry among all the components in the BN is not uncommon phenomenon.

The centre of the argument started with the issue of true representation of the Chinese Community in the Sabah BN where Raymond had not been an active (or hardly known) politician with the Chinese community was doubted as the appropriate leader for the purpose.

This irked every body in the BN especially LDP and MCA respectively.

He was appointed as DCM (for the Chinese "quota") because he was the highest echelon leader available of the then SAPP which enjoyed enormous supports from the Chinese Community.

Yong Tet Lee, the popular Chinese leader and the President of SAPP, had just finished his 5 years political “prison” sentence, was again left out of the race during the last general election. It was noted that Yong was somehow “barred” from the active politic role due to certain forces in the Sabah BN.

Otherwise we could have seen Yong to become the rightful DCM instead of Raymond, and of course he needs pre-blessing from the CM of the day in order to achieve this.

The pull out of SAPP on September 17, 2008 was the turning point where State Assembly Members from SAPP, Raymond and Au, chose to stay party-less but pro-BN.

Despite all the rumours and speculations, Raymond continued enjoy undivided supports from CM and kept his DCM and Works Minister portfolio for almost 8 months.

Now that he’d found a home in BN, Raymond should now do the honourable thing by resigning immediately all his cabinet posts, the DCM & Work Minister posts respectively in order for CM to re-arrange his cabinet as necessary.

It's a matter of procedure and a respect of procedure, discipline, integrity, and professionalism. This is because he should also be seen respecting his own new party by doing so.

He should not worry that the CM won’t appoint him any portfolio as he must have the skills that CM can hardly do without by judging on the record in the last 8 months.

Perhaps CM could consider the following appointments that should make every body happy and united:-

1. YB Raymond remains as Work Minister;
2. YB Edward Khoo from MCA promoted as DCM and a Finance Minister post;
3. YB Teo of LDP as Deputy Finance Minister

I think it's high time that CM concentrates on the central role of leading the state by going more frequently to the grass root levels that he may not have times to look after all the affairs (People First, Performance Now!); the delegation of the financial portfolio to MCA is most appropriate as MCA is the second largest components of BN in federal level and has been contributing a lot in the BN ruling in Sabah since 1994.

With the introduction of 1Malaysia, I think the “racial quota” on the DCM posts in the Sabah state cabinet line up may deem to be meaningless or unnecessary if we truly want to implement the 1Malaysia concept from the new PM seriously.