DPM: What’s the rationale behind the post?

It looks like nobody wants to lose, be it Barisan Nasional (BN) or Pakatan Harapan (PH).

Both parties announced the decision to include a specific item in their manifesto - the creation of deputy prime minister (DPM) posts to representatives from West Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.

Due to this, we’d like to ask what is the rationale behind the idea of electing three DPMs in the Malaysian cabinet, especially when the role is not even mentioned anywhere in the Federal Constitution.

The Federal Constitution is the main law of Malaysia which holds 183 Articles and represents the written legal document that was formed based on two documents – the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1948 and the Constitution of Malaysia 1957.

After Malaysian independence, a study by the Reid Commission conducted in 1956 led to the formation of the Federal Constitution.

Under Article 43 (1), the Cabinet title states that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong should elect a Cabinet to advise him in performing his function (as state’s chief).

Article 43 (2) states the Cabinet must be appointed following certain conditions.

The first is the Yang di-Pertuan Agong must appoint the Prime Minister beforehand to chair a person from the Cabinet that could gain the trust of a majority of the Parliament members and secondly, based on the advice of the Prime Minister, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong must elect a minister among any member of one Parliamentary Council (Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara).

Article 43 (3) of the Federal Constitution says the Cabinet must be responsible to Parliament.

Article 43 (6) states the Cabinet must raise their oath in front of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

Article 43A (1) specifically explained the appointment of the deputy ministers among any Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara members.

Article 43C states the need to appoint a political secretary that is not necessarily from the Dewan Rakyat or Dewan Negara.

The Federal Constitution detailed the appointment of the Dewan Rakyat and Negara members including the total allocated for each state.

However, no part in the Federal Constitution states the election of a DPM, let alone one allocated to each state.

In short, there was no allocation to create this position according to the Federal Constitution so how was the position created?

The beginning of the DPM’s post

I have written regarding the matter during Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s appointment as Prime Minister after the PH government won the 14th General Election (GE14) to explain why he had not elected a DPM to assist him as the country’s number one man.

For the record, Muhyiddin only elected a DPM, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a month before he resigned.

Prior to that, he had only elected senior ministers.

Ismail Sabri replaced Muhyiddin’s position in August 2021, thus the DPM seat was vacant and he maintained the senior ministers until the dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10.

Hence, Muhyiddin was the last minister who appointed a DPM to assist him.

Based on history, this position was created specifically for Tun Abdul Razak Hussein to help Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj in his tasks to administer the country.

Razak then continued the tradition by appointing Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman (who died while serving as DPM), Hussein Onn, and Hussein later elected Dr Mahathir Mohamad as DPM.

Mahathir, who held the Prime Minister position for the longest time in the country’s history, which is for almost 22 years, continued the convention by appointing Musa Hitam until Musa resigned from his position and followed by Ghafar Baba, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the last with Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail when he returned to rule for the second time.

Abdullah, during the time he was Prime Minister, continued the tradition and elected Datuk Seri Najib Razak as DPM and Najib while he was Prime Minister elected Muhyiddin as DPM before sacking him and replacing him with Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

If we realise and observe it carefully, that is why a DPM must have a position as a minister, is to enable them to officially become a Cabinet member and attend the weekly Cabinet meeting.

If they only held the position of DPM, they would not be able to attend the weekly Cabinet meeting because the position doesn’t exist in the Federal Constitution which means they would not swear an oath as a minister and be sworn to secrecy.

This is a major consequence because if a DPM participates in a Cabinet meeting without being a member, any decision made by the government would be legally invalid.

Due to that, a DPM is required to become a Cabinet member as what is stated in Article 43 (2)(b).

A Prime Minister is not obliged to hold any ministerial position because the position he holds is mentioned and stated under Article 43 (2)(a), which makes him part of the Cabinet.

The article could not be used for DPM because the matter is not mentioned in the country’s Constitution.

A DPM on their own is not solely or essentially a member of the Cabinet unless they take an oath as a Cabinet member.

The issue regarding this position once again gained the attention of all after Zahid, the BN chairman and PH chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced the creation of these roles if they win in GE15.

They had not only promised to create these positions but gave their assurance to elect three DPMs representing West Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak in line with strengthening their statement that it would be inserted into each of their manifestoes.

The irony is Anwar made the promises after giving the assurance to reduce the size of the Cabinet and would perform salary and allowance cuts for the prime minister if they successfully formed a government.

The question we have was how would these savings be achieved if he intended to create the DPM positions?

Together with the positions would be additional salaries, allowances, special privileges such as a residence, additional police escorts, personal guards and exclusive usage of aircraft during visits and official work domestically or internationally.

This is before taking into account the added support staff they require as well as being given the title becoming the ‘Yang Amat Berhormat’ (YAB) Deputy Prime Minister.

In our country, there are only four positions that hold the title YAB – the first is the Prime Minister, followed by Menteri Besar, Chief Minister and lastly the Deputy Prime Minister.

Along with the YAB title, there are benefits that come with it, as stated above.

So, where would this Cabinet focus on cutting down and saving if they intend to add positions not written down in the Constitution and wants to declare that DPM has not received any privileges they enjoyed – for the people, for the country.

"Back and Forth" is a column by Rozaid Rahman, who is Sinar Karangkraf Group Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer.