Malaysians (would) want a Minister Mentor. No.

The following is a cropped screenshot from an internet survery on Bernama, a news agency based in Malaysia.

43% of the 1000+ respondents want the dispute between the PM Datuk Seri Abdullah and former PM Tun Dr. Mahathir (TDM) by “Dr. Mahathir taking an ‘elder statesman’ role”.

No. That’s unacceptable for several reasons.

1. The power relationship between an official elder stateman and the PM will be unclear, even if a constitutional amendment was made to create such a post, I don’t see how creating a post would resolve a conflict between TDM and Abdullah. It would necessitate that the elder statesman office to officially overrule the PM in certain decisions.
2. Creating a post to help our PM and TDM interact doesn’t make sense: TDM’s problem is that PM Abdullah is a weak leader because he can’t uphold BN and UMNO unity. It’s not a matter of policy but personality. No amount of communication between the two of them can help that.
3. Creating a post would in effect be a personality-related post: to uphold the strength of personality of TDM himself, which in turn, entrenches Barisan Nasional’s hold on Malaysia for better or for worse.
4. That doesn’t necessarily mean good policy. Malaysia under BN is still run under patron-client relationships and probably won’t change as long as BN is in power. While patron-client relationship can act towards the benefit of the whole of society, it probably is a good cause of corruption and cronyism.
5. I will grant that there needs to be lasting institution(s) that transcends and operates longer than the brief term(s) of Dewan Rakyat MPs. But we already have the Dewan Negara, the Sultanate and the bureaucracy. If we are going to appoint something like a “senior statesman” it would really mean that all three of them are quite useless in providing the long-term governance Malaysia needs.