KUALA KANGSAR: The interim prime minister can continue to govern the country for the remaining three years until the 15th General Election (GE15), despite not having cabinet ministers at his disposal.
Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah (USAS) vice-chancellor Tan Sri Prof Dr Nordin Kardi said instead, the respective secretary-generals and director-generals of government departments could help ensure the government machinery functions as usual.
According to him, the interim prime minister would serve as the 'driver', while the secretary-generals/director-generals act as career executives, without involving any politicians.
“The weekly cabinet meeting will be replaced by an Executive Meeting between the secretary-generals/director-generals and the Chief Secretary to the Government, where they will receive instructions from the prime minister and execute them, without having to go through the ministers, as the normal practice.
“The ministries can continue to remain, where the prime minister is also the ministers, and this could pave the way for a new administrative system which does not involve politicians," he said in a Facebook post today.
Dr Nordin said if everything goes well over the next three years, it could be highly likely that people would want a future parliament without politicians holding cabinet portfolios.
According to him, national security and defence would continue to be in the hands of the Royal Malaysian Police and the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) respectively.
In addition, Malaysian ambassadors abroad will continue to ensure foreign and diplomatic relations are maintained, he added.
“The appointed cabinet ministers in the future will no longer need to return to their respective constituencies. Instead, they can solely focus on their portfolio, which covers the whole of Malaysia.
"The prime minister is free to choose anyone to become a cabinet minister from those who he considers are the best for the post," he added.