LETTER | I refer to the Malaysiakini report Shamsul believes he is among PKR's candidates for minister’s posts.

Just when you least expect it, they show their true colours. One wants to be foreign minister and unashamedly goes on record trying to justify it while others continue to lobby?

Perhaps they think this is justified as the spoils of war or put in another way, the justification for most seats won? But it is obvious their inexperience, lack of vision, ability and humility now begins to surface and embarrass the millions who made sacrifices to make their votes count.

Within a month that has been forgotten? For these individuals, let me give you a quick course on the prime minister’s prerogative as is the convention globally unless you individuals are trying to rewrite it.

It is customary for the prime minister to exercise many of the powers that were formerly under the discretion of the monarchy. While these powers technically still belong to the monarchy in certain jurisdictions, they are exercised completely on the advice of the prime minister.

The prime minister, for example, decides when to dissolve Parliament and when to call a general election. It is even customary for the prime minister to choose who will be the governor of certain states.

As for forming the cabinet, much of that is the power enjoyed by a prime minister and stems from his or her authority to form the cabinet. It is the prime minister who decides who will actually make up the cabinet, and what portfolios will be assigned to each person.

Accordingly, ministers owe their allegiance to the prime minister, who can promote or demote them, ask for their resignation, and, if necessary, dismiss them from cabinet altogether. These powers tend to keep ministers clean, humble and both submissive and supportive of the prime minister and his/her policies and priorities.

That is not all, as appointing public servants in addition to appointing cabinet ministers, the prime minister also has the power to dictate who holds many key offices in the public service.

This includes the appointment of senators, supreme court judges, deputy ministers and heads of government agencies, boards and corporations.

The ability to exercise such power helps keep a prime minister’s ‘followers’ on his side while allowing a prime minister to impose his/her ideological stamp on much of government.

In this way, a prime minister who believes in a particular vision of how government should function can use the powers of the prime minister’s office to appoint persons of like-minded thinking to key government positions.

These are not all, as, in addition to these responsibilities, the prime minister also has significant powers over the actual organisation of government.

Subject to the usual routine of Parliamentary approval, the prime minister has the ability to create new departments and agencies, transform or abolish old ones, and privatise or nationalise industries and corporations.

He or she also has the power to assign specific mandates and priorities to individual government departments and agencies, with or without the permission of the responsible cabinet minister.

Now let us get to the meat of today’s argument, lest we forget, the prime minister is often seen as the nation’s chief diplomat. This is particularly true in the modern era of summit diplomacy when heads of governments regularly meet with one another on a face-to-face basis.

Let us as voters remind all and sundry that the number of seats won at GE14 is neither the justification nor priority for ministerial appointments but rather a well-rounded and experienced academic background, talent, experience, zero tolerance to corruption and humility.

The fact is and will remain, that without Dr Mahathir Mohamad coming out of retirement and doing the impossible, BN would have won with all the super-cheating, the present ‘prime minister-in-waiting’ would be serving out his full term in prison and be out of politics for good.

Several others would have been charged for sedition and other offences as well.

I appeal to all the winners of GE14, please do carry yourselves with dignity and decorum of office and not as political predators and scavengers treating positions in politics as the spoils of war.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.