LETTER | Why should parliamentary democracy be sacrificed at the expense of political expediency?

A Westminster Parliament democracy dictates that the leader of a political party that has the majority support of parliamentarians shall elect a leader who shall be the prime minister.

In the case of Pakatan Harapan, presently DAP has a majority and rightly so should appoint a leader to be the PM.

However, in view of the sensitivity of the appointment of a non-Malay as the PM, DAP has forgone that privilege to allow for a Malay to be the PM.

That honour should now go to the leader of the next party that also has the second-highest majority. That party is PKR with 38 seats in Parliament and their leader is Anwar Ibrahim.

So it is plain illogical and nonsensical that any other candidate like Dr Mahathir Mohamad or Shafie Apdal is even considered as an alternative to be appointed as PM.

The former has five ex-Bersatu MPs and the latter has 9 MPs. What rationale is that these two leaders should even be considered as eligible for the PM post?

Unless, of course, our parliamentary democracy is a hybrid authoritarian type where the election of PM is not based on the Westminster style of democracy.

It is beyond belief that leaders of both DAP and Amanah can even opt to consider and support the appointment unless the decision is purely tainted with greed to be appointed as ministers in the next government.

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