THE sixty-four-thousand-dollar question which everyone is asking after the recently concluded 59th Umno general assembly is whether the new Umno president and prime minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Najib Razak is getting the team he wanted.

Secondly, how will the election results influence the choice of his cabinet members. Based on the election results, there appears to be a consensus that although Najib may not get all he wanted, the results should give him a reasonable level of satisfaction and comfort, given the fact that a fair number of new and young faces were elected. After all, politics is always the art of the possible.

What is most crucial now is the choice of his cabinet members to ensure the successful implementation of his reform agenda or the changes that must be made within Umno. The appointment of ministers and deputy ministers is the prime minister’s prerogative. Najib certainly wants to have a new team or, more to the point, his own team.

It would definitely simplify his task if those ministers and deputy ministers who lost in their bids for positions in the Umno elections resigned from their portfolios voluntarily. They should all follow the example of Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, the domestic trade and consumer affairs minister.

What Shahrir did is not only a magnanimous and honourable act on his part as an Umno leader but also, more significantly, in meeting Umno’s reform objective itself — putting party and national interests above personal interest.

We hope those concerned are magnanimous enough to follow in Shahrir’s footsteps as this would definitely be a positive step for the beginning of Umno’s serious efforts to reform itself. And there is no better or more appropriate time to do that than now and for Umno leaders to show leadership by example.

In any case, the vanquished are not all losers. Historically, losers have been retained as cabinet members although with less important portfolios. Those with proven intellectual abilities should continue to play critical and important roles outside the government.

NORAMTAZ ABDULLAH, Petaling Jaya

Source: NST – March 31, 2009