KUALA LUMPUR. May 7 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) members of the Cabinet must let their performance speak for itself instead of responding to the constant needling from the Opposition, said Tun Daim Zainuddin.
Speaking to the South China Morning Post, the country’s chief negotiator with Beijing on the East Coast Rai Link (ECRL) pointed out that he stonewalled former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak when the latter tried to pick apart the renewed deal.
“Why must you dance to their tune? When Najib attacked me about the ECRL, what did I reply to him, what did I say?” Daim told the SCMP while making the shush gesture.
“I have the file with me, [it’s not his] now. I ask him questions, he dare not answer. Why must you listen to their tune? You got your agenda. You implement your agenda.”
The chairman of the disbanded Council of Eminent Persons also asked the PH leaders to consider what it would benefit them if they were able to rebut critics such as Najib but not deliver on the pact’s many election promises.
The former finance minister also repeated his calls for ministers to come down from ivory towers and explain to the people why PH’s election promises could not yet be delivered.
Daim accused them wanting to avoid criticism and public unhappiness about the undelivered pledges but told them that Malaysians could still be won over with reasonable explanations.
He also told the ministers to be mindful that they were governing the country jointly as the PH coalition and not running individual fiefdoms from which they could snipe at other Cabinet colleagues.
Reminding them of the principle of collective responsibility, he explained that any decision made by the Cabinet must be supported publicly by the entirety even if they did not fully agree as individuals.
Those who could not bring themselves to do so should not remain, he added.
“Don’t go behind and say ‘oh, I don’t agree’. Don’t agree, resign lah,” Daim was quoted as saying.
