Why don’t members of the Barisan Nasional demand for a Constitution?
Barisan Nasional – Component Parties in this coalition must be brave to make frequent reminder to all concerned publicly that it is a coalition founded on mutual respect and consensus. Without this co-existence, in another word, if substantial number of members were to withdraw from the Barisan Nasional those remaining would not be able to run the country effectively.
Mr. Koh Yong Siang of Sanakan had written ‘Give member parties power to hire and fire’. His article appeared in ‘The Star- Saturday dated 19.Dec.2009.
In the article Mr. Koh seemed to have accepted the supremacy of UMNO which lorded over the rest of the component Parties and he advocated that each component Party should be given back its rights in running the Party without interference.
In my opinion the act of lording over the rest of the component Parties by UMNO should not had allowed to happen if component Parties were brave enough to stand up for their rights and to put a stop to any malpractices within the coalition.
What I see, even till to date, the President of UMNO, being the Chairman of the Barisan Nasional is the one who calls the shot while others voluntary surrender their rights without any question, even though the action of the Chairman may appear to be considered as interference on any component Party when certain problems arises in that Party.
It could be, there are three important factors apart from others that could have created such situation.
(1) Barisan Nasional has no written Constitution which spells out the responsibilities and rights of its members.( I can’t figure out why the Registrar of Societies did not act on this)
(2) The Chairman of the Barisan Nasional has the full power to vet all names which
are submitted by component Parties as candidates in state and parliamentary
elections.( This is definitely against the spirit of co-existence)
(3) The Chairman being the Prime minister has the absolute power to appoint
any elected members into the Ministries as Ministers or assistant ministers or
secretaries. Or he may appoint any one by way of making him a senator.
Thus, you see how powerful the President of UMNO is. Until and unless, a written Constitution is written the hope of correcting the imbalance of power within the Barisan will be just a dream.
Dr. Chan
