I can remove Anifah Aman’s name from the list of Prime Ministerial possibilities if he thinks that a Sabahan is not qualified to be PM or he is not committed to constitutionalism and Malaysia Agreement 1963 on hudud

I can remove Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s name from the list of Prime Ministerial possibilities in a new post-BN, post-PR coalition in Putrajaya if he thinks that a Sabahan is not qualified to be a Prime Minister in Malaysia or he is not committed to constitutionalism and the Malaysia Agreement 1963 on hudud not suitable for a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation like Malaysia.

It is a pity that Anifah has followed others in Barisan Nasional in demonstrating superficial understanding of my proposal, as he probably suffers from the same disease as other BN leaders – lazy to read and not really understanding what is being discussed and proposed.

Otherwise, he would have known that a day earlier, I had mentioned three PKR leaders who could be potential Prime Ministerial candidates, viz. Nurul Izzah Anwar, Azmin Ali and Rafizi Ramli.

This was also the same statement where I mentioned three UMNO names as potential PM candidates in a new post-BN, post PR coalition to “Save Malaysia” in order to defend constitutionalism and the rule of law.

I had said that the if two political coalitions in the country, Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, lose all public trust, credibility and legitimacy, then Malaysians must dare to think the unthinkable and move beyond a political scenario dominated by two political coalitions into a post-BN, post-PR new phase of Malaysian politics.

Unfortunately, daily political developments are only providing new fodder to a scenario where both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat are increasingly being discredited, as illustrated as follows:

*The call by PAS President and MP for Marang, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang to all 136 Muslim MPs to support his private member’s bill on hudud, utterly heedless and contemptuous of the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework and the consensus decision that any private bill should be first presented to the PR Leaderhsip Council for discussion.

*The 12-day “labour pains” by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, despite earlier claims by the MCA and Gerakan Presidents that Najib would be issuing a statement declaring the UMNO/BN opposes Hadi’s private member’s bill.

In these circumstances, Malaysians must be prepared to break away from the present political mould since Merdeka in 1957 and Malaysia’s formation in 1963 to create a new political order – one where UMNO is not the natural pace-setter, where the Prime Minister need not come only from Peninsular Malaysia but can come from Sabah or Sarawak and one where the first woman Prime Minister could be named.