COMMENT | I have received many comments on an article in my blog on the unfair appointment of ministers. One commentator said that the appointment of Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman is the most glaring unfairness.

Syed Saddiq is only 25 years old and the first time MP. He was appointed the minister of youth and sports, and is the youngest-ever minister in the history of Malaysia.

Another commentator said the following ministers in Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s cabinet are first-term MPs and who have no administrative experience at all: Mohammad Din Ketapi (tourism, arts and culture), Yeo Bee Yin (energy, technology, science, climate change and environment), Syed Saddiq (youth and sports), Baru Bian (works), Maszlee Malik (education) and Redzuan Mohd Yusof (entrepreneur development).

Yet another commentator said Pakatan Harapan is a coalition government, but when Mahathir appointed his cabinet, he did not respect the list of candidates submitted by Harapan component parties.

For example, PKR submitted Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul, a senior MP and whip, but he was dropped. The same goes for Nga Kor Ming and Chong Chieng Jen, who were both recommended by the DAP central executive committee.

The appointments of the ministers also did not reflect the number of parliamentary seats the coalition member parties won.

For example, Amanah only won 11 seats, but 10 of its MPs have been appointed as ministers and deputy ministers. On the other hand, PKR won 49 seats but only has seven ministers, while DAP won 42 seats and was only given six ministers. This is blatantly unfair.

As you can read the three comments I mentioned above, a large number of the newly appointed ministers do not have track records as good as Nga.

Nga's amazing track record

As the Perak DAP leader, Nga won all the 18 allotted state seats in the last few general elections, more seats than any of the coalition parties.

This is his fifth term as state assemblyperson since 1999 and his third term as MP since 2008.

He is also the deputy secretary general of DAP. In 2008, he defeated PPP’s president M Kayveas in Taiping.

I know Nga very well. In the last general election, I went to nine places within Perak to campaign for Pakatan Harpan, especially for DAP candidates.

In fact, I went to Telok Intan to campaign for Nga to fight against millionaire Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong, the former BN primary industries and plantations minister. Nga won by 12,000 votes.

I was told that DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng promised Nga that he would strongly recommend him to be a full minister if he could kick out the BN minister Mah, who had won his seat several times in the previous general elections.

In short, Nga has defeated two of the BN component’s parties presidents who were also ministers. That is why I say that he deserves to be a minister.

In anticipation of becoming a minister, Nga did not even request to be a member of the Perak exco.

I suggest to Lim Kit Siang and Guan Eng that they appeal to Mahathir, who has the absolute power to appoint ministers, to consider appointing Nga into the cabinet.

We all must bear in mind that Najib Abdul Razak had absolute power when he was prime minister – and see where that got us.

KOON YEW YIN, a retired chartered engineer, is a philanthropist.

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