JUNE 4 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been under constant onslaught and ridicule from former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad in recent months while the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) debt issue has been fried up.

At last, Najib tossed out a stern warning in his cabinet: Stand by me and 1MDB rationalisation programme, or leave!

This should have been the strongest statement from Najib for his cabinet colleagues since he took over the premiership. This also reflects the reality that the pressure from Mahathir, the government and public consensus has swollen beyond his ability to tolerate.

By right under the country’s collective responsibility cabinet system, ministers must support all the decisions made in the cabinet, and any member unhappy with the PM’s decisions should quit or be fired. So, it is natural for Najib to issue an ultimatum to this opponents in the cabinet.

It is pretty common in many countries or territories for cabinet ministers to resign or get  sacked half way through their tenures. For instance, US defense secretary Chuck Hagel was forced to resign over his disagreement with the White House on IS policies.

It is common for ministers to leave owing to mounting pressure from public consensus, their own incompetency or disagreement with government philosophies.

But, our cabinet is somewhat different in the way that we rarely have ministers leaving their posts out of any of the above reasons, probably because these posts have come by quite easily and that Malaysian government officials seldom need to answer to public pressure or competency questions. For us, it is survival for the fittest, and ideologies should take the back seat at best.

This time, the PM’s firepower has not been released without a good reason. There are people obviously unhappy with the government’s handling of 1MDB such that Najib is forced to issue the ultimatum.

So, who are the ones unhappy in the cabinet?

Tan Seri Muhyiddin Yassin said an open statement in March that the PAC should do its job by taking the initiative to probe 1MDB. The DPM was also against mobilizing public funds to bail out the debt-ridden company. Apparently he was not standing on the same side as his boss over this issue.

Muhyiddin later said in an Umno closed-door meeting that all 1MDB directors must be sacked, and rumors had it that he was leaning towards Mahathir on this matter.

Mohd Shafie Apdal, the rural and regional development minister from Sabah, not only supported the investigation of 1MDB, but was also said to be leaning towards Mahathir as well.

It has yet to be seen whether the duo’s conflicting views on 1MDB could be interpreted as singing a different tune from the PM, one thing is nevertheless sure: Muhyiddin was not around when the ultimatum was issued.

We have no idea whether Najib’s ultimatum is targeting cabinet members disagreeing with him over 1MDB or those not standing on his side during Mahathir’s onslaught.

There is a world of differences between the two. The former could be interpreted as disagreement over government’s 1MDB policies while the latter is pure power struggle within Umno itself. To Najib, the latter appears to be much tougher to handle.

As a matter of fact the so-called 1MDB rationalisation programme  is but another bailout plan to address the company’s astronomical debt issue.

Rationalization program is only a quick-fix solution to address an urgent matter, and the government still needs to map out long-term solutions to resolve 1MDB’s debt crisis in order to restore public faith.

If the entire cabinet is supportive of 1MDB’s rationalization program, does that mean all cabinet ministers must also be prepared to take full responsibility for this restructuring exercise in line with the cabinet collective responsibility principle?

If unsupportive cabinet ministers must leave, then the 1MDB board must quit en masse in the first place to reclaim public confidence.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the view of the Malay Mail Online.