KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Despite having members in the federal Cabinet, Barisan Nasional (BN) has set up five task forces to scrutinise the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition.
BN executive secretary Datuk Mohamad Sahfri Ab Aziz said the task forces comprising community leaders, academics and those it deems to be experts will serve to “check and balance” the government’s public policies.
“The BN supreme council that met on March 3, 2021 has agreed for BN to act as voice for the rakyat to check and balance government services, especially with regards to public interest policies,” he said in a brief statement yesterday.
The five task forces are in Education, Economy, Democracy and Law, National Unity, and Automatic Votes for 18-year-olds.
Three of the task forces are led by Umno politicians. Former education minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid is in charge of the Education task force while former second finance minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani is in charge of Economy and Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said is in charge of Democracy and Law.
Richard Kastum @ Mosinal from Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah is in charge of National Unity and Datuk Sivaraajh Chandran from MIC will take care of the final task force on the 18-year-old voters.
While some Umno leaders have been appointed ministers in the Muhyiddin administration, the party overall has publicly said it does not intend to continue its political cooperation with the Bersatu-led PN coalition in the next general election.
Parliament sittings that were scheduled to resume this month have been delayed under the current nationwide state of Emergency declared back in January to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia.
Both the Opposition and BN have separately pressed the PN government to reinstate parliamentary sittings immediately, pointing to the decree by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong saying there is nothing to stop the lawmaking body from doing so during the Emergency.
