By K.K. Tan

This is a 32-million-dollar question that most Malaysians are asking today.

On such an important life and death issue for the country, I would need to qualify my competency on it first, so that readers would take my assessment more seriously.

You can call this a sales pitch, I don't care.

Like many Malaysians out there today, I am a very angry and frustrated person. But rest assured that my article would be very objective.

I am a seasoned corporate, social, political and geopolitical analyst for more than 35 years, newspaper columnist for 15 years and the real author of an international best-selling book published in 2003, an analysis about the politics of open source software entitled "The Great Software Debate: Open, Free and Proprietary?".

Latest check with Amazon showed this book selling at USD958, only one new copy left, probably the most expensive paperback book in the world today. No small achievement for a Malaysian!

When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke at the 10th OIC Summit in Putrajaya on 17 October 2003 about the evil and disproportionate influence of the Zionist lobby in the West, he was severely attacked by the Western media as being racist and anti-Semitic.

No leaders came to his defense probably because he was retiring as prime minister then.

Feeling indignant about it, I wrote an article in his defense — "Anti-Semitism claim baseless" which was published in The Star on 29 October 2003, and also The Asian Wall Street Journal on the same date) to explain what Zionism (as opposed to Judaism) is really about.

As a non-Muslim, I make no apologies for being an ardent champion of the oppressed Palestinian cause for more than 40 years since my student leader's days in UK.

Dr Mahathir wrote to me saying, "Thank you very much for your defense of my stand. Not many have done this or argued based on reason."

The first rule on addressing any crisis (local politics, pandemic or any major issue) is to be able to see the strategic big picture or "see the forest for the trees".

As an example, the whole country seems to be so submerged and literally "drowning" inside the pandemic. Like what is happening in many countries today, we are behaving like zombies or having the herd mentality of following our leaders blindly without asking any probing questions.

It is easy to be arm-chair critics of the government. There is nothing wrong with criticizing the government, especially for the opposition politicians. But no leaders or political parties have so far come out with an innovative, workable, transparent and comprehensive solution on how we can end the pandemic in a sustainable manner.

And how we can turn the economy around by for example focusing on our existing strengths and assets and why there is no need for now to invest our scare resources in new areas or reinvent the wheel.

Why there are so few leaders who are able to stand out in addressing the root causes of all our problems today?

On who should be the next prime minister, the focus seems to be on the cold numbers game, horse trading and politicking going on now.

In a way, this partly explains the social and political malaise that our country is in today.

So far, the analyses and comment pieces are focusing only on competency, leadership skills, power-base support, numbers game and promises made in the past.

Yet the most important quality or factor to be PM seems to be missing. 

It is about integrity.

Integrity is the most important piece lacking in our local political power struggle and that is why our country is also in such a mess today.

Contrary to common misconceptions, integrity, which is not absolute of course, is a lot more than honesty. It is also about accountability, trust and taking responsibility for one's action. It is also about justice and being fair to all.

A leader cannot claim to have integrity if he or she is being unjust or practicing double standard.

Yes, the King can appoint a Member of Parliament who in his sole or absolute discretion that he (King) believes is able to command a simple majority of Parliament.

But in the current political mess, with so many inter- and intra-party factions vying for power and with no MPs having shown to have secured a simple majority of at least 111 MPs of a total of 220, the King can always choose an MP with the great amount of integrity and he can reason that with such an MP, he or she would have the highest chance of securing the support from a majority of MPs and holding the country together, at least until GE15.

Once the King has chosen an MP to be the next PM and unless the MP concerned is very controversial or scandal-ridden, we can expect a majority of the MPs to close ranks to support the decision of the King and to show their loyalty to the King and country.

There are only two statesman-like politicians who are MPs. One of them has indicated his preference to lead a National Recovery Council. The other MP, by sheer misfortune of not being in the government for a long time, has the proven integrity and competence to be the next PM. He (an economist) also has a solution on how to end the pandemic and how to quickly turn the economy around.

Another option is for these two statesmen to quickly work out a deal and make a case to the King that they are able to work together and unite and hold the country together, at least until GE15.

(K.K. Tan is the founder of world-class think-tank COVID Research Center under the Asian Heritage Museum Group.)