The recent 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal has drawn the people attention back to the viability of our prime minister continuing to simultaneously hold the Finance Ministry portfolio.

Just for the record, this is an entirely new practice that only arise after the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim as finance minister in 1998. The then-prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, decided to consolidate his power and named himself as finance minister.

Except for a brief two years (1999-2001), the all powerful Finance Ministry has been under the stewardship of the prime minister.

This begs the question, why is it necessary that the prime minister should also be the finance minister simultaneously?

Needless to say the Finance Ministry portfolio is a very senior and important ministry. The minister in charge must be able to grasp and chart our nation fiscal policy especially in this challenging time. I feel being the ministry in charge of our nation economic pulse it deserves a full-time minister.

Najib Abdul Razak’s reluctance to let go of this post also give a strong impression that there are no capable person in the Barisan Nasional government to helm the ministry. This is hardly surprising in view that most cabinet member in the current government are from the older generation and even rising star such as Khairy Jamaluddin is merely being made a rather junior youth and sports minister.

Furthermore by continuing hogging two ministries, one must wonder whether it is for the best interest of the country. Already there are 10 ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department assisting the prime minister. I opine a lot of cost and taxpayers’ money could be saved if the prime minister is able to concentrate solely on his own office.

Malaysia’s economy is facing a tough and challenging time. Our nation external debt now stand at RM740 billion up from RM196 billion in 2013, an increase of nearly 150 percent in just one year. To fully grasp the implication of this mounting debt issue, the estimated federal government revenue for 2015 according to last year deficit budget is only RM235 billion and even that is on the basis world oil prices would trade at US$105 per barrel.

On top of that, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal has seriously expose the country financial flaw. The Malaysian Ringgit is trading at its lowest point since 1997 financial crisis. In fact in the entire Asia Pacific region, the Ringgit is the worst performing currency for the year 2014.

Investors are simply pessimistic

It doesn’t take an economic lecturer to understand that with world oil prices continuing being unstable and hovering at US$60 per barrel level and the 1MDB issue yet to be resolved, investors are simply pessimistic of our nation financial state and future.

Now is the time more than ever we need our finance minister to work double shift and really focus on our nation economy issue. But just how much time does Prime Minister Najib spend in the Finance Ministry? Being the prime minister, he is understandably very busy. That is why is very rare for the prime minister to hold dual portfolio especially one as important as Finance; certainly not in America, Australia or Britain, to name a few.

The continue absence of the finance minister has rendered the deputy minister as spokesperson for the ministry which I feel is inappropriate. Except when tabling the Budget, one cannot fault Malaysians to forget we actually have a finance minister.

With the goods and services tax (GST) to be introduced on April 1, 2015, we are entering unchartered waters. A captain of the ship must already be focus and fully ready in a storm. It is certainly bad practice for a captain to be at two places at the same time when he should hold still the rudder and steer us out of the storm.

We Malaysians deserve a full time finance minister and not a part time minister.

JIMMY PUAH WEE TSE is deputy chairperson of Johor PKR and Johor state assemblyperson for Bukit Batu.