Quite clearly, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is aware of the disappointment as well as disillusionment with the new cabinet line-up announced three weeks ago.

By expanding the size of the cabinet, he sent out a mixed signal that Malaysia has stopped rolling back the state, and all the talk about creating a more responsive government and efficient delivery system now seems nothing but fanciful.

Since the new cabinet was formed, there has been an unsaid sense of letdown among the public, as many had expected more new faces in ministerial posts and the old faces such as Lim Keng Yaik and S Samy Vellu to make a graceful exit.

The unique, almost idiosyncratic, political ecology of Malaysia is often referred to as consociationalism, meaning a politico-economic co-existence and cohabitation along ethnic lines. No other political institution reflects this better than the formation of the cabinet, in which all ministerial posts are allocated and divided among the component parties of Barisan Nasional.

Therefore there are posts, by convention, reserved for the big shots of certain parties, failing which the political implications could be huge, hence the silent discontent of the Chinese Malaysian community over the loss of the finance portfolio to Umno since 1974.

While the Malays in Singapore are still not entrusted with a senior military position by the Chinese-dominated ruling class, nothing could be further from the minds of the non-Malays in Malaysia than an Indian or a Chinese would one day be appointed as defence minister.

Muhibbah cabinet

Be so as it may, one must begin to question why has there been in the first place a need for the prime minister to enlarge the cabinet to contain, a staggering, 34 ministers, and as to whether the expansion will bring about a more efficient and transparent governance.

Alas, under the peculiar political make-up of Malaysia, the criteria for cabinet formation are not based on necessity or personal qualifications, eligibility and suitability, but whether or not the end product would manifest the semangat muhibbah of the nation.

Therefore, to ask why Chan Kong Choy was not appointed education minister despite his background as a literature graduate is irrelevant, because the education portfolio is, traditionally, given to an Umno member, and the person is more likely to ascend to prime ministership in future.

In the same vein, asking the prime minister to drop Ong Ka Ting from the housing and local government post and replace him with a non-Chinese with better qualifications and competence would enrage the Chinese community, for it would entail one less Chinese representative in the cabinet.

Unexpected dilemma

With the splendid win of Umno in the just concluded 11th general election, Abdullah was confronted with an unexpected dilemma.

Many of Umno's young turks performed so well and worked so hard for the party that the PM felt obliged to reward them. Meanwhile, to ensure a smooth running of government before the party general assembly in June, those like Rafidah Aziz and Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz had to be retained. Even Jamaluddin Jarjis, who was handpicked by D Mahathir Mohmad and showed little political acumen as second finance minister, was not removed. It was a tough balancing act. Umno, with 103 members of Parliament, had to be rewarded in one way or another, hence the expanded cabinet.

In the early 1980s, when China was first opened up to the outside world after decades of slumber, it was laden with a gigantic bureaucracy that in the state council alone, there were up to 15 vice-premiers, either to just accommodate the different factions within the Communist Party or to show reverence to the veterans who had devoted their entire lives to building a new nation. Today, with a population of nearly 13 billion, the state council of communist China only has 26 members with full ministerial capacity. Even the commies have learnt from their ridiculous past.

India, another billion-people country, has 42 government ministers. It may be laughed at as the mother of all cabinets, but nearly a quarter of the Indian ministers are in charge of essential public utilities such as railway, coal, steel, water and power. It is a cabinet based on national needs. Britain, where the cabinet system of government originated, now has only 21 ministers serving a country of 60 million.

As other countries are working towards streamlining the public administration, Malaysia now seems to be bucking the trend. The new line-up first looked so clumsy that Nazri for a few days found himself without a portfolio, his other five colleagues in the Prime Minister's Department could strike up a friendly chat with the press about their new functions. Having endured a few days of embarrassment, it became clear that the entire Parliament is now Nazri's stage. But some ministers' offices are still in the making.

So, it was not surprising to come across a piece by Kalimullah Hassan, the editor-in-chief of New Straits Times , entitled 'Abdullah's winds of change' (April 8).

In his exasperation to defend the new cabinet line-up, Kalimullah counts Ka Ting, who is embroiled in a triad controversy, as among those who symbolise a new hope for Malaysia.

Whether or not the general public agree is, as always, a different matter.