The long-awaited Cabinet line-up announced by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last Friday is very much a case of old wine in a new bottle, said a number of NGOs and Opposition parties.

"The new cabinet line-up is nothing to crow about. Most ministers retained their posts and the new faces were either unknown or not particularly outstanding," said Aliran, a human rights NGO.

The only surprise in the new team is the appointment of Musa Mohamed as Education Minister. Since he stepped down as vice-chancellor of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Musa was not known to be politically active.

His appointment and that of former University Malaya lecturer Mahadzir Mohd Khir are believed to be a move to rein in the academics and students who have strongly criticise the government.

Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement president Ahmad Azam Abdul Rahman said the appointment of Musa to head the Education Ministry was an effort to bring the academia back into Barisan Nasional's folds.

However, it is widely believed that the newly appointed deputy education minister, Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin, will be the main actor behind the scene in the education ministry.

According to Aliran, the appointment of Abdul Aziz, a former political secretary of Mahathir, "is certain to raise eyebrows as he has been directly linked to the conspiracy allegation brought about by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim."

Musa and Abdul Aziz are expected to have a free hand in handling the growing number anti-government students, especially given that both are senators and thus not enamoured to political support within Umno.

The removal of Umno vice-president Najib Tun Raza from the powerful education ministry and the exclusion of former S46 leader Razaleigh Hamzah in the new team seemed to have strengthened the position of Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.

However, the lack of strong party support will make Badawi's position open to challenge next year during the Umno elections. As such, the issue of succession remains a question.

In addition, the lack of representation of Kelantan and Terengganu in the Cabinet only goes to remind the public of the traditional tactics to "punish" the constituency that has voted for the Opposition.

"The federal Cabinet is now a government for 11 states and the PM is a leader for Barisan Nasional states only, instead for Malaysia as a whole,"said Aliran.

"It is time that the citizens of both the states question the constitutionality of this provision and insist that, as taxpayers of a federal system, they too should be represented, if not, there should not be any taxation without representation," it said.

Moreover, the re-appointment of Daim Zainuddin and Rafidah Aziz, both of whom had been implicated with corruption practices, shows that the current Cabinet will have a hard time to convince the public that it is totally clean.

"It is clear that the new Cabinet failed to reflect the wish and aspiration of those Malaysians who had signaled to the BN government to reform through their votes,"said Tian Chua, vice-president of KeADILan. He added that Mahathir has disregarded the principle of accountability and transparency.

DAP secretary-general and MP for Kota Melaka, Kerk Kim Hock, also expressed his disappointment over the Cabinet's lack of integrity.

"The Prime Minister should establish a commission on clean and ethical government to conduct public and independent investigations into allegations against the ministers instead of re-appointing them in the new Cabinet," he said.

He also called on Mahathir and all his Cabinet members to practice the principle of transparency by declaring their assets, not to the prime minister alone but to the parliament.

BN had actively wooed women voters during the elections. Perhaps as a by-product, there has been an increase of women MPs, from 15 to 20. However, despite the feat, BN has reduced the number of women in the Cabinet - three to two, a drop of 33 per cent.

"This is not only surprising but is a cruel blow for women especially since BN depended heavily on its women's wings to deliver the votes and used the issue of women's rights in their campaign gimmicks," said Aliran in a statement.

MP for Seputeh Teresa Ko said the reduction of women ministers showed that BN was just interested to use women candidates and the women wings of its component parties to garner women votes, but "it is not interested in promoting women in the national political leadership."

She urged women leaders and elected women representatives in the ruling coalition to voice their protest to the BN leadership.