Sarawak has been given "more than a substantial share" of appointments in Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's new cabinet announced today, according to an academician with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

"It's a bonanza for Sarawak," the academician, who asked not be identified said, adding that it was clearly in recognition of the state's contribution to the federation.

He added that the Pah Lak was being true to his words when he said after taking over as Prime Minister in November last year that he would give more attention to the development of Sarawak and Sabah.

Sarawak is represented in the federal cabinet by three full ministers Natural Resources and Environment Minister Adenan Satem, Tourism Minister Dr Leo Michael Toyad and Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin (left). Adenan and Leo Toyad are from Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) and Chin, formerly a deputy minister, is from the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp).

In addition, it has also been allocated one more deputy minister's post, bringing the total to five. The five are Joseph Entulu (Prime Minister's Department), Joseph Salang (Foreign Ministry), Dr Tiki Lafe (Rural and Regional Development Ministry), Douglas Uggah (Transport Ministry) and Robert Lau (Housing Ministry).

Entulu and Salang are from Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), Tiki is from Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), Uggah is from PBB and Lau is from Supp.

Sarawak also has two parliamentary secretaries Yong Khoon Seng (Works Ministry) from Supp and Rohani Karim (Agriculture and Agro-based Industry) from PBB.

In the previous cabinet, PBDS had one full minister (Leo Moggie, who did not seek re-election). This time, the prime minister, instead of appointing another PBDS MP to a full minister's post, decided to allocate two deputy minister posts to the party.

Dayak representation

Malaysiakini

had earlier speculated that this was likely to happen to accommodate the two factions in crisis-ridden PBDS.

The academician commented: "It's very clear that Pak Lah wants the two factions in PBDS to kiss and make up. It remains to be seen whether this will happen when the party eventually gets to hold their triennial delegates conference (TDC) and elect new office bearers."

In an immediate reaction, a PBDS leader linked to party president Daniel Tajem lamented that the Dayaks had lost a full minister's post, pointing out that Sabah appears to be doing much better with two Kazadandusuns being appointed Ministers in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Maximus Ongkili (right) from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and Bernard Dompok from Upko. Shafie Apdal (Umno) is the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs minister.

Sarawak has 28 MPs, of which all but one are with the Barisan Nasional, in the new 219-seat Parliament following the general election last week.