After fielding a 'transformation' team in the 13th general election (GE13), Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is expected to form a 'transformation' cabinet.

He needs a strong team with new ideas to continue the national transformation agenda to making Malaysia a high income and developed nation by 2020.

The new cabinet should hear the pulse of the people after the message delivered by voters in GE13 as well as strengthen national unity.

NONE Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Centre for Technology Policy and International Studies director Prof Dr Azmi Hassan ( left ) said the cabinet members should be qualified and not because of other factors.

Based on the GE13 results, voters want a new cabinet line comprising more new faces and young leaders willing to speak for the people's interest, especially the youth.

"Malaysian society has become more critical. Sometimes, those appointed as ministers have to buck the trend to meet the needs of the people," Azmi said.

Chinese leaders should be in the cabinet and they need not necessarily be political leaders but technocrats, business people and leaders of non-governmental organisations (NGO).

The MCA and Gerakan have decided to decline government posts due to their disastrous showing in GE13.

'Many young people should be in cabinet'

Meanwhile, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Politics and International Studies lecturer Md Shukri Shuib feels it is time many young people join the cabinet to draw support for the BN.

Since many urban voters rejected BN, Md Shukri proposed a ministry for urban development be established and focus should not be only on Kuala Lumpur.

The 25 ministries should be retained but some need to be revamped to suit Najib's transformation agenda in politics, economics, administration, management and implementation.

The Ministry of Information Communications and Culture should be broken up as it consists of many agencies, in order to give focus more on specific areas.

Md Shukri said 'regional political dimension' should also be avoided when making the cabinet although some states contributed more seats to BN in GE13.

"It is important to appoint ministers who can work and put them in ministries based on expertise, such as an engineer as minister of mublic works."

The new cabinet will hopefully help the prime minister to bring change to the people and nation and deliver promises (Aku Janji) made in the BN manifesto.

This is important because their performance will be judged by the people who will vote for the party in the 14th general election (GE14).

- Bernama