Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud announced major changes to his cabinet today, appointing the state's youngest assistant minister, 24-year-old Larry Sng from PBDS, and promoting rising PBB star Awang Tengah Ali Hassan to full minister.

In the process, he also created history by forming the biggest Sarawak cabinet which now has nine full ministers and 20 assistant ministers. There are a total of 48 ministerial portfolios in the enlarged cabinet.

The reshuffle could be to pave the way for Taib - who had been at the helm for 23 years - to step down eventually, with some quarters even suggesting it could happen "quite soon".

Taib himself took over the finance portfolio in addition to resource planning. This is the first time since Independence in 1963 that the finance portfolio is directly under the chief minister.

Awang Tengah is PBB treasurer and widely seen as one of Taib's right-hand men while Larry is first-term Pelagus state assemblyperson and son of PBDS stalwart Sng Chee Hua. The PBB leader has even been mentioned as a possible dark-horse to succeed Taib as chief minister when he steps down.

Awang Tengah, formerly an assistant minister, was named Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management making him also responsible for public utilities, previously under Deputy Chief Minister Dr George Chan.

Chan, who is Sarawak United People's Party (Supp) president, keeps industrial development in addition to the new Ministry of Modernisation of Agriculture. He was previously in charge of finance and public utilities.

Strong supporters

Reaction to Chan's new portfolio, political observers in Kuching said: "It looks like Chan's wings have been clipped."

Taib told a press conference this morning that he had brought in seven new faces as assistant ministers, including four from PBB - seen largely as his strong supporters.

They are Daud Abdul Rahman, Mohd Naroden Majais, Fatimah Abdullah and Hamden Ahmad (all from PBB) and one each from from Supp, SPDP and PBDS - Lee Kim Shin, Sylvester Entri and Larry Sng.

Appointing Larry to the cabinet also dashed Taib's own record as the youngest Sarawak Cabinet member when at 27 in 1963, Taib was a member of Sarawak's first chief minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan's cabinet.

Larry is aligned to the PBDS faction led by Dr James Masing who moved from the Social Development and Urbanisation Ministry to the Land Development Ministry.

Moving ministers

Abang Johari Openg, the PBB deputy president, moved from the Ministry of Tourism to the Housing Ministry. Taib explained that he had assigned housing to Johari to look at the problems of mismatch in housing in Sarawak by working closely with the federal authorities.

The chief minister retained the rest of the state cabinet ministers and assistant ministers by moving them to different ministries.

The other deputy chief minister Alfred Jabu, previously in charge of rural and land development, now helms infrastructure development and communications as well as rural development.

This is seen as adding greater responsibilities to Jabu who is largely seen as the Dayak leader in the government and a sign that Taib is pleased with his performance.

The exclusion of any member aligned to PBDS president Daniel Tajem in the cabinet is seen by most observers as a clear indication of Taib's stance on the PBDS issue.