YOURSAY | ‘Shouldn’t retain ministers based on debts of gratitude but merit.’

Anwar unveils new cabinet, Sivakumar sole minister casualty

Vijay47: A charade from an indecisive man. Pretence from a leader too cowardly to take the firm steps to create a team of proud calibre to bring about effective change.

A prime minister unable to boldly cleave the Gordian Knot. Instead, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim dabbles with numbers, hoping and expecting us to believe that more must surely mean better.

This excuse for ministers will certainly attract wave upon wave of relentless criticism, to which the standard response, of course, would be that no cabinet can be expected to please everyone.

With the added defence that the results would justify selection.

To some extent, an attack from a certain direction has already been anticipated, hence the statement that the new cabinet is smaller than those from previous governments but, strangely, adding more members through the division of ministries!

Sleight-of-hand from the Madani magician. Three specific names were felt worthy of the chopping block, or guillotine, in keeping with Anwar’s affinity with the French Revolution.

Former human resources minister V Sivakumar was a done deal, a gone case over how he managed the shambles called the Human Resources Ministry.

Rife as it was with misdeeds, to put it mildly, the minister was simply out of his depth to control and eliminate the Deep State buried within.

And to maintain the façade of racial balance, Gobind Singh is roped in. In the first place, why was he not included in the original cabinet?

Let’s cut to a commercial: The civil service, government-linked company chairpersons, secretaries-general, heads of departments and agencies. What do they all have in common? No, this is not a trick question.

The Home Ministry is another national embarrassment with stumbles and falls at almost every step.

If Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail with his once-promising start were not a favoured son, if he were from the commercial sector, would he be allowed to continue a day longer?

And thirdly, the bitter icing on the cake – the Education Ministry. This institution, supposedly the foundation of our future, could not have performed worse even if it offered a full-blooded PhD course on “Achieving Failure”.

Yet Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek remains as safe and secure as ever. Education demands more than toilet conditions.

With the proposed increase of religion in schools, is she being retained because she is expected to serve this cause admirably?

I am not disappointed. I did not expect anything different from Mr Madani.

Apanama is back: Anwar, you deserve the best team, but you are being indecisive.

From the list of ministers and deputies, I can see you are still playing safe and not willing to take a giant leap to ensure Malaysia will remain competitive.

You mentioned that Dzulkefly Ahmad is taking over the health portfolio as the unity government requires his experience because the Health Ministry was burdened by many issues, some of which were passed on by previous administrations.

Why not the same apply to the Education and Home ministries? You should not retain the current two ministers, one due to hutang budi (debt of gratitude) and another one due to taat setia (loyalty).

I do not want my country to suffer due to appointments based on those two reasons. Appointments should be based on competency, merit, and deep experience.

Your administration will be a one-term administration. That’s it. There will be no more second chances. It will be over.

Playing safe is not an option any more. We are losing in a lot of aspects and areas, but here you are playing a musical chair game. Oh my goodness!

Salvage Malaysia: A few hits but many misses. Johari Abdul Ghani, as the new plantation industries and commodities minister, is in the wrong portfolio.

He should either be the second finance minister or the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories). That’s his strength.

But hopefully, Senator Amir Hamzah Azizan can prove himself to be an effective second finance minister.

You put the wrong person into the Health Ministry earlier and now again, you redesignated the same wrong person, Dr Zaliha Mustafa, as minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories).

The only right one was bringing Dzulkefly back into the Health Ministry. Too many other deadwood are still retained in the same ministries.

Anwar is still playing it too safe by retaining his loyalists. He had a good chance to prop up this government, but overall, it looks like a missed opportunity.

But never mind, let’s wait and see if things get better.

RimauTongkatAli: All the hype of the cabinet reshuffle is nothing more than mostly smoke and mirrors except for the Human Resources Ministry.

What happened to key ministries such as education, home, health, and finance? All these should have been reshuffled with qualified people and Anwar should have given up the finance minister’s portfolio.

It’s again a disappointment to see Anwar’s mostly talk and little action.

Just a Malaysian: Ministers are only administrators of a given policy or strategy. The key direction must come from the prime minister.

Without aggressive forward-looking strategies, the minister’s job is just another day at the office keeping the same machinery humming along.

Shuffle all you want but without a clear path forward, it is more of the same.

Pink: Why on earth do we need a digital minister? Is Fahmi Fadzil too busy to handle both the communications and digital portfolios?

I have not seen him doing much in both areas except tagging behind Anwar all the time.

What happens to his KPI report that he promised to do?

Tetraigrat: I am utterly surprised that a deputy minister, Lim Hui Ying, who couldn’t even answer a parliamentary question when she was deputy education minister, was retained and moved to the finance ministry as deputy minister.

If this is not nepotism, then please tell me what it is. The Lim clan has to be maintained, I guess.

Meritocracy Not race: Just hope that Sivakumar will not be starting another Indian party anytime soon.

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