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KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA — After a week of being appointed as Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim unveil his Unity Government’s cabinet line-up at 8.15 pm today (2 Dec), and announced that Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof to be appointed as his Deputy Prime Ministers.
Zahid Hamidi is the incumbent Barisan National (BN) chairman and Fadillah Yusof is the chief whip of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS). This means that top leaders from three main coalitions (PH, BN and GPS) in Anwar’s unity government will share the top posts in government.
Anwar will also serve as Finance Minister, while Zahid Hamidi will helm the ministry of rural and regional development, and Fadillah Yusof will also be the Agriculture and Commodities Minister.
Anthony Loke from Democratic Action Party (DAP) returns to his Transport Minister post during the previous PH government, while Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail from People’s Justice Party (PKR) will helm the Home Ministry
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Anwar said all appointed ministers will be sworn in at 3 pm tomorrow at Istana Negara before the Malaysia King.
He added that the new Cabinet members would be called to attend a special meeting on Monday (5 Dec) to further discuss the government’s new rules, direction, wastage and bribery prevention, etc.
Helming Finance ministry portfolio, Anwar said he will be assisted by several advisors led by former Petronas president and CEO Tan Sri Mohd Hassan Marican.
“I will be assisted by a strong team who are not only civil servants, but also a group of advisors who will not burden the government’s coffers, ” Anwar stressed that he wish to restore economic confidence among local traders and foreign investors through several new approaches.
Anwar met Malaysia King today morning and presented the list of cabinet members to the King for consent.
Anwar’s cabinet consists of 28 ministers. His predecessors Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri, have a larger cabinet with more than 30 ministers and nearly 40 deputies.
PH led by Anwar holds 14 Minister posts, while both BN and GPS leaders have been appointed five posts separately, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah(GPS) is also assigned one ministerial post.
Besides declining the PM’s salary, Anwar has also earlier promised to downsize his Cabinet and lower the salaries of ministers.
According to Bernama, he reiterated that the unity government do not want too many ministers or ambassadors with ministerial status so as to reduce the expenditure.
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Other appointed ministers also include:
Economy: Rafizi bin Ramli (PH)
Local Government: Nga Kor Ming(PH)
Defence: Mohd bin Haji Hasan(or well known as Tok Mat, BN deputy chairman)
Works: Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi (GPS)
Digital Communication: Fahmi Fadzil (PH)
International Trade and Industry: Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz (former Finance Minister under Ismail Sabri’s govt)
Higher Education: Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin(BN)
Science and Technology: Chang Lih Kang(PH)
Women, Family, and Community Development: Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri (GPS)
Domestic Trade and Cost of Living: Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub(PH vice president)
PMO Minister(Law and Institutional Reformation): Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said(BN)
Natural Resources, Environment, and Climate Change: Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad(PH)
Foreign Affairs : Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir(BN secretary-general)
Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives: Datuk Ewon Benedick(PH-UPKO from Sabah)
Tourism: Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (GPS)
Education: Fadhlina Sidek (PH)
Unity: Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang (GPS)
Religous Affairs : Datuk Seri Mohd Na’im Mokhtar (National Chief Judge)
Youth and Sports : Hannah Yeoh (PH)
Health Minister: Dr Zaliha Mustafa (PH)
PMO Minister(Sabah and Sarawak affairs): Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali (GRS)
Human Resources: V. Sivakumar(PH)
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On 24 Nov, the Malaysia King finally announced that Anwar would become Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister.
Anwar led Pakatan Harapan(PH) to win 82 seats in Malaysia’s 15th General Election, but neither PH nor other coalitions garnered enough seats to form the new government alone.
With advice from Malaysia King to solve the hung parliament conundrum, PH formed a unity government with other political coalitions: BN, GPS and GRS.
With a total of 19 parties within four political coalitions in Anwar’s unity government, he previously told the media to be patient as he will need to consider the opinions of all the parties before deciding.
Civil Society Urged Anwar To Exclude ‘Court Cluster’ From Cabinet
Politicians and civil society had earlier urged Anwar to exclude ‘court cluster’ from Cabinet. For example, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, former Minister of International Trade and Industry reminded that this would bring negative publicity to the current unity government.
Thomas Fann, Chairperson of The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH) stressed that those with ongoing criminal cases should not be appointed to the Cabinet until their cases are fully disposed of by the Courts without interference by the Executive through the withdrawal of charges by the Attorney-General, who is a political appointee.
Among the politicians with pending court cases include Zahid Hamidi who still has an ongoing trial involving 47 corruption-related charges; DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng, MUDA president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Bung Mokhtar.
Former Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng is accused of using his position as the then Penang chief minister to solicit a 10% cut in the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project’s profit from Zarul Ahmad, Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd’s senior director.
Mr Lim is also accused of seeking RM3.3 million in kickbacks to appoint Zarul’s company to undertake the project.
Syed Saddiq, The incumbent Muar MP faces four charges in total — one charge of abetting Armada’s former assistant treasurer Rafiq Hakim Razali in committing criminal breach of trust (CBT), one charge of misappropriation of party funds, and two money-laundering charges.
Bung Mokhtar, the Sabah BN leader and former FELCRA (Malaysia state-own enterprise) chairman, was charged with two counts of receiving bribes amounting to RM2.2 million, and RM262,500 as gratification to secure Felcra’s approval for an RM150 million investment in Public Mutual unit trusts in June 2015.
Anwar Said A Person Is Proven Guilty Only After Punishment Is Meted Out
On 28 Nov, when asked by the media about the possibility of Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, BN chairman joining his cabinet, Anwar said he will take everyone’s views into account in the discussion.
“But we know in terms of the law, only after there is a punishment meted out (when a person is proven guilty by the court)…others (who are not yet proven guilty), we can consider,” he added.
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