I am quite surprised to read the new line up of the cabinet announced by Pak Lah today. Six cabinet ministers dropped: Rafidah, JJ, Radzi, Azmi Khalid, Abdullah Md Zin and Tengku Adnan.
I would like to make a few comments at this stage base on my observation.
This is a rush job and not an in-depth analysis on the new cabinet line-up. I am multitasking. 🙂
Khairy Jamaluddin not included in the cabinet line-up is expected, but I am surprise that senior leaders and former cabinet ministers in UMNO like Azmi Khalid and Radzi are not included in the list. These are the rather open-minded leaders/former cabinet ministers who have been supportive to Pak Lah in past term. Why are they not included?
During the campaign period Shahrir Samad said that he was prepared to join the cabinet if he was invited. At that time, I was surprise to see Shahrir Samad participated in the election as I always thought that he was not interested in politics anymore. He has repeatedly told me last year that he was going to retire from politics. When I read about him re-contesting, I thought that he has been promised a cabinet position and this time he will use his position in the cabinet to assist Pak Lah to bring reform and change. But now to my surprise, he is only given a lowly Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministership. I would have thought being a Law Minister or Internal Secuirty Minister would be for befitting.
Of course, I was surprised to see the fiasco in Perlis over the appointment of Menteri Besar of Perlis where Radzi has intervened so much in changing the appointment. Deep down in my heart, I was thinking how could Pak Lah appoint Shahidan to be MB again knowing that he was so controversial all these while? I think the weakness and undecisiveness of Pak Lah has alienated all his close aides.
Well, I have been quite impressed with Radzi when he led the select committee that review Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code two years ago. He has been very open-minded and willing to listen to different views from public. He also has a rather strong sense of justice. I always think that both Radzi and Shahrir can make Pak Lah look good, but only Sharir got in.
Zulhasnan is surrounded by FT Opposition MPs
And of course, I am surprise to read that the Federal Territory Ministry is still in existence and it is headed by Zulhasnan. Ha ha, an UMNO MP that is surrounded by 10 opposition MPs in Kuala Lumpur can head this ministry and be a de facto Datuk Bandar of Kuala Lumpur? What a joke!! I was told by Sivarasa that PKR will file election petition on his constituency and they think that they have high chance of winning the case. So, what if Zulhasnan loses in the court case?
Zaid Ibrahim made a law minister
I am surprised to see Zaid Ibrahim, the former chairman of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucus (AIPMC) and former Kota Baru MP being appointed as Minister of Law in PM’s Department, the position formerly held by Nazri.
I know Zaid has strong views on UMNO and Pak Lah’s government. He has been very frustrated over what had happened in past years too. While I am glad that he has been appointed into the cabinet, having worked with Zaid Ibrahim on Burma issues in past years, I also wonder how long he can stand and bring reform in the judiciary. Hi hi, let’s wait and see….. hopefully he can really bring change this time.
| PM unveils trimmed-down cabinet |
| Mar 18, 08 10:46am |
| newsflash Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today announced his new cabinet.During a 20-minute press conference at his office in Putrajaya, Abdullah said he has decided not to appoint any parliamentary secretaries, bringing the number of cabinet appointments from 90 to 68.He has also dropped many notable veterans and new faces make up half of the cabinet.Those dropped are veteran leader Rafidah Aziz, Jamaluddin Jarjis, Azmi Khalid and Radzi Sheik Ahmad, who is known to be close to the prime minister.The number of ministries have been slashed from 32 to 27. More than half are new faces, among them are Zaid Ibrahim, who has been appointed minister in the prime minister’s department in charge of legal affairs.According to the prime minister, Zaid will be put in charge of legal affairs and oversee reforms in the judiciary.Abdullah’s previous cabinet had a whopping 32 ministers, 39 deputy ministers and 20 parliamentary secretaries, with jobs handed out to many of the 14 race-based parties that make up the Barisan Nasional coalition.Only 17 of the 32 ministers in the previous cabinet have been retained – with five keeping their old posts while 12 moved to new profolios.Among them are Rais Yatim, who has been named foreign minister, and Ong Tee Keat (transport minister).
Interesting new faces are Muhammad Mohammad Taib (rural development) and Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s son Sulaiman, who has been appointed deputy tourism minister. Khairy not in the line-up Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin was not named in the cabinet line up announced by his father-in-law this afternoon’s 20-minute press conference. Prior to the elections, it was touted that Khairy – the 32-year-old Oxford graduate – will be given an important post. However, the March 8 polls reversed his fortunes. Many blamed the young politician for BN’s disastrous performance. Since then, pressure has been mounting on the prime minister not to include his son-in-law in the line-up. MIC loses Works Ministry MIC fails to retain its control over the Works Ministry, and party secretary-general Dr S Subramaniam has now been appointed human resources minister. The previous works minister was MIC president S Samy Vellu. The party suffered heavy losses in the March 8 polls, losing six out of nine parliamentary seats and 12 out of 19 state seats. The party’s information chief M Saravanan has been appointed deputy federal territories minister while Central Working Committee (CWC) S Devamany is deputy natural resources and mining minister |
i didn’t invest any hope in pak lah this time round. so i am not too disappointed by his choices.
Surprise?
Malaysia still needs two finance ministers.
The sleeping man still holds the minister post that he is not fitted to be.
The keris boy still has the chance to set the same tune saying “ikhlas”, “jujur”.
The loud speaker is still in the PM’s department.
There are few questions puzzle me:
1) Why the M2T is in? People who cannot speak English is good at rural area development?
2) Why bad manner N** win the minister post?
3) Why the inexperienced brother gets the “helicopter” promotion?
4) Why the economics expert was in education line and now in agriculture?
5) Why….
The appointment of MM Taib is a bad move. With open knowledge that this guy is heavily tainted, PM still chose him. I guess it is to recruit bodek to support him in the next party election. This not only a bad move, it is also a wrong timing. People are expecting clean and honorable line-up, after the GE. So our old man is still not listening.
AAB is still Multi-Purpose Minister, holding on to three ministerial positions. Might as well scrap the cabinet and set up a Multi Purpose Ministry with AAB as its head!!!!
The appointment of MM Taib and the big mounth nazi is a v.v.v. bad move for AAB. This 222222222 BIG MOUTH will bring him down one more time. Is right move to exclude RAFdah and KJ….pls wake up AAB dont let MM Taib and NAZI pull you down if you are sincere to prove to malaysian that you are clean and not sleeping.
The formation of the cabinet doesn’t seem to base on rakyat’s need. It is more like a consolidation of power base for the PM.
Gone were Tengku Adnan but in replacement we have the so called can’t understand English, Mat Taib.Things are back to square one again.
wonder what kinda “sandiwara” and clowning around we’re gonna see from the new line up… what with Muhammad son of Muhammad, Nazri & Hishamuddin included …
Notice the fortune of Noh Omar? Demoted from Internal Security to Deputy Education Minister following the “keluar dari Malaysia” outburst. Now he is a full minister again. Together with Nazri, Muhammad x 2, they represent the cream of UMNO and the future of Malaysia.
I was hoping to see Khairy in the cabinet. It would be fun.
Shahrizat is having an interesting position as a special advisor to the PM in an area already covered by another woman minister.
Hi Teresa
O.K… let’s see how this new cabinet ministers will perform ok? I know that some of the “unfit” has been appointed.. but just see how they perform lah…
Im even more surprised. Pak Lah The next time you say something, this old Ahpek going to carve it on stone and letak di Putrajaya. Why? So you dont go changing it everytime you want to. You said “no backdoor entry”.. you said “integrity” and you said you have “big ears”..aiiya.. all lie meei. Or that you just go to sleep right after saying it or worse you say it in your sleep. I’m an old Ahpek who neber go to school one. My English also bloken one. But I neber break my promise or go back on my word. The integrity ( no it is not “in there greedy”) should start from you..
Well, at least Pak Lah has a sense of humour. He provided the rakyat with comic relief when he selected Muhammad son of Muhammad back into his new cabinet. I for one can’t wait for more articles from Raja Petra about this guy – simply sensational!
To Minnie100, I have learned (sadly painfully) that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. After having seen their past performance, hear their point of views, do you really, really, want your future to be placed on their hands?
badawi is just recruiting soldiers to help save his premiership. He doesn’t care if they are tainted as long as they can raise their hands and vote for him in their coming UMNO AGM this September. Let’s see if BIG EARS AND CLOSEd EYES will function from now on will his still half past six line-up.
Dear YB Teresa,
Congratulation on your double win in the last GE.I have some suggestions for Barisan Rakyat or some people still called it Barisan Alternative.
Since we have won 5 states in the West Malaysia and if you look at the Malaysian map,all the states north of Selangor are controlled by BR namely Perak,Penang,Kedah and Kelantan except Perlis.We have economic of scale and we should leverage on the above states and urban electorate who are mostly BR supporters.
First why not have a common daily newspaper for the 5 states which the mainstream papers will not report.Maybe just name it Berita Rakyat or People Paper.Then all our news can be properly channel to our supporters instead of the bias reporting from their papers.
Secondly,can we have our own state run radio or TV station to run our news.Can it be done without the Federal government approval?
Finally I hope that all the 3 parties DAP,PKR and PAS should prepare to contest under one common front and logo in the next GE like what BN have done and to avoid 3 corners fight like what happened in East Malaysia.
yeahwho,
I think all newspapers need approval from gomen. Ladio and tee v also the same.
Not quite sure about party newspaper like rocket and harakah coz I am a subcriber but not a member (yet)
The alternative solution is to give away free, can or not? Otherwise state gomen can put up notice board all over the 5 states and pin state gomen news carrying the real stories.
Dear YB Teresa,
Congratulation on your double win in the last GE!
yeahwho n lee wee tak,
I personal think that Internet TV station for the 5 states will be more effective n patical on top of that no need approval from Federal governmentand and no need sensorship.
Best Regards
Teng Chang Khim should resign as a State Assembly. DAP doesn’t like him. Sultan doesn’t like him. The people of others (Ronnie Liu says) don’t like him. Keadilan purposely put a Chinese Exco and claims that Sultan’s will. Now, Keadilan purposely claim that Sultan need a Bumiputra Speaker. Ask Teng to resign and ask for the forgiveness from his people. Otherwise DAP must sack him due to race for Deputy MB, Exco and Speaker.
hi Malaymail
“… Internet TV station for the 5 states will be more effective n patical on top of that no need approval from Federal governmentand and no need sensorship….”
the problem is we have low penetration in Malaysia and the speed that is available to some of the facilities in rural areas deters downloading audio and visual files. (I aged about 3 year accessing yahoo mail box on Langkawi) Rural folks also may not have sufficient financial resources to acquire computers or knowledge to use them.
Long term, we have to educate them on using PCs but from NOW, I think in BR controlled states, state government newsletters can be distributed to rural areas. Techinically they are not newspaper but offical notices…perhaps the state government can erect notice boards and update the rural folks as an official alternative to the controlled main stream media.
U know, in the old Western movies, the sheriff pin the notice, “dead or alive, reward of $200 for the capture of BILLY THE KID”…..
On a separate note……
I WONDER WHY TELEKOM MALAYSIA REFUSE TO INSTALL INTERNET CONNECTION POINTS IN MY HOUSE, AN AREA IN KL! ;-p
I APPLIED 3 YEARS AGO AND THE SERVICE FRONT DESK OFFERED EXCUSES THAT WOULD MAKE ANY DODGY POLITICIANS IN THE WORLD ADMIRE!
William,
Did Mister Teng steal your homework year ago? Why the angry words? As far as I know, many folks have supported him for years and eeling gutted for him.
It was Mister Teng that revealed the Abu Hassan Omar & Zakaria sagas.
DAP is short of experience and capable human resource. Internal politicing also will harm their chances.
Let’s hope there is a win-win situation for all.
Teresa, I would like to 1st of all congralute on your victory in the recent elections and I believe that you would be very busy dealing with all your new responsibilities. It is definitely something to shout about when we have someone who is not afraid to voice their opinions and fight for the rights of the people.
However, I do not agree with your comments about Pak Lah’s selection of the cabinet. It is his right to select those that he wants to work for him although I personally feel that his selection should be based on merit rather than his own personal emotions. Focus on fighting the good fight for the people in your constituency. They are the ones who voted for you and they are the ones who should matter most rather than petty discussions about the new cabinet which cannot now be change.
My message is focus on those things that you can change rather than complain about the things that you can’t. There’s a lot more to be done.
I grew up in Happy Garden, OKR, now staying in Puchong and working in PJ, Selangor DE which in a way are all connected with you. Perhaps just some issues that you could look at are:
i) Traffic problems – OKR, LDP (Why pay toll to get stuck in traffic jams? If it’s not effective, scrap it)
ii) Security issues – Too many new cases of snatch thefts and this problem has to be addressed.
Just my 2 cents worth of comments.
Congratulations to you on doing the Triple, i.e. MP,Adun & Senior Exco Selangor. I gather that you will be even more busy with the portfolios. I hope the present state Govt (PKR-DAP-PAS) will have great plans for developing the state in within this period before the next election due.I would really like to see a competitive Govt rather than an over-lording of BN.This is a good sign for Malaysian people.
I have 1 comment, ever since the victory on the 4 new states, my wife who is working as a govt servant (school) received a strict intruction from the Education Ministry that,all the govt schools that are in the PKR-DAP-PAS held states are not allowed to invite or received support from the Opposition Party namely, PKR-DAP-PAS to any govt schools functions.(This was reported in almost all Chinese newspaper on the 27th March 2008 regarding this issue at Penang). I can positively tell you,it does not only happened in Penang,it happened in all the 4 new states. My guess is they (BN) are afraid that the Opposition will gain popularity if they are invited to schools’ functions.
And yet the BN held Govt said they are democracy?!
I am really disappointed with this!!!
This is a further notice on how our BN govt had acted to be such a “lording”,cowardly manner on handling the loss!
Do you have any comment on this??
I believe UMNO still has not awakened to the reality that the Malays have rejected their racist brand of nationalism. To be truthful, I myself have not yet come to believe that the Malays have registered their rejection of UMNO. The Malaysian model of race based politics was in fact a powder keg waiting to blow up into a typical guerrilla led insurgency; because the lesson of history is that when people have no means to support their family, they will take the law into their own hands. This is a rule of natural law, as we can all see what is going on in Africa and Latin America. The situation in Malaysia was at the tipping point and just a slight nudge and we will be in the middle of such a debilitating insurgency, that will drain the resources of the nation and turn Malaysia into another basket case.
If we will only find the courage to admit the truth that the NEP had no chance of succeeding; because the NEP was a programme of exclusion; and those who held the power of implementing the policy had a vested interest to keep the benefits of such a crazy scheme to themselves. The Chinese was never at any point to blame for the lack of progress of the Malay race. The blame should sit squarely on the shoulders of UMNO leaders. If those in UMNO who held the power of dispensing government largess had any care to improve the fortunes of the Malays, they should have manage the programme in a more responsible and honest manner, but instead they restricted the benefits to their own small clique; hence government largess were given to only connected families. This restricted the programme to too few candidates and the quality of recipients were very low. Malaysian scholarships went to recipients who chose the easy courses of study that had no practical value in the job market, resulting in a colossal waste of scarce resources and it produced a culture of indifference; and it also produced graduates who could not find jobs and had to be absorbed into government service of pen pushers, a total waste of money.
The election of 2008 is a defining moment. For the first time in 50 years history a crucial section of the Malays had come to realize that change had to come to save Malaysia from UMNO. This turn of events at this moment is a mere illusion because UMNO is still the Federal Government and in the next election UMNO will massively stuff the ballot boxes. If I may say so, the most important institution for a coup d’tat is well placed and entrenched by UMNO judges and my namesis is that fat woman judge Zainon binti Mohd. Ali and from my own experience with Judge Zainon binti Mohd. Ali, either through ignorance of the law or sheer disrespect of the law will dare to decide my wife’s petition in breach of the penal code and hence had herself committed several crimes. This piece of comedy is unprecedented in all of legal history anywhere in the Commonwealth.
This morning I read an article in Malaysians Unplugged on Dato Seri Anwar, and the author raised issues whether Dato Seri is or is not the Anwar of before his incarceration on trumped up criminal charges. I believe this line of enquiry is both futile and irrelevant. We just cannot assess a man’s character under any circumstances. I had some one who I held as a dear friend for over 65 years and I just was unable to know that he was all along one of my worst enemy. However, the point that I want to put across is that in politics and the choice that we ordinary man in the street has to make to vote in a good government does not require that we know Dato Seri or not.; ALL THAT IS REQUIRED OF US IS TO ACCEPT OR DENY WHAT HE SAYS HE WANTS FOR MALAYSIA. If what Dato Seri wants for us is what we as voter wants, then it is Dato Seri who we will vote for as our government. Is Dato Seri a truly a good man ? That question is to me, not relevant. I have never ever met Dato Seri but what he wants for Malaysia is what to my mind what I want and to all Malaysians I can only say that UMNO’s policy of race, with emphasis for Malays as the superior race is WRONG AND WILL BE NON PRODUCTIVE FOR MALAYSIA.
I dare say that our Malaysian founding fathers like the Tengku even as he kicked out Singapore from the Federation realized that what Lee Kuan Yew said made sense and yet he felt that the Malays wanted a race based Malaysia and he acceded to their demands; and now after 50 years of independence both the Tengku and lee Kuan Yew are both right, and to say the least Malaysia took the wrong path. To this point in time (50 bloody years) Malaysia will have a “window of opportunity to get back on the ‘rail”. Contrary to UMNO’s and the Malays misled by UMNO Malaysia has not progressed at all and if I may say so myself, Malaysia had regressed because Malaysia has a 3rd world education system and Malaysia has descended into a spiral of LAWLESSNESS. You will disagree but ask yourself if you had any laudable achievements in these 50 years ? Singapore had nothing but dirt and of course a predominantly Chinese and Indian population; and they have gone into such tremendous race into the front ranks of developed nations BECAUSE SINGAPORE HAD A MODEL THAT IS INCLUSIVE, NOT EXCLUSIVE.
I had said earlier that after this 2008 election Malaysia merely has a WINDOW FOR CHANGE and we all are hanging our hopes on an Anwar led coalition to bring about change, This change is merely a hope because it can still de-rail. Affirmative action is an illusion that is difficult to wean off and may still return to de-rail our hopes. THE MAIN AND No ! priority is to restore a first world judiciary so that the laws will be respected and strictly enforced. What is the use for the government to legislate when the courts will not respect the laws ? To entrench an ethical, honest and corruption free judiciary, the PKR led government must totally dismantle the UMNO machinery that has been put in place to hold an iron grip on retention of power and government.
My the No. 1 issue in my list of priority is to remove the number of UMNO judges on the bench of the High Court and for that purpose, I recommend my wife’s petition and the abuse of power that was perpetrated by Judge Zainon binti Mohd. Ali will be the first act to restore independence of the judiciary on the saying, “kill a chicken to scare a monkey”.
Personal message to Teresa,” keep on go forward, if God is with us who will against us”.
let me start by saying,whoever the PM choses is just waste of time.he got 2004 to 2008 to do something about it,he wants to wait until NOW.what a joke!whoever he brings in,i still feel they will still be doing nothing,the fish always stinks from the head.peolple r fed up with the BN,if that also they cant see,what more can we hope for in this new line up.
I doubt this Ong Ka Chuan fellow can do a good job being the new Housing and Local Government Minister. All previous ministers holding this post had failed in raising the standard of the new villages (rather old villages now)housing problems in which many poor Chinese has are still residing after 50 odd years. The problems need to be addressed are:
1. Issue freehold land titles so that the peoples’ children are able to comply and obtain housing loan to rebuild their old falling apart zinc roofing plank houses to a permanent and livable house for their parents to stay.
2. Although many new villages to date have good roads, drainage,water and electricity supply but majority of their plank houses are falling apart. The respective local governments should have a master blueprint/plan to assist and redevelop these ‘old’ villages into proper modern ‘New’villages by now. Local Government may be helpful by arranging a back-to-back easy finance repayment scheme with the Banks to the people in a progressive stages.
3. A Infrastructure blue print is needed to tackle drainage problem such as repairing, widening or constructing new drains to prevent rubbish blockage leading to flash floods in certain areas.
4. To provide security and public amenities building for social interaction. Conduct more social activities like games/competitions for the young, older folks with Tai-Chi or line-dances classes etc.
5. Environment improvement – Create more rubbish collecting center. Planting and maintaining trees and plants as well as clearing of rubbish by conducting frequent gotong-royong.
6. Proper places of worships for all religions.
7. Education – Build more schools if needed, kindergartens, night classes for senior citizens to improve their cooking, language or whatever skills.
8. Health care center/clinic for poor and disable folks.
All these are only achievable by the support/planning and financial allocation from the respective state governments. We want a all-new village program right away without further delay in order to achieve a so-called developed country status by a near future and eradicate poverty through the provision and assistances to educate the mentality and upgrade the living standards for all kampong/village folks. What we need to do now is to implement and work on it, so long as persist we will achieve our vision.