new cabinet: rafidah out! khairy not in!
Post on Mar.18, 2008
news flash! new cabinet announced! report from malaysiakini:
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PM unveils trimmed-down cabinet
Mar 18, 08 10:46am
breaking news 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 appointments to 68.
He has also dropped many notable veterans and roped in new faces, who now make up half of the cabinet.
Those axed are veteran leaders Rafidah Aziz, Jamaluddin Jarjis, Azmi Khalid and Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, who is known to be close to the prime minister.
Abdullah would not comment on the departure of Rafidah. "I don’t discuss why. I think she should make way for someone new," he said when quizzed on this.
The premier has dropped his portfolio of internal security and outgoing foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar will run a newly merged home affairs and internal security ministry.
Abdullah retained his finance portfolio and Nor Mohamed Yakcop will continue to serve as second finance minister.
Ministries slashed
The number of ministries have also been slashed from 32 to 27. Among the interesting new faces are Zaid Ibrahim, who has been appointed minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of legal affairs and Shahrir Samad who is appointed domestic trade and consumer affairs minister.
According to Abdullah, 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 (BN) 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 Dr Rais Yatim, who has been named foreign minister and Ong Tee Keat (transport minister).
Other interesting new faces are Muhammad Muhd Taib (rural development minister) 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.
Prior to the elections, it was speculated 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 had mounted on the prime minister not to include his son-in-law in the line-up.
MIC loses works ministry
MIC failed to retain its control over the works ministry and party’s secretary-general Dr S Subramaniam has 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.
MIC information chief M Saravanan has been appointed deputy federal territories minister while central working committee (CWC) member S Devamany is deputy natural resources and mining minister.
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i’m very happy to note that rafidah is out. about time!! but how come there’s no mention of her replacement? thank god the PM’s son-in-law is not in! everyone, including those in UMNO will revolt if he is in, methink. ohh…. why wasn’t that stupid stupid stupid minister, the big mouth nazri dropped?? aiyo! susah lah ini. this means we’ll get to see more circus happening in parliament with him around.
i’m disappointed though to see that he had chosen muhammad muhd taib as the rural development minister. isn’t this double muhammad guy the same one who run away with a sultan’s daughter and who was involved in some corruption case or what… something undeclared cash in australia? why picked him in the cabinet?
ok for easy reference, here is the list of the new cabinet line-up:
Prime Minister
atuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Deputy Prime Minister: Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak
Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department:
Minister: Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok
Minister: Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
Minister: Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim
Minister: Datuk Amirsham Aziz
Minister: Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz
Deputy Ministers Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department:
Deputy Minister: Datuk Johari Baharum
Deputy Minister: Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim
Deputy Minister: S.K. Devamany
Deputy Minister: Datuk Hasan Malek
Ministry of Agriculture & Agro-Based Industry
Minister: Datuk Mustapa Mohamed
Deputy: Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim
Ministry of Unity, Arts & Culture
Minister: Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal
Deputy: Teng Boon Seng
Ministry of Defence
Minister: Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak
Deputy: Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop
Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs
Minister: Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad
Deputy: Jelaing Mersat
Ministry of Education
Minister: Datuk Hishammuddin Bin Tun Hussein
Deputy: Datuk Wee Ka Siong
Deputy: Datuk Razali Ibrahim
Ministry of Energy, Water & Communications
Minister: Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor
Deputy: Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum
Ministry of Entrepreneur & Co-operative Development
Minister: Datuk Noh Omar
Deputy: Saifuddin Abdullah
Ministry of Federal Territories
Minister: Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique
Deputy: Datuk M. Saravanan
Ministry of Finance
Minister: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Minister: Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop
Deputy: Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah
Deputy: Datuk Kong Cho Ha
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister: Datuk Seri Rais Yatim
Deputy: Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum
Ministry of Health
Minister: Datuk Liow Tiong Lai
Deputy: Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad
Ministry of Higher Education
Minister: Datuk Khaled Nordin
Deputy: Hoo Kok Choon
Deputy: Datuk Idris Harun
Ministry Housing & Local Government
Minister: Datuk Ong Ka Chuan
Deputy: Datuk Robert Lau
Deputy: Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin
Ministry of Human Resources
Minister: Datuk S. Subramaniam
Deputy: Datuk Noraini Ahmad
Ministry of Information
Minister: Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek
Deputy: Datuk Tan Lian Hoe
Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs
Minister: Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Syed Jaafar Albar
Deputy: Datuk Chor Chee Heung
Deputy: Senator Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh
Ministry of International Trade & Industry
Minister: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
Deputy: Lee We Keong
Deputy: Datuk Jacob Dungau Sagan
Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment
Minister: Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas
Deputy: Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh
Ministry of Plantation Industries & Commodities
Minister: Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui
Deputy: A. Kohilan Pillay
Ministry of Rural & Regional Development
Minister: Tan Sri Muhammad Mohd Taib
Deputy: Tan Sri Joseph Kurup
Deputy: Joseph Entulu
Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovations
Minister: Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili
Deputy: Datuk Fadhilah Yusuf
Ministry of Tourism
Minister: Datuk Azalina Othman Said
Deputy: Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib
Ministry of Transport
Minister: Datuk Ong Tee Keat
Deputy: Datuk Anifah Aman
Ministry of Women, Family & Community Development
Minister: Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen
Deputy: Senator Noriah Kasnon
Ministry of Works
Minister: Datuk Ir Mohd Zain Mohamad
Deputy: Datuk Yong Khoon Seng
Ministry of Youth & Sports
Minister: Ismail Sabri Yaakob
Deputy: Wee Jeck Seng
March 18th, 2008 on 3:57 PM
Ong Ka Chuan..shake head. Badawi as Finance Minister again…shake head…
Whatever it is, I’m glad that Khairy is out. As for the list of cabinet members, I guess I’ll reserve my comment until they announce how they will be running their new ministries.
March 18th, 2008 on 5:23 PM
I think that it’s good that the BN retains some jokers in its cabinet; they’ll create reasons for the people to boot out the BN at the next GE!
In the meantime, the opposition should use their term in office as practice to gain experience for the time when they can take over the government.
March 18th, 2008 on 5:37 PM
Zaid Ibrahim is a good choice.
Shahrir Samad OK, I suppose. 50-50
Muhammad x2 Taib – what the ****
Ong Ka Chuan – Ong dynasty
March 18th, 2008 on 9:48 PM
It would be useful to expect, as voters, to mull over what we may expect in the next 100 days. From today the deadline is 26 June. When 2nd half of 2008 comes, what would you expect to happen concerning:
1.The Judiciary
2.SPR
3.ACA
4.Police
5.Petroleum price
6.Bernas
7.Price of 1 roti canai (now average at RM1.80, Kuching.)
8.and our sense of humor?
Imagine national wastages due to misgovernance.
What would that mean to public health, education and clean water and power for rural schools?
What would that have meant to the value of your Ringgit, had there been plain decency in public life?
March 19th, 2008 on 12:12 AM
Well, Muhammad M. Taib may be needed to protect the PM from falling.
March 19th, 2008 on 1:18 AM
klaw
ong ka chuan by right shouldn’t even contest in the election! many MCA members were angry at ong ka ting for letting him stand.
damocles
haha. you are right, come to think of it. also keep some of the jokers so that parliament sitting would be more interesting.
kitty
i guess the best new choice is zaid ibrahim.
salak
i guess most of us do wonder what it will be like, in say 100 days. we’ll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the better!
mave
. is there a double meaning to it? (consider taib is also nickname mike tyson).
March 21st, 2008 on 9:18 AM
In response to Salak, I am not sure about the other things he mentioned but I don’t think there is anything the Govt. can do about the inflation unless they start subsiding.
It’s a Worldwide phenomenon. Petrol prices went up by more than 20p (approx. RM1.26) in just one year here in the UK with the result that prices of almost everything has increased as well.