(Why Pak Lah? Jumbo no longer in fashion? Picture source: http://www.cargolaw.com/)
Really, if you ask me, the “new” cabinet line up is nothing to shout about, Pak Lah.
Despite the hype and “winds of change” slogan flying around, the usual suspects are still there; starting with Pak Lah himself and oh that Nazri is still there too, to ensure that the Parliament remains as a zoo. The ex-MB of Selangor, the guy that has 2 Muhamads in his name had a “shock” when he got to know that he has been made a cabinet minister. Ya right!
And finally Shahrizat, despite her humiliating loss in last election, made a sneak way in back to Pak Lah’s cabinet (Will Yen Yen, the first MCA woman minister be reporting to Shahrizat now?). The rest is a mixture of politicians who survived the public whacking in the last election.
And if you dared to buy papers today, you would have seen a spin in NST – it is titled “PM breaks away from the cabinet that he inherited”.
PM breaks away from cabinet he inherited
PUTRAJAYA: All in all, this is the cabinet and government the Barisan Nasional should have had four years ago.
A smaller cabinet; more than half new faces; long-serving, controversial and ageing and ineffective ministers dropped; racial balance maintained despite heavy losses by component parties; higher representation from Sabah and Sarawak; reformers and proven technocrats co-opted into government; abolishing the post of parliamentary secretary to ensure government members attend parliament.
He broke away from the cabinet he inherited from his predecessor, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in 2003 to which he had only made minimal changes despite his major victory in 2004.
The old faces who had stirred so much angst among voters, such as Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu; and the unpopular ministers who were still fielded, like Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin and Datuk Seri Aziz Shamsuddin — they are all no longer in government.
Now what that means? Inherited? Is he trying to say that the past “good for nothing” cabinet ministers were inherited from the ex-PM and he had nothing to say? And because of that the administration of the country was bad and caused huge loss for BN this time around? What that implies? Interesting isn’t it?
That leaves some questions unanswered, namely:-
1. Who decided to “increase” the size of the cabinet to a jumbo sized cabinet?
2. If the people had decided to give BN 2/3 majority and gave Samy his usual win, would the jumbo sized cabinet been maintained (perhaps even larger with the inclusion of Pak Lah’s son-in-law)?
3. Is this means the huge loss to BN was attributed to Dr M’s old cabinet which Pak Lah had no say?
Interesting questions begged to be answered especially when the table is turned around and therefore Pak Lah has no choice to trim and revamp his cabinet. Eliminate those who been against him (like that 2 guys from Perlis) and those who been irked the public (Rafidah and her APs).
Obviously there are some good ones came into the limelight this time but with the same “football captain”, will things be different this time around?
It is yet to be seen…and it is good thing too, BN is kept on their toes this time around. No more fooling around with the Malaysians. And on the other spectrum, it is also going to keep the oppositions on their toes as well. If BN is embarking to do better this around (hopefully with Pak Lah doing less sleeping and the hands of his son and son-in-law strictly off from the administration), the oppositions has no other choice but to do even better.
Let’s wait and see…
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