In his thirteenth month in prime ministerial office Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim seems to have heard somewhat some of the misgivings about his first set of cabinet ministers. His announcement of a reshuffle which involved the dismissal of one minister and the reinstatement of two outstanding ministers from the original Pakatan Harapan cabinet of 2018 is encouraging.
Both Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad, the health minister and Gobind Singh Deo, the new digitisation minister provide a much needed boost to a flagging government administration. Steven Sim in the manpower ministry also inspires much confidence.The appointment of Tok Mat, Mohamad bin Hasan as foreign minister is also a timely move as Malaysia gets ready to assume the chairmanship of ASEAN. The return of Johari Abdul Ghani to cabinet after several years suggests some recycling which would help the unity government. Johari was a sound second minister of finance and he anticipated even then several challenges relating to the disproportionate allocation for salaries and emoluments in the federal budget.The appointment of Amir Hamzah Azizan as the second minister in the finance ministry suggests that the prime minister is willing and able to delegate some important responsibilities to a person accustomed to managing the nation’s largest public fund. The difference for Amir Hamzah is that the government has to expand drastically its revenue base to keep providing adequately for rapidly increasing emoluments, pensions and debt servicing costs. Currently nearly a third of the annual budget is apportioned to emoluments, pensions and debt servicing. This is not sustainable in the medium or long term. The prime minister must listen to him.
The capable, continued and non controversial role of Rafizi Ramli, Mohamad Sabu, Ewon Benedick , Hannah Yeoh, Anthony Loke, Nancy Shukri and Tiong King Sing in their respective ministries is well appreciated. It is commendable that Kulasegaran makes a big sacrifice by accepting to serve in a lower capacity as a deputy minister after a previous stint as a full minister.
The national unity ministry is undoubtedly the most important ministry in a national unity government. National unity is a prerequisite for the country to function effectively and succeed. Malaysia is in a state of crisis when it relates to national unity and the management of our finances.The country must not only survive but prosper and progress.
When the finance deficit and national unity deficit are combined it presents a dismal and disturbing picture. Our brothers and sisters in Sabah and Sarawak feel particularly alienated and left out as the Klang Valley has first world infrastructure while these two regions lag far behind even in respect of skeletal infrastructure in certain regions.
This is an inherited problem from many decades of misallocated public resources while benefiting fully from the oil and gas resources of those two regions.
Essential and Expanded Role For Unity Minister
It is noted that Aaran Ago Dagang retains that national unity portfolio and has a new deputy minister. This ministry has to be given a higher profile, greater significance for enhancing national unity through new, novel and imaginative projects. To garner confidence and address the sense of alienation faced by the people in Sabah and Sarawak and foster national unity it is proposed that the national unity minister be made the chairman of new trusteeship council on oil and gas revenue.Together with the second minister of finance and the minister for economy this trusteeship council must aim to administer oil and gas revenue in a reasonable and transparent manner. One quarter of that revenue should go directly to Sabah and Sarawak, one quarter should be invested in a national sovereign equity fund , one quarter be applied to settle the huge public debt and a quarter retained for annual budgetary purposes. In that way the current prime minister would have initiated a process to build a proper sovereign wealth fund as well as address the trillion ringgit debt issue.That would signal a clean departure from the excesses and murkiness of the four previous decades.
The National Unity Ministry must also open dialogues with the various service commissions to allow for the increased recruitment of Sabahans, Sarawakians and other minorities into the public service establishment. This would help to allay apprehensions that the public service is dominated by a particular ethnicity. Confidence in this unity government would be enhanced and the hopes of extremist religious groups to make headway in seizing national leadership would be forestalled.
Public service is about providing equal, efficient, effective and impartial service. Obviously corruption, inefficiency and leakages within the public service system must be addressed. Malaysia’s 1.7 million public sector workforce is often regarded as the world’s largest in relation to the country’s population. There is one public sector employee for every group of 19 to 20 citizens. When pension recipients are included about 2.5 million Malaysians directly benefit from emoluments and pensions. It is a mammoth mandatory, inescapable obligation for the government.
The government has to honour and meet this obligation the way it meets debt servicing requirements. The current impasse on pensioners being shortchanged has to be addressed expeditiously.
We must trust this politically savvy and stable government with an energised and enlightened cabinet will steer the country well into the 2027 elections. The opposition must provide positive parliamentary opposition and not attempt to unseat the government through back channels.
M Santhananaban
December 12, 2023
I appreciate this author raising Sabahan and Sarawakian brothers plight and sufferings, who have been LEFT OUT of all ECONOMIC PROGRAMS by the Previous and even Current MADANI Govt. This Madani Govt has recently organized a BUMIPUTERA ECONOMIC CONGRESS conveniently leaving out Sabahans & Sarawakians.
Aren't our East Malaysian brothers NATIVES IN THEIR OWN LAND AND CLASSIFIED AS BUMIPUTRA in the CONSTITUITION? Sabahans and Sarawakians ARE MORE ELIGIBLE to be a BUMIPUTRA than most of the Semenanjung Malays, emigrated elsewhere. If PMX CANNOT BE INCLUSIVE OF OUR EAST MALAYSIAN BROTHERS, BY APPOINTING MORE SABAHAN & SARAWAKIAN MINISTERS THEN WE NEED NOT TO LOOK TO FAR INTO THE FUTURE. It is a fact that all Ministers will take this OPPORTUNITY t…
See how this hand kisser deals with the incoming Agong , especially
with the proposed rail project
I am not a fan of Kutty but , he was right when standing up to the
Johorean
As for the shuffle , I doubt it will make much impact
Just tinkering around the edges
Education standards will further slip
Corruption will carry on normal
Horse trading using public money will carry on
Malay non performers still in and Indian got booted
So much for meritocracy
It will come back to bite his butt
I don't think many people with hold their breath about
this PM changing Malaysia for better especially nons
We will wait and see how Malaysia fares in the wake…
OK, so we have a shuffle of the ministers in the Madani government’s lineup. I don’t know much about some of these ministers but I hope ‘knowledge and experience’ (besides academic qualifications) had prominence in these nominations.. not ‘reward for political support’! Furthermore, it should have been clear to these ministers that their direct oversight over the ministries that they manage will be monitored closely. If it was me, I’d give each of the Civil Service departments a goal to decrease their expenditure by 10% each year (yes, decrease headcount each year)!
Hopefully, we can expect these appointments to be accompanied (very shortly) by accountabilities,an absence of which has been the hallmark of ALL governments before now.
Hence, all appointments…