The making of Dr M’s motley crew
Urbandictionary.com’s definition of motley crew as “An odd and often mismatched assortment of people, a group of friends or teammates who don’t seem like they’d work well together, but somehow they do” aptly describes the new Cabinet.
A QUESTION on the minds of many Malaysians after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as the country’s seventh Prime Minister on May 10 was what his line-up of Ministers would look like. After all, voters who carried the Pakatan Harapan government to power at the 14th general election on May 9 were eager for change and had high expectations.
And for the new Government to implement its promises, it needed to form a new Cabinet as quickly as possible.
As things turned out, it took nearly two months for Dr Mahathir to get his full Cabinet line-up up and running. Getting the best qualified people to fill the ministerial portfolios while ensuring that the Cabinet fairly reflected the balance of power among the four Pakatan Harapan parties proved to be a time-consuming process.
The day after he was sworn in as Prime Minister and with Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as his deputy, Dr Mahathir named 10 core ministries. These were Finance, Home, Education, Defence, Rural Development, Foreign Affairs, Public Works, Transport, Economy and lastly, Multimedia, Science and Technology.
These core ministries, explained Dr Mahathir, would make up his initial Cabinet with additional ministries to be added on later.
The following day on May 12, Dr Mahathir named his first batch of Cabinet Ministers.
Many were expecting him to unveil the names of at least 10 ministers. Instead, he unveiled only three – Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Home Minister, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng as Finance Minister and Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu as Defence Minister.
As for the rest of the line-up, he said that needed “a bit more time”.
“We can’t say ‘abracadabra’ and everything will happen. It takes time. We have to study these people, their qualifications and fitness for each ministry,” he said.
After the announcement, Lim was asked by a journalist from China what he would do differently, being the first ethnic Chinese to be named Finance Minister after 44 years. (The last ethnic Chinese Finance Minister was Tun Tan Siew Sin who held the portfolio from 1959 to 1974.) Lim’s now famous reply:
“I’m sorry, I don’t consider myself as Chinese, I am a Malaysian. I do not know that it has been 44 years, thank you for counting for me. As I said we are all Malaysians here and our focus will be to help Malaysians.”
There was little surprise over Muhyiddin’s appointment as Home Minister; the former Deputy Prime Minister is a veteran administrator at state and federal levels.
Muhyiddin has served as Johor Mentri Besar and in various ministerial positions: Youth and Sports; Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs; Agriculture and AgroBased Industry; International Trade and Industry and Education.
In a statement issued on his first day after clocking in as Home Minister, Muhyiddin said the people were now more knowledgable and aware of their rights.
“The rakyat want to see the changes which they are hoping for taking place today, not tomorrow. Our job is to expedite those changes,” he said.
Of the three initial ministers named, the biggest surprise was the appointment of Mohamad Sabu as Defence Minister.
Shortly after Mohamad was named, digitally altered images of the Parti Amanah Negara president began to spread online.
One depicted him as the Hollywood movie character Rambo, underscoring how some people were still getting used to his appointment to such a “macho” Cabinet post.
The affable Mohamad Sabu took it in his stride, acknowledging he was known to have a sense of humour and liked to joke, but also made it clear his new job was no laughing matter.
“Those who know me well will know how to differentiate which one is a joke and which one is serious,” he said.
Many hailed the announcement on the first three ministers but others were less enthusiastic.
PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli promptly expressed unhappiness over the matter.
News reports quoted him saying that Dr Mahathir had “bulldozed” through the appointments without PKR’s consent.
Rafizi’s outburst did not go down well with everyone. Former Bersih 2.0 Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, in a tweet, politely requested that Rafizi stop his “nonsense”.
Fellow PKR vice-president Wong Chen jumped to Rafizi’s defence, saying that it was perplexing that PKR, as the single largest party in Pakatan, had not been offered any Cabinet positions yet. Dr Mahathir addressed the concerns about the appointments in a special televised announcement the following day on May 13.
He explained that while he could not “distribute the number of seats according to the percentage of each party in his 10-person Cabinet”, all Pakatan Harapan component parties would be fairly represented in the full Cabinet, and it would be based on the number of seats won by each party.
Despite his explanation, speculation continued on whether the delay in naming the full-lineup was a symptom of a bigger problem – internal strife and dissent within PH.
In a May 14 analysis on political risk in Malaysia, BMI Research reckoned that the slow pace in naming the remaining members of the Cabinet signalled potential difficulties in policy-making for the new government.
Noting that the slow naming is not an encouraging start, BMI Research said it still expected Dr Mahathir to be able to balance disagreements within PH to push forward with policy, although this would take time.
Finally, on May 18 was also when the Prime Minister announced nine more Cabinet ministers, while the third and last batch of ministers was finally sworn in on July 2, bringing the total number of ministers to 26, with 23 deputy ministers.
What makes this Cabinet so interesting is the quality of the members. It does look like Dr Mahathir took his time to choose some of the brightest and best trained minds for his Cabinet.
Top of the pecking order, the new Cabinet has the rare distinction of having doctors as the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Deputy Entrepreneur Development Minister is also doctor, Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli. Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad has a strong science and medical background with a doctorate in toxicology from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, Imperial College, while his deputy Gopeng MP Dr Lee Boon Chye is a cardiologist.
It is already well-known ex-Penang Chief Minister Lim has a degree in economics and is a professional accountant, qualifications that come in handy in his post as Finance Minister and the investigation into the convoluted 1MDB financial scandal.
Then there is Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ong Kian Ming, an Asean and Fulbright scholar who has a degree in Economics from London School of Economics and a Master’s in Economics from Cambridge University.
Dr Xavier Jayakumar, who is Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister, trained and practised as a dentist. His fellow party member R. Sivarasa who is Deputy Rural Development Minister has a first class dgree in genetics before becoming a Rhodes Scholar to pursue law in Oxford University.
There are indeed lawyers a-plenty in the Cabinet; at least a dozen, including Works Minister Baru Bian, International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo and Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi.
Then there are the scholars and political science graduates: Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs), who has a degree in Arabic Language and Literature, from Al-Azhar University, Egypt, Masters in Human Resource Development, Universiti Putra Malaysia and a doctorate in Islamic Political Science, Universiti Malaya.
Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik who is a multi-linguist has a doctorate in Political Science from Durham University and taught at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
There are also a handful of engineers: Federal Territory Minister Khalid Samad who has a degree in Fuel and Energy Engineering, Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Yusof , Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin who has a Masters in Advanced Chemical Engineering, Cambridge University and her deputy, Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis who is an electrical engineer by training.
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this Cabinet is it includes people who have been jailed or detained. Khalid was detained for nine months under the Internal Security Act under Operation Lalang in 1987. So too Lim Guan Eng and Mohamad Sabu. The two were detained Kamunting for 18 months. That was where their friendship begun and remains strong till today.
This Cabinet is indeed full of surprises, strong on talent but weak on experience. Its greatest test is its ability to put aside differences, party politics and one-upsmanship and pull together as a team to steer this ship called Malaysia through rough seas to safe harbour.