Report: Cabinet reshuffle looms
PUTRAJAYA: The first reshuffle of the Cabinet is due anytime and a few ministers will be changing their portfolios.
Sources said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced this during the Cabinet meeting yesterday.
“The announcement of a reshuffle was minuted in the Cabinet meeting and the Cabinet was informed that there will be changes,” a source told The Star.
“He (Dr Mahathir) also stated that he would be meeting the party chiefs in the evening.”
The source added that this was the first time the Prime Minister had openly said in a Cabinet meeting that he would be shuffling portfolios of existing ministers and that the reshuffle was imminent.
Another source, however, said Dr Mahathir had merely said that he would be “reorganizing portfolios”.
The source believed that there would not be any changes in the line-up of ministers.
“Same ministers and ministries, but the portfolios of the ministries will be reorganised. I think that’s what the PM meant,” said the second source who was present at the Cabinet meeting.
Yesterday evening, Dr Mahathir also met up with the top leaders of three Pakatan Harapan parties and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
“He wanted to meet the four people who headed the parties when Pakatan formed the Federal Government in 2018.
“This was why Dr Wan Azizah, who was then the PKR president, joined the meeting. It was merely a meeting for the Prime Minister to urge us to be more efficient amid the many things that the government is handling,” said another source.
Long talk over reshuffle
There has long been talk of a Cabinet reshuffle, with some ministers getting flak for not performing up to the expectations of the public.
Dr Mahathir, however, has repeatedly said there would be no such thing.
On May 5, at a function to commemorate the first anniversary of Pakatan’s GE14 victory, Dr Mahathir gave his Cabinet a score of “five out of 10” but insisted that the ministers are “learning fast”.
The last time Dr Mahathir had denied that there would be a Cabinet reshuffle was on July 19 following a viral photograph of the full Cabinet taken before a meeting in Putrajaya.
The most likely inclusion into the Cabinet is Datuk Mustapha Mohamad who was international trade and industry minister under the Najib administration, reported Chinese-language newspapers Oriental Daily and Sinchew Daily.
Mustapha, the Jeli MP, quit Umno for Bersatu post GE-14.
Both the Chinese dailies confirmed that there would be little changes for ethnic Chinese ministers.
The dailies also stated that Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail would likely be retained.
Sources have also told The Leaders Online that National Unity and Social Development Minister P Waythamoorthy would likely be dropped.
Cabinet reshuffle? Nope…
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng meanwhile denied that cabinet reshuffle was on the agenda of the cabinet meeting yesterday.
“Maybe you are referring to the Cabinet ministers’ meeting with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir yesterday. The meeting discussed administrative matters and nothing was spoken about any Cabinet reshuffle.
“It was a meeting between government ministers and not party leaders, that’s why only ministers attended the meeting with Tun,” said Lim Guan Eng.
He also denied speculations that Mustapha would be brought onboard the Cabinet.
