New Malaysian cabinet predictable, but clean
Updated
Malaysia's King has sworn-in the new cabinet of prime minister Najib Razak.
In naming his cabinet line-up late last week, Prime Minister Najib said the era of excessive government control was over. He not only trimmed the number of ministries and ministers, but also named a number of reformers to key economic posts.
So does Malaysia have a cabinet to meet the demands of the times?
Presenter: Kanaha Sabapathy
Speaker: Khoo Kay Peng, political analyst in Kuala Lumpur
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KHOO KAY PENG: 80 per cent of the people who formed the new cabinet came from the last cabinet, which means that it is predictable because you need politicians with experience at the helms in those positions. So if you look at personality alone, there are not many additional angles to that. I think what is important is the top leadership - top leadership meaning the prime ministers and his cabinet. He has announced that he has formed a new committee to look at the economic downturn and to address the economic crisis. So I think more focus should be put on this special committee that he has formed, not so much on his cabinet.
KANAHA SABAPATHY: And to that extent he has actually brought in a number of key economic reformers into important economic positions, isn't it?
KHOO KAY PENG: He has not announced the members of that committee, but several persons retained shows that his cabinet still requires people with certain experience. For example, the retention of Nor Mohammed Yakcop, the former second finance minister and he was picked to look at the economic planning unit. It shows that Najib still needs people who have some experience in managing the economics.
KANAHA SABAPATHY: Some analysts say at least this line up of cabinet members are not so much tainted by corruption, is this true?
KHOO KAY PENG: It is true. A number of these leaders, except for a few which I think it's not convenient for me to name here, maybe have not served in the cabinet for a very long time. At most, one or two terms and a number of them are going to be ministers for the first time.
KANAHA SABAPATHY: He has brought into the cabinet a number of people from Sabha and Sarawak. Is this a recognition of the fact that he cannot afford to keep them out?
KHOO KAY PENG: I think it is very important, I think specifically after the by-elections they know that their power base remains in Sabha and Sarawak. So there are four ministers who are appointed from Sabha and two from Sarawak, making it six in total. But if you look at the entire formula, I think Najib has still not got the right formula to address possible power transitions in Sarawak. He has included more individuals, but who do not make it to the cabinet may not be not be happy, so it's important for him to address the power structure instead of just putting more individuals into his
KANAHA SABAPATHY: In the last days of the Badawi administration, in some sense I suppose the ethnic minorities like the Indians an Chinese must have felt, in a sense, marginalised. Will this new cabinet be able to bring these people back into the fold?
KHOO KAY PENG: It will be difficult. Like I've said, they are facing structural problems and if you look at how the cabinet makes decisions it is not a consensus-driven thing. It is based on majority decision. If you talk about the consensus-driven type of approach, that means where the party representing the minority interests is not happy, that decision may not go through. And if you look at it this way - that UMNO still dominates the cabinet. So I do not know how leaders of minority parties will be able to represent the community better if, let's say, they do not look at the structure, they do not change the power structure within Malaysia as a nation itself.
KANAHA SABAPATHY: And that's quite interesting, because one of the things that Najib says is that gone are the days of the attitude that the government knows best.
KHOO KAY PENG: It's yet to be seen. I mean he can say one thing but look at the report of the government. I think him included, before he actually took on this position, when he talked about whether Malaysia is ready to do away with the NEB, his initial reaction is we still need the new economic policy until the Malays are ready. He made that call himself, without proper study, without proper referendum to find out whether the people are willing and able to move beyond race policy.
