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New Cabinet lineup to be revealed today

Mar 09, 2020

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is scheduled to meet the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong this morning, to present his new Cabinet lineup.

The list of ministers will be announced at 5pm today, with the swearing-in ceremony to supposedly take place tomorrow.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin has not given any clues as to who could be appointed to the Cabinet, although he recently said that he will only appoint ministers who are clean, have integrity and possess the right calibre for the job.

Meanwhile, there are more calls for greater representation of women in the new Cabinet lineup.

One of those who is making this call is former Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, who's hoping for at least a 30 percent female representation among our new ministers.

She's also proposing that if the PM can't find female Members of Parliament to be appointed as ministers, he can look for qualified women among our lineup of Senators.

Zuraida says currently, there are only nine women MPs in Perikatan Nasional.

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Brothers in office a conflict of interest?

There have recently been calls for Election Commission Chairman Azhar Harun to step down, following the appointment of his brother Tan Sri Idrus Harun as the country's new Attorney-General.

Thomas Fann, Chairperson of electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0, however, does not see a conflict of interest: 

"I dont see any issue in the fact that the new AG is the brother of Azhar Harun, the EC chairman. I think it's just coincidental the siblings are standing in their areas of field, and been chosen to serve the country. But I think they have to show that they are worthy of the appointment, and they'll be judged individually, and not because they are brothers." 

Tan Sri Idrus was appointed as AG over the weekend, to take over from Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, who resigned following the change in government.

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Malaysians in China allowed to remain there

There are no plans to bring home some 20,000 Malaysian nationals, who are still in China, which is the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak. 

Our Ambassador to China says there've so far been no cases of Malaysians testing positive for the coronavirus there, while they've also not asked to be brought home, so the Malaysians will be allowed to remain in China for now.

Meanwhile back home, six new Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday, bringing the total in the country to 99.