PM may announce partial cabinet list tomorrow

PM may announce partial cabinet list tomorrow


Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim might unveil the names of new cabinet members tomorrow - albeit a partial list, according to sources close to the PKR president.

If an announcement is made, however, it is not likely that those named will be sworn in on the same day.

The prime minister is scheduled to be in Perak for a list of programmes until the afternoon, including having an audience with Perak Ruler, Sultan Nazrin Shah.

The Straits Times, citing sources, said Istana Negara has also not added a swearing-in ceremony to its itinerary for tomorrow.

A PKR insider speaking to Malaysiakini claimed that as of this afternoon, Anwar was still working to finalise the list of ministers.

It was described as a challenging task for the premier as he had to deal with "many requests and demands" while at the same time, scaling down the number of ministries.

Many quarters to please

One of the sources claimed that the premier is capping the number of ministers at around 25, down from 32 in the previous two administrations under Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

"There are lots of people asking for positions. (Anwar) has to consider demands from over 10 parties," said the insider.

"Ideally, the list should be finalised by tonight, because a cabinet announcement may be made tomorrow. But I heard he might just announce the list partially," he added.

Asked to elaborate further on what he meant by a partial list and whether there is a rough figure to expect, the source said he had no clear indication on the matter yet.

The high-ranking PKR leader was reluctant to reveal the share of positions each coalition in the government would get, but added that a report by Sinchew Daily yesterday was not far off from what is on the table.

According to the daily, PKR will get Anwar as prime minister and four minister posts; BN will get a deputy prime minister post plus four minister posts; Sarawak's GPS will get a deputy prime minister post plus three ministers; DAP will get five ministerships, Amanah will get two ministers and Upko will get one.

Meanwhile, an Umno insider claimed that there was a setback in forming the new cabinet due to lobbying by a former minister, who is allegedly eyeing the finance minister position.

Ex-minister becoming a stumbling block?

The source, who is close to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's office told Malaysiakini that the former minister is from the nationalist party, but his name was not among those in the list of candidates that Umno had sent to the Prime Minister's Office.

"He is the stumbling block. He was not part of the list and Anwar also doesn’t want him as finance minister.

"But because he had been lobbying with certain figures, so now we are in this situation," the source claimed.

Malaysiakini has reached the former minister for comment and is withholding his name pending a response.

Since Anwar was sworn in as Malaysia's 10th prime minister last Thursday, the spotlight had been on his cabinet planning.

It has attracted a lot of interest chiefly due to the composition of the unity government - which consists of major political coalitions like Harapan, BN, Sarawak's GPS, and GRS and Warisan from Sabah.

Last Friday, at his first press conference after being sworn in as prime minister, Anwar announced that the government he leads will have a smaller cabinet size.

In 2018, when Harapan won the 14th general election, the then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had also taken the step of announcing his three key cabinet portfolios first before revealing his full line-up.