The Consistency Problem in Anwar’s Cabinet Reshuffle

OPINION | The Consistency Problem in Anwar’s Cabinet Reshuffle


17 Dec 2025 • 12:00 PM MYT


Fa Abdul
FA ABDUL is a former columnist of Malaysiakini & Free Malaysia Today (FMT)

Photo credit: CNA


I love reorganising my room. I move furniture based on function - what works, what doesn’t, what makes the space easier to live in and easier to clean. I reorganise to improve efficiency, not to fix what was never broken.


Like me, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim recently reorganised his Cabinet.


The difference is simple: I don’t replace furniture that’s working perfectly with pieces I haven’t tested yet.


Just days earlier, Anwar had publicly given his Cabinet an A+ grade, praising ministers for a job well done. No weak links. No underperformers. Excellence, by his own account.


And yet, the reshuffle came anyway.


Ministers deemed to be performing well were moved aside or repositioned, replaced by individuals who have yet to prove themselves in those roles. One would normally assume that an A+ team is left alone to continue delivering - that reorganisation follows underperformance, not public celebration.


Apparently, those assumptions do not apply here.


For the rakyat watching, the contradiction is not subtle. It is structural.


A reshuffle is never merely administrative. It is a signal. In politics, pieces move because something must change - priorities, pressure points, alliances, or confidence. When praise is delivered first and corrective action follows immediately, the public is forced to decide which message reflects reality.


Both cannot be equally true.


No minister was publicly faulted. No policy failure was cited. Instead, the reshuffle was framed as refinement - forward-looking, strategic, necessary for “cohesion”. But refinement presumes an identified weakness. Cohesion implies something was missing.



If that was already known, why declare excellence days earlier?


Yes, governance requires strategy. Coalitions must be balanced. Optics managed. The rakyat understands this - far more than politicians often credit. What is harder to accept is being applauded one day, then treated as though we will not notice the stage quietly being reset the next.


Strategy is not the issue. Transparency is.


If the Cabinet required change, say so. If the praise was aspirational, acknowledge it. If political realities demanded compromise, be honest about that too.


Because when a government tells us everything is excellent - then behaves as if it is not - it makes the rakyat question not competence, but honesty.


In the long run, honesty matters far more than an A+ grade.


Reorganisation should make things work better. Not make us wonder whether we were told the truth in the first place.