The Bersatu leadership has not discussed or settled upon any names who will feature in the cabinet of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, but will instead leave it to party president Muhyiddin Yassin and the new premier to discuss the matter.
Bersatu central committee member Faiz Na'aman told Malaysiakini that during the party's supreme council meeting last night, it was not discussed which names the party would recommend for cabinet posts.
"It's not true that Bersatu wants to be excluded from cabinet, but we did not name the names of those who will be in.
"The supreme council decided to leave the matter to the party president to discuss with the prime minister as it is his prerogative," said Faiz.
Speculation has been rife over whether Muhyiddin himself might be maintained in the cabinet in a minister mentor role, or whether Bersatu would be given the deputy prime minister slot.
Aside from Muhyiddin himself, the party's ministers in the outgoing cabinet included Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin, International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali, Special Functions Minister Md Redzuan Yusof, Education Minister Radzi Jidin, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, Multimedia and Communications Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Harun and Rural Development Minister Abdul Latif Ahmad.
Muhyiddin was ousted after 15 Umno MPs withdrew their support for his coalition government comprising PN (Bersatu, PAS, STAR, SAPP, Gerakan), BN (Umno, MCA, MIC, PBRS), GPS (PBB, PRS, PDP SUPP), PBS and independent MPs.
However, 14 out of the 15 Umno MPs returned to the coalition’s fold after it was agreed that Ismail Sabri will take over as the prime minister with the support of 114 MPs.
Ismail Sabri, 61, was the deputy prime minister in Muhyiddin’s cabinet and will face the challenge of combatting the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen 13,936 fatalities thus far.
He will also have to revive an economy that experienced four consecutive quarters of contraction after the pandemic made its presence felt in March 2020.
Furthermore, a seemingly innocuous dispute over whether Ismail Sabri's new government is a continuation of the PN administration of Muhyiddin Yassin seemed to expose underlying tensions between the two parties. - Mkini
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