Anwar to clean house after state elections, says source

 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is understood to be ready to cut deadwood from a number of ministries once the state elections are over. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will likely reshuffle his Cabinet after the state elections but a “clean-up” of senior civil servants will come first, according to a well-placed PKR source.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said Anwar intended to cut some deadwood from his Cabinet, but the likelihood is that secretaries-general and directors-general from a number of unspecified ministries will be axed in a “house clean-up”.

“You can change the government, you can change ministers, but if you don’t change the people inside, it will not go anywhere.

“Certain ministers, especially from Pakatan Harapan, do not know what they are doing at the moment, hence a clean-up is required,” the source said.

However, he added that making a change at the ministerial level will make no difference if the incompetence remains within the civil service.

“It is a bottom-up approach. What is the point of changing ministers when you don’t change the system?” he said.

Elections to the state assemblies of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu are due this year and are likely to be held in July.

Negeri Sembilan menteri besar Aminuddin Harun had reportedly said that he and the menteris besar of Selangor, Kelantan, Kedah, and Terengganu as well as the chief minister of Penang have agreed to dissolve their respective legislative assemblies around the same time.

There had been rumours of a Cabinet reshuffle after the Chinese New Year celebration last February, but Anwar had dismissed this as something deliberately created and sensationalised by certain quarters to cause tension in PH. - FMT