Lau Zhe Wei of International Islamic University of Malaysia said while it is easy to ask a prime minister to choose based on merit, no prime minister has really done so.
“At the end of the day, (Cabinet reshuffles) are based on political calculations. You still need to consider party quotas,” he told FMT.
Azmil Tayeb of Universiti Sains Malaysia also said it would be tricky for Anwar to balance the interests of the unity government’s component parties with finding the best people for ministerial appointments. “These two goals are not necessarily aligned,” he told FMT.
The two analysts were giving their views on a call by Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi on Dec 12 urging Anwar to look beyond party quotas and to use the recent Sabah election results as a yardstick for Cabinet appointments.
He said the upcoming Cabinet shake-up must be a “game-changer” to ensure only high-performing ministers remain for the rest of the current government’s term.
Four Cabinet posts are currently vacant: economy; natural resources and environment sustainability; entrepreneur development and cooperatives; and investment, trade and industry.
Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said the performance of government parties in the Nov 29 Sabah polls is irrelevant to Cabinet appointments, as local sentiment was the driving factor in the underperformance of peninsular parties.
However, he said party performance can still be used as a benchmark to determine Cabinet post allocations if Anwar is still prime minister after the next general election.
Both Mazlan and Lau said Anwar was likely to appoint an Umno person as investment trade and industry minister, with the remaining three posts to be filled by PH MPs.
However, Lau suggested that Anwar consider appointing an MP from a Sabahan party to fill the vacuum left by Upko president Ewon Benedick, who left the entrepreneur development and cooperatives ministry.
Mazlan suggested that Anwar also discuss with the government component parties if he intends to rope in a technocrat instead of an MP to take on one of these available portfolios.
“If (the appointments) are not discussed, it would spark discontent among parties,” he said.