SERDANG, July 20 — “Only a group photo, no cabinet reshuffle.”
That was Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s answer when asked on a viral photograph of the full Cabinet taken yesterday before a meeting in Putrajaya.
“Yesterday was one of the few times where all of the cabinet members are present, so we wanted to take pictures of all members,” the Bersatu chairman told a press conference after the party’s special general assembly here today.
It was reported that the photograph showed the full Cabinet – with no absentees – together with Dr Mahathir before the scheduled meeting took place in the morning at the Prime Minister’s Office.
When pressed for more information or any possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle, the prime minister just smiled and said: “What do you suggest? I listen to people you know, I am influenced by you.”
Meanwhile, Dr Mahathir said veteran Umno leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has a lot of experience dealing with parties that have ‘imploded’.
“He has a lot of experience with Semangat 46. So he knows all about it; he imploded,” he added.
Dr Mahathir was responding to Tengku Razaleigh’s statement that there is a possibility that the Pakatan Harapan coalition will self-implode, following the squabble involving two top PKR leaders – president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Tengku Razaleigh formed a splinter party, Semangat 46, in 1989 after a fallout with Dr Mahathir in Umno. — Bernama
