KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced today the return of several former Cabinet members in his much-anticipated reshuffle.
In the latest Cabinet reshuffle, former chief executive of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan was appointed the second finance minister.
Amir Hamzah was also previously the Tenaga Nasional Berhad chief executive from 2019 to 2021.
Incumbents Titiwangsa MP Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani and Kuala Selangor MP Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad were also appointed ministers in the Cabinet reshuffle.
Johari will take on the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry portfolio while Dzulkefly assumes the Health Ministry portfolio.
Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, who was previously the defence minister, will now helm the Foreign Ministry.
Previous higher education minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin will take on the defence portfolio.
Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir, who was the previous foreign minister, will now take on the Higher Education Ministry.
With Dzulkefly replacing her, former health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa will helm the revived Federal Territories Ministry under the Prime Minister’s Department.
Two existing ministries — the Communications and Digital Ministry; the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry — also underwent a name change and were split into two more new ministries.
Under the reshuffle, they will be known as the Communications Ministry and the Natural Resources and Sustainability Ministry respectively.
Gobind Singh Deo, who was previously a Cabinet member under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Pakatan Harapan administration, will helm the newly formed Digital Ministry.
Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad will retain his current ministerial post in the newly formed Natural Resources and Sustainability Ministry with Datuk Huang Tiong Sii as his deputy.
The same goes for Fahmi Fadzil and his deputy Teo Nie Ching, who will retain their respective posts at the newly formed Communications Ministry.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof will also take on a new ministerial portfolio, the newly formed Energy Transition and Public Utilities Ministry, while also being in charge of Sabah and Sarawak affairs.
Previous human resources minister V. Sivakumar is the only Cabinet member to be dropped following a corruption investigation over alleged cash kickbacks from an unnamed businessman who had been detained alongside two ministerial aides.
As for deputy ministers, former deputy education minister Lim Hui Ying was moved to the post of deputy finance minister II, replacing DAP’s Steven Sim Chee Keong who will take on a ministerial post at the Human Resources Ministry.
Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, who was replaced by Lim, will move to the Works Ministry as its deputy.
Previous deputy minister for local government development Akmal Nasir was moved to the Natural Resources and Sustainability Ministry as Fadillah’s deputy.
Five new deputies were also appointed, namely Datuk Seri Noraini Ahmad (women, family and community development), M. Kulasegaran (law and institutional reform), Datuk R. Ramanan (entrepreneur development and cooperative), Wong Kah Woh (education) and Zulkifli Hasan (Prime Minister’s Department (religious affairs).
Ramkarpal Singh (law and institutional reform) and Datuk Siti Aminah Aching (plantation and commodities) were the only deputies dropped in the new line-up.
In total, Anwar’s new Cabinet line-up sees an overall increase of three new minister’s posts from 28 to 31 and two new deputy minister’s posts from 27 to 29, bringing the total number of people in the federal administration to 60.
However, the latest tally is still lower than the number of those appointed by the previous administration at 70.
The reshuffle takes place a year after the unity government came to power.
