PUTRAJAYA (Bernama) — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday announced the appointment of five ministers and five deputy ministers, including four new faces, and the return of five former ministers in the Federal Cabinet.
The Prime Minister also announced the restructuring of the ministries based on current needs, involving the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment, and Climate Change, which is now split into the Ministry of Energy Transition and Public Utilities, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Sustainability.
The Communications and Digital Ministry is also split into the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Digital.
The announcement also saw the number of ministers in the Cabinet expanded from 28 to 31, while the number of deputy ministers was increased from 27 to 29, bringing the total number of Unity Government administrative members to 60.
The new ministers appointed today were Titiwangsa Members of Parliament (MP) and UMNO vice-president Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani as the Minister of Plantation and Commodities; Damansara MP and DAP deputy chairman Gobind Singh Deo (Minister of Digital); Kuala Selangor MP Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (Minister of Health); and Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) chief executive officer, Senator Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan (Finance Minister II).
Former Deputy Finance Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong was also appointed as full minister in charge of Human Resources.
The new deputy ministers are Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad (Women, Family and Community Development), M. Kulasegaran (Law and Institutional Reform), Datuk Ramanan Ramakrishnan (Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives), Wong Kah Woh (Education) and Senator Dr Zulkifli Hasan (Religious Affairs).
The Cabinet reshuffle also saw Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, as well as two deputy ministers Ramkarpal Singh (Law and Institutional Reform) and Datuk Siti Aminah Aching (Plantation and Commodities) dropped.
Anwar’s Cabinet reshuffle was the first under his Unity Government as it entered its second year of administration and was done as the government needs to make adjustments to meet the current demands and situation, the prime minister said.
Anwar who retained the Finance Minister portfolio, said that the reshuffle was necessary to address every change in terms of economic development and issues affecting the people, including the cost of living.
“International acceptance, which requires the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take up more (crucial) tasks, as well as issues related to education, especially in our efforts to explore new areas…such as artificial intelligence, digital transformation, are the things that led me to consider making some adjustments (in the Cabinet) given the current situation and demands,” he said.
Anwar said the restructuring of the Cabinet was made after discussions with the leaders of the main component parties in the Unity Government, and the list of names was submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah for consent.
The swearing-in ceremony of the new appointees is scheduled to take place at Istana Negara at 2:30 pm Tuesday.