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Najib’s first task is to get rid of the corrupt in his Cabinet whether Minister or Deputy Minister

The first task of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is to get rid of the corrupt in his new Cabinet team – whether Minister or Deputy Minister.

He should seek an appointment with former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who though praised the new cabinet as “more or less graft-free” nonetheless qualified his praise when he said that Najib “did very well by dropping most of the people who have been accused of corruption, although one or two slipped in”.

“One or two” corrupt Ministers or Deputy Ministers succeeded in slipping through the integrity scrutiny and firewall to get into Najib’s first Cabinet?

This is clearly unacceptable if Najib is to lead a clean and incorruptible administration with zero tolerance for corruption.

As Prime Minister for 22 years, Mahathir had shown great tolerance for corruption – as demonstrated by the fact that in the last seven years of his premiership, Malaysia’s ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index fell from No. 23 in 1995 to No. 37 to 2003 – which could only mean that more than “one or two” corrupt Ministers and Deputy Ministers had got onto his government without any protest or action by the longest-serving Prime Minister of the country!

If by Mahathir’s very lenient attitude towards corruption – after all, it was the new Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who a decade ago had stood up as Umno Youth Leader at the Umno Youth General Assembly in 1998 to denounce Mahathir as the “father” of Malaysian KKN, corruption, cronyism and nepotism – he could still talk about “one or two” corrupt members of the new cabinet, a more stringent integrity standard would have faulted many more members of the Najib Cabinet. Continue reading “Najib’s first task is to get rid of the corrupt in his Cabinet whether Minister or Deputy Minister”

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Najib Cabinet – dominated by old faces, old ideas and old approach rejected by Malaysians in the March 8 political tsunami and two Bukit by-elections

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak claims that his cabinet announced yesterday is not only a new team with a new face, but also a new approach to administer the country better in a more responsible and transparent manner that focuses on the people.

This is not the perception and reaction of the Malaysian public who find the Najib Cabinet dominated by old faces, old ideas and old approach rejected by Malaysians in the March 8 political tsunami last year and the Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-elections on Tuesday.

Most of the media headlines screamed “28 Ministers, 40 Deputy Ministers” when actually it should be “29 Ministers, 40 Deputy Ministers”.

How could Najib, with his new slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” make such a small yet colossal mistake?

Has Malaysian educational standards fallen so low after five years of Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein as Education Minister, that the government is incapable of the most simple calculations?

What “Performance Now” when the Najib premiership cannot even count whether there are 28 or 29 Ministers in the Cabinet?

Malaysians were promised a “lean” Cabinet but Najib has 29 Ministers, only two less than the 31 Ministers of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when the fifth Malaysian Prime Minister submitted his resignation to the Yang di Pertuan Agong last Thursday and two more than the last Cabinet appointed by the fourth Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad after the 1999 general elections!

If Najib is serious about a lean and smart Cabinet, he should have trimmed the Cabinet by one third to have not more than 20 Ministers when in contrast, the United Kingdom has a Cabinet of 23 full-rank Ministers, Australia a Cabinet of 20 Ministers and France 17 Ministers. Continue reading “Najib Cabinet – dominated by old faces, old ideas and old approach rejected by Malaysians in the March 8 political tsunami and two Bukit by-elections”