IPOH Timur MP Wong Kah Woh has mocked the suggestion to create a new ministry so that Datuk Zuraida can retain her Cabinet post while Bersatu maintains its ministerial quota in Parliament.
This came after Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said on Tuesday (June 21) that he is still waiting to meet Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to discuss Zuraida’s replacement in the Cabinet.
Bersatu had repeatedly stated its stance that the ministerial position held by Zuraida was the party’s quota, with Muhyiddin telling reporters yesterday that Ismail Sabri was free to appoint Zuraida to any position just as long as he did not take Bersatu’s quota.
He also said that it was up to the Prime Minister if he wanted to create a new ministry for Zuraida.
“The nation already has enough ministries and ministers under the short stint of Muhyiddin’s and Ismail Sabri’s premierships, both with 32 full ministers,” Wong said in a Facebook post.
Wong, who is the chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, went on to say that the idea of creating another ministry just to retain Zuraida as a minister and to pacify Bersatu was akin to “adding fat to an already-bloated Cabinet”.
“The Pakatan Harapan government’s Cabinet in 2018 only had 28 members despite having a larger majority in the number of MPs,” the DAP man said in a Facebook post.
“But the energy, science, technology, environment and climate change ministry was then split into three different ministries, namely the energy and natural resources; science, technology and innovation; and environment and water ministries.
“This was not due to the complexity of the jobs, but merely a ‘job creation exercise’ for the government MPs in order to gain their continuous support.”
Zuraida, the Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, was appointed to her current Cabinet portfolio last year when she was with Bersatu. On May 26, 2022 she resigned from Bersatu to join Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM).
On June 9, she was appointed as PBM’s president-designate. – June 22, 2022
