DEFENCE Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has been appointed deputy prime minister and Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has been promoted to senior minister, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s office (PMO) said.

The appointments have been approved by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and are effective immediately, the PMO said in a statement.

Until Ismail Sabri’s appointment, there has been no deputy prime minister in Muhyiddin’s cabinet since Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over Putrajaya in March last year.

Ismail Sabri had been one of four senior ministers in the cabinet.

The PMO said that Hishammuddin, as senior minister, will now take over Ismail Sabri’s portfolio as senior minister in charge of the security cluster.

Hishamuddin will also assist the prime minister in the implementation of the National Recovery Plan, the PMO added. He will remain as the foreign minister.

“It is hoped that this appointment will further enhance the capacity of the PN government, especially in facing the Covid-19 pandemic, strengthen unity among the parties that make up the government and ensure that the PN government will continue to be a transparent, corruption-free and govern with integrity.”

The new appointments come after a majority of Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers rejected Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s proposal to withdraw support for the Muhyiddin administration.

Sources who attended a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Monday night said only four lawmakers agreed with Zahid’s idea.

Both Ismail Sabri and Hishammuddin are from a faction in Umno that supports the PN pact despite Zahid’s decision to cut off ties.

Sources told The Malaysian Insight that the matter was discussed and agreed upon at the weekly cabinet meeting today, which Muhyiddin chaired after being discharged from hospital where he spent a week for gastrointestinal issues. – July 7, 2021.