THE new cabinet was sworn in on Monday, a month after the fiasco that saw the government collapse.

Ironically, although the campaign that helped bring it down was called Kerajaan Gagal, apart from less than a dozen new faces, the majority of the nearly 70 ministers and their deputies, are familiar ones. 

The Barisan Nasional-Perikatan Nasional government missed an opportunity to heed social hints to include opposition figures and expertise in the administration. That would mean a unity government, and perhaps this one, like the last, is not ready to share power.

Alternatively, the inclusion of more technocrats would help get the necessary expertise into the top administrative roles, give better technical perspective and more accurately reflect ground realities to the cabinet.

Some popular Umno faces, seen as progressive and reformist, were missed out – like Azalina Othman Said or Shahril Hamdan. The Umno Supreme Council member would have made a potentially great Law Minister, and her Youth counterpart, a more age-appropriate Youth and Sports Minister.

Surely Malaysia has no lack of talent to be recruiting from the same underperforming pool. 

It does not make sense to just reshuffle the cabinet, as members who will decide on new courses of action with the same people who devised the earlier course of action, who will likely be reluctant to admit their earlier mistakes.

It stifles creativity and limits the free hand ministers should have to undo any wrongs from the get-go.

What makes even less sense, however, is a new 100-day time frame to assess the performance of ministers – the same ministers who could not deliver in five times that time frame.

Time is of the essence, and we simply do not have the luxury for our ministers to warm their seats prior to solving pressing issues, which have only worsened since the clamour for the prime ministership cost us a valuable month in the struggle to save Malaysian lives and livelihoods. 

The number of ministries, like our Covid-19 infection rate, remains high.

Notwithstanding the fact we have one of the largest cabinets in the world, a crisis administration should be leaner for several reasons – to demonstrate some measure of fiscal austerity, to consolidate resources, to have clear and visible leadership and to cut across bureaucracy and red tape in favour of efficiency and a quicker public feedback mechanism.

A sense of urgency should be maintained, lost momentum regained, fragmented plans realigned and for all that to materialise, immediacy has to be the new norm.

The ministries related to the economy have to quickly act to check procedures, SOP and controlled opening of the economy, especially in areas that have been denied operations and aid; entertainment sector players like cinemas and events, education, tourism, non-essential manufacturing, fashion and leisure and so on. 

Ministries related to health need to up the ante. While the vaccination programme has been successful, it needs to quickly plug shortages in competent personnel, recalibrate its emergency response plan and prepare for any future impending wave, which is increasingly possible.

It also needs to, in collaboration with ministries involved in information and communications, explain the many issues that have arisen since. These are issues like Ivermectin usage, breakthrough infections, higher risk individuals, and how to self-monitor.

It is alarming that we have not only still-high infections in areas with high vaccination, but around a third of Covid-19 deaths reported as dead-on-arrival. This demonstrates either inability to respond in time, or inability to discern signs and symptoms of the illness.

There is also the question of indirect casualties – those denied intervention in acute emergencies or management of chronic illness or mental conditions that result in premature death.

With this much burden of expectation, hopefully the new administration proves their critics wrong, not only for their continued collective or individual political relevance, but the survival of the country, quite literally. – September 1, 2021.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.