UMNO’s Johari Abdul Ghani has been appointed plantation and commodities minister while Amanah’s Dzulkefly Ahmad has made a return as health minister. 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the new cabinet line-up at 11am today.

Johari was formerly a finance minister II and Dzulkefly was the health minister in the first Pakatan Harapan government.

Employees Provident Fund CEO Amir Hamzah Azizan is finance minister II while DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo will lead the Digital Ministry after the Communication and Digital Ministry was split.

Fahmi Fadzil is now the communication minister. 

The revamped cabinet has 31 ministers with 29 deputies. The old cabinet had 28 ministers assisted by 27 deputy ministers.

Umno vice-president Khaled Nordin is defence minister, taking over from Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan, who will now serve as foreign minister.

Umno’s Zambry Abdul Kadir, who was foreign minister, now has the higher education portfolio.

At the Family and Community Development Ministry, Wanita Umno chief Noraini Ahmad is the new deputy minister, taking over from Aiman Athirah Sabu, who has been moved to the Local Government Development Ministry.

DAP’s V. Sivakumar, who was human resources minister, was the only minister to be dropped in the reshuffle.

His replacement is Steven Sim, who was promoted from deputy finance minister.

Two deputy ministers have been dropped from the line-up: Ramkarpal Singh, who was deputy law and institutional reform minister, and Beaufort MP Siti Aminah Aching who was deputy plantation and commodities minister.

Ramkarpal is replaced by Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran, while Siti Aminah’s position is taken over by Chan Foong Hin, who was the deputy agriculture and food security minister.

First-time MP R. Ramanan is deputy entrepreneur and cooperatives development minister. – December 12, 2023.