HISTORY is made in Malaysia again today as Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is prime minister for the second time at 92 years of age, chairs the first meeting of a non-Barisan Nasional cabinet in Putrajaya this morning.

The new Pakatan Harapan cabinet, will be the seventh under Dr Mahathir, who was the country’s fourth prime minister from 1981 to 2003.

His first cabinet was formed in 1981 after he took over from Hussein Onn and his last cabinet was appointed in 1999.

Among the familiar names in his first cabinet were Musa Hitam, Lee San Choon, Ghazali Shafie and Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen Tengku Ismail. Musa was the deputy prime minister.

Before he retired in 2003, Dr Mahathir’s cabinet consisted of deputy prime minister and later prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, defence minister Najib Razak and domestic trade and consumerism minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Of that cabinet, Muhyiddin is the only minister to return to the current cabinet. He currently holds the home minister portfolio.

Other members of Dr Mahathir’s seventh Cabinet are Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik, Rural Development Minister Rina Harun, Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin, Transport Minister Anthony Loke, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, Human Resource Minister M. Kulasegaran, Agriculture Minister Salahuddin Ayub and Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad. – May 23, 2018.