CABINET appointments a key part of a prime minister’s power. According to the United Kingdom’s Institute for Government, ministers are chosen for a range of reasons – as a reward, to build allies, to signal a shift in policy or, sometimes, on assessment of objective performance.

Appointments to the cabinet are “usually highly political acts” that are “rarely based on objective assessment of performance” and “don’t usually take into account an individual’s skills, interests or likely fit with the rest of the team.”

Those were tough political decisions which newly minted Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had to make.

The prime minister had said that he preferred a smaller cabinet than his predecessor’s. His cabinet of 28 ministers has fewer than 31 members but is not smaller than Mahathir’s 2018 cabinet.

At the weekend, Anwar even stressed that the appointment of cabinet members would not be a reward for supporting the formation of his government.

Malaysians must have been wondering whether their reformist prime minister has kept to his words, such that cabinet appointments are not simply a way to reward loyalty.

Anwar knows all too well that ministers can be from among the members of the Dewan Rakyat or the Dewan Negara. Professionals who are apolitical or without party affiliation can be appointed as senators.

Article 45(2) of the Federal Constitution allows the king to appoint persons who in His Majesty’s opinion have rendered distinguished public service or have achieved distinction in the professions, commerce, industry, agriculture, cultural activities or social service, among others.

A cabinet of distinguished persons in public service and the professions, though, is still work in progress.

For now, the country will have to be content with such people being appointed to a team of advisers to advise the government, and that too in matters related to the country’s finances. – December 3, 2022.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.