Dr Mahathir at his oath-taking ceremony late last night. Bernama photo
KUCHING: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has announced that the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has established 10 crucial ministries and the names of the ministers will be revealed tomorrow.
News portal MalaysiaKini reported that he said PH has decided that a small Cabinet comprising important portfolios is sufficient at present.
“We do not want to have a huge cabinet, but there are certain ministries which need to be filled immediately,” he told a press conference at Yayasan Albukhary in Kuala Lumpur today.
The 10 ministries are, Finance Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry, Defence Ministry, Education Ministry, Rural Development Ministry, Economy Ministry, Works Ministry, Transport Ministry, Multimedia, Science and Tech Ministry, and Foreign Ministry.
The press conference was also attended by leaders of the PH component parties, namely PPBM, PKR, DAP and Amanah.
Bernama reported Dr Mahathir as saying that following today’s meeting of the presidential council, each of the component parties would hold their respective meetings to decide which ministry they would want to be in and who their candidates for ministers were.
“This doesn’t mean that all their proposals will be accepted because tomorrow we will have a full meeting of the presidential council. At the presidential council meeting, we will finalise the names and the ministries that we will have to fill.
“This doesn’t mean that we are not a united party. We are one party but it is important that all parties be represented in our Cabinet,” he said.
So far, he said, the only position filled was by him as the Prime Minister and PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who would be appointed the Deputy Prime Minister. – Agencies