THE CANCER IN THE ANWAR CABINET, INCLUDING HIMSELF - TO CHOP NOW OR TO GIVE MORE TIME TO DO MORE HARM?

KUALA LUMPUR (Politics Now!) - If in less than a year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim already has to announce a major Cabinet reshuffle, then it's a reflection on his poor foresight and incompetent ability to tap the right talent to fix and repair Malaysia.

"It is also a reflection of how much deadwood is in his Madani government. Frankly the way things are, nothing especially ad-hoc changes here and there can help at all. It is a Cabinet doomed to fail or rather a regime that is not tenable. Die if you don't make changes immediately, die if you make changes later on," a political commentator told Politics Now!

"The issue is Anwar chose a political Cabinet to underpin himself as PM and to promote his own PKR (party) which unfortunately has even less talent than Umno. So Anwar will always be under pressure to make political decisions, this means the wrong decisions for the country's long-term viability."

In the past week, there have been calls from many quarters for the indecisive Anwar to fill the vacancy left by the tragic death of Salahuddin Ayob, the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister. 

Allies and those with vested interest too joined the speculation and calls that Anwar should be proactive and use the opportunity to quickly drop 'deadwood' and beef up his much-criticized Cabinet picks.

LOUSIEST CEO?

However, there are also those think the current Cabinet should be given at least 2 years to show what they can do.

"In my opinion, it might be a bit too early because it's not even a year yet and it's quite unusual to have a massive cabinet reshuffle in such a short period," former minister and sacked senior Umno leader Khairy Jamaluddin told a youth conference in Johor today. 

"If the period is less than that, it's an uphill task to see positive results. To be fair to cabinet ministers, they should be given more time to showcase their performances," the NST quoted Khairy as saying.

Khairy's recommendations might make sense if the Cabinet were akin to a professionally-appointed team with tight job scopes and KPIs to do what is needed.

"Unfortunately, as I already said, Anwar's Cabinet is very political. And I'm not even counting the Umno or GPS or GRS appointments." explained the pundit.

"Just look at his own party. The PKR  ministers are the worst performing because they were picked not because of capability or experience but because they came from Anwar's own party. Look at Fahmi Fadzil (Communications) and Saifuddin Nasution (Home Minister) and tell me if they are doing a good job. If as a CEO, you don't drop deadwood and sycophants immediately before they do more harm to the company or the country, then Anwar should sack himself as Malaysia's lousiest-ever CEO!"

Politics Now!