A year after Anwar Ibrahim rose to power as the head of the 'unity government' in Malaysia, he announced his first cabinet reshuffle on Dec. 12.

Finance Ministry

Anwar did not relinquish his Finance Ministry portfolio, which he concurrently holds with his prime ministership.

Instead, he appointed a Minister of Finance II, similar to a Singapore ministry's Second Minister.

The new appointee is Amir Hamzah Azizan, who served as the CEO of the Employees Provident Fund, which manages the compulsory savings plan for Malaysian private sector workers.

As Amir Hamzah is not a Member of Parliament (MP), he was appointed to the Dewan Negara (upper house of Malaysia's parliament) as a Senator, allowing him to take up a cabinet post.

Lim Hui Ying, the Deputy Minister of Education, will take up her new role of Deputy Finance Minister.

Lim was formerly a Senator in the Dewan Negara, and became a DAP MP in 2022. Lim is the daughter of DAP grandee Lim Kit Siang.

Foreign Ministry

Mohamad Hasan, an Umno politician who previously served as Defence Minister, will now head the Foreign Ministry.

Commonly known as "Tok Mat", the Umno party's deputy president previously met with Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen earlier this year at the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Defence Ministry

Mohamed Khaled Nordin, previously the Higher Education Minister, will take over defence matters.

Khaled is a vice president of Umno and previously served as the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Johor.

Health Ministry

In a choice that many political observers predicted, Dzulkefly Ahmad from Parti Amanah Negara (a component party of Pakatan Harapan) returns as Health Minister.

Dr Dzul, as he is popularly known in Malaysia, came to prominence as he served as Health Minister during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic and regularly gave updates.

Transport and Economy Ministries

There were no changes in two other key ministries.

Anthony Loke, the DAP secretary-general, keeps his portfolio as Transport Minister.

Loke is perhaps best known to Singaporeans as the minister involved in projects like the High Speed Rail and the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System.

He was also involved in a brouhaha over Johor airspace back in 2018, during the time of the first Pakatan Harapan government.

Meanwhile, Rafizi, who is the deputy president of PKR (Anwar's party), remains as Economy Minister.

His ministry was created by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, under the first Pakatan Harapan government.

In addition, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Deputy Prime Minister, head of Umno and Barisan Nasional, and a key ally of Anwar, remains as both DPM and the Minister of Rural and Regional Development.

Wielding the axe

There were a few cuts too. Anwar axed V Sivakumar, the Minister of Human Resources.

Back in May 2023, Sivakumar confirmed that five of his officers were implicated in an investigation by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), and were sacked.

While Sivakumar was summoned by the MACC, he was "neither a witness nor a suspect". He will be replaced by fellow DAP member Steven Sim Chee Keong.

Anwar also split ministries.

The Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry was split into two new ministries:

• Energy Transition and Public Utilities Ministry.
• Natural Resources and Sustainability Ministry.

The latter will be helmed by Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, a PKR man, who was the former overall minister.

Anwar appointed Fadillah Yusof, who is a Deputy Prime Minister from Sarawak, to head the former.

Similarly, the Communications and Digital Ministry has also been split into two new ministries, Digital Ministry and Communications Ministry.

Fahmi Fadzil, the previous overall minister, now heads the latter.

The Digital Ministry will be helmed by the returning Gobind Singh Deo, a DAP politician and former Pakatan Harapan minister under Mahathir.

In his previous job, the son of the late DAP stalwart Karpal Singh served as Communications and Multimedia Minister.

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Top image from Astro Awani YouTube.