Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is expected to unveil a slimline new cabinet early next week, cutting back posts after unprecedented election losses, a report said Thursday.
The Star daily cited sources as saying that posts would be trimmed in line with the smaller government presence in parliament, where it now has 140 lawmakers compared to 198 in the outgoing administration.
Abdullah told the state Bernama news agency the new line-up would reflect the coalition's racial power-sharing concept and would include all the communities -- majority Muslim Malays and minority ethnic Chinese and Indians.
"Wait a few more days," he said late Wednesday, when asked when the cabinet would be unveiled.
The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition lost its two-thirds majority for the first time in four decades, and conceded four more states to a resurgent opposition in March 8 polls.
Abdullah's previous cabinet had a whopping 32 ministers, 39 deputy ministers and 20 parliamentary secretaries, with jobs handed out to many of the 14 race-based parties that make up the Barisan Nasional.
The large cabinet had been criticised as unwieldy and wasteful, but The Star said Abdullah faced a headache in reducing positions while still keeping the coaliton members happy. It said some ministries could be merged.
Political observers have also said that Abdullah will have difficulties finding ethnic minority candidates to fill prominent posts, after the Chinese and Indian parties in the coalition were punished in the elections.
The only Indian cabinet minister in the outgoing administration, Samy Vellu, lost his parliamentary seat which he had held since 1974.
The minority parties in the coalition bore the brunt of voter anger over rising "Islamisation" of Malaysia and criticisms the government was insensitive to the needs of minorities.
Agence France-Presse - 3/13/2008 4:24 AM
Malaysia's Islamic party supports reforming pro-Malay policy
Malaysia's conservative Islamic party PAS on Wednesday backed an opposition plan to reform positive discrimination policies for Muslim Malays, saying they were unfair to minorities.
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) is part of a three-member opposition alliance which made huge strides in weekend elections, seizing control of four more states and a third of parliamentary seats.
Opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim has said that the discrimination policies which give majority Malays benefits in education, housing and business would be sidelined in the five states the opposition now controls.
He said the New Economic Policy (NEP) championed by the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) would be replaced with a system to boost poor Malaysians whether they be Malay, ethnic Chinese or Indian.
"There are many aspects of the New Economic Policy which are good and can be implemented, but its failure is because of UMNO's abuse of power, corruption and double standards," PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said.
"We will keep plans to help the poor Malays and the underprivileged, but we cannot rob non-Malays of their rights in the name of protecting Malay rights," he said.
Hadi Awang said the unfair elements would be jettisoned, but he did not specify exactly how the policy would now operate in the areas under PAS control.
The NEP was launched in the early 1970s in an effort to improve the lot of Malays, who dominate the population in the multiracial country, and to close the wealth gap with ethnic Chinese who are prominent in business.
However, it has been criticised for failing to address hard-core poverty and improperly benefiting rich Malay entrepreneurs.
The Democratic Action Party, which took power in industrialised Penang on Tuesday, has said it will dismantle the discriminatory policies in the state that is home to many foreign high-tech firms, including Intel and Sony.
Hadi Awang said PAS-led state governments would implement an open tender system for government contracts similar to that announced by new Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
The three opposition parties, including Anwar's Keadilan, are to rule most of the five states in various coalitions. However, they have large ideological differences and Abdul Hadi said PAS has yet to hold direct talks with the DAP.
The DAP was part of an opposition coalition with PAS and Keadilan in the 1999 general elections, but they broke ranks in 2001 because of the Islamic party's call for an Islamic state -- a goal that has since been dropped.
Abdul Hadi said Keadilan was now acting as a mediator as the parties attempt to cobble together coalitions in newly acquired states.
Malaysian opposition unveils multiracial line-up in key state
The new ethnic Chinese chief minister of Malaysia's Penang state on Wednesday picked a Malay and an Indian as his deputies, underlining the opposition's multiracial image.
Lim Guan Eng, head of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), was appointed chief minister Tuesday after a stunning performance in weekend polls which handed Penang and three other states to a three-party opposition alliance.
Lim, who will govern one of the nation's richest states and the only one dominated by ethnic Chinese, appointed Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin from the Keadilan party and the DAP's P. Ramasamy to serve with him.
Ramasamy, a former political science lecturer at the National University of Malaysia, described his appointment as "an historic moment."
"There has never been an ethnic Indian deputy chief minister before and the appointment shows the DAP is living up to its electoral promise to represent all races," he said.
Analysts said Lim's efforts will cement the opposition's unprecedented polls performance against the Barisan Nasional -- a coalition of 14 race-based parties -- and recast the image of the DAP as a Chinese-based party.
"I think this reflects the extra sensitivities given by the DAP to reflect its brand of multiracial policies," said James Chin, a political science professor at Monash University's campus in Kuala Lumpur.
"Now they are telling the whole world that they are truly a multiethnic party."
Malaysia's weekend elections, which deprived the government of its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in its half-century history, has shattered the nation's race-based political scene.
Opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim's Keadilan has also emerged as a truly multiracial party, with lawmakers and supporters from all three races -- posing a direct threat to the Barisan Nasional. Malaysia's media changes tone after shock poll results
Previously, it had touted itself as the only institution that could claim to represent Malaysia's racial spectrum.
Gerakan, a component party of the Barisan Nasional which had ruled Penang since 1969, was wiped out in the March 8 polls. It only fielded ethnic Chinese candidates.
Malaysia's media changes tone after shock poll results
Malaysia's government-friendly media has changed its tone after shock election gains by the opposition, aiming to win back readers alienated by biased coverage, industry sources said Wednesday.
Malaysia's mainstream newspapers and television networks, many of them partly government-owned, were awash with flattering coverage of the ruling coalition ahead of Saturday's polls.
But after unprecedented losses, which saw the government lose its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time in four decades, opposition figures who had been ignored or vilified are now being splashed on front pages.
"It is a wake up call for us. The mainstream media should revisit and review our policies," said Azman Ujang, general manager of the state news agency Bernama.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks Malaysia 124 out of 169 on its worldwide press freedom index, and says the main media are "often compelled to ignore or to play down the many events organised by the opposition".
But Azman said the mainstream media now has a "higher responsibility" to report news fairly or face being abandoned by its audience, which flocked to blogs and online news portals for impartial election coverage.
"Malaysian media can learn from this because the people have spoken loud and clear, not only what kind of government they want but also the kind of media they prefer," he told AFP.
Gayathry Venkiteswaran from Malaysia's Centre for Independent Journalism said there had been some "positive changes" in media which likely felt they now had no choice but to report fairly on the opposition.
"Editors and journalists here have to do a lot of soul-searching. It is very hard to dismantle practices which have been in place for such a long time."
On Wednesday, the government-linked New Straits Times, which attacked opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim last week, ran a front-page report detailing the opposition's agenda as it assumes power in Penang state.
"New Penang chief minister rings in the changes," it said, listing initiatives including fighting corruption and promoting clean government, in coverage unthinkable only days ago.
Media consultant G. Manimaran said the media had the chance to reverse dwindling readership among urban, educated Malaysians who have been moving to alternative online sources of information.
"This is the first time in 20 years of journalism that I am seeing people queueing up to buy newspapers," he said.
A senior journalist from the government-linked press said that with Malaysia's richest states of Penang and Selangor -- which surrounds Kuala Lumpur -- in opposition hands, media owners had to switch tack.
"With so many states under the opposition you have to be fair in reporting or the paper is going to lose a lot of money," said the journalist who declined to be named.
Malaysians polled by AFP said they were pleasantly surprised with the post-election coverage.
"They (mainstream newspapers) were obviously one-sided before but now at least they are giving much better coverage. We see more opposition faces, this is certainly fairer," said Alex Matthews, a doctor.
"Although I don't usually read papers, I thought it was better coverage. The papers were snapped up so fast," said lawyer Audrey Pillai.
Malaysian opposition targets race policies, warns govt
Malaysia's opposition Tuesday announced plans to dismantle race-based discrimination policies and warned the government not to sabotage the transition of power as it prepared to rule in five states.
After a stunning weekend election performance that seized a third of parliamentary seats and four new states from the ruling coalition, an opposition figure was sworn in Tuesday as chief minister in Penang.
Lim Guan Eng, head of the Democratic Action Party which is a part of a three-member opposition alliance, immediately targeted positive discrimination policies for Muslim Malays who dominate the nation's population.
"We want to run the state government administration free from the New Economic Policy that only breeds cronyism, corruption and systematic inefficiency," he told reporters.
"Instead, we advocate a stakeholders' economy for all, based on the principle of shared prosperity in an equitable manner," he said.
The New Economic Policy was introduced in the early 1970s to bridge the wealth gap with ethnic Chinese who dominate business, by giving Malays advantages in education, housing and business.
It was one of the factors behind a flight by ethnic Chinese and Indian voters in weekend polls, which deprived the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition of a two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time in four decades.
Penang, styled as Malaysia's "Silicon Valley", is Malaysia's only Chinese-majority state and is home to the manufacturing operations of electronic giants such as Intel and Sony.
The opposition, led by Anwar Ibrahim who represents the Keadilan party, also took the states of Kedah, Perak and Selangor. The Islamic party PAS already ruled Kelantan in the north.
Anwar also targeted the discrimination policy Tuesday, saying that in the opposition-ruled states it would be sidelined in favour of a new merit-based programme aimed at the needy irrespective of their race.
"This will immediately increase foreign investment, improve the state's tax revenue and begin to promote more equity and income parity," he said.
The political earthquake triggered a 9.5 percent decline on the stock market Monday as investors grew panicky over the prospect of an untested opposition running key states.
Anwar sought to reassure investors, admitting the scale of the victory caught everyone by surprise, but promising "business-friendly" policies and a crackdown on corruption.
He said the impact on the bourse and the ringgit currency would not persist unless the ruling coalition "chooses to pursue a regressive policy of punishment" and freezes planned big-spending state development programmes.
"We would warn Barisan Nasional however, that doing so will further alienate its position with the people."
Anwar conceded there could be a review of projects in the states which have changed hands, but downplayed concerns over cancellations.
"We will have to respect the existing agreements. But where adjustments are required, we have to look at it, especially those that imposed hardship to the people," he said.
"I may be in the opposition but I will not sacrifice the economic performance of this country. I assure that we will be market friendly and implement all the initiatives (of the previous administration)."
US investment bank Merrill Lynch said the negative reaction on the stock market, which staged a partial recovery Tuesday, was due to an expected slowdown in the decision-making process with a strong opposition in parliament.
But it described the results as "a blessing in disguise for Malaysia in the long-term".
"The current status quo has been shaken and the government may address some of its shortfalls which will eventually help the competitiveness of the country," it said.
