Dr Mahathir Mohamad today denied a news report of a possible Cabinet reshuffle.
“There is not going to be any Cabinet reshuffle,” he told reporters after attending a gathering with civil servants this afternoon.
He was asked to comment on a report by The Star that he had informed ministers at their weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday that there would be a reshuffle of portfolios, with changes to be announced as soon as this week.
Earlier, Mahathir also denied that Jeli MP Mustapa Mohamed would be made a minister again.
“No. There is no reshuffle. No new ministers,” he said
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had earlier today denied submitting a list of names to the prime minister for a Cabinet reshuffle, saying the line-up will remain.
“The Cabinet will remain as it is, especially DAP ministers,” Lim said at a press conference after attending the Budget 2020 focus group meeting on affordable housing here.
On speculation that Mahathir had announced this at a Cabinet meeting yesterday, he said the meeting had been on government administrative matters.
Yesterday evening, Mahathir also met up with the top leaders of three Pakatan Harapan parties and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
“He wanted to meet the four people who headed the parties when Pakatan formed the Federal Government in 2018.
“This was why Dr Wan Azizah, who was then the PKR president, joined the meeting. It was merely a meeting for the Prime Minister to urge us to be more efficient amid the many things that the government is handling,” a source was reportedly quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, PKR’s communications director Fahmi Fadzil today shot down Parti Amanah Negara’s Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan’s Facebook accusation that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had intentionally skipped a meeting with Mahathir yesterday.
“PKR understands that YAB Prime Minister’s invitation was specifically for Pakatan Harapan leaders that were initially involved in the forming of Cabinet in May 2018, and that meeting is to obtain views and feedback concerning the affairs of the running of government that touched on portfolio and ministerial matters.
“This means that PKR was represented by Deputy Prime Minister YAB Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who was then PKR president during the formation of the government post GE14,” Fahmi said in a statement today.
“Therefore, PKR is of the view that DS Khairuddin’s accusation that DS Anwar does not respect the consensus of Pakatan Harapan is baseless and malicious,” he added.
Khairuddin was formerly an Umno leader and was also in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, before joining Amanah where he is now the Jasin parliamentary coordinator.
There has long been talk of a Cabinet reshuffle, with some ministers getting flak for not performing up to the expectations of the public.
Mahathir, however, has repeatedly said there would be no such thing.
On May 5, at a function to commemorate the first anniversary of Pakatan’s GE14 victory, Mahathir gave his Cabinet a score of “five out of 10” but insisted that the ministers are “learning fast”.
The last time he had denied that there would be a Cabinet reshuffle was on July 19 following a viral photograph of the full Cabinet taken before a meeting in Putrajaya.