JAN 30 , 2013

Cabinet & Parliamentary Rebalancing (Part 1) : Why our government needs CPR

The Malaysian Cabinet runneth over. We have a whopping 30 ministers and 38 deputy ministers overseeing 25 ministries! In comparison, the Cabinets of the UK (which has a far larger population) and the entire continent of Australia comprise just 22-23 ministers each. In fact, we have nearly as many ministers as the 33 in India, who administer over a population more than 30 times bigger than Malaysia in a land 10 times larger than ours.

So many top leaders in the same place end up duplicating work and clashing heads rather than working together. They are also not helped by the bizarre allocation of roles. For example, we have three separate Ministries covering agriculture and rural development matters; and the Ministry of Housing is in charge of moneylenders! The sad result is Malaysians can more readily cite instances of wastage and incompetence in Putrajaya than recall examples of efficiency.

Read Cabinet & Parliamentary Rebalancing (Part 1): Why our government needs CPR for our diagnosis of the ailments afflicting our sclerotic Cabinet, and why some of its colossal mass could be better used if reallocated to Parliament.