Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim recently announced the Cabinet lineup for the unity government led by him. This included some rather ‘interesting’ additions and omissions which were quickly pointed out by Malaysians.
One of the most obvious omissions is the fact that there is only 1 Malaysian-Indian Minister in the whole cabinet despite being the 3rd largest racial group in the country.
DAP’s deputy secretary-general Sivakumar Varatharaju Naidu was appointed as human resources minister, making him the only Malaysian-Indian minister in the Cabinet.
The lack of diversity and inclusivity was highlighted by Malaysians who were unhappy at Anwar’s decision to only have one minister who’s of Indian heritage.
During his announcement, Anwar apparently did not mention Sivakumar’s name which added more fuel to the fire as people thought that there wasn’t even one Indian minister.
Some even claimed that they were offended by this and said that Anwar owes them an apology.
According to FMT, a number of politicians also criticised the decision.
Former Batu Kawan MP Kasthuri Patto said, “While the road map for politics should be colour blind… I think we are still too tender for that,”
“I was hoping for more than one (Indian) minister (but) I’m quite excited to see what he (Sivakumar) will bring to the table.”
Meanwhile, former Klang MP Charles Santiago said it would not have been easy for Anwar to accommodate the demands of all the parties within his unity government.
“The Cabinet has got all representation from the Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak – but I think there could have been room for another Indian representative. Perhaps the national unity minister could have been given to an Indian,” he explained.
What do you think of the lack of diversity in the Cabinet?
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