Consider more Sabahans in the event of a Cabinet reshuffle, says Upko president

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 29 — A Sabahan federal minister has suggested that in the event Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim decides on a reshuffle of the Cabinet, he hopes that the latter would consider more Sabahans for the posts.

Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick said that he is aware of the rumours of a reshuffle and said that there is a need to appoint more deputy ministers into the fold.

"The prime minister has said that he was thinking about it but there certainly are vacancies that need to be filled up," he told reporters here.

"I would suggest again, to increase representation from Sabah. There are a few ministries that have yet to have appointed deputy ministers, like the national unity ministry so I feel like there is a need to have more representation from Sabah,” he said.

"Anything more than that is at the sole discretion of the Prime Minister,” he added, saying he would bring up this proposal to Anwar again.

There are currently two Sabahan ministers in the federal Cabinet: Ewon, and Sabah and Sarawak affairs minister Datuk Armizan Ali.

There are also currently four deputy ministers from Sabah: Chan Foong Hin (agriculture and food industries), Datuk Mohd Yusof Apdal (higher education), Khairul Firdaus Khan (tourism and culture) and Datuk Mohamad Alamin (foreign affairs).

Recently, Anwar had said that he might broach the subject of a possible Cabinet reshuffle during his scheduled weekly audience with the Agong.

He said that a Cabinet reshuffle was not a pressing concern at the moment as only one vacancy needed to be filled, referring to the post of minister of domestic trade and cost of living, which was previously held by Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub who died in July.

This week, several media outlets reported that Anwar would conduct a Cabinet reshuffle, which would see several ministers dropped, after the Pelangai by-election on October 7.