Spoke too soon...maybe!

Well, there are credible rumors (talk about an oxymoron) that Pak Lah will have a MILD cabinet re-shuffle soon. How mild, or strong for that matter, who knows? But today's MalaysiaKini mentioned that there's a possibility that some severe changes are quite likely and has already happened, beginning with the replacement of the much-tainted vote-buying fall guy Isa Samad with Sharizat Jalil as the Minister of Federal Territories. Next up on the gallow would probably be Rafidah Aziz and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) as she seems poised to be demoted and replaced with the current Agricultural Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin. Not a better choice by much, but considering that this is Malaysia, what other choice do we have? Anyway, it's the symbolism that counts, right?

Come on Pak Lah, why stop with Rafidah? Might as well go the whole nine-yard and send Samy and Ling Liong Sik to where they really belong--the old folks home!

The only worthwhile nugget of truth that can be gleaned from this whole re-shuffling fiasco is that competency and qualification do not matter at the very least; it's all about the rise and fall of the apparatchiks' political chips within the parties. What qualifications does Rafidah possess to be the International Trade Minister? Nada. Ditto for Samy and the slew of other portfolio-holding parliamentarians.

This lack of stringent requirement, transparency and oversight for cabinet post i.e. handling of ministerial portfolio leaves the ministers free to rule the ministries as their personal fiefdoms to dole out favors and boons to their relatives, cronies, bootlickers, hangers-on and sycophants in return for political support (money, etc) to further solidify their entrenchment within the status quo. It's of no wonder that these people have been around for decades and simply refuse to wither away. I remember memorizing the names of all cabinet ministers when I was in primary school--yes, I was a weird kid--and some of the names I memorized years ago are STILL around and are STILL holding the same portfolio, nonetheless. I just found out that Rafidah has served under FOUR different PMs, which means from Tun Abdul Razak and on. Simply amazing!

When are these people going to go away?