Instead of grumbling about the cabinet line-up, why not lend a hand or offer some constructive suggestions to help the newly minted ministers discharge their duties for the good of the Malaysian society?

Anwar Ibrahim’s much anticipated cabinet line-up was finally unveiled on Friday evening, with the two newly appointed deputy prime ministers and 25 ministers sworn in the following day, unfolding a brand new political model in the country’s democratic history.

Indeed there is something refreshing about this cabinet. For one, it is a unity government with members coming from different political camps or parties who used to be fighting one another but are now sitting under one roof to run this country.

Additionally, this is also the first cabinet with two deputy PMs, with GPS’ Fadillah Yusof our first ever DPM hailing from East Malaysia!

Many people have divergent, or even polarized views on the new cabinet.

Let’s first talk about the size of the new cabinet. The former cabinets of Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri were said to be excessively bloated with as many as 31 cabinet ministers. And Anwar is now presenting his 28-member cabinet line-up after promising a slimmed down cabinet on his first day of work.

Well, the cabinet is smaller now, but not much smaller!

What raises eyebrows is not so much the size of the cabinet but the choice of its members, the most controversial being the appointment of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, with his share of pending court cases, as DPM and minister of rural and regional development.

The return of former finance minister Tengku Zafrul as MITI minister this time round is another instance. Zafrul was defeated by the former health minister from Amanah Dzulkefly Ahmad in the just concluded GE15, and many people are unhappy that a loser is made a minister while a winner stays out.

Gauging from the public response, it is obvious that not everyone is happy with Anwar’s unity cabinet, even from within the ruling alliance itself.

Sabah BN chief Bung Moktar has complained about the lack of Sabah BN representatives in the new cabinet, saying the state is being marginalized in the unity government.

Penang’s DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow is also unhappy that none of the seven DAP MPs from Penang has been appointed while Ramasamy Palanisamy, the state’s deputy chief minister II is frustrated that there is only a single ethnic Indian minister in the new cabinet, a phenomenon that doesn’t reflect the overwhelming support for Pakatan from the country’s Indian community.

Long before the names were announced, all parties should have come to the realization that there would not be enough ministerial posts to please everyone. The unity government has the support of 148 MPs who come from many different alliances including PH, BN, GPS and GRS, and with limited positions available, it is impossible that everyone will get what he wants. The only way to make everyone happy is to enlarge the cabinet but this will very likely irk the civil society in turn.

Bear in mind that this is not a Pakatan government nor BN government. It is one that is made up of several political coalitions and parties that come together to rule. So the old formula of distributing the cake is no longer relevant today.

As said earlier, this is a brand new political model that requires us to adapt to it in a totally different attitude.

Anyway, the dust has settled on the cabinet setup and further finger-pointing will not help make things any better.

Most importantly, the new cabinet must get into action as soon as possible and rebut all skepticism with the members’ performance.

Instead of grumbling about the cabinet line-up, why not lend a hand or offer some constructive suggestions to help the newly minted ministers discharge their duties for the good of the Malaysian society?

For example, two former health ministers, Dzulkefly Ahmad and Khairy Jamaluddin have expressed their willingness to work together to support the new health minister Zaliha Mustafa.

As a matter of fact, there is a fair share of new faces in Anwar’s cabinet. Completely new in the cabinet, they will invariably face tremendous challenges, and the support from all is needed so that they can carry out their ministerial missions more effectively.

What confronting these new ministers are piles of problems that require their urgent attention. For instance, the health ministry will need to deal with the perennial shortage of nurses at private hospitals, while the minister in the PM’s department in charge of parliamentary and legal affairs Azalina Othman needs to handle the issue of foreign-born children’s nationality…

In short, these YBs must roll up their sleeves and start working right away.

Now that the election is over and the new cabinet has come into being, all the hoo-ha must stop so that our new ministers can start their work properly.