Only one Indian Minister? So what?

[superadmin]

After another agonising wait of a week, prime minister Anwar Ibrahim announced his new cabinet of ministers. Quite obviously, the tedious delay was due to the back-room deals needed.

I was at the Penang airport waiting for a flight to Kuala Lumpur when the announcement was made on national television. Literally, everyone around me was on some device trying to watch the prime minister’s statement.

As PM10 read out the names, so many people let out gasps of disbelief and seemed visibly distressed. Across from where I was sitting was a Malaysian Indian man. After the prime minister finished, he looked up and asked me if he had heard the announcement correctly.

There were no Malaysian Indian ministers?

Of course, it turns out that the PM had inadvertently skipped the name of the one Malaysian Indian minister he had chosen. In the 10 or 15 minutes before news filtered through that V Sivakumar from Pakatan Harapan-DAP was in fact made a minister, I too, was deeply disturbed.

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