Ismail Sabri as PM is ‘old wine in new bottle’, says analyst

[superadmin]

PETALING JAYA: The potential appointment of Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob as prime minister is akin to having “old wine in a new bottle”, says an analyst.

The former deputy prime minister, who was the Perikatan Nasional-led government’s main non-health spokesman on Covid-19 matters, has now won the backing of Barisan Nasional, Bersatu, PAS and GPS as their prime ministerial candidate, after Muhyiddin Yassin’s resignation on Monday.

“This is like old wine in a new bottle, or as the Chinese like to say, ‘You change the soup but you don’t change the ingredients. You just cook a different type of soup or with a different flavour’,” Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow Oh Ei Sun told FMT.

Oh predicted that instead of a wholesale change in government, the country could expect to see a “Cabinet reshuffle” with nearly the same faces in the new administration, albeit holding different ministerial positions.

- More -