KUALA LUMPUR, August 29 — The prime minister has prerogative over the line-up of his Cabinet, Jeli MP Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said today.
The former Umno minister was among those speculated to make a return to the Cabinet in a rumoured reshuffle, but declined to speak further on the subject.
“That is the PM’s prerogative, I’ve got nothing to say about that,” he told reporters when asked at the National Economic Forum 2019 here.
PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad confirmed last week that he had discussed possible changes to several ministerial portfolios during last week’s Cabinet meeting, without elaborating.
Mustapa was eyed as a possible new minister in the Pakatan Harapan government. He now chairs the seven-member Special Parliamentary Committee on the Budget.
He told reporters today that his team has submitted the committee’s recommendations to the government.
“In our recommendations we want the government to give top priority to economic matters and settle bread and butter issues. The seven of us have held a few meetings and we sent our views to the government yesterday.
“We did not propose many new taxes because the finance minister has already said that the government does not want to introduce any new taxes. Our discussion was more about expenditure.
“I don’t want to highlight our proposals in detail but we believe that economic matters must be given top priority,” he said.
