SHAH ALAM, 20 May: The move of two Ministers and three Deputy Ministers who joined the new Cabinet on Thursday are being questioned as the oath swearing ceremony of five of the cabinet members which is null and void.
DAP Advisor, Lim Kit Siang said that the five of them were supposed to be sworn in as senators first.
“Why did Najib, or his Deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddun Yassin, not make an open confession regarding their mistake of embarrassing the Yang di Pertuan Agong?
“Such a huge mistake involving the constitution like this has never happened before. Why is it happening now? Has the protocol standards plummeted such as the standard of people’s lives be it in education, judiciary or public service over the past five decades?
“What do Malaysians expect from this Cabinet?” he asked in a press statement.
Kit Siang added that he expects Najib’s administration would be more efficient in taking immediate steps to ensure that the two Ministers and three Deputy Ministers are sworn in on Friday night even though it is carried out in the middle of the night.
He said that all Cabinet members have to be sworn in twice before the Yang di Pertuan Agong before they are allowed to enter the office of the Ministry.
However, he said, nothing has been done by Najib’s administration to rectify the mistake involving the Constitution. Instead, he displayed his shocking incompetence or apathy.
“I understand that the three Deputy Ministers we sworn in as Senators on Tuesday while the swearing in ceremony of two other Ministers are in early June.
“But they have to repeat the swearing-in ceremony as Ministers and Deputy Ministers in front of the Yang di Pertuan Agong before they can enter the Ministry office, making them take the oath twice for office and for the Official Secrets Act,” he added.
The two Ministers ar Datuk Paul Low and Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar (both are Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department) while the three Deputy Ministers are Waythamoorthy (JPM), Dr J Loga Bala Mohan (Federal Territory) and Datuk Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah (Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism).