When announcing his Cabinet on August 27, the ninth Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri said all Ministers had been given 100 days to prove their initial performance, stressing that he wanted his Cabinet to focus on having a high-performance work culture and each ministry must prove their initial performance within the first 100 days.

But more than half of Ismail Sabri’s “recycled” Cabinet are back in their old Ministries.

Can everyone of these 17 Ministers who have been given back their old portfolios able to tell Parliament when it reconvenes in a week’s time how he or she can do differently in 100 days what they had failed to do in 17 months?

But Ismail Sabri himself may not have 100 days to prove his worth as the ninth Prime Minister, especially with his litany of errors in recent days – the re-appointment of the three special envoys, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang (Middle East), Progressive Democratic Party president Tiong King Sing (China) and Sarawak United People’s Party Deputy President Richard Riot (East Asia); the appointment of Muhyiddin Yassin as Chairman of the National Recovery Council and his reluctance to have a vote of confidence motion in Parliament as the first item of parliamentary business on Sept. 14, 2021.

In fact, Sept. 14 may prove to be Ismail Sabri’s Rubicon as the ninth Prime Minister as Malaysians may not be prepared to suspend judgment on him after that date.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021)