All ministers are on their toes, assures Muhyiddin

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has given his assurance that all ministers in his Cabinet are on their toes although some of them do not appear in the public eye.

The Pagoh MP said he personally monitored the performance of all the ministers, including top government servants, to ensure that they continue to serve the people according to the responsibilities of their ministries.

The prime minister said the government's priority was to address the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country as expected by the people.

"That is why I decided there are only one or two spokespersons. Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, he is the government spokesperson, with Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah who is quite popular today when it comes to COVID-19.

“Every day at 5 pm, people would be waiting for a press conference. So, the people will not be troubled by too many spokespersons, and I purposely did it to avoid people from feeling as such. But that does not mean (other) ministers are not doing their jobs,” he added.

He said this in an exclusive interview with Astro AWANI Editor Essan Yahya and Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) presenter Zaleha Khairene Ismail at the Putra Perdana Building recently. The interview was aired on TV1 and Astro AWANI last night.

Muhyiddin said it was important for the ministers in charge of other portfolios to stay on task, to ensure that work would not pile up after the Movement Control Order (MCO) ended.

"Probably in the current situation, not many statements have been issued, so people say oh (some)ministers don't work... whereas the ministers have been working.

“And these two months, there are no salaries (for ministers and deputy ministers) because we are giving back to the government (for the COVID-19 Fund).

“My assurance is the Cabinet, the existing ministers, will carry out their duties as they have already been entrusted to for the benefit of the people, even under difficult circumstances,” he added.