Malaysia's new Cabinet sworn in

Malaysia's new Cabinet sworn in

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government was sworn into power on Tuesday, capping his landslide election victory over the fundamentalist Islamic opposition and completing Malaysia's transition to its first new administration in two decades.

But the Cabinet has many holdovers from predecessor Mahathir Mohamad's government, prompting criticism that Abdullah's pre- election promise to clean up corruption was false, and that he's protecting his party's old guard ahead of internal party elections.

Seventy-one ministers - 33 Cabinet members and 38 deputies - took a pledge of office before King Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur. The Cabinet was due to meet for the first time on Wednesday.

Abdullah is retaining the key posts of finance and home minister, responsible for domestic security. His deputy, Najib Razak, is still defense minister. Syed Hamid Albar keeps foreign affairs, and Rafidah Aziz stays on as international trade minister.

Abdullah split some ministries and added new posts, mostly to reflect his emphasis on rural development rather than the grand schemes favored by Mahathir, who handed power to Abdullah last October when he retired after a 22-year reign.

Abdullah has promised cleaner, more efficient government than that of the Mahathir era, which was plagued by widespread perceptions of cronyism and corruption.

But opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said Abdullah had already undermined that vow by appointing a Cabinet that's "bloated and smacks too strongly of jobs for the boys and girls" - an apparent reference to giving the best posts to ruling party stalwarts. --AP