GEORGE TOWN: DAP’s Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim found himself in the awkward position of having to sing a different tune about Umno’s Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, following his scathing words about the latter seven years ago.
In 2015, Sim declared on Twitter: “I have only ONE job: to bring down a Govt which consists of people like Ahmad Maslan.”
Yesterday, Sim, 40, found himself in strange territory when he was sworn in as Deputy Finance Minister II, standing right next to Ahmad, 56, who is now his immediate colleague as Deputy Finance Minister I.
On Twitterverse, Sim “updated” his stand as follows: “Now is 2022, going into 2023. We keep going for the sake of our motherland.”
He even crafted a four-line poem in response to netizens who reminded him of his previous stand: “Sama-sama dayung bahtera; dayung arah kota permata; sama-sama bangun negara; junjung titah lupa sengketa”. (Together we row the boat, rowing towards the jewelled city; together we build the country, obeying the royal decree and forgetting the strife.)
Sim said his priority in the Finance Ministry would be sustainable development, a field in which he earned a master’s degree in 2020.
He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had generally narrowed the goals of the Finance Ministry down to improving the economy, enhancing fiscal governance, and uplifting the people’s welfare.
As the Bukit Mertajam MP since 2013, Sim was one of three deputy ministers from Penang who were sworn in yesterday.
Also ready to hit the ground running was Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying, 59, who is a first-term MP.
The Tanjong MP is the younger sister of DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng.
She listed two priorities that come to mind: teachers’ workload and making the national school system competitive.
“I would like to look into unburdening teachers from peripheral tasks like reporting and administrative work so they can focus on teaching our children.
“Secondly, we have to really sit and think about how we can make the national school system competitive and inclusive again for all Malaysians,” she said.
The third deputy minister from Penang is Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh, 46, who is now the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of law and institutional reforms.
He is one of the sons of DAP veteran, the late Karpal Singh. He has held the Bukit Gelugor seat since 2014 after a by-election following his father’s death.
Last week, Nibong Tebal MP Fadhlina Sidek, 45, was sworn in as Education Minister.
In her first public appearance after taking office, Fadhlina calmly took questions from the press and gave the assurance that she would address issues on the new school calendar, which had been upset by two years of movement restrictions to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.