Newly-minted federal territories minister Hannah Yeoh today emphasised that her ethnicity had never prevented her from carrying out her duties, following questions raised by some over her appointment to the post.
She said her focus had always been on the policies at hand, their implementation and their results.
“Since 2008, whether as the Subang Jaya assemblyman, the Selangor state assembly speaker, Segambut MP, deputy women, family and community development minister, or youth and sports minister, my focus has always been on the work, not skin colour,” she told reporters after clocking in at her new ministry.
Also present was her deputy, Lo Su Fui.
Yeoh took over the portfolio from Dr Zaliha Mustafa in last week’s Cabinet reshuffle.
PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan subsequently claimed that the appointments of Yeoh and Lo to the portfolio was a deliberate strategy to strengthen DAP’s dominance in Kuala Lumpur and other major urban centres in the country.
Takiyuddin claimed that concentrating urban power in the hands of leaders from the same ethnicity and political party could raise questions about an imbalance of power and the direction of the nation’s administration.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim however hit out at critics of Yeoh’s appointment, saying to reject a person because of her colour or race was “atrocious in this day and age”.
His deputy, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, meanwhile said that Yeoh and Lo’s appointments would not undermine the Malay agenda.
Yeoh said she would prioritise working with MPs for the federal territories to gain a better understanding of the respective constituencies.
She said her main goal was to ensure that the federal territories, which comprise Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, are “clean” on all fronts.
“Not just a clean environment, but also in terms of governance,” she said.
Yeoh also said she had spoken to Titiwangsa MP Johari Ghani and promised to continue the initiatives rolled out by Zaliha.
