Zaliha Mustafa Minister of Health

1st year review of Anwar’s cabinet Part 2

Dr Zaliha Mustafa is a medical doctor and a pioneer of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). She was the Ketua Wanita (head of the women’s wing in 2000) and became Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s political secretary, when she was deputy prime minister.

PKR insiders suggest Zaliha was appointed the minister of health out of gratitude for her support and loyalty.

Her tenure began with Zaliha’s announcement that free sanitary towels would be distributed within her ministry building to civil servants as a measure to fight poverty. The scheme has not been expanded as promised, leaving the scheme as a perk for privileged civil servants. This led to criticism on social media.

While the health ministry has a number of infrastructure, staffing, equipment, capacity, and expertise issues, Zahila was concerned about preparing the ministry for possible diseases in the future, called Disease X, in line with World Health Organization (WHO) narrative. Zaliha also gave a high priority for the roll out of digitalized patient medical records.

Zaliha appears to have solved the contract doctors dispute by offering permanent positions. This took some time to be resolved due to her ‘gruff’ approach towards the doctors during the negotiation process.

Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, former director general of the MOH arranged for Zaliha to chair the 152^nd session of the Who Health Organization (WHO) executive board meeting in Geneva, Switzerland between January 30 and February 7.

Noor Hisham still appears to be running the ministry by proxy. Project Mermaid, an array of organizations aimed at disseminating propaganda to the public is still intact. Zaliha has not called for any inquiries into the government response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the purchase of defective ventilators, and the disposal of unused Covid-19 vaccines. Valued around RM 500 million.

Zaliha has done nothing to investigate the crisis in excess deaths occurring in Malaysia presently.

Zaliha is handling a ministry facing multiple issues, with a deep mafia in control of the ministry. With Zaliha’s close proximity to the officialdom at the WHO, her impartiality could be in question.

Zaliha has been putting out fires rather than pursuing any visionary improvements within the health sector. She has been an average performer and lacks control of the ministry she heads.

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