Shape up or ship out, ministers told
The Star – 17 Feb. 2006
KUALA LUMPUR: Shape up or ship out, the Prime Minister warned his Cabinet members.  
“If they cannot work, if there is no result, then they can quit,” said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.  
Abdullah said he would be monitoring the ministers’ performances, and he expected those who could not deliver to leave.  
“But I have full confidence in my new line-up. What is needed is good planning and to carry out better monitoring,” he told newsmen yesterday after opening the Agro-Based Industries Expo 2006.  
On a report that referred to his Cabinet reshuffle as playing musical chairs, Abdullah said: “It is all right.”  
Some ministers, he said, were transferred to give them a different exposure.  
“We changed the portfolio of some and I let them try other things. In time, I hope they will perform better with the changes that I have made,” he said.  
In Tuesday’s reshuffle, Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mustapa Mohamed and Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad were moved to the Higher Education Ministry and Home Affairs Ministry, respectively.  
Home Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid was made the Natural Resources and Environment Minister.  
Others were retained in their portfolios to carry on with plans that they had already put in place, said Abdullah.  
“For example, I did not transfer Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Minister) because he and his team are so gung-ho about agriculture,” he said. 
Source: The Star | http://thestar.com.my