Health minister prepared to take on life in the hot seat

EXCLUSIVE | This time last year, Malaysia went to the polls and delivered an unexpected outcome.

While in 2018, the Pakatan Harapan coalition unseated the long-ruling BN administration, the Madani government has been a gathering of unlikely bedfellows.

Aside from throwing up the combination of erstwhile rivals like Umno and PKR, DAP, and MCA, it also thrusted several first-time parliamentarians into the front lines as ministers.

Like Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, Dr Zaliha Mustafa found herself appointed to head a key ministry.

Plucked from seeming obscurity to replace the then-incumbent Natrah Ismail as PKR’s candidate in Sekijang, she managed to...