He was responding to the worst election result by Malaysia's governing party for 50 years.

More than half the members of the cabinet are new faces, including some well-known dissident figures. Gone are half the old faces in the cabinet, including tough-talking Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz who had held her job for more than two decades.

Abdullah Badawi has brought in some surprising newcomers - Zaid Ibrahim, a reformist lawyer who has been given the task of shaking up the tarnished judiciary, and Shahrir Abdul Samad, a strident dissident voice within the governing party.

Malaysia's political landscape has been transformed after the historic drubbing voters gave his government 10 days ago, when it lost its two-thirds majority for the first time in 50 years.