Recounting his journey: Hishammuddin speaking to ‘The Star’ on various issues related to his ministry including the procurement of vaccines for Covid-19. AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star
FROM repatriating Malaysians stranded overseas to keeping tabs on the development of Covid-19 vaccines and mending strained relations with long-standing partners, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has had a busy year, although much of the work was behind the scenes amid a pandemic.
Q: In less than a month, you would have led Wisma Putra for a full year. How would you summarise your journey?
A: On my very first day in office,
I was on the phone with my foreign counterparts and had meetings until late in the night with Wisma Putra’s senior leadership. At this point in time, tens of thousands of Malaysians were stuck abroad as the pandemic shut borders and restricted air travel. Our priority back then was simple: bring Malaysians home.