It’s now about midway through Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s tenure at the helm and marks Malaysia’s turn to chair ASEAN, the regional grouping of Southeast Asian nations.
Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister, despite his tumultuous path to the top, sometimes loneliness, the many incarcerations and probably self-doubts, was always aware of his destiny.
He never gave up and looked forward. Now, this is his time to shine through the darkness. But…
Anwar’s endless trials, convictions for some very unsavoury crimes, and jail finally culminated in his appointment as Prime Minister in November 2022.
Anwar metamorphosed, for almost 30 years, from rabble-rouser, prisoner, and Opposition leader, finally taking his place as Prime Minister.
Touted as the Prime Minister Malaysia should have had, Anwar Ibrahim was denied the top position by a combination of political envy, a travesty of justice, and a nemesis so enraged with his almost cavalier attitude to establish political feudalism in Malaysia he was determined to finish off Anwar Ibrahim for once and for all.
Called a “Prisoner of Conscience” by Amnesty International after his second jailing for sodomy in 2015, Anwar’s incarceration sparked widespread international criticism, disbelieve, eliciting unfavourable comments from world leaders.
Locally, there was uproar, street protests followed by accusations of a diabolical conspiracy to derail Anwar’s political career, to stop him at all costs, from inheriting the reins from his predecessor, Dr Mahathir Mohammad.
A false dawn
After spending more than seven years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, Anwar was granted a royal pardon on 16 May 2018 by the then king, Sultan Muhammad V, walking out of the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, where he had been serving his sentence.
It signalled a new dawn for not just Anwar’s supporters but for a majority of Malaysians, shackled by corruption, power abuse, crushing rising cost of living, and a general feeling of resentment and resignation to fate.
But all this was set to end with Anwar’s liberation, and there was hope and a new spirit of oneness that together, Malaysians could get themselves out of the nightmare the nation was mired in after six decades of abuse, kleptocracy and despair.
That ended prematurely when the first itineration of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government collapsed, ostensibly by the machinations of Dr Mahathir himself, who apparently undermined his own government.
The Present State of Affairs
Not a day goes by without the Madani Administration facing one controversy or another, mostly self-inflicted wounds after two and half years in power.
The glaring and most poignant question facing the nation must surely be the Najib pardon’s issue, which now has become a raging debate among politicians and ordinary folk, threatening to divide the nation.
Instead of adding light to the matter, both the Cabinet and Anwar have taken the path of Pontius Pilate by washing their hands from the matter, saying that the government has no say as it is a royal prerogative.
Race-based policies
One can only surmise that several deals were made in the run-up to the appointment of the 10th prime minister.
Anwar must have scrambled to cobble a coalition that would give him a simple majority to form the government, and he succeeded after Umno, the biggest party in BN, joined the coalition with its 30 parliamentary seats.
Now, after two years, PH supporters are left wondering what those deals entail. Adverse circumstances, the necessity to prevent another PN government from leading the nation into oblivion, and his personal need to get the approval of the Malay voters may have driven Anwar to pursue some very race-based and seemingly bigoted policies.
Undeterred by the growing dissatisfaction on the ground, Anwar is obstinately pursuing his policies without a decidedly Malaysian agenda, including structural financial and social reforms to reset the national gears towards progress.
He seems to have forgotten that he and PH came in on promises of reform, change, and freedom from oppression.
Yet archaic legislatures, long promised to be repealed are being used on some activists, similar to the very ones used on Anwar and PH supporters under previous administrations.
Going off the boil after having fought so hard a battle, one can only speculate on the type of deals Anwar, the reformist must have been pushed into to get into the driver’s seat.
He appears now to have come full circle, from a prisoner of conscience because of his political beliefs to a prime minister of adverse circumstances, driven to unconscionable and beguiling policy initiatives that are confusing both friend and foe.
With ASEAN in the background, Anwar’s next moves will be critical in forging the direction both the nation and the region take.
With the impending trade war on the near horizon as US President Trump drums up his “Make America Great Again”, ASEAN needs friends, trading partners, and pragmatic leadership with a vision that is global and yet focused on regional needs.
The second half of Anwar’s leadership is not only crucial for Malaysia but for the region as well.