The Best Leadership in Malaysia: Anwar Ibrahim's Journey as Malaysia's 10th Prime Minister

Dear Editor,

I read with interest the Opinion piece, “GE15: The homecoming of Anwar Ibrahim” (The Independent Singapore, Nov 27). It’s inspiring news to learn that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s appointment as the 10th prime minister of Malaysia, after his 25 years long winding struggle in politics.

Anwar’s staunch courage, determination and fortitude shape him to stand tall today. Now, it will be the conspicuous focus for his political opponents and the world to observe how Anwar carries out his promises during the GE15 election campaign.

For example, Anwar pledged to make sweeping changes in the administration; outlining measures like combating corruption and strengthening democracy, managing the cost of living issues by eliminating cartels, ensuring sufficient supplies of food products, increasing the workforce in agriculture to guarantee food security, improving competitiveness and also reducing the size of a bloated cabinet.

Undeniably, Anwar’s political road to combat corruption in Malaysia will be touchy, and it can be likened to climbing a steep rocky mountain. As we know, corruption has existed in both commercial and political landscapes for donkey years, and it is also prevalent in many other countries. Thus, whether his actions of eliminating corruption will be successful or not will greatly depend upon the wisdom, determination and collective efforts of his newly-formed coalition government.

Further, in this Malaysia’s GE15, quite a substantial percentage of Malay voters had cast their votes in favour of the Perikatan Nasional (National Alliance) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia” (Pas-Malaysian Islamic Party). This clearly shows that they are very afraid and worried that their core welfare and benefits of “Bumiputra; the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia” or Malay aborigines will be gradually diluted, sidelined or vanished.

Hence, it will be another uphill task for Anwar to tackle the imperative issue of racial polarisation. How would Anwar ensure the national fabric of multiracialism and multi-religion remain firmly intact, as this will test his wisdom and capability?

In short, Anwar needs to urgently consolidate the unity and harmony among the diverse ethnicity in this multiracial, multi-religious and multicultural society of Malaysia after the GE15 so that his coalition government could synergies/integrate the people, and move the country towards its economic developments.

The Administration of Anwar needs to actively strengthen and deepen its foreign relations and economic cooperation with its ASEAN partners and major advanced economies (such as Japan, Korea, Germany, China, and the USA). These significant approaches will definitely help to bring in more investments for Malaysia, for spurring its economic growth.

Besides, Anwar’s government also needs to deal with soaring inflation and high costs of living.

As we know, due to the recent Ukraine war, the antagonism and conflicts between the US and China, the fluctuation of oil supply and the intermittent disruption of global supply chains have undoubtedly accelerated the swift rise of global inflation. These have unavoidably affected the quality of and heightened the costs of living of every Malaysian.

Last but not least, Anwar needs to further improve the road, communication and other infrastructures (such as upgrading all drainage systems) domestically. This move will facilitate the convenience of travel and logistics, and enhance the quality of life for all Malaysians.

Teo Kueh Liang


The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of The Independent Singapore

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