Anwar Ibrahim: Limited time as PM of Malaysia

• Last week, Anwar Ibrahim was elected as Malaysia’s tenth prime minister.
• The 75-year-old is a charismatic public speaker with a wealth of political experience.
• In last month’s election, his reformist, multi-ethnic Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition won 82 parliamentary seats, more than any other political group, but far less than the 112 required to form a government.

Anwar Ibrahim was appointed Malaysia’s 10th prime minister last week, capping a remarkable career in which he had pursued the position for more than 25 years and nearly succeeded in doing so. But any joy he may have experienced had to be muted by the overwhelming task he now had to complete.

The 75-year-old is a charismatic public speaker with a wealth of political experience, but he has occasionally displayed poor judgement. He now needs to use all of his abilities to heal the economy, appease a long-suppressed reform demand, reduce racial mistrust, and maintain an unwieldy coalition.

More than any other political group, his reformist, multiethnic Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance won 82 seats in parliament last month’s elections, falling far short of the 112 required to form a government. It was the first hung parliament in Malaysia.

The selection of Mr. Anwar as the head of the cabinet by King Abdullah followed a frenzied five days of negotiations between the various blocs. This was only made possible because he was able to work with his old foe, UMNO, the party whose 61-year hold on power Mr. Anwar and his friends had fought and ultimately overthrown in 2018. But this arrangement unnerves a lot of people in UMNO and PH.

Allocating cabinet positions has been Mr. Anwar’s first issue. Only 30 seats were won by UMNO and its partners. But receiving multiple cabinet posts was its cost for working with PH.

The choice of Ahmad Zahid, the influential UMNO president, as one of the two deputy prime ministers, is the most contentious. Due to Mr. Zahid’s several criminal convictions stemming from his service in the discredited administration of former prime minister Najib Razak, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, there was significant opposition to the selection.

For its part, UMNO has pledged to back Mr. Anwar in the confidence vote he intends to hold in parliament on December 19, but hasn’t elaborated much on the details of this awkward alliance.

Tricia Yeoh, CEO of the unaffiliated Malaysian think tank IDEAS, asserts that the coalition of parties supporting the Anwar administration “looks stable at the present.” But given the precarious scenario, any significant blunder by Anwar may lead to discontent among the UMNO rank-and-file, which might then spread to the division chiefs, the party’s powerful power brokers.

The general assembly of UMNO in December will be a test, she continues, since growing discontent can prompt a vote inside the party to stop supporting Mr. Anwar as prime minister.

Events in the upcoming year, such as the UMNO party election, which is anticipated to take place in the first quarter of 2023, and approving the entire 2023 budget, may prove to be further hurdles for Anwar if he lives until the end of December, according to Ms. Yeoh.

The economy, which is still working to recover from the Covid epidemic, is another issue. The first PH administration in 2018 was accused of prioritising its political reform agenda over everyday concerns like employment and food prices. However, Mr. Anwar has previously stated that raising the standard of living for common Malaysians is his primary goal.

Here, the position of finance minister is crucial, thus Mr. Anwar has chosen to fill the position himself rather than delegate it to someone else.

The trickiest issue for Mr. Anwar may come from race, which continues to play a significant role in Malaysia’s multiethnic politics.

The constitution provides specific protection for ethnic Malays, who make up slightly more than half of the population. Since the 1970s, they have had preferential access to employment, commercial opportunities, and education under various regimes. Since its inception in the 1940s, UMNO has made maintaining that status its main priority.

This responsibility has now been given to Perikatan Nasional, a coalition made up of the conservative Islamist party PAS and the political party with Malay roots Bersatu, which left UMNO. PN, which received 73 seats, declined the king’s invitation to join the Mr. Anwar-led wide national unity cabinet.
With varying degrees of success, Mr. Anwar’s own Keadilan party has spent more than 20 years trying to convince Malays to support its vision of a reforming, multiracial, and multicultural Malaysia.

It dropped from 48 to 31 seats as a result of this election. Nurul Izzah, a member of parliament (MP) since 2008, lost the seat that the Anwar family had held for almost 40 years to a PAS challenger. The Democratic Action Party, which gained 40 seats and is largely comprised of Chinese people, is now a smaller part of PH than Keadilan. Because of this, the incoming government is more likely to be accused of being controlled by ethnic Chinese interests, making UMNO’s ability to demonstrate that Malay interests are adequately represented crucial.

Reduced corruption and the size of Malaysia’s overgrown state-owned businesses have long been among Mr. Anwar’s priorities. However, if he does that, he could face charges that he is undermining the very industry that has previously provided Malays more possibilities.

Several prominent Perikatan Nasional leaders have a history of stoking racial animosity. Before the election, Muhyiddin Yassin, the leader of Bersatu and a former prime minister, was shown on camera saying that PH was funding a movement to “Christianize” Malaysia by Jews and Christians. Leaders of PAS have said anyone who support PH will burn in hell and accused them of supporting Israel and being anti-Islam.

The main threat to Anwar, according to Ms. Yeoh, is a PN that decides to oppose him on the basis of race and religion rather than policy.

“They would probably try to topple Anwar’s government specifically over those matters because they have decided to be the principal defender of Malay and Muslim interests. If this keeps up, the rhetoric PN utilised throughout the campaign won’t stop but will only get worse, creating a hazardous, fertile environment for the seeds of more racial polarisation to germinate.”

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