Will it be old wine in new bottle?

 

From Murray Hunter

For the second time in 18 months, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has summoned the nation’s MPs to the palace to affirm their support for a prime minister.

Eighteen months ago, Muhyiddin Yassin was affirmed prime minister, but after his resignation earlier this week, his heir apparent looks to be his recently-appointed deputy prime minister and Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

It is apparent that Ismail has been able to shore up the PN/BN coalition numbers with all MPs from Umno supporting him for prime minister.

Ismail has also kept Bersatu fully intact, with no defections, along with the rest of the coalition. This takes his support to 114, three more than the 111 MPs he needs to become prime minister and form a government.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, with his four-member Pejuang party, has said he will fall behind the BN/PN coalition. This would take Ismail’s support to 118, a comfortable majority in the Dewan Rakyat, or lower house, to conduct government business.

It appears that Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) was only able to muster 101 members to support him, with two seats currently vacant. This is another one of the numerous occasions Anwar has just fallen short of the necessary numbers to become prime minister.

To many, this is a deep emotional blow, especially for those who strongly believe that Anwar should be given an opportunity to show what he can do in government.

Ismail is a Malay-centric politician, who has not been without controversy over the years.

During the last general election, Ismail said that a vote for the DAP is a vote to eliminate the special rights of Malays and the uniqueness of Islam.

Ismail also caused controversy back in 2015, where on his Facebook page, he urged Malay consumers to boycott monopolising and profiteering Chinese businesses that discriminate against non-Chinese entrepreneurs.

Ismail also set up a Malay-only electronics gadgets mall, “Low Yat 2”, to compete with the Chinese-dominated Low Yat Plaza.

Ismail, from Pahang, the same state as the King, began his parliamentary career as the member for Bera in 2004, after being involved in the Umno party machinery since 1987.

He became a Cabinet minister under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as youth and sports minister, in 2008. In 2009, under prime minister Najib Razak, he became the domestic trade, cooperatives, and consumerism minister, and after the 2013 general election was appointed agriculture and agro-based industry minister.

In 2015, he was appointed rural and regional development minister and served until the 2018 general election, when PH defeated the BN government.

After Najib’s electoral defeat, Ismail, in the hard-fought Umno polls, became party vice-president.

After the Sheraton Move, where Muhyiddin came to power, with his PN government, Ismail became a senior minister, with responsibility for defence.

In July, he was appointed deputy prime minister, after criticism by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his supporters. This led to Zahid, president of Umno, to declare that Umno would with immediate effect withdraw support for Muhyiddin and the PN government.

Ismail is closely aligned with the Hishammuddin Hussein group in the old Muhyiddin Cabinet.

Hishammuddin is also well known for his “kris” waving and Ketuanan Melayu, or Malay supremacy rhetoric, at past Umno congresses.

Ismail, however, has been a staunchly loyal party member for over 35 years.

His party pedigree was probably the reason he was able to persuade MPs like Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, Mohd Nizar Zakaria, Ahmad Nazlan Idris, Noh Omar, Noraini Ahmad, Azalina Othman Said, Ahmad Maslan, Bung Moktar Radin, and Shahidan Kassim to support him.

This would have forced his nemesis, Zahid, to follow suit, or split the party mortally.

One would expect the first Ismail Cabinet to include more Umno members, including some of his past critics. So, instead of a PN/BN government, this will be a BN/PN government, which will fulfil the aspirations of many Umno members, who wanted to see Umno as the dominant party in government once again.

For Anwar and his PH, this means taking a back seat until the next election. With the current Covid-19 and economic crises now starting to affect the very survival of many Malaysians, any political antic could be seen as going against the King’s advice given to all party leaders earlier in the week.

This doesn’t mean that Anwar should do nothing. This is a time for Anwar to rebuild his own torn-apart PKR, after Mohamed Azmin Ali’s exit, and that of the coalition. PH needs to look at their narrative to the Malay heartland, and perform well as an opposition.

Anwar may well consider forming a shadow Cabinet to better hold ministers in the new Ismail government accountable. PH has around 12-18 months before the next election, and needs to build campaigning capacity on the ground, where it is weak.

At the next elections, PH will not have Mahathir on the hustings in the Malay heartlands, so this needs to be taken account of. In addition, Anwar, could bring some of his younger members forward as future leaders, and take on more of a mentor role.

Anwar as a mentor will be much more marketable, than an Anwar perceived to just wanting to be prime minister. With the future Ismail Cabinet primarily being made up of old wine in new bottle, a young and hungry PH line-up may be formidable.

The DAP has been doing this, and within PKR there are lots of young talent.

Amanah, under Mohamad Sabu, must rekindle the old Nik Aziz Nik Mat approach, which has been lost in PAS today. Amanah must show the Nik Aziz approach to Islam, which non-Muslims grew to respect.

For the upcoming Ismail government, the realisation must quickly set in, that power is not for power’s sake, and Malaysia is in the deepest crisis the country has ever been in.

The events of the last week have given the new government a potential window of opportunity without politics. At least until the next election.

If this occurs, then Westminster system Malaysian style, where the King plays a major role as an umpire has been shown to work well in the nation’s case. Now is the time for the executive government to get back to serious work. - FMT

Murray Hunter is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.