How has Anwar done a year later?

 

It has been slightly over a year since Anwar Ibrahim unexpectedly became prime minister through an unlikely alliance with Umno/BN and swinging the Sarawak bloc his way too.

With a handful of Bersatu MPs casting their support for him resulting in a two-thirds majority in Dewan Rakyat, he seems well entrenched to finish his full term in four years, bringing a semblance of political stability to the country.

Despite this, he faces one major problem - indications are that his popularity is waning among Malaysians - the latest opinion poll by Merdeka Center indicates his approval rating declined to 50 percent from 68 percent a year ago.

More tellingly, 60 percent of respondents said they believe Malaysia is going in the wrong direction, compared to 31 percent who think Malaysia is going the right way, indicating that the majority of people don’t think he is doing the right thing for the country.

Bloomberg, quoting the report said: “The ruling coalition’s overall rating has declined to 41 percent from 54 percent, with 78 percent of voters citing economic concerns as the biggest issue that they face. While Malaysia’s economic expansion accelerated in the July-September period, growth remained below the quarterly performance in the past decade, excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.”

By any standards, these are worrisome figures. My informal Anwar Ibrahim Scorecard which ranks him, admittedly rather subjectively, out of 10 points for 10 criteria (see chart) shows his performance so far to rank as a failure, scoring 43 percent out of a maximum score of 100.  

But if Anwar takes corrective action in light of the Merdeka Center survey, he still has a good four years to do what he has set out to do and try to get some public support for himself and his coalition.

Anwar surviving, but at what cost?

His greatest achievement during this period was that he pretty much ensured the survival of himself and his coalition for the remainder of his term, for which he got an A ranking of 8 out of 10, his highest score for any criteria. 

But on the flip side, he is playing it too safe - not wanting to displease anyone, especially Umno, he pleases no one by allowing key issues on race and religion to fester and grow.

He should instead use a firm hand and clear, reassuring statements to cool down temperatures deliberately being stoked up.

He also seems at a loss as to what to do in the face of deliberate and extreme provocation of race and religion by PAS and Perikatan Nasional.

Instead of gingerly treading around the issues, he would do better to reiterate everyone’s rights that are protected by the law and he will not allow those rights to be challenged.

He, therefore, only gets a 50 percent approval rating - a borderline pass rate - on the very touchy but important factor of race and religion and equality among races and classes.

He has not pushed the envelope here despite all statements he made pre-election on inclusivity as part of solving the race-religion conundrum - he needs to do more.

On the subject of equality and increasing incomes for the disadvantaged through wages, there is recognition of the problem but not enough follow-through.

Statistics revealed that things are in a bad state as far as equitable wages are concerned but there has been no policy or action.

The sustainable way to increase wages is to also increase productivity with better output of manpower and the means to raise their efficiency.

There seems to be some activity here going on behind the scenes but they are slow in coming, including the long-awaited subsidy rationalisation.

Lots of talk, not much to show

Out of the 10 criteria, the only passes are in four areas - survival, race and religion, equality, and wages. Six others are failures.

Let’s take them in turn from the top. While Anwar has said that corruption is a major problem, he has done little about it.

Even when the Attorney-General’s Chambers makes questionable decisions over prosecutions or the lack of it, he seems content to leave it alone.

He still has done nothing about separating the role of the attorney-general as the legal adviser to the government and as the prosecutor - the conflict of interest remains. And he has done nothing to make investigations more independent and robust.

The 2024 budget was disappointing and largely neutral in its effect. There was no value-added tax, no capital gains tax where it mattered, and no subsidy rationalisation, all very important to raise revenue and cut expenditures.

Similarly, there was no plan to move the economy forward. The results of his foreign trips have garnered over RM300 billion in foreign investments it seems, but everyone knows that memoranda of understanding (MOUs) are not worth the paper they are written on unless translated into action. We have had our MOU kings before and know well how they failed.

Meanwhile, all the reform measures seemed to have been put on the back burner with the heat turned off. It does not seem that they will ever see the light of day, presumably not to upset some parties.

These include rolling back repressive laws that are still in the statute books and introducing progressive legislation such as those on political funding.

Education similarly has taken a back seat and badly needed action is sorely lacking with an education minister at the helm who seems to have no clue as to what to do. Introducing young, immature children to hard, violent politics in Gaza is hardly the way to go.

Don’t try to outdo PAS/PN

The greatest weakness that Anwar has displayed, so far, is firstly a lack of broad vision and intent; and secondly, a plan of solid action to get it moving. That’s the lynchpin to get things going. But, sadly, it’s not happening.

If Anwar wants to get his approval rating up again, he needs vision and action. That means knowing how to get support from a broad section of the community in the face of concerted action by PAS and PN on the race and religion front.

The answer is not more of the same to outdo his opponents but to focus on real benefits to the public through economic improvement, reduction of inequality, and improving the quality of education amongst others. When this flows through, PAS/PN will be neutralised.

He must realise that the link with Umno is a tenuous and convenient one which won’t last, most of all because Umno has lost political power and roams in the political wilderness without water or sustenance.

Harapan’s deliverance is not them becoming more like Umno/BN but for Umno to become more Harapan - that’s a long shot.

For Anwar, it’s a hard rocky path ahead - how could it be anything less? It’s fraught with many obstacles. But if he does not find a way through it all and emerge victorious, then the extreme sectors in the country will take over in the next elections. - Mkini

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P GUNASEGARAM says nothing good ever comes without hard work. It’s time for Anwar to buckle down.

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