Lack of reforms not cause of Harapan's falling support, says Amanah veep

 

It’s not the lack of reforms that is causing the coalition government to lose support, said Amanah vice-president Mahfuz Omar.

Rather, the veteran politician pointed out that the problem lies in the failure to translate those reforms into tangible benefits that ordinary people can understand and feel.

As a result, citizens do not see how government policies benefit them, said the former deputy human resources minister who served under the Pakatan Harapan administration from 2018 to 2020.

“Election losses or a loss in support should not be normalised with the excuse that the government is too reformist or is not reformist enough.

“That is a denial of our own weakness. The real problems are a weak machinery, a failure to craft narratives and the big gap between policy-making elites and the actual lived reality of people’s lives,” he said in a statement today.

Mahfuz’s remarks come amid Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent cabinet reshuffle and criticism that Harapan has abandoned its institutional reform agenda.

They also follow Harapan’s sweeping losses in last month’s Sabah election, which prompted DAP, the coalition’s largest parliamentary component, to urge the government to accelerate reforms within the next six months.

Poor explanations

Mahfuz cited subsidy rationalisation as an example of a sound policy that was poorly communicated.

“From a policy standpoint, it is the right and necessary step for the nation’s fiscal health,” he said.

However, from a political communication perspective, he argued that the government had failed to clearly explain who benefits from the policy and who had previously gained from leakages in the system.

He added that the government had also not adequately explained how savings from subsidy rationalisation are being channelled back to the people.

“The result is that the public only sees prices go up, but not the benefits it brings,” he said.

Over the past three years, the coalition government has removed blanket subsidies for diesel and RON95 fuel to curb cross-border smuggling and reduce its subsidy burden.

The subsidies were instead redirected to targeted groups, including certain motorists as well as players in the logistics and agricultural sectors.

Mahfuz warned that the government must stop announcing policies or legal amendments that are “half-baked” and later postponed due to public backlash.

“This not only weakens public confidence but gives opposition parties ammunition to create the perception that the government is not confident in its own policies,” he said.

Relate to the people

As newly appointed ministers and deputy ministers settle into their roles, Mahfuz urged them to rethink how reforms are rolled out.

“Reforms must be assessed through the lens of policy substance, political impact and how the people will feel before they are announced,” he said.

He also called on ministers to act as the main spokespersons for policies instead of hiding behind the phrase “cabinet decision”.

Members of the new cabinet

Mahfuz added that policy communications should feature real-life stories that show how reforms affect people, rather than relying solely on numbers and technocratic language.

Parties in government must also strengthen their grassroots machinery to communicate narratives instead of depending only on announcements from Putrajaya, he said.

“The people are not against reform. They are against reforms they do not understand and from which they cannot see any benefit.

“If this is not fixed, even the best reforms will turn into political liabilities for the government,” he stressed. - Mkini