Anwar Ibrahim's tortuous journey to become Malaysia's 10th prime minister has taken over twenty-five years and two periods in jail.
It is hard not to feel sorry for Anwar. The beleaguered man's life was made difficult by his political foes, who were envious of his increasing popularity.
Unsurprisingly, he has made many enemies due to his stance against racial and religious extremism, and the fight against corruption. He campaigned on a multi-ethnic platform, whilst his foes refused to leave their comfort zone of racist and religious bigotry.
During the hustings, Anwar focused on bread and butter issues, whilst his rivals, like Muhyiddin Yassin of Bersatu, and Abdul Hadi Awang of PAS, warned about a Jewish threat and Christianisation of Malaysia and accused Harapan of having communist links. They lied.
Both Muhyiddin and Hadi are bankrupt of new ideas and are clueless about propelling Malaysia forwards.
Two years ago, Muhyiddin used the emergency and the coronavirus pandemic to consolidate his power, whilst Hadi does what Hadi does best. He used the pulpit to further divide the nation with his brand of conservative religious teachings.
Although Anwar faces huge challenges to rescue Malaysia from religious and racial extremism, and economic decline, he will get no free pass from some of us.
Nevertheless, older Malaysians who lived through the 1970s and 1980s will find that Anwar's rise to power is full of many little ironies.
Clearing up the mess
Anwar spent 16 years in Dr Mahathir Mohamad's first premiership, of which 15 was spent in the cabinet, as minister for education, culture, youth and sports, agriculture, and finance.
Successive PMs did nothing to reverse the slide and stop the wrongdoings under Mahathir, like cronyism, corruption, and racism. They merely perfected Mahathir's techniques.
The irony is that Anwar must now clear up this mess, with less money available in the kitty, increased borrowing by the treasury and a rakyat desperate for public aid, and expecting immediate results from reform.
Will the rakyat understand that these problems cannot be resolved within a matter of months or even years? They wrongly assumed 22 months was ample time for Harapan to clear up 63 years of Umno's mess. It is not like pressing the reset button on a computer.
The rakyat may give Anwar time, but Muhyiddin and Hadi will do their best to seize power back.
When rebuilding Malaysia, Anwar has to counter Bersatu and PAS' 3Rs with the three Es. The economy, education and getting rid of extremism.
Hunger
In the 1970s, Anwar, the student leader, led protests to highlight the plight of the starving rural poor, and impoverished rubber tappers of Baling, Kedah.
Anwar probably had a strange feeling of déjà vu in 2022, as he must again address both rural and urban poverty, and help starving Malaysians whose lives and jobs were affected by the depressed economy and the Coronavirus pandemic.
He must act fast. A hungry rakyat may quickly turn hangry.
The genie that was let out of the bottle. The 1979 Iranian Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini reverberated around the world with the Islamic resurgence shocking many people, including Mahathir, the then PM.
In the early 1980s, Umno MPs in Kedah warned Mahathir that Umno faced defeat at the polls from an energised PAS. Acknowledging the PAS threat, he hand-picked the then-leader of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim), Anwar, to give Umno a religious facelift. It worked.
By 2022, the extremism, which Mahathir and successive Umno PMs left unchecked, had become an insatiable monster.
The irony is that Anwar must stop the rise of extremism before Malaysia becomes yet another intolerant Islamic state, like Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Education
As PM, Mahathir wasted no time industrialising Malaysia. Whilst he was busy building skyscrapers and factories, Anwar was tasked with countering the PAS threat. He was responsible for the Islamicisation of the country, in particular the civil service and the education system.
In 2022, it is highly ironic that Anwar must undo the Islamicisation process, which he initiated before further damage is done.
Today, Little Napoleons wield unnecessary power with their own interpretations of the dress code, speaking English is not seen as patriotic, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects are ignored whilst Islamic studies dominate the school timetable, and some English teachers in government schools are so bad, that many students 'improve' their English by watching Western programmes and music videos.
Nationalists want to ban vernacular schools, but say nothing about banning international schools and the mushrooming tahfiz schools.
Anwar will need a firm, but a thick-skinned and knowledgeable person to be his education minister, who must also be sensitive to the needs of the Malay/Muslim electorate. Could that person be Rafizi Ramli? A non-Malay would find this job impossible and feel as if he is walking on eggshells.
What goes around comes around. When Mahathir invited Anwar to join Umno in 1982, he killed two birds with one stone. Student protests stopped, whilst Islamicisation work on the government progressed. When Anwar became more popular than him, Mahathir then tried to destroy Anwar.
The irony is that 40 years later, Mahathir was humiliated at GE15 when he lost both his seat and his deposit. It must have been painful for him to watch Anwar being installed as Malaysia's 10th prime minister.
The nationalists live in their own bubble. They were probably unaware that the Malaysian stock exchange and the ringgit jumped after Anwar was appointed 10th PM, and messages of congratulations from world leaders flooded Putrajaya.
Some politicians who lost in GE15 will be vindictive. Is there a mechanism in place to stop power-hungry politicians like Mahathir, Najib Abdul Razak, Muhyiddin and Hadi, and destructive speakers like Azhar Azizan Harun, from creating havoc, making a mockery of democracy and destabilising a nation? - Mkini
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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