Anwar's 'Malay dilemma'

After more than two decades of struggling to reach Putrajaya, Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as the 10th prime minister on Nov 24 last year, albeit with the assistance of Umno. A hundred days later and with the election for six states looming, he still appears to be struggling to contain the green wave.

Perikatan Nasional (PN) continues to peddle the narrative that the coalition government is sidelining the Malays and Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the latest to lend his voice to this chorus, claiming that the race does not have political and economic control.

This has forced Anwar and his government to concentrate their efforts on countering this perception. 

For political scientist Wong Chin Huat, it is understandable that the Pakatan Harapan chairperson’s biggest challenge is to build support for him and his government.

Failing to do so would not just affect Harapan and its allies in the next national polls but also strengthen the Muhyiddin Yassin-led PN.

A strong PN, he added, would “throw in spanners” until the next general election to derail the government’s policy efforts so that the middle-ground voters feel disappointed and discouraged, which would have a significant impact on the outcome.

Citing the online survey by five media outlets, Wong said it still sounded a “big alarm” for Anwar when a majority of peninsula Malays expressed dissatisfaction and lack of confidence in his government, even though it has been criticised as flawed due to the absence of randomised sampling.

“While those numbers cannot be taken at face value due to biased sampling, it is undoubtedly a big portion of Malays - perhaps 40 percent or above - who are hostile towards the government, partly shaped by the PN’s toxic campaigning against the government’s policies.

“The attack on ‘Menu Rahmah’, Bersatu MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan’s attack on the budget which he smeared as ‘communist’ and earlier on the Local Government and Development Ministry to seek advice from Singapore experts (on public housing) are clear examples,” he told Malaysiakini.

The ‘old BN playbook’

Wong pointed out that Anwar’s success in winning over the Malays depended more on whether he can neutralise PN’s ethno-nationalist bombardment than what he does as prime minister.

“If he fails in the former, all his achievements in the latter would just be dismissed.

“After all, if the majority of Malay voters have concluded that the government is sidelining the Malays, no objective evidence of the opposite can convince them. This is akin to ‘one cannot be woken up if one is only pretending to be asleep’,” he added.

However, Wong disagreed with the new government taking a page out of the “old BN playbook” to counter the opposition - “starving them (in terms of allocations) and charging them in court”.

“Certainly, opposition politicians who break the law must be charged in court and cannot be given impunity for cross-party peace. 

“But as law-breaking opposition leaders are charged, the opposition must be given the room and resources to compete professionally. If the government can do both, then it can convincingly dismiss PN’s accusation of a political witchhunt,” he added

(from left) Perikatan Nasional leaders Dominic Lau, Hamzah Zainudin, Muhyiddin Yassin, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, and Takiyuddin Hassan

Wong also noted how certain segments of Harapan supporters, “disproportionally amongst minorities and liberals”, are defending the government’s marginalisation of the opposition because it would prevent the Muslim conservatives from coming into power. 

“They forget that this would only play into the opposition’s hand.

“Discrimination against the Malay-led opposition is spun as discrimination against the Malays, allowing PN to play the victim and win the sympathy of middle-ground Malays,” he added.

For Anwar to have five full years to prove his ability to transform Malaysia, Wong said the prime minister must sit down with the opposition to formulate a peace accord.

“He needs to diminish the bitterness amongst Malaysians - this time, amongst the opposition supporters - caused by state partiality and injustice. 

“If not, he can do more for the Malays and still fail to be enough,” he added. - Mkini