Karma has finally caught up with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the irony is that what spooked former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the 1970s/1980s has now come to haunt Anwar.
Enter PAS and Abdul Hadi Awang.
For a glimpse of what the 16th general election would look like, read the rumblings on social media about Anwar’s coalition and the recent defeat of the federal coalition government in Sungai Bakap. These give a taste of what’s to come for the Madani administration.
The rivalry between Mahathir and Anwar has been festering for almost three decades.
Mahathir and Anwar were once in the same camp. The Umno camp.
PAS and its Islamic agenda, which it has never tried to hide, was a huge threat to Mahathir in the 1980s. Today, the same threat in the form of the Green Wave now torments Anwar.
Forty years ago, Mahathir enlisted Anwar’s help to counter Hadi’s influence on the Malays. Today, the bromance between Mahathir and Anwar may be over but the threat posed by Hadi and PAS continues and is now Anwar’s to deal with.
Malays unimpressed, non-Malays disappointed
If past election results are anything to go by, Anwar has yet to make any headway with the Malays.
Ever since he came to power in November 2022, he has tried to woo the Malays with many concessions.
Incredibly, he shares the unshakeable belief that the non-Malays are dependent on him and will never betray him because they say, “Who else is there besides Anwar?”
Anwar has bent over backwards to appease the Malays but they still reject him. At the same time, the non-Malays have also continued to bend over backwards to “support” Anwar, and yet, he continues to disappoint them.
This is political sado-masochism at work. Sadly, the victim in this power frenzy is the rakyat.
Decades-long rivalry
Those who know the history of Umno and PAS will realise that these three men, Mahathir, Anwar, and Hadi, go a long way.
In the late 1970s, PAS’ domination was on the rise, especially in Mahathir’s home state of Kedah.
Divisional Umno heads warned Mahathir about PAS’ rising threat and urged him to act.
As Umno deputy chief and deputy prime minister, Mahathir feared that Umno would lose Malay votes to PAS, which was buoyed by the global Islamic revival spearheaded by the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the overthrow of the Iranian monarchy.
Meanwhile, PAS had also accused Umno of not being Islamic enough.
Mahathir was displeased with the distraction as he was a man in a hurry to develop and modernise Malaysia. On top of the Islamic agenda, Mahathir had another local issue.
Student protests to highlight the plight of poor farmers and their starving families were an annoying distraction. Mahathir needed to focus on his vision.
Thus, he killed two birds with one stone by inviting the charismatic student leader and co-founder of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (ABIM), Anwar, to join his government.
As a member of the establishment, Anwar could no longer lead the student demonstrations, and with his Islamic credentials, he was a valuable asset to Umno.
Anwar would convince the shallow electorate that Umno was indeed as Islamic as PAS.
He rolled out policies like the dress code for students and civil servants, the Bahasa Melayu/Bahasa Bako and the sidelining of non-Malays in the civil service. Many Malays were duped and the rest is history.
Complacency instead of Reformasi
The failed bromance of Anwar and Mahathir in the late 1990s and Anwar’s criticism of Mahathir’s response to the Asian Financial Crisis was followed by his sacking and subsequent arrest at the height of the Reformasi movement.
However, Reformasi had given ordinary Malaysians much hope for a new type of governance after the dark years of the Mahathir era. Malaysians liked Anwar’s bold moves for reform and anti-corruption. They vowed to end Umno-Baru rule.
After GE15 and the hastily cobbled coalition government, Malaysians soon became jaded. The promised reforms remain unfulfilled.
Of course, Malaysians are prepared to give Anwar a chance. It is not as if he did not have enough preparation time. Didn’t he have a 24-year apprenticeship?
However, ever since becoming prime minister, there has been poor communication between the top and the grassroots.
With the defeat at Sungai Bakap, Anwar’s ministers and his daughter Nurul Izzah have come out with weasel words like “self-reflection”, “we will listen more”, “bahlol”, and “trust us”.
Haven’t Malaysians been speaking out about Madani’s failure to listen to the rakyat all this while? Did it need Sungai Bakap to tell them “We told you so?”
A complacent Anwar probably thought he could depend on non-Malay votes to win. He was wrong because in Sungai Bakap, they wanted to punish him and so they stayed at home.
A complacent Anwar probably thought he could cultivate the Malay vote with various concessions towards them but this strategy failed and, to make matters worse, he alienated the non-Malays, his core support base.
A complacent Anwar may claim that the country has benefited from increased foreign investments but how does this translate to the ordinary man in the rural and semi-rural areas, whose lives are shattered by the cost of living crisis?
Disillusionment sets in
Increasing numbers of middle-class families are also struggling with price increases in food, fuel and energy, the deteriorating education of their children, increasing polarisation in the community and the rise in religious extremism.
They are dissatisfied with the Madani administration.
One disillusioned PKR supporter said, “Anwar spends more time on Hamas and he willingly gave them RM100 million. Back home, his own people are suffering.
“Then, on his return, he’s preoccupied with enabling house arrest for the convicted felon, Najib Abdul Razak. He has no time for the rakyat.”
So, will Anwar listen? Probably not. - Mkini
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, X.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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