The Anwar Administration At Mid Term: Passable But Not Laudatory

The Anwar Administration At Mid Term:  Passable But Not Laudatory

M. Bakri Musa

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s greatest challenge on assuming office was the crippling triad of entrenched corruption, weak institutions, and assertive Islamism.

The Administration showed early promise by cracking down on corruption. However, it ignored the other two. Excusable perhaps given that Anwar’s government was an unwieldy coalition, and with that, constraints in introducing bold policies as well as choice of talents. It could also be argued that tackling corruption would strengthen institutions. And strong institutions could then handle the extremist Islamists.

At mid-term the Anwar Administration is judged successful only if one were to apply the Italian criterion (notorious for coalition governments) and be generous. He survived his unwieldy coalition. Having UMNO and DAP under the same tent required adroit political skills. Also consider that between January 2018 to December 2022, mere five years, Malaysia had five Prime Ministers, the same number as during her first half-century. 

Malaysians had expected that the prison-tested and reformasi-inspired Anwar, despite his brutal political baptism by the ruthless Mahathir, to be well seasoned upon assuming office. This optimism was buttressed by his decade-long post-prison association with such august institutions as Oxford and Johns Hopkins.

Alas at mid-term Anwar has not only failed to address those three core critical issues but he is now enmeshed in an unnecessary self-inflicted internal problem. The loss of Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi is not readily remedied as Anwar had failed to attract significant new talents into his administration. As an unneeded distraction, he now has to defend himself in a sordid sex-related civil suit.

Mahathir during his brief second tenure succeeded in convicting Najib Razak and his wife. He did so by appointing outsiders as Attorney-General and prosecutors. Anwar should have done likewise.

Anwar now has a chance with the judiciary. Emulate Lee Kuan Yew who in 1990 picked Yong Pung How, an outsider with a law degree from Cambridge and vast private sector experience outside of law. By contrast, Malaysian judges are unidimensional.

A measure of Malaysian judges is their post-retirement standing. The first Chief Justice Tun Suffian excepted, most disappeared into oblivion. As for their performances while in office, there was the character who was married in Thailand and tried to conceal it. Most egregious was the Chief Justice who was at the other end of the phone with a defense attorney who uttered, “Correct, correct, correct!” Another was caught holidaying abroad with a member of the Bar. I wonder who picked up the tab.

Had Anwar picked an outsider as Attorney-General two Novembers ago, there would not have been the current flurries of high-profile DNAAs (Dismissal Not Amounting to an Acquittal).

Anwar had a chance recently to pick a new Anti-Corruption Chief but chose not to despite the incumbent seeming confused, mistaking fighting corruption as prolonged interrogations and investigations, as well as endless show-and-tell press conferences.

The Islamists too are becoming assertive with such trivialities as teachers’ dress codes. Far more serious was the recent introduction of Imam Nawawi’s Forty Hadith into schools. What is needed is more science and math. Had Forty Hadith been used not as endless recitations but as exercises in critical thinking, that would have been laudable.

Anwar’s political skills will see him through his full term if for nothing else than the alternatives being so mediocre. Therein lies the seductive trap. He should not even consider running for a second term, thus instilling in him a sense of urgency.

Emulate President Reagan; he treated his first term as if that was his only chance. No intellect, he attracted many bright talents into his Administration and was comfortable with them. Anwar should do likewise. Invigorate the highly-inbred insular civil service now inflicted with the seniority mindset with massive high-level lateral infusions of talents. That would disrupt the civil servants’ current “planes patiently lining up for landing slots” mentality.

Anwar is also the only leader with the standing to challenge the regressive Islamists and language nationalists. As such he does not need to humor them.

Anwar should be reminded that a leader’s effectiveness at home is inversely related to his exposure abroad. Few could name the head of Taiwan but everybody has heard of the corrupt incompetent Zelensky. Besides, at Anwar’s age the inevitable jet lags can be distracting.

A leader is not a populist or “pied piper.” Grooming a successor is another responsibility of a leader. Anwar’s daughter is now the party’s deputy leader and thus putative successor. It is worth remembering that the greatest tragedy in Islam, one that still reverberates today, occurred when Ali, the prophet’s cousin as well as son-in-law, became the fourth Caliph. Imagine if he had been the prophet’s son and became the first or second Caliph!