Anwar Ibrahim, 75 finally became the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Thursday 24 November 2022, a role denied to him for three decades through political manoeuvring, defamation and court cases on trumped-up charges, resulting in several stints of imprisonment.
He was at work next day on Friday in the PM office in capital Putrajaya and has promised that his Cabinet will be leaner compared to the previous, oversized administration while he will forego his salary as prime minister and the new Cabinet members would be asked to cut their salaries too.
His coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) emerged as the biggest winner with 82 seats after the election held on Saturday 18 November, paving the way for him to form the new government with the help of other minor parties.
Anwar with his legacy of promoting Islamic democracy, justice, pluralism, equality for all Malaysians and good governance free of corruption would be better off to reconcile with the Islamic party (PAS) with similar ideals to form a stable unity government to best serve the country.
PAS which won 49 seats in the new parliament has become the country’s single largest party at the expense of UMNO that has largely ruled Malaysia since its independence, but tainted with years of corruption.
Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail take part in the swearing-in ceremony at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday 24 Nov 2022.
“We have a truly convincing majority … this is a national unity government, all are welcome,” Anwar said, adding however that new entrants to the coalition government had to accept pre-conditions of incorruptibility, upholding good governance and ensuring a “Malaysia for all Malaysians”, Anwar said in his first press conference after the swearing-in ceremony.
Starting as a charismatic student activist during the 70’s and founding the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM), he was enticed by Mahathir Mohammad during the early 80’s to join the government with a rapid rise to deputy prime ministership during the 90’s.
But then, Mahathir with his serial ambition to stay in power manoeuvred to get him charged for sodomy and corruption repeatedly and finally in 2018 when both joined together to oust the ruling party, he again did not hand over the top post to Anwar against the agreement.
The recent 15th general election held last week led to a hung parliament, although Anwar Ibrahim’s reformist Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance and the Malay-Muslim Perikatan Nasional (PH) coalition led by Malay nationalist Muhyiddin Yassin emerged as the two biggest blocs.
Constitutional monarch Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah after seeking the views of his fellow sultans made a decision on the leadership tussle “for the interests and well-being of the nation and people” inviting Anwar to for the new government.
Anwar said the first order of business when parliament reconvenes will be a vote of confidence with the backing of the 82 MPs in his PH coalition and its ally various allies.
He claims the support of 30 MPs from the Barisan Nasional (BN) bloc and 23 MPs from the Gabungan Parti Sarawak having the support of 135 MPs, well over the 112 simple majority threshold to form the new government.
Anwar is the best possible person to head Malaysia. He is intelligent, well spoken and far sighted and is responsible for establishing many of the nations significant Islamic institutions. As for reconciling with PAS there is a significant issue. They joined the UMNO lead cabal that brought down the legitimately elected PH government. They were wooed by UMNO’s appeals to Malay nationalism. UMNO’s previous leader Najib Razak and his wife are now serving lengthy prison sentences for fraud after they were convicted of embezzling several billion US dollars from the 1 Malaysia Development Bank and they face a litany of other charges. The original founder of PAS resolutely refused al dealings with UMNO because he knew what they were. The new leadership of PAS has failed to learn from him.