LACKLUSTRE, lacking in political charm and basically weak, these were the reviews of political observers of Ismail Sabri Yaakob who celebrates his first year as prime minister this week.

The observers said Ismail’s troubles started three months after he assumed the post of prime minister as the country faced a major flood crisis.

Ismail’s handling of the disaster, which showed poor coordination among the relevant government agencies, resulted in a huge gap in the perception of voters.

The 14th general election in 2018 brought about a new chapter in Malaysia’s history, as Pakatan Harapan (PH) took control of Putrajaya after a six decade rule of Barisan Nasional (BN).

Dr Mahathir Mohamad was appointed as the prime minister after PH’s election win but after just 22 months Muhyiddin Yassin took over after the infamous Sheraton Move.

His reign did not last long either as after a troubled 17-months, Ismail, vice president of Umno, was officially sworn in as the 9th prime minister of Malaysia on August 21 last year.

Reviewing his achievements over the past year, Tan Seng Keat, senior manager for Merdeka Center for Opinion Research told The Malaysian Insight that Ismail’s “honeymoon period” ended after just three months as the country faced a major flood crisis towards the end of the year.

He claimed that Ismail started losing his appeal ever since.

“From that time onwards, Ismail’s reputation began to decline.

“Then there was the inflation at the beginning of this year followed by the ‘chicken shortage’ in June which made more voters dissatisfied with his performance and felt that life was very hard under his leadership,” Tan said.

He added that this was what the center had learned from an earlier poll of voters.

Tan said he viewed the Bera MP as a weak prime minister.

“Ismail is regarded as a weak prime minister and needs to maintain a balance among the three coalitions.

“He however, still wielded political power during the epidemic period. A solid year.”

Ismail signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the opposition parties and his plus point would be the passing of the anti-party hopping bill which was passed after consensus with the opposition.

Tan, however, believes that the anti-hopping law may not be remembered by voters although it is a milestone for the development of democratic politics in Malaysia.

“Although the law may not be perfect, at least in the short term it will curb the so-called ‘frog culture’ where politicians jump from one party to another to save their careers.

“So, the performance of the prime minister in the past year depends on which angle you look at.”

“Some may think that the prime minister is weak because he needed to reach an agreement with the opposition parties, which led to the anti-hopping law and a series of other reforms,” he said.

Ismail, 62, is the third prime minister appointed since the 2018 general election. He is also the first leader in the history of the country to be appointed as the prime minister without being the chairman of a political party.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid was rejected by former Prime Minister Muhyiddin because of his court cases, while Umno’s acting president Mohamad Hassan, is not an elected Member of Parliament.

University of Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Liew Wui Chern, also agreed with Tan that the average voter would feel that Ismail was forced to implement the anti-hopping law.

“Although the anti-hopping law can be regarded as Ismail’s political achievement, from the perspective of voters, this will not achieve a bonus effect for him personally, but something significant for the country,” he said.

In the past year, in addition to the political turmoil and the social and economic recovery, Liew felt that many policy issues brought forward by Ismail were restrained by the coalition parties.

“So there may be a lot of things that can’t be done according to their will. Therefore, voters may feel that Ismail is very much like a transitional prime minister.”

Comparing Ismail and Muhyiddin, Liew felt that the Umno vice-president lacked political charm when compared to the Bersatu president.

“However, after Ismail became prime minister, at least the political situation was relatively stable compared to the later period of Muhyiddin’s tenure.

“Based on this, Ismail’s performance in one year could be rated as good.

“If I were to rate his performance on the scale of 1 to 100,  I would give him 60, which is a score for maintaining stability, especially in the past year, as the recovery after the epidemic is on track,” the lecturer said.

Current affairs commentator Dr Vincent Thock Kiah Wah, meanwhile, believes that Ismail’s performance in the past year has been lacklustre because there has been no major policy implementation.

He also said there was no significant improvement when it came to economic and recent inflation issues.

“What voters expect is political reform, economic revitalisation, and educational innovation, but none of them have performed well,” he said.

Vincent also believes that at least under the current government, Ismail can negotiate and reach a consensus with the opposition to bring about some reform.

“This is the most obvious achievement, and after the Sheraton move, voters hope to have a stable future and curb the unhealthy and unpopular culture of party-hopping.

“If Ismail can continue to implement all the agreements signed in the MoU, then it will be beneficial to the country” he said.

On September 13, 2021, the government and PH signed a memorandum of understanding, including the empowerment of the Covid-19 programme, administrative transformation, parliamentary reform, judicial independence, and the 1963 Malaysian Founding Agreement (MA63).

Although there is no deadline for the MoU, the government and PH agreed not to hold general elections until July 31 this year.

On July 27 this year, Ismail said that the signing of the MoU between the government and PH will not be extended, and revealed that the opposition parties have also agreed that there is no need to sign any more agreements.

After passing of the anti-hopping law, PH said that 15 of the 18 items in the memorandum have been implemented, which is equivalent to 83.3%.

With three items from the memorandum yet to be implemented, representatives of the memorandum steering committee will be instructed to meet with government representatives as soon as possible for discussions.

Vincent said that if 50 is what is viewed as a passing mark, then he will give Ismail a 55, a barely passing mark, based on his performance in the past year.

Whether Ismail’s performance would have a positive effect on the BN for the upcoming general election, Tan said it will depend on the budget that has to be presented in Parliament this year.

“It depends on this year’s general budget, whether there are candies or bright spots. Of course, I am not very optimistic.

“With the current economic environment, inflation and the supply chain disruption, it is estimated that the budget will not have any surprises,” Tan said.

“So if there are no surprises (in the budget), then the prime minister may be in a dilemma.

“Although he has a good image among Malay voters, his party chairman has been mired in criminal court cases and has a bad impression among voters. – August 15, 2022.