Anwar is perhaps our only choice to lead nation


Kenneth Cheng Chee Kin

In times where a national healing and reconciliation is needed because of a bitterly fought election, Anwar Ibrahim’s commitment to multiracialism makes him the most ideal candidate to begin the healing process of Malaysia. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Afif Abd Halim, November 27, 2022.

“SO my concern is that the unintended consequence of New Malaysia has been a very divided Malaysia. That’s why I feel that for all his shortcomings – and he has many, many shortcomings – I think Anwar is perhaps most suited to become prime minister. Because his strength – perhaps his only strength – is that he’s able to navigate identity politics probably better than anybody else in Malaysia, and certainly better than Dr Mahathir. So perhaps on that one singular strength alone, it should be his time.”

You will be surprised that the quote was by none other than Khairy Jamaluddin, who trained his gun at the Umno president for the humiliating defeat that Barisan Nasional (BN) has suffered.

However, if Khairy were to perform the impossible task of flipping the seat of Sungai Buloh, I suspect he would also reluctantly abide by BN’s decision to support the Anwar Ibrahim-led government on the basis of Anwar’s strength when he made that comment in 2019.

The main question of any general election posed is, who should govern the nation.

Then, the answer was an emphatic “none of you” with a first-ever hung parliament in Malaysia’s electoral history.

It was also not any ordinary hung parliament but the two biggest coalitions drew their support along the lines of ethnic voting.

You don’t need an electoral expert to conclude that Perikatan Nasional (PN) has been the biggest benefactor of the loss of BN’s Malay support and analyst Bridget Welsh has gone as far as saying that PN is a coalition that is largely supported by Malays with the exception of 5% support from other ethnic groups.

Whereas Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) abysmal Malay support was all laid bare when it did not secure any seats in the traditional Malay heartlands such as Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang.

Worse still, PH could not even benefit from a split of Malay votes between PN and BN where it even recorded losses in constituencies such as Kuantan, Indera Makhota, Lumut and Kapar where it has a sizable non-Malays community.

Therefore, it is not entirely logical to label PH as a coalition that is largely sustained by the support of non-Malay. Regardless of ethnicity, every vote should still matter equally but it is very much impossible for PH and PN to govern alone regardless of the number of seats they have.

Throughout the process of the political gridlock, we have seen the use of identity politics has threatened to tear apart the fabric of our society.

There are controversial videos in TikTok talking about a repeat of May 13 if DAP is part of the federal government and controversial speaker Hew Kuan Yau was arrested for inflammatory remarks during the campaigning period.

It is under such uncertain and worrying times that Anwar is perhaps the best candidate to lead a unity government and to calm the political tension.

The pool of prime ministerial candidates remains limited and however well that PAS has performed in this general election, the multicultural and multiracial composition of Malaysia means it is almost impossible for the nation to be led by Abdul Hadi Awang.

The case is even stronger when PAS as a component party of PN is accused of heightening the use of racial and religious rhetoric through TikTok.

The same applies to Muhyiddin Yassin when a national leader with aspirations of becoming a prime minister should not be stirring up religious fear by accusing Christians of attempting to “Christianise” the country.

Even the harshest critic should not discount that Anwar is the only national leader that advocates a more tolerant and moderate multiracial society.

Academics, politicians and even leaders of civil society have at times lampooned the idea of a successful multiracial party in Malaysia; Muhyiddin Yassin even went as far as saying Anwar would never become prime minister if he chose to ally himself with DAP.

However, it is worth remembering that on the day that Anwar was appointed prime minister, it was also the first time Malaysia has a prime minister that is not from a Malay race-based party.

It is to his credit that despite numerous failures, Anwar has never wavered nor given up the idea of a multiracial party.

This is in stark contrast to the late Onn Jaafar who soon went back to forming a hardline Malay-based party after his multiracial party Independence of Malaya Party was an electoral failure in the Kuala Lumpur municipal elections in 1952.

In times where a national healing and reconciliation is needed because of a bitterly fought election, Anwar’s commitment to multiracialism is all the more important and that makes him the most ideal candidate to begin the healing process of this nation. – November 27, 2022.

* Kenneth Cheng has always been interested in the interplay between human rights and government but more importantly he is a father of two cats, Tangyuan and Toufu. When he is not attending to his feline matters, he is most likely reading books about politics and human rights or playing video games. He is a firm believer in the dictum “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.


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Comments


  • The idea that PH lacked Malay support is not only NOT true but dangerous to keep harping all the time. Defeating the key frogs that caused the downfall of the GE 14 government fiasco is proof of this. By becoming the winner iin a tough GE race with the most number of MPs is no small feat. Talking about the so called imagined lack of Malay support is like telling ghost stories to children. A single goal victory at the World Cup does not lower the value of winning the competition.

    Posted 1 year ago by Citizen Pencen · Reply