WHAT’S next after the toppling of Barisan Nasional after six decades as the federal government?

Apart from the swearing-in of Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister for a second time at the age of 92 tonight, and the transition to a new Pakatan Harapan government, on the minds of many Malaysians are a host of other questions.

Here are some of them, collated from conversations with people and social media posts as Malaysians try to process the changes that lie ahead for the country.

1. What will happen to Najib Razak’s position within Umno and BN? Who will take over his party presidency after his failure to secure victory in GE14, and who will take over a party that no longer has access to federal resources? Will BN also start crumbling from within? What does the future hold for MCA, MIC, Gerakan and MyPPP?

2. What will happen to the mainstream media that was controlled by BN parties, such as Umno and MCA, as well as businessmen close to the BN government? How will the tone of their coverage change? Will there be a change of guard at the helm of some papers, as has happened with a change of prime minister in the past? Will there also be a boom in new publications and online media, as in Indonesia after the fall of president Suharto? What will media freedom promised by PH look like as their administration comes under the scrutiny of the press?

3. Will the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) lift its ban on websites previously blocked, such as Medium and Sarawak Report?

4. What will electoral reform coalition Bersih 2.0 fight for now?

5. What will happen to the heads of key institutions, such as the judiciary, whose appointments under BN rule were contested?

6. Similarly, what about the heads of government-linked companies implicated in scandals, such as the Tabung Haji scandal, or those who lost their seats in GE14, such as Umno’s Shahrir Samad in Johor Baru? 

7. Likewise, PH’s promises to reform GLCs are highly anticipated, given that these are vehicles through which Putrajaya, under BN, had ensured tight control of the economy, as researched by prominent economist Edmund Terence Gomez. 

8. How extensively will a PH government reopen the investigation books on 1Malaysia Development Bhd after attempts under BN rule to whitewash it? And how soon can this be done?

9. Will Teoh Beng Hock, who died after falling from a building while being questioned by anti-graft authorities, and deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais, who was murdered after allegedly drafting a charge sheet against a top leader over 1MDB, finally get the justice they deserve?

 10. Will a PH government adopt recommendations by the 2005 royal commission of inquiry into police reforms, such as the setting up of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC)? Or will the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) be given more bite to handle police misconduct? Will we see a reduction, or an end even, to deaths in police custody?

11. Will Sabahans get answers from a PH federal government about Projek IC, which has been pinned on Dr Mahathir as a way to change the demographic of Sabah’s population back when he was prime minister before?

12. What will happen to the status of Bersatu and PH, which had tried and failed to get registered with the Registrar of Societies? Likewise, what will Umno’s status be after the filing of court action over its legal status?

13. How will a PH government handle the heads of departments and agencies in the civil service who have been accused of acting unfairly towards the coalition while it was the opposition? 

14. Will PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli still be jailed or can he be granted a pardon? Will PH review whistleblower laws to ensure they are protected rather than punished?

15. What other laws will a PH government give priority to in amending or repealing, especially those that centralise power in the prime minister, such as the National Security Council Act? Or laws that human rights and even PH politicians have campaigned against, such as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act? – May 10, 2018.