BARELY two weeks in power, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has formed a new cabinet, cut the goods and services tax (GST), set up a committee to review government spending and reopened investigations into suspected embezzlement of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) funds.

The world’s oldest-elected leader is acting as though he doesn’t have a minute to waste.

“It looks like Tun Dr Mahathir would like to take back all the stolen 1MDB money in 100 days,” Awang Azman Awang Pawi, associate professor at Universiti Malaya, told Bloomberg.

“It seems too ambitious but that’s the Mahathir way.”

Analysts said the haste was only partly due to his age as Dr Mahathir aimed to reassure the public that Pakatan Harapan could effectively govern the country.

“In our conversations in the days since the election, what we keep coming back to is the urgent need to reward the trust of the people and actually deliver on our promises – it’s key to establishing his legitimacy,” said A. Kadir Jasin, head of communications for Mahathir’s council of transition advisers.

“He needed to demonstrate, ‘look, we’re doing the right the thing here, the key elements of the economy will be taken care of’,” he told the news agency.

Dr Mahathir has promised to hand power at some point to PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim, who was freed from jail and pardoned last week for a sodomy conviction.

“Let’s face it, he’s 92 years old and there simply isn’t a lot of time for him to do everything he wants to do,” said Joseph Chinyong Liow, dean of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“Mahathir himself has said that he will serve, at most, two years, so it’s no surprise he’s hitting the ground running.”

Bersatu policy bureau deputy chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan said Dr Mahathir’s policy commitments made during the campaign were the only thing holding him back from initiating reform at a breakneck speed.

He said already, Dr Mahathir has had to abandon a plan to make himself education minister in compliance with the PH’s manifesto that top leaders could hold more than one portfolio.

Still, Wan Saiful said Dr Mahathir had no intention of slowing down.

“This is a very different Mahathir we are seeing, who passionately wants to correct Malaysia’s trajectory,” he told Bloomberg. – May 22, 2018.