IT is truly astounding that for some PKR adherents, there is still a belief that Anwar Ibrahim remains the best person that the opposition could offer as a prime ministerial candidate.  

This is despite the numerous failings of party and coalition mismanagement, how he has misled the entire country with his “strong, formidable and convincing” majority and most recently, instructed the opposition to support Budget 2021 during the second reading.

The fiasco on the anti-climactic non-voting from the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition rests solely on the shoulder of Anwar, for he was the one who appealed to PH to not proceed with a divisional vote.

The fact that he justified PH’s (in)action with not wanting to be seen as rejecting the new incentives announced prior to the vote is rather baffling and unconvincing.

If Anwar’s majority is indeed “convincing” and Muhyiddin Yassin is vulnerable, the opposition leader would have stood up firmly to reject the budget and immediately claim he should be the person to succeed the latter.

Moreover, Anwar’s statement, “I told Harapan MPs to allow the budget to pass, but only for now”, is also puzzling and points towards his personal directive as it was done in the interest of his agenda rather than the opposition coalition.

Perhaps someone should pose the question to Anwar: what material difference does it make voting against it earlier during the “policy stage” or later at the “committee stage” if the budget is projected to be passed, albeit with a wafer-thin majority.  

The only plausible explanation is that the opposition leader is buying time for more support while not revealing his numbers. The biggest victim throughout this whole process is the people whom Parliament is supposed to serve.  

The constituents who are dissatisfied with the current administration are denied an opportunity to voice their disapproval because their representatives were sucked into Anwar’s politicking in Parliament. That is why the public is rightly infuriated and disappointed with what the PH coalition has done.

If the opposition believes that the budget is indeed inadequate and does not speak to the needs of Malaysians right now, then the opposition should have done the right thing and voted against it.

Whether the outcome leads to a defeat of the prime minister or not is merely secondary.

There is a reason in established democracies, such as the United States and Britain, their political institutions document their politicians’ voting record because they are cognisant of the fact that parliamentary votes matter as much as election votes.

Politicians are either punished or rewarded electorally for key legislations they have voted for or against. Surely, Anwar understood the significance of parliamentary votes, but apparently securing the numbers is his priority that must come at the expense of anything else.

The most important role of the opposition leader is to hold the prime minister to account and by that, he is to be seen as the alternative prime minister people can support or vote for if the incumbent underperforms.

Unfortunately, Anwar, in the second reading of the budget, achieved neither and is only interested in seeking an easy way out to outmanoeuvre his opponents.

Ever since he was appointed as opposition leader and given the mandate to restore PH back to Putrajaya, he has not submitted any motion of no confidence to test the prime minister’s majority, not come up with a PH shadow cabinet or budget, nor restore the confidence that the people once harboured in the PH coalition.

There is no doubt that the Muhyiddin government is equally complicit in politicking and has underperformed in handling the Covid-19 crisis. This begs the question, what is the opposition leader actually offering in such tumultuous times?

There is also no evidence that the nation would handle the Covid-19 crisis better if it is under the stewardship of Anwar. It is regrettable that Anwar and PH have not offered nor proposed a set of coherent policies to handle this crisis or shown the ability to govern more effectively than what the current administration is now doing.

PH’s proposed policies thus far are only confined to opposing what the current administration is doing, such as the revival of Jasa, moratorium extension and EPF withdrawal.

But there is a severe lack of what the opposition is for and what it passionately believes in and advocates in terms of the role of government.

When a nation is battling a crisis and lives are at stake, the opposition leader should be scrutinising every single action by this government: support it if the government is being responsive and accountable, offering constructive criticism or vote down the government if it is not up to scratch.

Yet, the opposition leader has achieved none of those and has dragged down its PH allies in the vote on the budget. And with that, the prime minister and his administration have been granted a much-need temporary reprieve.

All this was done to ensure that Anwar does not leak the numbers that he requires to become the next prime minister.

The fact that there is only less than three years at most till the Parliament automatically dissolves – which offers little time for a new prime minister to put in place his vision – apparently does not have the effect of dissuading Anwar from attempting another bid on power.  

If PH is to have any possibility of governing at some point in the future, the coalition must first hold the opposition leader accountable for his dereliction of duty. It must also be ready to look elsewhere if the opposition leader continues to underperform, which would only further damage the coalition electorally.

Yet, the possibility of getting rid of Anwar as opposition leader appears dim. But right now, most Malaysians would agree that the fragile position of the current prime minister is only sustained by the equally lacklustre opposition leader.

Malaysia deserves both a better prime minister and a competent opposition leader. – November 29, 2020.

* 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.