Unlike some of his predecessors, Ismail Sabri Yaakob was never known to be a controversial figure.

The few times that he did land himself in controversy was when he was a minister and it involved race matters such as his suggestion to boycott Chinese businesses in 2015 and creating an all-Malay alternative to the Low Yat Digital Mall.

But by and large, whether it was in the party or in the government, the Bera lawmaker has always played it safe and toed the line, rarely combating with other Umno leaders.

The only time the nondescript politician crossed the Umno leadership was when he led 31 Barisan Nasional MPs to back his predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister 10 days before the latter resigned.

But whether this was a well-thought-out plan or not, Ismail nevertheless found himself in the hot seat on August 21 when 114 out of 220 MPs decided to make him the 9th prime minister.

And 100 days on, the 61-year-old has maintained the same posture that has kept him out of trouble in almost three decades of politics.

Understated and careful to avoid controversy, he has limited himself to formal speeches and just three media engagements as prime minister.

The first was an interview on October 3, the second a special Press conference on October 9 where he announced the lifting of travel restrictions and the last was with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong after their meeting on November 29.

His intention to avoid being drawn into political squabbles includes Parliament where he has rarely appeared.

This has not gone unnoticed as Pasir Gudang lawmaker Hassan Karim pointed out the prime minister’s absence in Parliament on Tuesday.
Although all three Minister-Question-Time questions were directed at Ismail,  the job was delegated to the other ministers in the PM’s Department.

“I have been to the British House of Commons where there is a special session with the Prime Minister every week.

“But Ismail’s attendance in Parliament has been very unsatisfactory,” Hassan, a lawyer-turned-MP told The Malaysian Insight.

Hassan noted that the important question on high food prices, which was posed by Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, was left hanging.

Playing it safe

Ismail had the opportunity to stamp his mark and stand apart when he appointed his cabinet.

But instead of starting afresh, he played it safe by keeping most of the previous line-up with some minor tweaks. Even the most heavily criticised ministers were retained.

To avoid Muhyiddin’s fate, he had to keep everyone from Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional and Gabungan Parti Sarawak happy.

To top it off, he appointed two more special advisors and there is now a third on the way. The idea is perhaps to quell any rebellion from within.

The second thing Ismail did was to contain opponents on the outside and he did that by signing an insurance policy in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Pakatan Harapan.

The MOU would temporarily safeguard his position in exchange for reforms and equal constituency funding, although Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s Hassan feels that there has been limited progress since.

“Meaningful debate is still short in supply in Parliament. And when the opposition wanted to debate the Pandora Papers and food price hikes, it was shot down or relegated to special chambers.

“And despite forming more select committees, the only one is the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as the others are not working well,” said the PKR Johor leader.

International Islamic University of Malaysia’s Lau Zhe Wei is equally unimpressed with the MOU.

“Although he can use the MOU to do many things, he seems to be tied down by political considerations during this critical pandemic period,” Lau said.

Citing the constituency funding as an example, Lau said Ismail should have given the allocations to all opposition MPs regardless of whether they had signed it, if he wanted to be seen to be fair.

Among those who have repeatedly complained about being not given any allocations are Warisan Sabah MPs and independents such as Muar’s Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman.

“His administration is also insincere about the Undi18 issue and is just using legal and procedural excuses to justify delaying it in the Sarawak elections.

“They could have easily expedited it or at the very least get the Sarawak  government to delay their elections until it includes 18-year-old voters,” said Lau, a political science lecturer.

Bumiputera policies

On the policy front, Ismail has also kept it safe, playing to the Bumiputera gallery when he can.

Since becoming PM, Ismail has restricted himself to policies pertaining to the Bumiputera agenda.

The first was on raising Bumiputera equity by prohibiting Bumiputera-owned shares or properties being sold to non-Bumiputeras while the second was on plans for Bumiputera quotas in malls.

“From the budget itself, we can see that the allocation for the Bumiputera agenda is huge compared to others. This may be the practice of inequality of allocation, but such a huge disparity especially in the days of pandemic management is not the right way to do it,” said Lau.

On this, Lau said that Ismail has picked the safer option of prioritising the Bumiputera agenda over more pressing needs.

“This may be safer, but in terms of administration or efficiency, it will fail as it is the opposite of allocation based on needs. Allocation to vernacular schools, to civil servants and so on are conventional practices but these are not as urgent as spending the money on pandemic management.

“In short, the budget itself is a politically safe but disappointing budget. A mismatch with the needs of pandemic recovery.”

How safe is safe?

But while the Umno vice president has boosted his Malay credentials with policies and kept his political enemies at bay with appointments and a MOU, how safe is safe?

One Umno leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the party is still suspicious of the prime minister although he is from their party.

“Some believe that he is still working with the Bersatu leaders although Umno has rejected political cooperation with them,” he told The Malaysian Insight after Barisan Nasional had a crushing victory in the Malacca elections last month.

He claimed that Ismail wants to delay GE15 till 2023, when Parliament’s term expires, although a number of Umno leaders including president Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi are pushing for it to be held as early as next year.

Coming off the Malacca polls where BN won 21 out of 28 seats, Umno believes that a quick general election will allow it to reclaim power. On this matter, Ismail and his aides have been strangely quiet.

The uneasiness over Ismail is not mere suspicion alone, said the Umno leader.

“He has made certain cabinet appointments that are against the party’s wishes,” he added.

The Sheraton Move at federal level last year triggered more than half a dozen changes in Mentris Besar and Chief Ministers in different states where instigators were members of the ruling state government party through party-hopping.

In Perak and Malacca, and including Putrajaya under Muhyiddin, such moves were started by Umno lawmakers. So despite being defensive, will Ismail really be safe until 2023? – December 9, 2021.