Published in AstroAwani, TheStar & MYsinchew, image by TheStar.
Hadi Awang despite being seen as a “religious” figure who may know how to understand the Quran and some theological issues in Islam, is often wrong on a long menu of issues. Nor are these minor oversights. Rather they are grotesque mistakes verging on calumny (Fitnah) and what in Latin is known as “mala fide” (bad faith).
Malaysians, on most occasions do like to respect the Royalties, the institutions of the government, the police and the military. To a large extent, this is reflected, for better and for worse, in the long tenure of the previous administration between 1955 to 2018 at the Federal level. 2018 marked the milestone, when Pakatan Harapan finally ended the long reign of the Barisan National (BN).
However, in suggesting that the Unity Government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim can collapse in a matter of moment, which seems to be the flavor of the month for Hadi, who appears to have a penchant of talking down at any entities or anyone he dislikes, the President of PAS is patently wrong if not maliciously so.
First and foremost, the legion of naysayers, ultimately, against the Unity Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim —- whose administration began about 100 days ago —- came surging like the proverbial sandstorm in a desert. These pundits worked themselves up into believing the the Unity Government will fall. Whether it was some pundits in Asia Times or policy analysts in the West, the victory of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had the likes of these cynics affirming, with deceitful prejudice, that the Unity Government was not meant to last a month; let alone a term of five years.
One of the first to say so was none other than the detractors of the Pakatan Government. One of whom performed so badly at the 15th General Election that all his candidates lost their electoral deposits. The likes of this group asserted, without any facts, “Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would fail in all his economic policies in a matter of weeks, just you see.”
That remark was made in early December 2022, when the Unity Government did not even have the time to get all the coalition partners to immediately regroup. As soon as the Cabinet was formed, everyone was hard at work to prove their worth. They did. And they are still doing.
Now that the Unity Government has almost crossed the threshold of 100 Days, with the full approval of the Conference of Malay Rulers to boot, which by extension implies that the Malay Civil Service that comes under His Majesty must comply to this royal edict, in order to permit it to serve the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim effectively, the tendency to cast aspersion at anyone that is not a member of PAS or Perikatan National (PN) is manifesting once again in Hadi.
Yet the national budget has been tabled successfully on February 24 2023, and there are no signs that any of the coalition partners that formed the Unity Government are disagreeable to it. Thus Hadi’s assertion that the Unity Government can fall any time soon is a replication of those sardonic and pompous skeptics in and out of the Malaysian parliament. Almost nothing with which others are doing can be right. That is except the sayings and “amanats” (fatwas) of Hadi and his ilk. How can we ever forget the divisive Amanat Hadi that divided the Muslim Malay at one time. To-date he has yet to apologise for such a horrible act that resulted in two imam prayers, divorces and the break of family relationships for decades.
There is actually a phrase for this personality defect: megalomaniac. Hadi and his cult personifies the extreme far right of political Islam Both of them are but two of the same kind. They get to where they are through sheer vitriol and spiel.
Secondly, it is worth remembering that there is now an Anti Party Hopping Law, that runs in tandem with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between all the Coalition partners in the Unity Government. Anyone that seeks to bolt away from the coalition that underpins the Unity Government would trigger a by election in which the incumbent is bound to lose. One must remember that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is not only helming the Unity government but he is the Minister of Finance too.
Due to a potential looming global recession, the Prime Minister who is concurrently the Finance Minister has had to increase the overall budget by 16.8 percent to cushion any black swan financial events. If anything, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim carries both the mandate and cache to lead an effective Unity Government; which is why the United Malays Nationalist Organization (UMNO) has been able to purge some of their members in January 2023 without drawing any negative effects on the rule of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at all. Nor is UMNO in disarray since Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership has been preferred as opposed to that of Perikatan National (PN).
Thirdly, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has received resounding endorsements of various leaders the world over. Foremost of which are the likes of President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Prime Minister Albanese of Australia and President Xi Jin Ping of China, not excluding a series of endorsements from the member states of G 7 and G 20.
These are endorsements that did not come along matter-a-factly, when the government of the previous Prime Ministers. Even with the government of the then Prime Minister Ismail Sabri whose tenure was a mere 13 months. Thus it is not without a tad of rich irony that it is Hadi is suggesting that the Unity Government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would fall.
This is because unlike the current administration of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that is backed by the anti party laws and the MOU, the tenure of PAS and Bersatu did not have the necessary cohesion and national interest in mind to have both mechanisms at work. PN was constantly waiting for other MPs from Pakatan Harapan to jump into their bench. Except those who participated in the Sheraton Move on February 29 2020. None did; except Dr Xavier Jayakumar, who joined Azmin Ali later. Of the 11 MPs who participated in this traitorous move, the voters pushed 8 of them out of office in Peninsular Malaysia.
Thus the government of PN fell on their own swords. But the latter does not hold true for the Unity Government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as the Unity Government is now as cohesive as ever to defeat PAS and Bersatu in the impending at least three of the six state elections, which would be held before the end of July or August 2023.
With the budget now out of the way, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim can now lead the Unity Government to launch a systematic and evidence based anti corruption drive, of which some of the culprits of PN, and potentially, PAS, would find themselves being called by Malaysian Anti Corruption Agency (MACC) to answer some very serious questions on the circumvention of many direct government tenders that did not follow any standard operating procedures. Nor is there any likelihood of the Unity Government participating in any selective prosecution as those suspected to be in breach of any laws, even if they are members of the current Unity Government, such as Tengku Zafrul, the Minister of International Trade and Industry (MITI) is one of those who had been questioned by the MACC too.
Hence, if Hadi still deludes himself that this Unity Government is bound to fall at any given moment soon, he should ask himself why was he part of two of the shortest administrations in the annals of the Malaysian history —- both during and after the Covid 19 lockdown ?
Just because Hadi was part of two of the weakest governments in Malaysian history, it does not stand up to reason that the Unity Government will suffer the same fate since Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has made tremendous strides to pacify the feelings UMNO , Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) , Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GSB) and the rest.
Indeed, the 2/3 majority of the government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the first since 2005, was not achieved by fluke.
Much efforts were expended by some of the best political thinkers of all sides forming the Unity Government to give Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim a structural advantage; which will be leveraged in stopping the rot of Malaysia, alternatively the Islamic world, and the Asian Pacific region wracked by the geo-political competing interests amongst the big powers.
Hadi must desists his old and low way of merchant trading Islam for narrow and political interests of his party. Instead act as a responsible Muslim to do the right thing for the MANY ! The door to repentance is always open.
Dr Rais Hussin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of EMIR Research, a think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.
