Hope, glory — Anwar’s long road to Putrajaya
ON Thursday, Nov 24, 2022 at 5pm Malaysian time, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was officially appointed the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, after a hard won general election (the nation’s 15th since 1957) where the coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH) had secured the largest bloc of 82 seats in Parliament.
It was a dream come true for most of us; many of us had almost given up hope.
Indeed, we had wondered if we would be able to witness this ever happening during our lifetime.
Anwar’s was a long, long road that had started in 1983, almost 40 years ago. He was brought into Umno by the then-leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1981, and his first ministerial office was that of minister of culture, youth and sports. In 1984, Anwar headed the ministry of agriculture and by 1986, he was already the minister of education.
According to Wikipedia and attributed to former law minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, Anwar “was an Islamist who had helped ‘Islamicise’ the whole government system and played a major role in the Islamisation of the education system when he was Education Minister in the 1980s. One of his major changes was to rename the national language from Bahasa Malaysia to Bahasa Melayu – this move was heavily criticised by many at the time as it was thought that it would cause the younger generation to be detached from the national language’.
In 1991, Anwar was appointed as minister of finance, and during his tenure, the nation had enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and economic growth.
In 1993, he became Dr Mahathir’s deputy prime minister after winning the seat in Umno against Tun Ghafar Baba, the incumbent at the time. Anwar came to be seen as the most likely candidate to succeed Dr Mahathir when the latter retired.
However by 1997, that ‘fatherson’ relationship had turned sour and on Sept 2, 1998, Anwar was fired from Dr Mahathir’s cabinet and expelled from Umno.
He was arrested on Sept 20, 1998, and detained without trial under the country’s controversial Internal Security Act (ISA).
Anwar was jailed in April 1999 after a trial for sodomy and corruption, which was heavily criticised by human rights groups and several foreign governments. He was released in 2004 after his conviction was overturned, and made a comeback as the leader of the Opposition, from 2008 to 2015. He successfully formed the coalition called Pakatan Rakyat.
In 2015 after a nine-month political crisis in Selangor, Anwar was again sentenced to another five years in prison on a second sodomy conviction. This time while in prison, Anwar had joined Dr Mahathir’s new coalition called Pakatan Harapan in absentia, and they had gone on to win the 14th general election, in 2018. Dr Mahathir became the prime minister and had outlined a plan for Anwar to take over thereafter.
In May 2018, Anwar received a Royal Pardon from the 15th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V and was released from prison. He then returned to Parliament via winning a 2018 by-election in Port Dickson, when his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was serving as then-deputy prime minister.
After 22 months in power, the PH-led government gave way to a new Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration under Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin when Dr Mahathir made a shocking exit by resigning his premiership.
Anwar then became the opposition leader again in May 2020.
It has taken 75-year-old Anwar 39 years to reach the pinnacle of his dreams.
Today, he would have to face many challenges, firstly to cobble together a workable and acceptable team of leaders from the many political parties – from the entire length and breadth of Malaysia, from Alor Star to Tawau; seasoned politicians and well-educated novices; as well as party warlords and idealistic newbies.
He would have to satisfy everyone’s political agendas and ideals, and try to fulfil different manifestos and varying platforms as well as the voters’ expectations for change and reform.
On top of all this, he has to ensure that many wellentrenched vested interests are not overly upset or trodden roughshod over.
At least he’s no novice at all these manoeuvrings because before executing such decisions, he has to be well-briefed by his new team of advisors, who are already busy gathering data and feedback.
He has a very capable, experienced and welldisciplined team behind him – brains, intellects and talents from within the PH coalition throughout Malaysia. Unlike previous federal governments before his, one is very hopeful – could I even say certain – that good advice would be sought and considered, and actions would be taken.
It may take some time, but at least we can now hope – indeed, we pray – that we, as a nation and as its people, can now look
forward with a greater hope, with avid anticipation and pray that this would indeed the dawning of a new era for us all.
With a PH government at the helm, and Anwar as prime minister, it is our fervent prayer and hope that all Malaysians everywhere, no matter their race, religion and gender, would be treated equally on the same footing, be given equal opportunities and full access, and be able to enjoy the same freedom from any fear of persecution of any kind insofar as it is within the law, and not of a criminal nature or being treasonous or trying to create unease and havoc among the populace in any way whatsoever; can fully become and attain their full potential and realise their dreams.
It is also our earnest wish and hope to see a progressive, successful and wealthy Malaysia where opportunities are there equally for everyone, all limitations and restrictions be quickly reviewed and done away with, and all possible assistance be given to every Malaysian to partake in or pursue any lawful endeavour as to enhance his own personal well-being and to contribute to the nation’s honour and glory.
We also wish to see a more civil, hardworking and receptive civil service; to review current practices of hiring that appear lopsided towards a single race; and to trim the excess fat – at the moment there are far too many ‘civil servants’ serving such a small population like ours.
PH had won a majority of the voters over during the recentlyconcluded 15th general election based on their manifesto as well as the perception that they would be able to rid the nation of the past history of bad governance, blatant widespread corruption, political patronage and cronyism, religious bigotry and racial injustices, and the beginnings of religious extremism practised by some.
All these promises made by Anwar and PH cannot change Malaysia overnight – this might take months and years, but hopefully, a full five-year term couldn bring about a real directional change of priorities in both mindsets and attitudes.
It’s never too late to do good things and to start practising good governance.
We would encourage doing away with many ceremonial excesses and in our present economically-challenged times, we urgently need to re-look and review many superfluous and unneeded unproductive ‘window-dressing’ events, functions, ceremonies, etc.
Last but not least, we must not allow religious bigots, zealots and extremists of any religion to disunite and divide our multi-racial and multi-religious population living in harmony and at peace with each other since time immemorial.
Freedom of worship must continue to prevail at all costs.
Most important too, we must allow a new openness in our country for commerce and trade, for culture and heritage, and for sustainable tourism, and to protect our environment and champion the cause of climate change as well as other benevolent and beneficial opportunities from which we can reap both altruistic and financial benefits that will eventually bring us honour, respect and glory – to ‘Our Land of Hope, Opportunity, Progress, Peace and Harmony, Our Beloved Homeland of Malaysia!’
We pray that our 10th Prime Minister would hit the ground running – once again, we extend to him, his fellow leaders and upcoming cabinet ministers, our heartiest congratulations!