Mahathir leads Malaysia once more
KUALA LUMPUR— Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysia’s seventh prime minister on Thursday night, following the shock election victory of his Pakaran Harapan (Alliance of Hope) over the coalition led by Najib Razak that ruled the Southeast Asian country for six decades. At 92, Mahathir, who led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, has become the oldest elected leader in the world.
KUALA LUMPUR— Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysia’s seventh prime minister on Thursday, following his shock election victory over the coalition that has ruled the Southeast Asian nation for six decades since independence from Britain.
Malaysia’s king, Sultan Muhammad V, swore in Mahathir as prime minister in the royal palace.
Hundreds of Malaysians lined up on the road leading to the palace, waving party flags and cheering the 92-year-old Mahathir.
“There is an urgency here, we need to form the government now, today,” Mahathir told a news conference earlier in the day.
Mahathir ruled Malaysia with an iron fist from 1981 to 2003 and now, with a second innings at the age of 92, becomes the oldest elected leader in the world.
His Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope), which consists of four political parties, trounced the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was once Mahathir’s protégé but later became his most bitter rival.
Earlier on Thursday, Najib appeared to raise doubts that Mahathir would immediately take office because no single party had won a simple majority of seats in the 222-member parliament, and it would be up to the monarch to decide.
Official results showed that Mahathir’s coalition won 113 seats, one more than the number required to rule. But it has not been formally registered as an alliance.
Najib’s BN coalition won 79 seats, a collapse from the 133 it won in the 2013 election, which was itself the coalition’s worst poll performance ever at the time.
Assured of support
In jubilant mood and cracking jokes at a news conference, Mahathir dismissed any doubts he would be prime minister.
“I got up late, lots of people got up late,” he replied when asked by journalists why there was a delay in swearing him in, noting that the election result was only officially announced around 5 a.m.
He said he had been assured of support from a raft of parties that would give his government 135 members of parliament.
Few had expected Mahathir to prevail against a coalition that has long relied on the support of the country’s ethnicMalay majority.
However, he joined hands with jailed political leader Anwar Ibrahim, his onetime deputy he famously fell out with in 1998.
Their alliance exploited public disenchantment over the cost of living and a multibilliondollar scandal that has dogged Najib since 2015.
“This election has proved to us that we moved beyond racial politics,” said Khoo Ying Hooi, a professor of international and strategic studies at the University of Malaya. “It’s really people power through the ballot.”
Pardon for Anwar
Mahathir said that one of his first actions would be to seek a royal pardon for Anwar. Before the balloting, he had promised to step aside once Anwar was free and let him become prime minister.
Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, was sitting next to Mahathir at the news conference. Under an agreement with Mahathir, she is to become the deputy prime minister.
Anwar was imprisoned, first by Mahathir on charges of corruption and sodomy. He was released in 2004 but jailed again by Najib in 2015.
1MDB scandal
Mahathir and Najib were once allies but they clashed over a scandal around 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund from which billions of dollars were allegedly siphoned off.
The 1MDB affair is being investigated by at least six countries, although Najib has denied any wrongdoing and has been cleared by Malaysia’s attorney general.
Mahathir had vowed to investigate the scandal if elected and bring missing funds back to Malaysia. On Thursday, he said Najib would “face the consequences” for any wrongdoing.
Economic uncertainty
“This upset ranks up there with Brexit and the Trump elec- tion,” said Aninda Mitra, a senior sovereign analyst at BNY Mellon Investment Management. “I believe the ringgit will come under pressure as policy continuity will come under a cloud.”
Malaysian markets were closed and will reopen only on Monday, but overseas investors were nervous about the ouster of Najib, who has been in power for nearly a decade.
The ringgit lost 4 percent in offshore trading, while an overseas Malaysian equity fund dropped 6 percent in share values.
The Malaysian central bank held its regular policy meeting as scheduled on Thursday, and kept the key overnight interest rate unchanged at 3.25 percent.
Mahathir repeated a promise to repeal a goods and services tax (GST) introduced by Najib and review foreign investments, including major infrastructure projects that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Global ratings agency Moody’s said some of Mahathir’s campaign promises, including scrapping GST and a reintroduction of fuel subsidies, could be credit-negative for Malaysia’s sovereign debt rating.