New PM will face hard task in uniting Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in Saturday, bringing back the rule of the country’s longest-governing political party, but he faces a tall task in uniting a polarized society and reviving a slumping economy amid a worsening pandemic.
Ismail was the deputy prime minister under the government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who resigned Monday after less than 18 months in office as infighting in his coalition cost him majority support.
Ismail obtained the backing of 114 lawmakers for a slender majority that brought Muhyiddin’s alliance back to power. It also returned the premiership to Ismail’s United Malays National Organization, which had led Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957 but was ousted in 2018 elections amid a multibillion-dollar financial scandal.
“Malaysia has a new PM, with essentially the old politics and players. It’s back to the past: UMNO is now in PM seat, returning to power to though elite bargains despite being booted out for corruption in 2018,” said Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asian expert with Malaysia’s Nottingham University.
Ismail took the oath of office before King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah during a brief ceremony at the national palace witnessed by leaders in the prime minister’s alliance, including Muhyiddin.
Ismail, 61, faces a distrustful public, amid popular anger over the previous government’s inconsistent policies and perceived failure in tackling the pandemic. Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection rates and deaths per capita, despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June.
Daily new infections have more than doubled since June to hit a record 23,564 on Friday, bringing the country’s total to over 1.5 million cases. Deaths have surged to above 13,000. The central bank has cut its estimated growth forecast this year to between 3 percent and 4 percent due to the lockdown.
“He is the ‘lucky’ PM at an ‘unlucky’ time without strong legitimacy and standing domestically and internationally. He comes in as the least popular PM at the worst time in history for Malaysia,” Welsh said.
Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, a political science professor at Malaysia’s University of Science, said Ismail’s key challenge is to bring about national unity in a highly polarized society.
“You can imagine the feelings of close to half of Malaysia’s population who voted against UMNO in the 2018 elections, only to see an UMNO PM returning to helm the country just three years later,” he said. Ismail has to be more conciliatory by bringing some opposition members into substantive policy-making roles, he said.
Welsh said the test would be whether Ismail can step away from mistakes made by Muhyiddin’s government and address serious governance issues.
“The economy is in bad shape, weakened by the former government’s mismanagement. He will have to put in a competent team and move beyond narrow racialized paradigms he has been known for,” Welsh added.