Shahid Bolsen on the evaporating potential of Anwar Ibrahim
I would love to talk about something substantive in terms of the policies of the Anwar Ibrahim government in Malayisa; but there just isn’t much to critique. Anwar was waiting to become prime minister of Malaysia for decades, and now, after finally winning the seat, Malaysia is STILL waiting for him to become a prime minister.
Meanwhile, the problems in Malaysia are not waiting. The Ringgit is steadily drifting downwards, it was around 4.4 to the dollar when Anwar came to power, and it is now closer to 4.7 to the dollar; and nothing is really being done about it. Bank Negara has raised interest rates, meaning people are paying on loans and mortgages well above the national inflation rate at this point. Anwar wants to cut subsidies on everything from poultry to electricity, for the upper income bracket; and saying this won’t impact lower income Malaysians — but of course, that is not how economies work. Consumer spending is not like taxes; you can’t compartmentalise the market like that. If one group — the group with the most disposable income — has to pay more for goods and services than they are used to, they will cut their expenditures; and that will have a ripple effect on prices, production, demand and consumption across the whole economy. And of course, many of these people are themselves business owners, so when they cut expenses, that will impact lower income citizens; or when they raise prices.
The government does not appear to have any economic plan. They seem to be falling back on IMF recommendations, which of course, will be crippling for the Malaysian economy if they proceed on that path.
When he was elected, Anwar came in with a manifesto, in fact, the combined manifestos of PH and BN; but now nobody seems to be adhering to either of them. I mean, if there had been a hung election last year, and NO government was formed, and Malaysia operated without ANY government for the past 7 months, I don’t see how anything would have been any different. It’s like the government is absent as it is. And Anwar insisted on naming HIMSELF as finance minister, so it’s not like he can blame anyone else for incompetence. He is both prime minister AND minister of finance, so the state of the economy is pretty much entirely his responsibility.
When he was elected, Anwar asked civil servants to give him ideas about what to do to rescue the economy, and he gave them 2 weeks. It has been 7 months, and nothing significant has emerged. He is now saying even journalists are supposed to give him ideas about how to govern.
The opposition is likely to sweep upcoming state elections, and Anwar is saying that this signals political instability in Malaysia, and blames that for the hesitance of foreign investors; but I mean, literally BOTH of those problems would be solved if he just demonstrated that he had some idea about how to manage the economy. If he had a plan, investors would have confidence, AND the opposition wouldn’t have anything to use against him. Either way, it comes down to Anwar looking like he is just bewildered by the challenges of running the country, and busying himself with vendettas against political rivals, posturing, photo ops, speeches, and pretending to call Erdogan to boost his own image as a world leader. Or else preaching about ethnic and religious hatred like he is living in some Malaysia in a parallel universe that is being riven by racial strife and violence. None of this is helping. None of this addresses the real problems Malaysia is facing. People need to pay their mortgages, their rent, they need to buy groceries, they need to be able to service their debts without going bankrupt. They need their salaries to stop being worth less and less with each passing day. Malaysia needs guaranteed food security. There are real, practical problems people are facing, and rhetoric about culture war issues is not going to solve them.
I really think that if Anwar were from a younger generation, he would have, and should have, opted for a career as a pundit, a youtuber, a blogger, or something along those lines — someone who likes to talk abstractly, without having the responsibility to actually govern. That is more his forte.
For decades, he has been held up as the great potential leader who was never given the chance to prove himself; but he has the chance now, and he is still as inactive as if he were not in office. I mean, he goes on and on about fighting corruption, and corruption is surely an important issue; but ultimately, I am not sure what is more damaging to a country: corruption or incompetence?
I mean, at least corrupt politicians have to be active. They have to initiate projects and policies that they can use to enrich themselves, and there is SOME trickle down benefit for the population. But incompetent politicians just sort of sit there immobile as the problems pile up all around them, because they just have no clue what to do.
Maybe Anwar’s potential was eroded over the years of being sidelined, I really don’t know. Maybe at some point in his life, earlier on, he COULD have really been everything that he was hyped up to be. But as of this moment, it looks like there is nothing in his gas tank. He has had the will to persevere and to become prime minister, but it doesn’t seem that he has the will to BE prime minister.
