This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on February 17, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR: The statement made last week about the premiership transition by PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and its affirmation by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad have finally lent some clarity to the transfer of power and should go a long way to pave the way forward, said DAP strategist Liew Chin Tong.
Observing the latest development in the extended debate on the transition, Liew, who is deputy defence minister, “sensed a historic turning point” was reached in the statements by Anwar last Thursday and Dr Mahathir last Friday.
Dr Mahathir and Anwar met last Thursday and agreed upon Dr Mahathir handing over the premiership to Anwar after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
“Finally, clarity is emerging on the question of leadership, and that should go a long way in setting everything else in proper order,” Liew said in an article detailing the rapprochement between the former political foes.
However, Liew noted, the statements made by Anwar and Dr Mahathir would be further strengthened if the Pakatan Harapan leadership as a whole can provide certainty on the following:
1. The role of Dr Mahathir beyond the transition;
2. More involvement of Anwar in governing from now on to smoothen the transition;
3. Clarity on who Anwar’s deputy will be, to provide reassurance to all parties that the coalition spirit is upheld.
“In 1998, when the titans fought, the nation went down with them and has stagnated ever since. The grand coalition that managed to defeat [Datuk Seri] Najib [Razak], Umno and BN (Barisan Nasional), provides an opportunity rarely found in human history: To reconcile, to heal and to do great things together,” he said.
When the centre consisting of Dr Mahathir and Anwar continues to hold, Liew said, everything else will continue to fall into place.
“Such certainty will lay the foundation for Malaysia to build a great nation for all in the next decade and beyond,” he said.
Recalling the journey taken to form the Pakatan coalition, Liew noted that in 2016, “[Dr] Mahathir changed the political equation by doing the improbable, the incredible, the unthinkable.”
In that year, he left Umno; engaged new potential partners through his Citizens’ Declaration; saw the necessity to form a political party to rally his supporters and to align his new movement to Pakatan Harapan; and just days before the launch of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) on Sept 8, met Anwar at a court house to signal the need for reconciliation for a greater cause.
The alignment between Bersatu and the original Pakatan parties (PKR, Amanah and DAP) was a gruelling experience that took more than a year to complete, said Liew.
“To his credit, Dr Mahathir was already advocating full alignment with Pakatan as early as November 2016 when other leaders in Bersatu were still toying with the idea of founding Barisan Rakyat as a Bersatu-Pakatan joint entity,” he said.
After Bersatu officially joined Pakatan on March 27, 2017, the coalition took another four months to decide on formalising a Dr Mahathir-Anwar joint leadership set-up. This happened on July 14, 2017.
“I think of this as a major turning point in Malaysian history,” said Liew.
“Months of negotiations followed, and on Jan 7, 2018, Pakatan could finally announce that Dr Mahathir would be the candidate to become Malaysia’s seventh prime minister, and Anwar would be the eighth Malaysian prime minister. It was this agreement that paved the way for eventual electoral victory,” he said.
For the nation to move forward, said Liew, it will need to do three things:
“[We will need to] build trust at the top to avoid further confusion … Anwar’s supporters will need to trust [Dr] Mahathir on his commitment to the transition while [Dr] Mahathir’s supporters will need to help ensure that the transition does take place,” he said.
“Recognise that without [Dr] Mahathir’s coming out against Najib and changing the entire game, there would not be a Pakatan government; and without Anwar struggling persistently for a new Malaysia over the last 22 years, since September 1998, [Dr] Mahathir would have no one to align with in 2016 when he finally came to admit that Umno and Najib had gone too far,” said Liew.
“Accept that the Pakatan government is a [Dr] Mahathir-Anwar government and an Anwar-[Dr] Mahathir government, and given that it is a coalition government, the Pakatan prime ministers should not even try to follow the model of the “winner-takes-all” prime ministers of Barisan Nasional which had plagued the nation for so long,” he said.