Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 24, 2019 - June 30, 2019

JUST where did the magic figure of “2” come from? I mean who in the first place said that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure as the nation’s seventh prime minister would be for two years from May 2018?

Well, Mahathir himself did say something about it but it was nothing definite or official. I recall a report by Singapore daily The Straits Times that was published on Feb 4, 2018 — three months before the 14th general election — which quoted Mahathir as saying, “I can’t stay for very long. At the most, I can last for two years”, should Pakatan Harapan (PH) win GE14.

Win PH did and New Straits Times on May 15, 2018, ran a report quoting Mahathir as saying, “In an initial stage, maybe lasting one or two years, I will be prime minister” and “I will play a role in the background even when I step down”.

But those were early days when he said all that — before knowing the real state of government affairs and the nation’s economy.

On May 10 this year, The Star online carried a report credited to The Straits Times and Asia News Network, which said Mahathir will not see out a full term and will step aside after fixing the problems his government had inherited from the previous administration.

He was quoted as saying, “We will make most of the corrections within a period of two years and after that I think the others will have fewer problems to face.” Obviously, “the others” Mahathir was referring to were people in PH who would be taking over.

As for the “corrections” that were to be made, Mahathir was talking about strengthening the economy after his government had mostly dealt with resolving corruption matters in its first 12 months of running the nation.

According to the report, when Mahathir was pressed on whether the two years he meant started from the day PH won GE14 or from May this year, he replied: “I don’t know whether it is three years or two years but I am an interim prime minister.”

Mahathir has been consistent on that — the “interim PM” part and handing over the premiership to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as agreed upon by the PH coalition prior to GE14.

Anwar on his part expects to take over from Mahathir but says he wants to give the PM enough time to govern effectively before assuming control. That is according to The Straits Times report published on Feb 15 this year, quoting Anwar from an interview with Bloomberg television.

“Of course, it’s not five years because he has made it very clear it would not exceed two years,” he was quoted as saying.

And on May 18 this year, a report by national news agency Bernama quoted Anwar as saying he is confident that the country’s economy will recover in two years based on the plans being carried out by Mahathir.

That can be read to mean he expects to be PM in two years as Mahathir would have made the corrections by then and he had said he would hand over power once the economy was fixed.

But what we are seeing now — because there was never a fixed date for the transition — are accusations that Mahathir is about to renege on his word and appoint Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali as his replacement and counter accusations that Anwar is impatient to take over.

These things are not being said by the two leaders, at least not in the open. But with no firm date made known, supporters from both sides, the neutral public and some members of the opposition are coming up with all sorts of theories. You cannot blame them as New Malaysia promises freer speech. Obviously, the lack of clarity from Mahathir and Anwar is not helping matters.

Supporters of Anwar — for instance Otai Reformis, a group of veteran activists from the 1998 Reformasi era — are demanding a definite date for Anwar to be made PM.

One member of the group tells me they are “merely reminding Mahathir of his promise”. When I asked him if he did not think the threat of hitting the streets if their demands were not met was a bit too much, he said they had yet to make a final decision.

But I said whatever they do will reflect badly on Anwar as he would be accused of being the hidden hand behind their action. Otai Reformis replied that they had “minds of their own” in fighting for their “principle and struggle and were not blindly supporting individual leaders”.

Anwar is on record as saying he does not agree with the demands made by Otai Reformis and thus risks losing friends.

Mahathir is not without supporters either and some among them want him to stay on as PM for a full term until 2023. They feel Anwar should just wait, chiding the PKR president for being in a hurry.

But one political observer says the issue should not be complicated because assuming that it is a two-year transition period, it is about a 95-year-old PM passing the baton to his 73-year-old successor as agreed.

He says Mahathir has done his best for the nation and deserves a rest, adding that “the nation will be selfish to let him, at his age, carry the burden of cleaning up the mess created by the kleptocratic BN government for five long years. Other PH leaders should be able to manage the nation”.

All this uncertainty could have been avoided if only PH had been bold enough to set a definite date from day one. Upon winning GE14, they should have just pushed aside the political niceties and fixed the exact duration for Mahathir to be PM and when Anwar should take office.

Naturally, there would have been arguments then but all that should have been dealt with there and then. Instead of taking the bull by the horns, they preferred to adopt a “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” stance.

Well, they have come to the bridge and will have to cross it now. But instead of a straight bridge, the one they are crossing is a crooked one, potentially filled with political hurdles.

If only PH had fixed the transition date much earlier.

Mohsin Abdullah is a contributing editor at The Edge. He has covered politics for more than four decades.
 

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share