INTERVIEW - SECOND TERM FOR ANWAR, 60 YEARS FOR PAKATAN? - COMPETITION MAY HEAT UP IN GE16, CAUTIONS EX MP

Written by Wong Choon Mei, Politics Now!

KUALA LUMPUR (politicsnowmy) - Chances are slim for Anwar Ibrahim to remain the tenth prime minister of Malaysia after the next general election. In fact the door is now wide open for a new man to lead the ailing Southeast Asian nation, with voters disappointed with his inability to define his policies or communicate to them how he plans to take the mostly middle-class but highly leveraged country forward. 

In an interview with Politics Now!, former MP for Batu Tian Chua warned even the number of seats secured by Anwar's Pakatan Harapan coalition during the 15th general election held in 2022, which amounted to 84 out of Parliament's 222 seats, could be at risk.

While Tian, who is the current spokesman for activist group Palestine Solidarity Secretariat, declined to predict who could be Anwar's replacement, he said the successful candidate would likely be someone "willing to share" power and did not discount it could be a leader from Umno or from East Malaysian pacts GPS and GRS. All three are now allies with Anwar's Pakatan and hold major positions in the federal government.

At the heart of the ruling coalition's woe, Tian added, is the public perception it has failed to put through the swathe of reforms it had long promised its supporters - and worse still, the lack of explanation as to why and whether those reforms were still on its radar but merely delayed, or have been abandoned.

"After the next general election, [the PM] could come from an unknown party. I think the the door is open now," Tian told Politics Now! on Monday.

"It would be anyone, you know, maybe even come from the East Malaysia, but we never know. But I think finally, it is whoever which the Constitution said commands the majority support.

"[But] the command of majority support may not be just purely by numbers of the party. The numerical strength may not be the only criteria. The command of the majority in the House [may] come from whoever has the vision that everyone can share.

"So that is the future Prime Minister that I see," Tian added.

NO SECOND TERM FOR ANWAR, NO 60 YEARS FOR PAKATAN?

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Nonetheless, the 76-year-old Anwar is expected to complete a five-year term in office - with voters willing to bite back their impatience for fear of triggering the political instability that held Malaysia's economy to ransom during the previous administrations helmed by ex-premiers Ismail Sabri and Muhyiddin Yassin.

"Whichever government that comes to power must understand that people are in need of money. People want things [done] fast, People want to see the facts," said Tian.

"So if you cannot do that, you must be having a effective communication strategy to tell people that yes, I cannot [do oit], I agree with you, but I cannot give you now, right.

"You have to convince [them]. You can no longer expect people to be saying that we give you time because we gave BN 60 years and therefore you'll get another 60 years.

"No. People want it [results] now, OK. You cannot blame them.

"Then, you know, if you cannot deliver it now, you have to explain to them either your demand is unrealistic or you will get it later," said Tian.

BELOW ARE EXCERPTS FROM TIAN'S INTERVIEW WITH POLITICS NOW!

QUESTION - Who could be Anwar's replacement? Poor communication, failure to understand source of support and lack of vision perceptions

TIAN CHUA - "Anwar would, I believe, get full term, not because of the party themselves but there is no ambition to undermine the system at the moment. I think generally the public want to see some sort of political stability.

"You know, [in the past] they'll keep changing our Prime Minister, government, all this things, people are sick of it. So even if they are not happy with the government, they will still want to see a full term and they will make a decision in the coming election.

"To win a majority next round, it is quite important that they [Anwar and Pakatan] have to understand where their source of support coming from.

"You know, they have to articulate a certain vision to their voters and their voters believe in it and support them. They must have an explanation that why those promises [previously articulated were] unable to be fulfilled in this term, right? Even if they don't do it, they must have a good reason so that people are confident with you and give you another chance.

"I think this is a very important. Someone who says oh well, we give government longer time, reforms take time, you have conservative elements that will will block the reforms. Okay, fine. But people will still want to know if you don't want to do it now, when is it - this year? You don't want to do it last year. You say very difficult to do it. [Then] is it going to be next year? Is it going to be not doing it this term but asking the people to give them stronger mandate so that they can continue the next term?

"At the moment, nobody [in government] showed [said anything], the articulation of it is not clear. For example, we talk about we can't abolish the sedition law, OK, Is it because the conservatives in the establishment cannot accept it? Once we have a bigger power, we will remove it? Or is it because we will not remove it because we have, we no longer believe so? The voter want to know, right, which is which?

"If you say you no longer believe in it and you think that it's a decision that is now necessary, then you have to go back to the same voters to explain to them, you know, last time I'm very idealistic, [but now] not possible.

"If they [the voters] agree with you, they will vote for you the second time. Or [tell them] you have to say give us bigger seats, a lot more seats. We are actually going to do it. If we have extra 20 seats, then we don't have to depends on other parties, yeah, which is which at the moment is unclear. So when there is no articulation, people are getting a bit ambivalent and also upset. 

"And [then] there's no clear communication issues about press freedom. We can say OK currently because of the challenging ethnic tension, all these things. So we want to have [be] very strict and we are [going] to curtail some form of freedom of expression. 

"Then you explain to the people why is it necessary - you know, if is it a temporary measure or is this something that we all have to adjust and live with some sort of censorship because we are a multracial society, very sensitive. Anything will explode. So we need to, to curtail and control some part of our freedom expression.

"This is not clear at the moment. So I think all these thing must be clarified if PH needs to seek a second, another mandate for [another] term.

"Who are the possible prime ministers to be? Who could replace Anwar? I remember the same question was put to us when we were in Reformasi, but Anwar was [then] in prison. People said do you have a Prime Minister candidate if you don't want Mahathir. But I don't think that's an issue. You see after Mahathir, we have Mahathir again. During our Reformasi, what we want is to see. smart workers. We want to see smart political parties. 

"Every political party must go to the people and convince them you have leaders that not just have the charisma, but you have the leaders that have the right policies that will bring the country to better prosperity and to be able to fulfill what the people want.

"So I think that's a challenge for everyone. It is not just for PH to just to name another leader that can possibly play some more [important role], but it is a challenge for Bersatu, for everybody to show that they are able to produce Prime Minister candidates. 

QUESTION - Is Bersatu collapsing? Whoever has the vision that everyone can share - rather than sheer numbers - will win the PM's chair

TIAN CHUA - "I'm not privy to [information] on whether [Bersatu was collapsing]. Tto be fair, they play their role in Parliament well because you have a lot of senior leaders. In fact, PH is having difficult time to trying to fight with people like Shahidah (Kassim) and Hamzah (Zainuddin) and all these are very senior [leaders] and they can memorize the Parliament regulations very quickly [while] PH is probably trying to catch up.

"So I think that they [Bersatu] are playing a very effective role and putting the government in a very difficult position. 

"Often the question [though] is whether they [Bersatu] could offer a vision that the people want. Their limitation is - again this is my criticism of all mono-ethnic parties. Their vision is always limited to a certain community. If they put too much emphasis on that, they also, the leadership [must also] understand that they will alienate another another half of the population.

"So they are in that dynamic, you know, they, they already achieve quite maximum what they can win from the Muslim voters. They haven't got a convincing story to convince the Non-Muslim part of the society, but at the same time they have not worked out how do they balance to be able to gain some Non-Muslims support at the same time not losing their Muslim base.

"So I'm not sure whether they have woken up to the way to do it or not, but I think that's probably part of the reason they look a bit awkward whenever come to a public issues. I think more more important now is that we need both opposition that can become the mainstream ruling party as well as you have ruling party that can be a good opposition because change is going to happen very, very often and conditions may change.

"We do not know when maybe PN will join and will behave. I think the important thing now is.both opposition and the ruling parties must decide what are the common ground that they can agree upon so that reforms can happen to make a better condition for the economy in the future.

"I mean, there's no point trying to score points because whatever you [do to] undermine Anwar, it will come [back] to your plate even if you come to power next round.

"So better, especially when it comes to economic issues, for both side to come to a certain consensus to see, that they will understand what can be done to make everyone else better even if we have a change of hands.

"So this is also something lacking. I have not seen anything, but they must take the initiative to reach out to the opposition parties. Because if there is economic impact, you also want the opposition to be on your side, not to be undermined and not undermine your policy. At the same time you also want the the opposition to carry out your reform if there ever there is a change of government.

"So I think all politicians must look beyond their own term, look beyond trying to score points against others and that's that to me is the way forward.

"After the next general election, [the PM] could come from an unknown party. I think the the door is open now.

"It would be anyone, you know, maybe even come from the East Malaysia, but we never know. But I think finally, it is whoever which the Constitution said commands the majority support.

"[But] the command of majority support may not be just purely by numbers of the party. The numerical strength may not be the only criteria. The command of the majority in the House [may] come from whoever has the vision that everyone can share.

"So, that's a challenge for any aspiring Prime Minister in the future. They have to start working hard and to offer something that the, the people from all different political parties can agree upon and can share.

"So that is the future Prime Minister that I see."

QUESTION - There is not much positive talk about Anwar holding on to the post of Prime Minister after the next general election. Why do you think is that? What were his mistakes? What are his mistakes?

TIAN CHUA - "I don't [know about Anwar's mistakes]. I mean he hasn't finished his term yet, so we can't say what his mistakes [are yet].

"I think people are enjoying democracy, enjoying freedom, they tend to be impatient, right? So I think that is normal because [when] you have a democratic situation, people are impatient. Now we see the younger generation of young people [and] they are impatient.

"[Nowadays] they are trained by their communication equipment to [get] things instantaneously. Last time we write a letter, we expect two months time to get a reply. Now we send a WhatsApp message and expect in the next 5 minutes we'll get a response.

"So this this is normal [now]. Whichever government that comes to power must understand that people are in need of money. People want things [done] fast, People want to see the facts.

"So if you cannot do that, you must be having a effective communication strategy to tell people that yes, I cannot [do oit], I agree with you, but I cannot give you now, right.

"You have to convince [them]. You can no longer expect people to be saying that we give you time because we gave BN 60 years and therefore you'll get another 60 years.

"No. People want it [results] now, OK. You cannot blame them.

"Then, you know, if you cannot deliver it now, you have to explain to them either your demand is unrealistic or you will get it later."

Written by Wong Choon Mei

https://politicsnowmy.blogspot.com/