Four Bersatu lawmakers recently declared their support for the unity government giving PMX a huge boost and making his position stronger than ever before. 

While PMX goes from strength to strength, the opposition is floundering. Serious corruption charges have put key opposition figures on the defensive. Others could be in the crosshairs as well; a few more could flip to the government side. Madani or not, frogs are always welcome.

Anyway, Perikatan Nasional has proven itself to be as useless in the opposition as they were in government. Muhyiddin Yassin is a spent force; Hadi Awang is in poor health. The opposition is rudderless with nothing to offer. Devoid of substance, they have sunk to a new level of pettiness – complaining about a minister’s merrymaking and fantasizing about a female MP without clothes on the beaches of Langkawi.

Unless they can find ways to miraculously re-invent themselves, PMX will likely have a free ride for the rest of his term. That could offer some respite from the years of political turmoil that has plagued the country since UMNO fell from power in 2018.

The big question now is what PMX will do with the time he has gained and the support he enjoys. With a secure majority in parliament and an opposition in disarray, he has an incredible opportunity to reset the nation, to push through the whole slew of reforms he has talked about for ages.

His performance thus far has not exactly been inspiring, however. He does not appear to have a coherent vision of where he wants to go. His Madani framework is simply a collection of feel-good statements much like Ismail Sabri’s “Keluarga Malaysia” or Najib Razak’s “1Malaysia”. Without the discipline of a coherent vision or policy framework, he moves from one disjointed, ill-considered, knee-jerk response to another. It’s governance on the fly.

He speaks at national language and reading carnival, for example, and he suddenly comes up with the idea of rejecting all letters not written in Malay. A few days later – as reported by Astro Awani – he asks the speaker of the Dewan Rakyat for special permission to deliver his remarks on the situation in Gaza in English. He speaks at a Tamil research conference and he surprises everyone by declaring that he wants Tamil to be an additional language in public schools. 

He speaks at an Al-Quran competition and he announces that he wants JAKIM to play a greater role in the drafting of national development plans never mind that JAKIM is ill-suited for such a role. 

He’s restless to boot, always jumping from one podium to another vowing to change Malaysia. One week it’s about reformasi, the next it’s about bringing down the cost of living. One week he’s promising to go after the rentier-capitalists who infest the economy, the next week he’s best friends with them.

Now he’s off to save the world. Fresh from a failed summit in Riyadh, he’s on his way to San Francisco where he also plans to brief APEC leaders about – I kid you not – the Madani framework!

The trouble is he doesn’t stay at any one thing long enough to make a real difference. When challenged or criticised, he just moves on to the next issue leaving his officials to sort out the mess he created.

Even on his signature anti-corruption crusade, he seems all over the place. He promises to root out corruption and go after the big fish but then shies away from reforming the MACC or bringing in tougher laws.  He talks about giving no quarter to corrupt politicians but defends the DNAA given to his deputy who was facing serious corruption charges.  

In the meantime, basic issues like ensuring an adequate supply of rice, eggs, cooking oil and sugar at reasonable prices remain unresolved.  Mydin boss Ameer Ali Mydin, clearly frustrated at the government’s inability to get a handle on the food situation, remarked recently that “the government is sitting up there in their ivory towers. They have no idea what is happening”.

Part of the problem may be that PMX wants to be all things to all men – a Malay nationalist to Malays, a moderate reformist to non-Malays; an Islamic firebrand to Muslims, inclusive and tolerant to non-Muslims. Or perhaps, he just doesn’t have a clue about how to govern. 

Fortunately, with the next general election still years away, he still has time to get his act together. Perhaps he’ll take to heart the criticism he has been getting, bring in a better team and be the leader the nation so desperately requires. We really need him to succeed because there’s nobody else left.

[Dennis Ignatius | Kuala Lumpur | 15^th November 2023]