The Challenges Facing Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim After 1 Year In Office | Insight | Full Episode

[Music] one year ago on November 24th 2022 anoa Ibrahim was sworn in as Malia's 10th prime minister in the face of political instability and a nation yearning for change has he risen to the challenge and what is still a work in progress a lot of these things are nice ideas but a lot of the changes that you see take a long time to become visible one year ago law student Omar was studying in the US from a far he watched as prime minister anoa Ibrahim formed a Unity government in his home country of Malaysia at the time Omar was unsure if the new government would complete its term the P general elections there were um a few conflicts about how backdoor governments happen and everything of course there are certain worries but I don't think that's something within our control if it happens to understand Omar's unease is to go back to November 19 2022 the day of Malaysia's 15th general election anas's pakatan harapan Coalition or pH had won 82 seats Chief rival muin yasin's perata National or PN clinched 74 neither had enough for a simple majority in Malaysia's 222 seat Parliament for the first time in its history Malaysia faced a hung Parliament start seeing people jumping from one party to the other parties that you would never thought would shake hands then join together and so it became really confusing as to who do you really want to support to resolve the stalemate Malaysia's King suggested the formation of a Unity government anoir would emerge Victorious from the horse Trading by teaming up with parties from East Malaysia as well as the barisa National Coalition led by omno the United malays National Organization I think anoa and also the pakatan haran political leadership is also aware that their Malay support is relatively thin on the ground and that they need a stronger Malay partner uh to represent that particular interest in the coalition government and amno provides that if you look at omno positions uh join in pH is the best option they have different stronghold therefore they can compliment each other but it was not a straightforward Alliance after all this was not the first time pH had won a general election with former prime minister Dr mahat Muhammad and anwa at the helm pH Triumph in 2018 they Pride omno from its sixth decade hold on power Dr mahat Muhammad would become the premier M pH was in charge omno which had been plagued by corruption scandals was relegated to the opposition but maha's tenure would be cut short in February 2020 the pH government was toppled in what became known as the Sheran move parties that formed the Coalition back in 2018 uh broke apart and some left to join with the opposition to form a new government and during that period there's a great deal of of uh voter concern about the stability of government about the durability of any Administration that could be form and along with it the concerns arose because it affects them directly buen was among those who defected from the pH government he would become the next PM backed by omno he would then resign in 2021 replaced by amno isma Sabri in the top job so ining the current Unity government anwell was teaming up with his Earth while bitter Rivals amno was formed it was a coalition of parties that has been prior to that uh strong adversaries long-term adversaries with very serious uh allegations and also uh you know bad history between them so voters were very doubtful that any Administration can be formed out of a coalition of convenience uh out of former enemies that suddenly turn to be cooperating Partners people fear that anir may not last his full term because that there's a possibility that amno or the East Malaysian parties may pull out but so far it seems that this is not happening against the odds the unity government has kept together for the first year to insiders the alliance made sense after 1998 when L was uh and arrested zah was put under Isa because they were accused of uh trying to topple t m um that friendship has endured until today and but today the difference is they are leading the government well it is true that uh amno would be seen as a Malay uh based political party but they are also the leader of barisan nationa which happen to be a coalition of different political parties representing different identities in Malaysia it is much easier for us to manage um the situation especially in terms of the national narrative that we want Unity then came the appointment of cabinet ministers anir has actually been able to keep this very sprawling Coalition together through a very I would say judicious cabinet appointments to be able to make sure that all of the different parties had a vested interest in staying in government anas's Deputy Prime Ministers hail from new partners barisa National and the sarak parties's alliance barisa National and the Borneo block each received six Minister ships the Democratic action party or dap the party with the most seats in the ruling Coalition had only four ministers Youth and sports Minister Hannah yo from the D takes it all in stride I will not accept that that we are less effective just because we are smaller in numbers in uh representation in the government yeah I I think everything we do as ministers leading our Ministries will definitely help to strengthen government and uh therefore every Minister has an equal opportunity uh to carry uh the load and to Showcase what the cabinet and what this government has to offer one appointment raised eyebrows at the time Ahmed zahid hamidi Who was appointed Deputy Prime Minister had 47 corruption related charges hanging over him this was awkward for anoir whose reformasi movement denounced corruption there is some controversy to most leaders and namely some like Z and stuff like that they are known for a lot of corruption and stuff like that and you weren't properly prosecuted nor acquitted from the court so then you have them be your Deputy Prime Minister well you know he doesn't really have much of a choice it is a coalition government and Z hamidi is the president of omno which is the second largest party in Parliament uh that was willing to form a coalition or partnership with anoa because of our system the leader of that party becomes the leader in government as well then in September 2023 the Malaysian High Court dismissed zahid's char charges in a discharge not amounting to an acquittal prime minister Ana was quick to say he had no hand in the Court's decision but optically this could be damaging this has given pikata National a lot of ammunition and it is given or allowed it to take the high ground with regards to governance and anti-corruption it sent the wrong message that you are innocent until you lose power and you regain your innocent when you regain power so this is a big dark crowd shadowing an's government what follows after Integrity system system in the Fallout SED sadik who leted the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance or muda quit the pH government in protest little did I expect that um a so-called reformed government would actually be the one to drop the 47 criminal charges and there's no two-way around it cannot say that it's the judge you cannot say that it's the court it is the government appointed attorney general and newly appointed Deputy public prosecutor I think for muda while the road ahead will be tough and full with challenges and confrontations I think at least we're able um to to defend our principles and ideals and to chart the way forward for better and newer Malaysia sadik himself was under corruption investigations at the time he would eventually be convicted with muda's departure Ana lost his 23d parliamentary super majority at least temporarily there were other criticisms from the opposition I put some hope that he' be able to introduce the changes that he has promised during his years as a reformist and also as someone who has been fighting for change for the country but somehow the moment he became prime minister the very first thing that actually he really disappoints me is that the appointment of Nuru Isa as one of the advisor in the office because this just show how hypocrite he is this is chrism this is nepotism these are the things that he has say against before but he's doing it as a prime minister we have to agree uh to the saying that to test a man's character give him power and I think this is just to show when you give power to anir this is the true anir ibraim for Malaysian people to judge despite the controversies anoir has successfully kept his Unity government together in his first year we must never forget how this government came into place uh right after the general elections when nobody had a clear majority to form government just trying to hold everybody together together from various background uh that itself I think is a feat will unity in the government translate to success in ano's mission to unify Malaysians two months into his term Malaysian prime minister anir Ibrahim unveiled his Unity government's slogan Mal Malaysia madani or civil Malaysia the madani concept that ano has been speaking about is something that he's been talking about since these days as a deputy prime minister back in the '90s there was a vision back in the day that it was going to be a more liberal more democratic more inclusive Society where uh race and to some extent class is not a demarcates yet State elections held in August 202 3 revealed a Malaysia that still voted along racial lines pre-election surveys showed that a majority of Malay voters in chanu kadam and kalantan preferred parakata NASA when the election results were announced it appeared that the status quo remained the pakatan harapan barisan National Coalition and its Rivals perata National retained control of three states each looking deeper the conservative opposition had rested key Malay majority seats from the ruling Coalition flipping seats in the phbn strongholds of panang Sango and Negan the Malay Muslim support is critical for any government here in Malaysia partly because of demographics uh you know in the younger generations of Malaysians you know Muslims make up 70 75% the Malaysian population in the future will be more Malay than what it is now and given that uh voters can now start they can choose from 18 years old uh they become more and more important in Sango pikata nasal swept 22 seats up from the six it held before the state elections Taman Medan is one seat that turned blue today its newly minted representative Dr afif baharin is visiting residents in his ward in 2022 he was sacked from Ana's people's Justice party or PKR after independently meeting with then prime minister muin Yasin Dr afif is now a member of muin Batu part of the opposition I chose basatu because I believe basatu being a nationalist party still focus on the issues and also the struggle that the people are facing every day the problem that we face now the current madani Administration they do not enjoy the Malay majority support reason being because they cannot accept how amno zahed Hamed be able to sit down with dap and even with PK to form a government So-Cal Unity government because to the Malay in order to protect the interest of the Malay they believe the Prat National Coalition has been able to actually represent the malays and also be able to represent the whole Malaysia in Malaysia people talk about Green Wave but there actually two episodes of Green Wave in Green Wave 1.0 is about new wats in the ge15 last November we have 4.9 million new Waters in The Peninsula and PN won 2.6 million so what you can say is that out of the new wats more than half of them chose PN for various reasons but in Green Wave 2.0 amow WS no longer have three choices so they're forced to choose between pH AMU and PN and so they're bound to be some attritions from amno towards PN because ideologically they are closer [Music] 60-year-old Abdul halim Idris made that switch from amno to PN he was previously an active Grassroots member ofno in the 2023 State elections Abdul halim made the decision to jump ship for the first time since he became eligible to vote he did not mark omno on his voting sheet voters like Abdul halim leave Ana with a dilemma push for multiculturalism and risk alienating Malay voters or appease Malay voters and jeopardize his madani project reform means different things to different people and to certainly one important base for him which is non- Malay voters many of which are living in urban areas it has to do with the protection of multiculturalism progressive policies policies oriented to Bridging the Gap then you have uh a lot of V ERS in more rural areas know Malay majority constituencies that it is much more about uh the protection of certain rights or policies that are important to them and it is this Duality that I think means it's quite difficult not just for anir for anyone to to kind of try and deal with these competing considerations in his first year Ana appears to have leaned towards the latter reassuring Malay Muslim voters we've seen a number of policies like increasing the budget of jaim the federal um agency in charge of of religion or Islam we've also seen a discussion you know a Revival of a long-standing debate whether uh non-muslims in the peninsula can use the word Allah and there's also been a number of other important uh discussions such as potentially tabling a bill to increase the scope of the powers of the Sharia courts the Prime Minister also welcomed controversial Islamic figures like Indonesian usas Abdu suad the Firebrand preacher considers suicide bombing a form of martyrdom I am doubtful that all these efforts for anir to Pander all the way to the right would actually pay off as if once and on islamization ph and BN can never outdo PN so if anwa Keep On Moving to that directions PN can move further to draw out the distance so much so that an wouldn't get much more Malay Muslim Woods this has left some minority voters feeling disillusioned at a dialogue just before the state elections a young Indian student asked about reforming Pro bumiputra racial cotest in tertiary education it's the government's responsibility to try and accommodate when you start talking about kot then you an antagonize and alienate the majority in this country and we all will suffer the process the prime minister's answer did not impress firsttime voter juen sundaram to see him fight so long and then to get into power and then tell an IND Indian student that no you have to understand that that is not how this works kind of like hurt at the end because I remember what he used to say during his uh speeches and what he stood for during his speeches and then to see him come here and be the neutral party it kind of makes little to no difference but anecdotally some Malaysians have seen improvements in equality I've been talking with my friends with my friends who are non- Malay you know and um multiracials they have their own perspective how they are being given or the offers that were made to them are better compared to the P government's office and this includes scholarship upu and also metric Coalition program so this kind of initiatives I think slowly erase the Discrimination part and it fits the policy made by prime minister anoir for the social justice for all we cannot risk uh our multiracialism of this country because it will never bring us any benefit and we are very focused on that of course um it is not easy um being um government a very diverse government um versus a very like I said single single race um Coalition like Prat National but we have to give some time to especially the government to prove themselves we also have to give some times for amno in this battle one way for the government to please everyone regardless of race is to improve the economy after all voters will most concerned about economic issues going into the 15th general election on this front how has the prime minister faed in his first year in charge life has been difficult for landscaper azmi Abdul Malik since becoming a single father two years [Music] [Music] ago recently the father of three has noticed his day-to-day expenses creeping up okay asm's predicament is a symptom of Malaysia's economic woes in 2022 the country rebounded from the covid-19 pandemic with a stellar 8.7% increase in GDP but Malaysia's growth has since stalled if you look at last year of course it was a strong growth uh and on the on a very low base um and for this year the target will be 4% um given the microeconomic challenges it started off with the uh war in Ukraine and thereafter there was a series of interested hikes by the Federal Reserve and other many jurisdictions including in Europe uh that causes uh extreme volatility in the Commodities markets exchange rates and also the financial [Music] markets when Malaysian prime minister anoir Ibrahim took office he appointed himself finance minister reprising a role he held over three decades ago to show his commitment to cost of living concerns ANA gave up his salary cut ministerial salaries by 20% and refused a newly purchased Mercedes as His official car still appointing himself a finance minister was seen as a controversial move there's been a long-standing position on the part of pakatan harapan to separate the position of prime Minister and Finance Minister one big criticism that najib had when he was prime minister was that he also appointed himself as the Finance Minister and that's what led to the 1mdb Scandal but then when Ana announced his cabinet he appointed himself as the Finance Minister as well and that kind of doesn't give enough for me I feel like power separation so then who's going to approve your financial decisions you yourself despite his critics anoa launched the madani economy framework aimed at achieving seven targets within 10 years among these targets are for Malaysia to be one of the world's top 30 largest economies and top 12 in the global competitiveness index we had two critical policies strategic policies that was also announced that will hopefully give the right uh the road map towards Malaysia achieving where it should uh achieve based on economy mad framework one of course the national energy transition road map and the other one is the national industrial master plan industrial master plan uh entails or focus on on manufacturing sector and in terms of timeline and they are looking at 7year timeline from this year until 2030 whereby uh key Industries such as Aerospace electronic and electrical uh chemical Industries are among the key drivers for Industries Within imp perview uh whereas uh the ne uh is a plan road map to uh allow the transition uh of energy sector towards that is more sustainable uh whereby um you can see the share of uh uh renewable energy actually increase over time from the current 3.9% these plans will hinge on foreign investments over his first year in office anir traveled to 14 Nations including the United States China and Saudi Arabia so far Malaysia has attracted notable investments from Brands such as American goliaths Tesla and Amazon web services German semiconductor firm infinion and Chinese automobile maker jile I think the the incoming investment coming from this uh high-tech company such warrants for uh technology transfers and we know uh we need that kind of a labor Supply or labor market condition that could actually help to uh provide a better job opportunities especially among the youngsters but domestically the government fa several headwinds in the last year in a 12mon period the ring fell from 4.57 to1 us to $4.7 to1 us coupled with prices of goods and fuel Rising globally this has meant creeping cost of living for Malaysians the cost of doing business is also Rising a survey by the Federation of Malaysian manufacturers found that most costs had increased by up to 20% in the first half of 2023 winkl started Riri coffee a year ago selling coffee and fruit tea in prajaya so got for houseand mix so there are various factors that can cause inflation to increase our dependencies on Imports for food that could be one of the main factors we see that uh from our estimates also is there's a quite a strong correlation between the weakening of our ring and also the food inflation so there is a need obviously to uh boost up our productions for agriculture in some cases Rising business costs get passed on to Consumers while it has slowed food inflation has continued throughout Ana's first year in office ranging from 3.9% to [Music] 7.3% like his predecessors an's government launched a RMA Cash Aid scheme spending 8 billion ringid or $1.7 billion us this year to help the poor deal with the rising cost of living but ask me things more can be done in June Ana pledged to eradicate hardcore poverty in 2023 in Malaysia those who earn a monthly income less than 1,169 ringid or $248 are classed as hardcore poor according to Malaysia's Deputy minister of economy the number of Hardcore poor households decreased by around 6,500 between December 2022 and may 2023 the people's income initiative or IPR is one long-term scheme aimed at eliminating hardcore poverty 28-year-old amirudin Ahmad has participated in the ipr's food entrepreneur initiative since its Inception so basically uh we woke up at 4 to 5 and then we prepare the food uh 6:00 a.m. to move from the house to the vending machine and then 7:00 a.m. uh we stock stock up the vending machine and then after that me and my wife we go to work uh respectively he sells food and vending machines strategically placed in transport hubs and schools the government fully funds the cost of operating the vending machines so we saw the like u n gor me gorang uh some qu and assorted buns and of course mineral water daily so per day roughly I would say can earn about 80 to 120 we can earn you know some extra to buy some groceries let's say at the end of the month your salary is running out so this kind of money actually very helpful for us Mia's minister of economy rafizi ramley says participants of the food entrepreneur initiative are expected to be lifted from poverty in two years I think the government is trying to um promote entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship is something that can help uh our uh Society to you know experience what we call that as a social outward Mobility but the question is how long can that last so whether it is sustainable so much of that effort May depends on uh luck on how international events unfold in October anoa tabled the nation's budget for the coming year will it help Malaysia weather the storms of a gloomy global [Music] economy prime minister Ana ibraim has been at the helm of government for one year now the state government elections have taken place the current government should have the bandwidth to begin looking at certain important reforms and will not need to be second guessing itself all the time signals of the government's priorities can be seen in the 2024 budget delivered in October at 393 8 billion ringid or 83.6 billion US it is Malaysia's largest ever 20124 will be critical because that's when this new budget that is tabling will come into effect and to see whether or not it gets implemented uh and how well things get done ano has inherited a government that's barely breaking even so he needs to boost uh government revenue and in order to do so he needs to uh ensure that the Malaysian economy continues to grow at a faster Pace if possible over the last 30 years debt seems to have grown by about 8% perom on average while Revenue has only grown by about 3% perom with an eye on easing the cost of living an anticipated Revival of the goods and services tax did not materialize the Prime Minister himself have in many occasion talked about uh how he believed that uh that form of Taxation consumption tax you is a tax that is most efficient and wide something that we need to look at but he mentioned that the timing is important we need to increase that we need to increase household income uh before uh we Implement something uh like GST instead Ana elected to fund raise through other means the government has announced that Services tax will rate will be increased from 6% to 8% send and there are also the uh capital gains tax tax on luxury goods and also tax on on sugar from 40 cents to 50 cents I think the attempt to raise s to 8% from 6% will have a bearing of course on the poor too for example the poor also buy shirts all sort of things they buy so the compression given against GST is GST is the only one that canect the for and SD W it's it's not true at all to soften the blow of its planned tax Heights a Unity government will allocate more money to expanding support schemes like Rama Cash Aid and in a move loed by analyst anoa announced plans to tighten diesel subsidies promising to redistribute the resulting funds to the poor compliance is very low here massive amount of say diesel sub diesel is swapped by fishermen for fish and that involves 3.3 million according to the Prime Minister when he presented it subsidies are meant for that group see that only that group enjoys otherwise you'll have Free Riders if you look at the budget uh it is a budget that wants to balance growth that wants to balance fiscal responsibility and he's wants more fiscal discipline to reduce fiscal deficit gradually from 5 to 4.3% for [Music] example just two days before his budget was tabled anas's parliament passed the Public Finance and fiscal responsibility act it limits the Minister of Finance use of discretionary powers to influence a government spending obviously more needs to be done but so far the recent announcement on fiscal responsibility act they give certain timeline for them to to actually add here with all those uh parameters within 3 to 5 years such parameters would help to at least alleviate the concerns among the credit rating [Music] agencies the main distrust that people have towards government relates to government performance and I think governments around the world are really having a tough time to show that globalization works that democracy delivers a lot of I think success or failure depends on how the Malayan economy performs and how it reaches uh perhaps the bottom 70% of malan society having survived the first year as a Unity government prime minister Ana must now convince his countrymen of his vision especially Malay voters we've gone through years of trying to convince the M that look multiracialism can work without U affecting uh especially what being viewed as the M rights and privilege and all uh so the same challenges is now being faced faced by omno that they are trying to you know reinvent themselves reinvent The Narrative and try to convince the people we have hit the rock bottom of the Malay support and we're looking forward to the support increasing in the future but the government must perform R Ana must perform Lan must deliver to the malays what they want so that you know amno can also justify the uh Coalition combination with ph Anar ibrahim's Journey to the peak of Malaysia's government has been a long one since his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister 3 decades ago after overcoming imprisonment party defections and political backstabbing he is now one year into the top job has anir delivered I give anir 7 out of 10 for what he has achieved given so many of his limitations 6.5 8.5 six out of 10 so on the positive side seizing the moment making or for forging a larger Coalition uh hammering out cabinet that actually brought together all the different interests staying in power on the negative I would say a lack of urgency a lack of a clear plan at the beginning to structure decisions as well as some strange cabinet appointment I think he's doing quite good um in regards to the initial plans and uh initial implementation to the policies I'm giving him an a for effort because he's doing a lot of work trying to market the country on the area of governance I would say that is probably doing a c because it's not moving fast enough to ensure that uh the process is transparent enough and also meeting the public needs uh after years of a revolving door government prime minister Ana's year in charge marks progress towards a milestone once the government is able to survive the first term and then it's able to uh stand on its own to contest the next election then I think it's going to have a multiplier effect particularly on the mindset of the Civil Service if the civil servants uh has made up their mind that this government is going to stay then I think uh the pace with which uh reforms take place and policies get implemented will hasten and then that can uh bring the desired positive change that the country needs and this means expectations will be even higher heading into the second year and Beyond if we survive this next 5 years I would expect uh there would be greater Unity among races and religion simply because as um a prime minister of a multi-racial party is in power in the coming year instead of his Focus being towards staying in power his focus should be on the people and his focus should be on uplifting the community I would love to see a zero corruption practice no matter where it is whether it's from government or governmental agencies or government L companies say [Music] for

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Length: 45min 27sec (2727 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2023