Malaysian Sandiwara: Who is the Dalang?

By Baladas Ghoshal

The shock resignation of Mahathir Mohamed from the Prime Ministership, from his own party, Parti Pribumi
Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM or Bersatu) and its withdrawal from the ruling coalition Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) in February, have plunged Malaysia into serious political crisis and uncertainty at a time when the
country is facing one of the worst crises from the outbreak of Coronavirus, a scourge that has affected practically the
entire world and has caught everyone off-guard. This is a time when the country needs a government, which has the legitimacy and support from all sections of its multi-racial society, the kind of support the PH received in the X1V elections of 2018. Instead what the country has now is a back-door government, term used by Malaysian scholars, ushered in through intrigues and manipulations.

Mahathir’s decision follows a weekend of political wrangling, after it was reported on the night before his resignation on 24th February that his party was planning to form a new government that would exclude his anointed successor, Anwar Ibrahim. That night, allies of Mahathir, some renegade members of Anwar’s People’s Justice Party (PKR), and a slew of other parliament members, including those from the opposition, UMNO, held talks in the outskirts of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The meeting fuelled speculation of an impending collapse of the coalition government, and a political realignment in Malaysia. According to reports, the proposed new government included Mahathir’s party, PPBM, the United Malays National Organisation – the party of scandal-tainted ex-leader Najib Razak, which was ousted at the 2018 polls – and a hardline Islamist group called PAS. The sequence of events, from the date of Mahathir’s resignation for a week until the country’s Jang di-Pertuan Agong, the King, through his Majesty’s exercise
of his constitutional duties, appointed Muhyiddin as the new Prime Minister, was quite rapid, signifying alignments
and realignments in the typical Malaystyle of Sandiwara.

Mahathir-the Dalang
The murky Sandiwara (contrived drama) that has been going on since the third week of February and behind the scene even earlier, the Dalang (Puppeteer in Malay shadow puppet plays), evident from the circumstances had always been Mahathir Mohamad, orchestrating or manipulating the narration of the story, even though he is pretending himself to be a Korban (victim) in a largerkomplotan (conspiracy) by Muhyiddin, the new Prime
Minister with the help of the discredited opposition UMNO Malay nationalist party and PAS Islamist party. The 94 year old wily Malaysian Machiavelli, played his cards in a manner as not to appear as someone to be blamed for the betrayal of the peoples’ verdict in the XIV national elections of 2018, but could portray it as a conspiracy by Muhyiddin, the new Prime Minister from his own party Bersatu and Mahathir’s former Home Minister and Azmin Ali, Anwar Ibrahim’s putative deputy from the Parti Keadilan Rayat (PKR). Azmin Ali, it was suggested, schemed to derail the original plan to hand over power to Anwar Ibrahim and have Mahathir join the opposition coalition and sideline Anwar and Pakatan Harapan, an Alliance of Hope (PH), a coalition of Mahathir’s own party, PPBM,
Democratic Action Party (DAP), PKR, Amanah, an Islamic reformist party and some smaller parties from Sabah and
Sarawak, that was voted to power in 2018. That resulted in Mahathir’s unexpected resignation as Prime Minister as well as leader of his party. Undoubtedly, Azmin had his own motives to act against Anwar for capturing the  leadership of PKR, but knowing wily Mahathir, it is inconceivable that he would allow himself to be used by
Azmin to create such a situation and not alert others.

Mahathir, it is believed by many Malaysian analysts, had set the stage ready from the very beginning and his
game plan was to cling on to power as long as he could and deprive Anwar Ibrahim to whom he was promisedbound to transfer power within two years as per the electoral arrangements behind the formation of the PH, where the two erstwhile enemies united to throw out the corruption-ridden UMNO led Barisan Nasional coalition that had ruled the country for six decades in a surprise victory, leading to the removal of then-Prime Minister Najib Razak. But
tensions had been growing between the two in their PH coalition, as Mahathir resisted setting a specific timetable for
keeping his promise to hand power to Anwar. Additionally, PH’s political fortunes have also been waning, with
defeat in five recent by-elections, as the promises of fundamental reforms in the political system of the country failed to materialise. At the same time there were also some realignment of the country’s dominant Malay community who began to be apprehensive of their ‘Ketuanan Melayu,’ (Malay special privileges) visà-vis the two other ethnic communities, the Chinese and the Indians, would disappear if the PH continued to rule the country. Mahathir, being a true Malay in his political orientation, but not in ancestry from a Kerala Muslim father, sensed danger in the event of Anwar, believed to be a reformist, becoming his successor.

Anwar was Mahathir’s deputy when the latter was Prime Minister during his first stint from 1981 to 2003. But Mahathir sacked him in 1998 after they disagreed on how to handle the country’s financial crisis. The tussle between old rivals Mahathir, 94, and Anwar, 72, has shaped Malaysian politics since then, with tensions persisting despite their 2018 alliance to win the elections based on a promise that Mahathir would one day cede power to Anwar. Anwar also had a split with his party mate, Mohamed Azmin Ali, the economic affairs minister, who was among those who joined the meeting on Sunday night. On Monday, Anwar’s PKR announced the expulsion of Azmin as a member leading to Azmin’s announcement that he had quit Anwar’s party, taking with him 10 renegade members of PKR, which until Monday was the dominant partner of the ruling coalition. Mahathir himself feared that if Anwar came into power, those apprehensions might come true.

There are different versions emerging out from commentaries by Malaysian scholars, analysts, facebook posts and Tweeters regarding developments and factors leading to such a crisis throwing the country into a spin. “If you look at events over the last 20 months,” writes a Malaysian commentator, “it is clear that Mahathir bears much of the blame for the present crisis. Given the goodwill the Malaysian electorate had for the Pakatan, Mahathir could have built a strong, stable and workable coalition after GE14. His was the most multiracial coalition that was ever elected to office in Malaysia. There was general consensus too about the kind of policies that should be pursued (the reforms agenda),” in order to build a Malaysia Baru (New Malaysia) and a Malaysia for All Malaysians. But obviously Mahathir had other ideas, given his past record of turning Malaysia into an Islamic state with a parallel massive Islamic bureaucracy to promote Islamic agenda at the expense of other racial communities, the Chinese and the Indians. He betrayed the very Coalition (PH) that endorsed him as PM to pursue the reform agenda, and on the
understanding that he hands over power to Anwar after 2 years. He failed to keep his part of the bargain.

Race and Religious card

From the very beginning of his tenure, Mahathir played the Race and Religious card (2R) to keep going in a desperate and futile attempt to cling to power. Paying no heed to the respective parliamentary strengths of his coalition partners, for example, he appointed a cabinet dominated by his own party, tiny as it was. Then he brought Mohamed Azmin Ali into the cabinet despite opposition from Anwar and knowing that there was already a lot of bad blood between the two. “Over the following months, he went out of his way to build Azmin up, gave him a significant national profile, protected him from scandal and quietly acquiesced in his Brutus-like role. He could have put Azmin in his place at any time but he didn’t,” to quote the same commentator. To strengthen his position vis-à-vis two
other coalition partners, PKR and the Chinese-dominated DAP, who had larger numbers in the coalition than Mahathir’s party, he started to openly lure individual UMNO MPs to join his party. He was successful in getting a few only, as UMNO got greedy and started making unrealistic demands, including the appointment of corrupt leaders like Zahid Hamidi and Tengku Adnan as senior ministers in the new government. Mahathir disagreed and bandoned the plan. As he could not succeed in breaking the UMNO to his advantage, he began to explore creating a Malay unity government without political party allegiances, for a unity government cutting across party lines could give Mahathir even greater power than when he was first Malaysia’s prime minister between 1981 and 2003. But that was obviously not acceptable to the warlords of UMNO, and therefore the idea was rejected on 25th February, the day after his resignation, by an alliance of four parties UMNO, MCA, MIC and PAS, which wanted a new election instead.

Muhyiddin, the proxy steps in to form the Back Door Government

Having failed to create a government of his liking, Mahathir contrived to get the nearest thing, a government that may not have him at the helm, but could still exercise some influence on its functioning from behind. In the meantime, in an attempt to end the crisis, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah was already meeting all 222 elected members of parliament. Anwar made a last bid attempt to present himself as the PM with support from Pakatan Harapan, where the PKR still had 39 seats, after 11 renegade party members left the party. His alliance partners (DAP and Amanah) had pledged further 63 votes, giving him at least 92. He still needed to convince smaller parties
to align with him to achieve a majority. A majority in parliament requires at least 112 seats of the 222-seat parliament. That was when Muhyiddin and Azmin Ali stepped into the scene, cobbled together a coalition with the UMNO and the PAS, the two main Malay political parties, called the Perikatan Nasional, (National Alliance), some form of a national unity government that Mahathir wanted, but without himself being the PM. Even though Mahathir publicly called Muhyiddin a betrayer and traitor, some Malaysian analysts believe that latter must have had the blessings of the former, for this was the best that he could bargain for under the circumstances, perhaps
with an assurance from Muhyiddin and pressuring the leadership of Bersatu not to appoint any tainted and corrupt
leaders from the previous Barisan Nasional regime as the deputy prime minister, obviously referring to UMNO
President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who has been slapped with record 87 criminal charges.

The PPBM-sponsored Malay Dignity Congress last October was the first indication and a precursor of Mahathir’s
attempt to bring together UMNO, PAS and PPBM. Unsurprisingly Anwar was not invited in that gathering. From the
reports, it appears that Mahathir himself laid out in that gathering the need forgreater Malay unity by hinting that their disunity resulted in the loss of cabinet posts, including that of finance minister, to the DAP. Mahathir began to ramp up a narrative that the Malays were weak, that Islam was under threat, and that the Chinese-led DAP was controlling the government, harping on the need for the Malays to be united (under his leadership, of course) to stave off the rising DAP (i.e. Chinese) challenge to Malay rule. Mahathir’s chicanery behind the back of his larger coalition partners had actually set the stage for the current drama. “Mahathir lost the plot when he participated in the so-called Malay Dignity Congress in early October 2019. He forgot that he was Prime Minster for all Malaysians. It is mind boggling that one tries to claim or reclaim dignity by organising a meeting and insulting the other two communities who contributed immensely to the country’s development,” said a respected senior Malaysian university professor.

Mahathir’s Legacy

“Had Mahathir been satisfied with only getting rid of Najib Razak in the May 2018 elections and not ‘volunteered’ himself to be Malaysia’s seventh Prime Minister, his stocks would have soared and remained in the stratosphere”, to quote another Malaysian analyst. “He would have been anointed a national hero for having saved Malaysia. alMaysians would also have overlooked if not forgiven him for his role in Najib’s rapid ascent and rapacious
greed. Najib was but Mahathir’s political child, his ugly legacy. Najib’s 1MDB mess, together with his unprecedented
greed and obscene ostentation, is but a variation on the theme of Mahathir’s many earlier sordid scandals.” Mahathir had already damaged his international reputation by the forays he thus far has launched against the UN, US, India, China, Israel, Myanmar, and Singapore. “Today, barely over a month into his much ballyhooed Vision-2020 dateline when Malaysia should have been celebrating her entry into the elite club of developed nations, Mahathir has thrown
the country into an unwanted, unneeded, and very destabilising political crisis. It was your typical Third World variety leadership tussle.”

Composition of Muhyiddin Government

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has postponed the start of the parliamentary session originally scheduled for March 9 by two months, after his rivals claimed to have more support and threatened his fledgling coalition with a confidence vote. Muhyiddin, who has at long last escaped being a No. 2, has named no deputy prime minister, a first in Malaysia’s political history. The roles of that position are instead being shared by four senior ministers: those for
international trade and industry, defence, public works and education. “The new cabinet was designed in such a way to ensure the survivability of not only Prime Minister Muhyiddin, but crucially the continuous existence of Bersatu (if they failed to take over UMNO) ‘after’ the next 15th General Election. And if you look at the position of the chess pieces, some hidden hands had helped Muhyiddin in the entire architecture,” writes an anonymous Malaysian commentator. Mahathir, together with Daim Zainuddin, former’s one time Finance Minister and a close confidant, plus some advisors were behind the whole drama in dislodging PH and installed puppet Muhyiddin. He also declared that the much anticipated vote of confidence will most likely fail and Muhyiddin will survive until the 15th
General Election, as if he was giving his seal of approval for the prime minister. Thereafter, Muhyiddin publicly asked Mahathir for endorsement.

“It has been just a blockbuster movie to hoodwink the voters, whether they were Chinese, Malay or Indians, to a grand scheme to install the desired dynasty on the throne. And based on the chess pieces on the table, Anwar Ibrahim, Najib Razak, Hishammuddin Hussein, Tengku Razaleigh and Khairy Jamaluddin (all potential rivals and Malay strong men) are out of the game, writes the same commentator. Hishammuddin Hussein, the son of Malaysia’s 3rd Prime Minister, Hussein Onn, arguably one of the smartest UMNO warlords, was appointed as Foreign Minister, relatively unimportant position in Malaysia’s government hierarchy. So is the case of Khairy Jamaluddin, the son-in-law of former P M Abdullah Badawi, has been appointed as Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, clearly an irrelevant and useless ministry.

In the 32-member cabinet unleashed by Muhyiddin, UMNO only gets nine ministers, despite the party being the
largest in the newly formed backdoor government. UMNO secretary-general Annuar Musa was appointed the Federal Territories Minister. Other portfolios allocated to UMNO include the Higher Education Ministry, Energy and Natural Resources, Health, National Unity and Youth and Sports. Besides Senior Minister Ismail Sabri’s portfolio of Defence Ministry, UMNO was given mostly junk ministries.

Ministries like the Women’s Ministry,Home Ministry, Finance Ministry, Rural Development and Agriculture and AgroBased Industry Ministry, all of which are either strategic or important ministries with huge annual budget allocation, are all in the hands of Muhyiddin’s own men, some of whom are related to him. Either in quality or quantity of ministries allocation, UMNO has been short-changed. Even after Azmin Ali and his supporters (11 MPs) joined Bersatu, Muhyiddin’s party has only 30 MPs. In comparison UMNO-led Barisan Nasional contributed 42 MPs (UMNO’s 39, MCA’s 2 and MIC’s 1). Other component parties of the Perikatan Nasional coalition consist of Islamist party PAS (18 MPs) and Sarawakbased GPS (18 MPs). So UMNO has 30 per cent more MPs than Bersatu. Muhyiddin’s Bersatu has 11 ministers, 20 per cent more than UMNO. Bersatu occupies two of the four Senior Ministers. Azmin Ali, was given International Trade and Industry Ministry while Mohd Radzi Md Jidin (Bersatu supreme council member) was allocated the Education Ministry. Bersatu not onlygreedily grabbed 2 of 4 Senior Minister posts, PM Muhyiddin has announced that while the four senior ministers he appointed are all “equal”,
Azmin Ali will chair cabinet meetings whenever he is absent. That message was as good as telling UMNO and PAS that the de-facto Deputy PM is Azmin.

Even though there are no immediate rumblings within the UMNO, or for that matter within PAS, whose resident Hadi Awang was also expecting the No. 2 position, i.e., Deputy PM’s position, undoubtedly disappointments do exist and they might come out in the open any moment and vitiate the political scene any moment sooner or later.

Challenges before Muhyiddin’s government

More importantly, Muhyiddin has taken over a rather a weak and unstable government at a time when the global
economy is at the mercy of Coronavirus. Corona is putting huge pressure on the government. Its economic consequences are yet to be assessed. Malaysia’s richest tycoons have already lost an estimated RM30.93 billion since the start of this year, based on their known shareholdings in Bursa Malaysia-listed firms, as pandemic-driven panic selling across global markets sparked an equity rout that has yet to see an end.

Muhyiddin also commands a razorthin 114-majority in a 222-seat Parliament. Muhyiddin’s Cabinet composition of predominantly Bumiputera (Malay) lawmakers with a poor local ethnic representation, paired with its sheer size (32 ministers and 38 deputies), could cause political and policymaking challenges for his administration in the future. Dissatisfaction could arise among minority ethnic groups if Muhyiddin’s already Malay-majority Cabinet decides to adopt non-inclusive policies. Only 8.6 per cent or six portfolios from the cabinet were given to those from minority groups, with only two full ministers, namely Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong named transport minister and Datuk Seri M Saravanan as human resources minister, in a country of 60 per cent Bumiputras, 21 per cent Chinese and 6 per cent Indians.

The makeup of Muhyiddin’s Cabinet of mostly Bumiputeras would, however, play into his hands to keep allies united and remain behind him, but its sheer size would pose a challenge during the decision-making process. Muhyiddin could face issues of inter- and intra-party politicking, especially given the fact that his party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) are minor players in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition with 30 MPs compared to Umno’s 39 MPs.Significantly, he has to prove that his government is better than his predecessor
Najib’s and Mahathir’s. Therefore, the demands on him will be much greater in such difficult conditions, and act quickly to prove that his government is legitimate and stable. He cannot forever run away from facing a confidence vote in the House of Representative. Malaysia is in for uncertainty on a long-haul.

The author is former Professor and Chair in South and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Aditi Bhaduri

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