Finally, we have received confirmation that Anwar has been selected as the next prime minister. To many this would be a cause for joy and excitement, To some, will look closely at who will be put at the helm of the many important portfolios, and some minority rest will definitely look with disappointment at the choice of PM made by KDYMM Yang Di Pertuan Agong, was not their personal choice. A choice that actually made sense this round garnering 82 seats as a majority coalition party. Hence first and foremost, congratulations are in order to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for being selected as PM10, by now the people is already tired of who should be in that shoe, hence I do expect resistance would be minimal. Equally important will be his selection of Finance Minister, will we see the return of LGE to MOF? and Gobind Singh Deo at MCMC? or will these posts be with someone else? Who will be his Deputy? will there be a second Deputy from Borneo? Which party will be part of the government versus which party will be the opposition? All these questions will be answered when the time comes.
But did Pakatan Harapan as a coalition party get stronger this time around? Let's take a closer look. Overall Pakatan Harapan took in 113 seats in GE14 with re-introduction of Tok Det (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed) as PM candidate, with a 50.9 percent increase of votes from the previous GE13, This time around, however, PH only managed to wrestle 82 seats, an estimate 27% reduction in Seats to Pakatan Harapan. While Pakatan Harapan did increase its number of votes from net 5.5 million to net 5.8 million due to UNDI18 this did not help them in number of seats.
DAP is currently the biggest shareholder of seats now in Pakatan Harapan, with 40 seats, just 7 seats shy from its record in GE14, which is somewhat consistent with the loss of Malay votes despite trying hard to dispel its Pro-Chinese image (The Straits Times), and successfully managed to have 2 Malay elected representative (Young Shefura & Shahredzan) this time around. DAP however managed to retain its non Malay votes since GE14 is consistent with UNDI18, an additional +/-400K votes compared to GE14.
PKR now holds 31 seats in Parliament versus 47 Seats back in GE14, a 34% reduction in seats. almost reversing its gain from 30 seats in GE13. A clear loss of grounds made void by Bersatu post Sheraton Move. Despite gaining also +/- 400K votes similar to DAP. AMANAH reduced its number of seats from 11 to 8 seats and lost 13 seats from BERSATU due to the Sheraton move who gained 11 seats in total post GE14. These losses could be attributed due to combined factors such as loss of confidence in PKR at the Federal level among the Malay diaspora, A disgruntled class of the Malay business community & PAS's machinery effectiveness in campaigning for Perikatan Nasional.
Perikatan Nasional however managed to wrestle 4.7 million votes in comparison to 2 million votes when PAS was alone in GE13, where else Barisan Nasional reduced its share of votes from 4 million votes to 3.4 million votes. If Combined, PN & BN would have garnered 8.1 million votes versus 5.4 million votes in GE14. so obviously PAS was the major gainer in shares of votes and on the other hand BN the biggest loser in votes.
So the obvious answer to the above question is a NO. Pakatan lost most of its ground made in GE14, but the weak government did not manage to reap the maximum benefit due to infighting between BERSATU, PAS and BN. This infighting practically handed Anwar his prime ministership, and all the credit should go to DS Zahid, and partly DS Najib for masterminding the demise of its own party since Sheraton Move.
A Lesson for Anwar is to avoid by any means the collapse of its unity government moving forward, and weathering the economic impact of economical challenges ahead will be a key focus. A strong unity government will help, but the discussions on the government level will be more aggressive, as seen by Tun Mahathir during his second premiership, but hopefully, "Rakyat" will reap most of the benefits, instead of the few. It will be interesting to see how well Pakatan Harapan manages to provide fair equity among all races, a cornerstone of the PH war cry. I can only hope they learn to avoid what they previously tried and failed back in 2018.
One thing I would personally hope to see a change in Malaysian politics is the end of obsession towards leaders' personalities or their kin. Perhaps this will be a good setup for grounds to start limiting politicians to certain terms (e.g. 4 terms for parliamentary seats) and Ministers to two terms while encouraging parties to develop and grow young leaders to replace them in face of a new generation of difficulties lying ahead of us. This perhaps in turn would help to make honest politicians with the country as their main interest at heart instead of personal gain or the interests of the top 1%.
All in all, life for us as fellow Malaysians will continue, regardless of Politics, our challenges are real, companies will need to survive and weather the storms to continue paying meaningful wages, and our service industries will also depend on private (personal) spending to continue to grow. While GDP figures are doing well we are still seeing the rise of the cost of living, the current currency dependencies, and fleeting investors. The country needs to bolster its entrepreneurship entities with meaningful help, again the key would be in attracting major investments e.g. foreign angel investors despite the general economic climate. So yes, there's a lot for the current government have to do. and the complexity of things is now heightened to the next level.
Good luck and god bless, Malaysia!
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