By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright December 2022

Throughout the history, Prime Ministers of Malaysia are usually voted into office by a majority of Malay voters.

Hence comes the common belief that to be a PM in Malaysia, you have to be accepted by a majority of Malays. But interestingly enough it is not so in Anwar's case.

In his recent video, Raja Petra Bin Raja Kamarudin (RPK), who is known for his controversial point of views, claims that Anwar Ibrahim is the only Prime Minister who assumed power without a majority of Malay votes. 

In other words, for the first time in the country's history, Anwar Ibrahim bucked the trend by becoming a Prime Minister without having to be popularly voted in by a majority of Malays.

According to a report by Straits Times, Pakatan Harapan only secured a relatively small percentage of Malay votes. In fact, the majority of Malay votes went to PN that has now become an opposition party.

Majority of Malays are not well represented as alleged by RPK until Anwar secured support from UMNO-BN that represented a total of 33% Malay votes.

How did it happen?

In GE15, PH won 81 Parliament seats and PN won 73 seats. 

But as a result of one-week of political manoeuvring, mostly with Zahid playing a major role in the negotiation process, a unity government was successfully formed when UMNO and other parties in Sabah and Sarawak agreed to join this PH-led government.

As an elaboration, let's look at an analysis by Bridget Welsh.

It seems that PH is less popular with Malays whom now prefer PN-PAS coalition. On the other hand, UMNO-BN won only 33 percent of Malay support in GE15, down from an estimated 43 percent in GE14.

RPK is probably right in saying that Anwar is able to become PM without a majority of Malay votes, but he does require support from other parties to prop him up to stay in power. 

In the case of PN, even with 54% of Malay votes, it is still unable to form a government without the support of other ethnic groups. 

In sum, any politician from any ethnic group may be able to be a Prime Minister of this country in the future without necessarily having to rely solely on the majority of one ethnicity.

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