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By Mihar Dias October 2026
The Prime Minister was asked a simple question about the haze meeting, and the answer arrived in four-four time. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-pm-anwar-sings-doris-day-classic-when-asked-about-upcoming-haze-meeting
I have defended his singing before. The man has a lovely instinct for a crowd, and a rose and a P. Ramlee number can melt a Sabah dinner. But there is a time for the karaoke mic, and it is not when a mother in Sri Aman is deciding whether her child can go to school tomorrow.
Consider the song chosen. Of all the songs in the world, he picked the anthem of the shrug. A hymn to the idea that the future is not ours to see, so why bother? As a policy position on transboundary haze, it is at least honest. It is what we have been doing for a quarter of a century.
The ASEAN haze agreement was signed in Kuala Lumpur in 2002. In 2016, ministers adopted a roadmap to make the region haze-free by 2020. 2020 came and went, and so did every dry season since. In 2023 this same Prime Minister instructed his ministry to coordinate with ASEAN counterparts, and a letter went off to Jakarta. A letter. Somewhere in Indonesia, a peat fire is still waiting to be answered.
So when the question comes again, as it does every year like a bad relative, the nation does not need a crooner. It needs a man who says: here is what I will demand, here is what I will do if it is ignored, and here is the date by which you may hold me to it. Instead we got a song that tells us not to worry our pretty heads about it.
The cynic in me admires the efficiency. Why prepare answers when you can prepare a key change? No follow-up question can survive a chorus. And a reporter who interrupts a Prime Minister mid-song looks like the rude one.
Meanwhile the API readings climb, the N95s sell out, and the asthmatic child's inhaler runs dry. These people do not find the performance charming. They find it a verdict. Statesmanship is the art of making citizens feel that someone is in charge. A song about how things will be whatever they will be says the opposite, and sets it to a tune you can hum.
The ministers will meet, as ministers always do. There will be a communiqué with the words "enhance", "strengthen" and "cooperation" in it, and it will be as breathable as the air outside. Then the winds will shift and we will do it all again.
Que sera, sera, indeed. Let us hope the Prime Minister's next performance is a policy.
Mihar Dias (mihardias@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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