Anwar might not realise how the rakyat sees him, so let me take the opportunity here to give him some advice, so that he might understand why he is going to be facing serious difficulties in the coming months.
The rakyat chiefly sees Anwar as an old regime politician, who runs the country under the basis of "trust me, I will take care of everything".
From Tunku to Tun Razak to Hussein Onn to Mahathir, all the old regime leaders ran the country under the "trust me, I will take care of everything" basis, but after Mahathir, no leader has been able to satisfactorily fulfill the role of the "trust me, I will take care of everything" leader.
Not only were they unable to fulfill the role, many of the post Mahathir leaders were seen as weak, corrupt and arrogant. Unlike the earlier leaders who did not ask for too much trust but took care of everything, the post-Mahathir era leaders asked for too much trust while not having the desire or ability of taking care of much of anything. Not only that, many of the post-Mahathir leaders are also seen as abusing the trust given to them, to indulge in such vices as corruption and cronyism.
Worse, unlike the pre-Mahathir era leaders who voluntarily left office when they lost the trust of the people or were unable to take care of everything, many of the post-Mahathir leaders clung to their positions, even after they had lost the trust of the people and were unable to take care of the country, and had to be forced out of office.
When Anwar severed ties with Mahathir in the late 90s, he promised a break from the "trust me, I will take care of everything" style of governance.
He promised a new era of institutional reforms and accountability, whereby if he came to power, the country will be run according to best institutional practises and a high code of ethics.
In the three years since he had come to power however, we can clearly see that Anwar, being a scion of the old regime, was ill-fitted to govern the country according to institutional standards or a professional code of ethics.
Instead, just like the old leaders of the old regime, he also undertook to run the country on the basis of "trust me, I know best, I will take care of everything."
Currently, the rakyat are of two sorts.
The first is the sort to see Anwar as a liar and traitor, for promising a reformed nation that runs on institutional standards and professional code of ethics, but instead is choosing to run it according to the norms of the old regime, which he claimed he was against and sought to dismantle. This sort are the sort that will not support Anwar or will be openly against him, come hell or highwater.
The second sort is the sort that are ok with Anwar not delivering on his promise of reform and change , for as long as Anwar does his part and takes care of everything.
It is chiefly because the second sort is unwilling to rebel against his administration, that Anwar's reign is still running.
The first sort have been and are still trying to bring down Anwar's regime, but they are unable to do so, because the second sort have not been very supportive of their call.
The second sort do not see Anwar as an admirable and true person, mind you, who has their best interest at heart and can be counted on to preserve their dignity and serve as an example as to how to better themselves.
The second sort, like the first sort, also sees Anwar as at best, a run of the mill politician, who will promise or do anything just to win for himself.
But despite agreeing with the character view that the first sort have of Anwar, they are not agreeable to the line of action proposed by the first sort - which is to topple Anwar's reign and replace it with a better leader - because they are too busy with their daily affairs - about paying bills and working for their salary and getting groceries - to give too much attention about how Anwar is not an admirable or true person, who they can count on and has their best interest at heart.
Being the salt of the earth sort, they are also inclined to see Anwar as a "big man" - who can bestow favour, impose punishment and has eyes and ears everywhere. Seeing Anwar as a "big man", they also see that what is in their best interest is to try to win Anwar's favour, or at least don't get in his cross hair.
As long as the economy runs and they can pay their bills, take care of themselves and those they identify with, earn a decent income, obtain goods and properties , experience a degree of leisure and pleasure, they are not going to be persuaded by the persuasions of the first sort, and see Anwar as a person who has to be removed for the good of the country and the people.
As long as the second sort is not persuaded by the persuasions of the first sort, Anwar can expect to complete his term and has a better than average change of winning in the next election.
But if the economic crisis causes the second sort to not be able to earn a decent income, pay their bills or take care of themselves and the ones they identify with, as sure a night follows day, Anwar is going to appear to their mind as a weak, untrustworthy, useless, unadmirable loser, who cannot bestow favors or impose punishment, and is taking the country down the wrong path.
Once their mind starts seeing Anwar in that light, the first sort can then easily persuade them to believe that what is good for the rakyat and all that is good in the country, is for Anwar to be toppled and replaced by a different and better leader.
Anwar recently declared that he is not planning to hold an election in the next one or two months. The very fact that he has to declare it is a sign that the people's heart and mind is already changing.
Anwar might have declared that he doesn't plan to hold elections in the near future, because he believes that he holds a comfortable majority in the parliament, and thus retains the luxury of determining when the election should be held.
The reality however is that Anwar might not hold a comfortable majority in the parliament, and thus it might not be up to him to determine when the next election should be held.
If enough people on the ground are saying that they want Anwar's govt out, the MPs who represent them will get a wind of it, and if the MP's pull back their support from Anwar, it will force an election to occur, with or without Anwar's consent.
As the economic crisis worsens and induce suffering in the second sort, I will bet one ringgit and thirty five cents, that the call for a snap election is going to grow louder, and if the snap election is called, Anwar is going to be in deep trouble.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@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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