Breaking Barisan Nasional’s 60-year grip on Malaysia was the easy part. Here’s Mahathir’s real challenge

Now comes the hard part. The euphoria of engineering one of Asia’s most stunning electoral upsets in recent history will linger awhile yet, but Malaysia’s newly installed Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is already getting down to brass tacks in meeting the aspirations of millions of voters who handed his Pakatan Harapan coalition power last week. 

Even as the drama of a change of administration – never before seen in Malaysia’s post-independence history – continues to unfold, the coalition recognises it has to implement a series of economic measures as promised within the next 100 days. These range from an abolition of the controversial goods and services tax to increasing the minimum wage and reintroducing fuel subsidies.

While Southeast Asia’s third largest economy grew at a robust 5.9 per cent in 2017, Pakatan Harapan successfully campaigned on a platform that tapped into widespread public discontent over the lack of trickle down benefits from stellar headline figures. 

Instead, it trained its guns on the goods and services tax (GST) Najib implemented in 2015 as the main reason for soaring living costs in the country. That narrative stuck, with Pakatan Harapan’s victory coming at the expense of Najib’s Barisan Nasional suffering huge losses even its in majority Malay, rural strongholds. 

How Pakatan Harapan dispenses its various economic sweeteners will be scrutinised by observers, along with their impact on state coffers. 

A revolution in Malaysia? Not so fast ...