Malaysia’s Anthony Loke ‘confident’ Anwar government will last full term in office ending 2027

Name: From prison to Malaysia’s new leader: Anwar Ibrahim appointed to top seat
Uploaded: 2023-11-03T03:45:09.000Z
Duration: 2 min 59 s
Description: From prison to Malaysia’s new leader: Anwar Ibrahim appointed to top seat

Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthonly Loke said he is optimistic about the stability of the coalition made up of erstwhile political rivals

Anwar is Malaysia’s fourth PM in as many years, with his 3 immediate predecessors lasting less than 2 years -- being rocked by defections and slim majorities

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Anthony Loke believes that the current coalition government led by Anwar Ibrahim, will buck the recent trend and last its full five-year term. Photo: Facebook

Bloomberg

Published: 11:45am, 3 Nov 2023

Malaysia’s ruling coalition is “increasingly confident” it can last its full five-year term after the government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim survived the country’s fragmented political landscape for nearly a year, a senior minister said.

Allies overcoming “suspicion” of each other’s intentions is what makes Transport Minister Anthony Loke optimistic about the stability of the coalition made up of erstwhile political rivals.

“The fact that the government has survived almost a year is an achievement by itself,” Loke said in an interview. “You have to do a lot of firefighting.”

Anwar had to cobble together a pact between his Pakatan Harapan coalition and the former ruling Barisan Nasional coalition – both rivals for decades – to form the government after last November’s national elections threw up a hung parliament.

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From prison to Malaysia’s new leader: Anwar Ibrahim appointed to top seat

Loke, however, didn’t want to jump to conclusions about the future of the political grouping beyond its current term in office ending 2027.

“If you can run through your full term government with good results, then you have a future. So I want to take it step by step,” he said. Loke is the secretary general of Democratic Action Party, the outfit with the most parliamentary seats in the government.