Opinion | Why Malaysia’s opposition must sacrifice Anwar Ibrahim to win the next election

The formation of Ismail Sabri’s ‘back-door’ government means Anwar has failed to win power for a fourth time, held back once more by a Malay establishment and Islamists threatened by his pluralism and opposition to race-based economic policies

Pakatan Harapan are banking on a young generation who see through this and have tired of back-door governments. But by offering voters the same key players as in the 2018 election they will lose those seeking a change from the ‘old politics’

Reading Time:5 minutes

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has made four unsuccessful attempts to become prime minister. Photo: CWH

Published: 12:07pm, 29 Aug 2021Updated: 9:40am, 31 Aug 2021

The number one news item coming out of Malaysia in the past week was the formation of a new government under Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

There was much excitement, as you might expect with a new prime minister, but more interesting was that this was Malaysia’s third prime minister in less than four years. Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in on May 10, 2018; Muhyiddin Yassin on March 1, 2020; and Ismail Sabri on August 21, 2021. The Ismail Sabri government, like Muhyiddin’s before it, is deemed a “back-door” government as it was formed using defections rather than the ballot box.

The second biggest news item was that Anwar Ibrahim had lost another chance to be Malaysia’s prime minister. Anwar was the front runner among the contenders to succeed Muhyiddin when Muhyiddin resigned on August 16. Yet within four days, his lead had disappeared and by Friday August 20, Ismail Sabri had emerged as the new front runner with the same MPs who had supported the previous Muhyiddin administration.

Depending on how you count, this was Anwar’s fourth serious attempt at the top job. Each time, he was prevented from taking the top political office by a constellation of political forces. Who are these forces? They basically consist of two groups: the Malay establishment and Islamists.

The Malay establishment consists of those who control the upper levers of the political system. They are the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), senior bureaucrats, heads of the security agencies and armed forces, the royal families and the Malay capitalist class. They don’t trust Anwar because they think Anwar’s close association with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and other non-Malay groups means he will fundamentally change Malaysia’s preferential policies towards the Malays.

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