Mahathir, Anwar, the king: who are the key players in Malaysia’s political shake-up?
- Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah is interviewing every MP to ascertain which leader has majority support in the 222-member house
- All signs point to Mahathir, 94, retaining power under a brand new coalition but questions remain over his one-time arch rival Anwar’s future
Mahathir can return as Malaysia’s leader, without a deal with Anwar
Here are the backstories of these five men.
MAHATHIR MOHAMAD, THE MASTER BRINKSMAN
Mahathir’s seven-decade political career is pockmarked with “do-or-die” moves, with the softly spoken but acerbic-tongued politician almost always triumphing. In most of these instances, the personalities at the receiving end of Mahathir’s political guile are people who had initially been close to him.
Among the most audacious of those acts was the open letter Mahathir penned as a budding politician in 1969, criticising the country’s founding prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. The letter triggered a chain of events that led to Tunku’s eventual ousting from power a year later. Mahathir paid a price as well as he spent time in the political wilderness for a few years after that.
In 1988, the party was deregistered for irregularities in an internal poll. Mahathir seized on the chance to form a new party, informally called Umno Baru (New Umno). The new party strengthened the incumbents’ grip on leadership positions but omitted Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who served as Mahathir’s finance minister for a period but who later became his most dangerous internal rival.
ANWAR IBRAHIM, THE ‘IRREPRESSIBLE OPTIMIST’
Asked by a reporter whether he was still poised to be the country’s next prime minister, the 72-year-old said wearing a wide smile on his face: “we shall see”. Under an agreement signed months before the general election in May 2018, Anwar was to take over from Mahathir after an interim period during which the older leader would help stabilise the country. Mahathir, however, has demurred on the actual handover date, one of the core reasons for the current crisis.
AZMIN ALI, ‘COUP MAKER’?
Azmin Ali, the Economic Affairs Minister in the just-dissolved cabinet, is widely believed to have been the chief executor of the now-failed political putsch aimed at alienating Anwar and his allies.
According to a person close to Azmin, the leader and his 10 allies left the party because they no longer could be part of a party “geared towards one’s man ambition to be prime minister at all costs”.
Ties between the two men soured only recently – pundits believe they grew distant because of Anwar’s belief that the younger leader was angling for the prime ministership that was originally promised to him. Just as Anwar had been under Mahathir’s pupillage before their relationship soured, Azmin served as Anwar’s personal secretary during the 1990s.
It was Mahathir – then serving as prime minister – who recommended that Azmin become Anwar’s personal secretary. Azmin stood by his boss when Mahathir sacked Anwar in 1998, even getting arrested for organising a pro-Anwar protest – and was instrumental in setting up PKR.
In 1999, he entered active politics and became an assemblyman for the state of Selangor. He would later go on to lead the state as chief minister in 2014, a year before Anwar was imprisoned for sodomy a second time.
Mahathir raised eyebrows in political circles when he named Azmin Minister of Economic Affairs after the 2018 polls – especially since the announcement was made after the younger politician reassumed his old job as chief minister. Azmin triumphed in a bruising battle for the PKR deputy presidency against Rafizi Ramli, an Anwar proxy, in late 2018.
MUHYIDDIN YASSIN, NOT A YES MAN
If there is someone who knows their way through Malaysia’s corridors of power, it has to be Muhyiddin. In total the 72-year-old has headed six ministries in a political career that began in 1978. He was the Home Minister in the Pakatan Harapan government. Before that, he held a higher office – serving as deputy to the ousted former premier Najib for six years.
Where Muhyiddin lands after the current debacle is over is likely to be closely parsed. While few have put him as having prime ministerial ambitions, some people close to the Johor-born cleric’s son believe he has the chops to do the job if it lands on him.
Mahathir’s decision to quit PPBM – which is led by Muhyddin as president – this week has raised some questions about whether that indicates some kind of acrimony between the interim prime minister and Muhyiddin. People with knowledge of the matter say while there has been some occasional friction over some issues, the two remain allied with one another.
SULTAN ABDULLAH, ‘THE WISE KING’
All eyes are now on Sultan Abdullah, who has constitutional powers to determine which MP commands the confidence of a simple majority of the parliament to be appointed as prime minister. The 60-year-old in unprecedented fashion is conducting interviews with each lawmaker to ascertain who they back as prime minister and whether they would prefer a fresh general election.
Online, commentators raved about this approach and the king’s down-to-earth and calm behaviour even as he was thrust to adjudicate in one of the most serious political crises the country has witnessed.
The king treated journalists camped outside his palace to KFC meals on Monday, and the next day personally handed out packets of McDonald’s meals to the journalists. Videos showed him munching French fries as he chatted with the journalists.
“We are very concerned, yes I know. Be patient,” he said in brief comments to the media. “Let me do my duty. I hope we will find the best solution for the country.”