A year on, has Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim lost ‘sense of urgency’ in pushing for reforms?

Critics say Anwar hasn’t made real progress on a host of goals, including tackling corruption, cutting red tape and addressing rising living costs

While he’s succeeded in wooing the likes of Tesla, Google and TikTok, supporters say the Israel-Gaza war is distracting him from his economic agenda

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Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim waves the Malaysian flag after his National Day speech on August 30. Photo: AP

Published: 4:00pm, 24 Nov 2023Updated: 5:09pm, 24 Nov 2023

Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim is under mounting pressure to deliver on his promise of broad reforms, as he wraps up a challenging first year as prime minister amid persistent inflation and slowing global demand that threaten to weigh on the country’s vital exports.

Anwar’s supporters have pointed to the leader being distracted by the war in the Middle East, with analysts saying his window for domestic reforms is narrowing, though the premier has also notched some wins, such as in securing billions in potential new investments, especially on the electric vehicle front.

The 76-year-old enjoyed a spectacular rise to the top job last November, when he rallied allies and long-time rivals under a unity government at the behest of Malaysia’s king, following a deeply divided general election that left no single party with sufficient seats to take control of parliament.

It was a result that was two decades in the making for Anwar, who made reforms his clarion call after he was thrown into the political wilderness and later jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy by his mentor-turned-foe, Mahathir Mohamad, at the height of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.

But critics are questioning where that zeal for reforms has gone, pointing to what they describe as a lack of any meaningful progress despite Anwar’s assurances that change was foremost in his mind.

“This is a person who went into power on the back of a campaign for institutional reform,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, an opposition MP from the Malay-nationalist Bersatu party. “He continues to verbalise the need for institutional reform, but in terms of implementation nothing has been done.”

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