The mother of all elections
(Today Online) – Malaysia’s most crucial general election (GE) in decades will be a titanic battle between two leaders for whom the polls will also be a referendum on their respective political futures.
Once close allies in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Prime Minister Najib Razak and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will clash directly for the first time in an electoral test of wills and skills — after having gone separate ways, carried by the tide of hard-knock politics.
Who between them will go on to lead the country, and who will be consigned to history, will be known only after the 13th GE is fought and concluded. Indeed, Mr Najib is turning this into a referendum on his leadership, offering himself as the true visionary leader — and not Mr Anwar nor Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) chief Hadi Awang — deserving of the people’s mandate.
The big question is whether GE13 will be conclusive, given the monumental fight ahead, and whether there will follow a period of uncertainty, if not instability, and what this will mean for Malaysia and the region.
It is significant that on the day Parliament was dissolved, April 3, both Mr Najib and Mr Anwar gave assurances of a smooth and peaceful transition of power regardless of the outcome.
PAKATAN AND ANWAR
Unlike previous GEs, it has been unusually difficult to predict with confidence the winner for this one, though most agree it will be very closely and bitterly fought, and the margin of victory likely wafer-thin.
Various opinion polls have been projecting narrow wins. While most project a slim victory for Barisan Nasional (BN), predictions of an opposition win have also surfaced. One such instance floated by the Chief Economist of the government-linked Bank Islam led to his immediate suspension. It shows just how potentially explosive GE13 has become.
If Mr Anwar’s opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat does win, he is most likely to be the new Prime Minister. This is not, however, as foregone a conclusion as it used to be, given the pockets of resistance to him in some circles within Pakatan component party PAS, and the shadow play by others that has rattled the opposition ranks.
At one point, an UMNO veteran and former opposition leader Razaleigh Hamzah emerged in one scenario as a possible Prime Minister in a Pakatan-led government — in anticipation of an inconclusive outcome in which neither BN nor Pakatan has a sufficient majority to form a strong government.
The idea of Mr Razaleigh becoming an alternate candidate for Prime Minister should the opposition win has been immediately dismissed by Pakatan leaders and, curiously, denied by Mr Razaleigh himself.
It just goes to show how fluid things have become. The proposal was first floated by a group of Mr Razaleigh’s former office-holders, Amanah, as part of its bargaining attempt to support a Pakatan win should Mr Anwar be removed from the scene for one reason or other.
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