An open letter to Anwar Ibrahim

Ahmad Ghazali Abu Hassan, The Malaysian Insight

WE are not your supporters, neither are we Azmin Ali’s nor Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s supporters. We are just ordinary Malaysians who got together and supported Pakatan Harapan in the last election with the aim of bringing down Najib Razak’s kleptocratic regime.

We also harbored the hope that the PH government would carry out reforms that you and your party have been championing all this while.

We are not interested in your or Azmin’s private lives and believe both of you are entitled to your privacy. It is unfortunate that your respective supporters and and adversaries have mutually capitalised on these issues.

We are also aware of your reputation, whether rightfully or wrongfully, as portrayed by your detractors, as a chameleon, populist and someone who likes to play to the gallery. We hope you are not. If you were one in the past, we hope you would not be one in the future. Populism is good to win votes and support, but it does little to win confidence, trust and credibility.

As a leader we are sure you are aware and prepared to take hard and unpopular decisions needed to bring this country forward. Reformasi cannot ride on populism alone.

As a leader of a dominant party in the PH coalition we are aware of the substantial number of supporters you have. Some are genuine in their struggle for reform, but some may have ulterior motives and agendas. Some may be looking for power and positions and some may be looking for pecuniary gains that come as a benefit from our well-embedded culture of crony capitalism buttressed by political patronage.

You have to be careful in dealing with this issue. The last government grew into a corrupt kleptocratic monster because of this. Perverted execution of NEP and political patronage, shielded by racism and religious extremism, coupled with rampant corruption were the potent mix that flourished its growth. You have to decisively put this to a stop.

It is also good for you to know that as ordinary people on the street we were not privy to the horse trading that took place between the PH coalition parties prior to 14th general election. We were more interested to get the country out of the terrible rut that we were in. We desperately agreed for Dr Mahathir to lead the coalition and believed that he would fulfill the promises made before the election.

We had no idea that there was a plan to appoint you as the PM in waiting or when the changeover is going to take place. We were not interested in this. We just wanted a government that can deliver, regardless who the leader is.

The current political narrative in this country however appears to portray that the biggest problem that besieges us is the succession. Anwar must replace Dr Mahathir as prime minister and this cannot be delayed, as if it is the most dominant issue, surpassing all others.

We resent this development. So much time and effort have been wasted by politicians from various sides of the divide to argue this issue.

Being sick and tired of all these, disappointed with the performance of the current leadership and, more importantly, betrayed by the unfulfilled promises of reform, out of desperation, we will give in to the idea  that you should be given the chance to take over as prime minister.

Make no mistake about it. You are not the leader of our choice nor the leader that we elected in the first place. You are chosen because we are desperate for reform and we hope that you will walk the talk that you have been peddling for the last 20 years. Our support is conditional. You will have to deliver or, to gracefully ship out if you fail.

Here are the list of unfulfilled promises and that we expect you to deliver.

First, evaluate and implement the Institutional Reform Committee (IRC) recommendations. The legitimacy of its findings is arguably beyond question as its members are non-partisan and the inputs were obtained direct from the public. Two years down the road and nothing is heard from the government. For a coalition whose main pre-election promise is Reformasi this is the biggest betrayal of our hope.

Second, as part of the reform exercise we would like to see that measures to ensure the independence of institutions are formalised, and in this regard, the power of the prime minister to appoint and remove top government positions be transferred to bi-partisan parliamentary committees.

Third, we would like you to tackle the sensitive issue of racism and religious extremism with full sincerity and as a leader of all Malaysian. We hope you will not pander to the demands of extremist groups just for the sake of earning crucial populist votes at the expense of national harmony.

There many other items on our wish list that we would like you to fulfil: from the abolition of draconian laws, to judicious management of our economy, to the need to address our critically appalling education standard. They are important issues that you have to come to terms with as the prime minister. As a matter of priority, however, institutional reform should be No. 1.

Unfortunately, as the prime minister in waiting we have not heard anything substantial from you as to how you are going deal with all these issues. What we heard the loudest are calls for Dr Mahathir to step down and for you to take over. Our obsession is not with having Anwar as prime minister but in having the reform agenda implemented.

In this regard, may we ask you, in the context of the current situation, what is your agenda for reform and how do we move forward from here?

Unless this question is answered, we cannot but feel that your agenda and obsession is only becoming the next prime minister. We earnestly hope that we are wrong.