The eight-week meeting of the Dewan Rakyat ended last Thursday – with the 10th Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim passing the three tests of the eight-week Dewan Rakyat meeting while the Perikatan Nasiohal (PN) leaders and MPs failed in trying to topple the Anwar Unity Government and to further polarise the nation through heightened and untruthful race and religious rhetorics.
The three tests passed by Anwar were:
- Passage of the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address on the Opening of the 15th Parliament;
- Passage of the 2023 Budget; and
- Maintain the hopes of Malaysians that Malaysia can avoid the trajectory of a failed, divided and kleptocratic state in the coming decades, and do more, endeavour a reset and return to the nation-building principles of a plural Malaysia agreed by the nation’s founding fathers (which included the first four UMNO Presidents) to become a first-rate world-class nation.
The country should take note that despite the efforts of the PN leaders to topple the Anwar unity government – which the PAS President Hadi Awang declared as the “right of the Opposition” – these efforts have failed, although the country paid a heavy price as the tactics of the PN leaders and MPs created political instability and undermined national unity by further polarising the nation through heightened and untruthful race and religious rhetorics.
Malaysian politics fell to a new low when political leaders from the Opposition make preposterous allegations about Islamophobia and Malaysians selling organs to survive with no respect for integrity of information or truth.
PAS President Hadi Awang made the wild and preposterous allegation that the DAP was promoting Islamophobia but despite being repeatedly challenged, he has not been able for five months to offer an iota of evidence to substantiate his wild allegation.
The Bersatu Youth leader, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal, made the serious allegation that there are people selling their kidneys to make ends meet, but when challenged to substantiate his allegation, meekly said his allegation was based on posts from Facebook groups and it was up to the authorities to investigate the truth or otherwise of his allegation.
Political leaders from PN are not taking the lead to clean up the lies, falsehood, fake news and the dirt on the social media and information landscape, but are adding to the lies, falsehoods, fake news and the dirt.
They even disregarded the advice of the Yang di Pertuan Agong that Malaysia needs political stability to “reach for the stars”.
In Scotland, an ethnic Pakistani has become the First Minister and leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party. In the United Kingdom, an ethnic Indian is the Prime Minister and leader of the British Conservative Party.
But in Malaysia, we seem to be going backwards with voices screaming that the Malays have lost political and economic control of Malaysia.
The next big test for Anwar Unity government will be the general election in the six states of Penang, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.
But this will a test not just for the Anwar unity government, but a test whether Malaysia has a future to be a first-rate world-class nation or Malaysia’s fate is to be a divided, failed and kleptocratic state.