Who should be Prime Minister?

 

By Stephen Ng

 

         I have been receiving phone calls and messages asking who I think should be the next Prime Minister.

         My answer has always been, “I am not interested in speculating, and I am not a fortune teller.”

         However, due to the question people posed to me, I decided once and for all to express my view.

         My answer is: Anwar Ibrahim.

         Why? For one thing, Pakatan Harapan won the general election with the understanding that Anwar would be prime minister and Dr Mahathir Mohamad was only interim prime minister.

         Whether you like it or not, the combination that formed the coalition known as PH won the general election represents the mandate of the people. The people have heard Anwar’s call for reformation for over 20 years – and they just want to see reformation being carried out.

         The country had just seen the worst of the 1MDB scandal and people were not willing to allow things to get from bad to worse.

         The mandate was never given to a small group of members of parliament, who subsequently defected and caused the collapse of the PH government, when it was already running its course of restoring confidence of the people towards the new government.

         Although there were hiccups with certain ministers, who were not only inexperienced but incompetent, generally, Malaysians were satisfied that the corruption cases and scandals were brought to court.         

         Unreasonably huge projects such as the MRT during Najib’s era were scaled down and sweet deals inked in the past, were still being brought to the table again for negotiation. This may anger some quarters but the rakyat felt justified that their money should never be lavished on unproductive projects at the expense of basic amenities such as the hospitals and schools.

         For one, I have always asked the question why we need such a huge MRT station at Bandar Utama, which made it so inconvenient to get from the carpark to the nearest train.

         We have already seen Muhyiddin Yasin’s performance in the past 18 months. To me, even as a Minister of Home Affairs, he was a failure. I have also heard complaints from his predecessor at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Rafidah Aziz that he was a non-performer after he took over the ministry.

         So, for him to think that he has done his best, I am afraid no one would buy into his story even though his men have released a video clip done based on the same emotive content of the pre-GE14 titled, “Atuk.”

         To the rakyat, such emotive videos would no longer work, as we have been bitten once, and twice shy now.

         I have always viewed Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as another non-performer even during his early years. Without a mind that is sharp enough, I doubt he can lead the country out of the current pandemic.

         Same goes with Ismail Sabri Yaakob, whom I always joke amongst friends, as the ‘flip flop minister.’ I do not need to elaborate further.

         As for Najib Abdul Razak and Zahid Hamidi, I think there are too many corruption cases that need to be dealt with first. Malaysians reject politicians who have not proven themselves to be clean in the courts.

         Shafie Apdal is left as the only contender. However, Shafie’s Warisan only has eight seats, all focused mainly in Sabah. He does not have the experience and exposure as Anwar.

        Perhaps, Shafie can be the Deputy Prime Minister. It time for Malaysians to have a Deputy Prime Minister from East Malaysia. There is really no need for two Deputy Prime Ministers.  

         The last question is: Can Dr Mahathir Mohamad be the prime minister for the third time? I doubt it, as there is already a very huge trust deficit for the former prime minister. Based on my observations in different chat groups, he has been heckled by people in all three coalitions.

         And Anwar, in my opinion, should be given a chance to prove himself. Having been to jail twice and over 20 years of Reformation, we want to see him putting all his plans into action. Whether he is an angel or a devil-in-disguise, only time will tell.

 

 (An earlier article was written in a hurry where a number of points were missing. I have since updated my article here on this blog)