HOBART, Australia: Anwar Ibrahim, lauded as Asia’s best finance minister in the 1990s, on Friday (Feb 24) presented his first budget since taking office as Malaysia’s Prime Minister three months ago.
The last time he did this was 26 years ago. The theme for his budget is “Membangun Malaysia Madani” (Developing a Civil Malaysia). People are poring through the 85-page speech for answers to a simple question: “Is this an election budget?”
Now, this might seem like an odd question given that Malaysia just held its general election in November last year. What people are referring to is the upcoming state elections (that must be held by law) in Penang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah. These elections will decide if the Anwar administration remains politically stable.
In Malaysia’s 15th General Election (GE15), the biggest surprise was the “green wave” or the rise of Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the Islamic votes. If Anwar cannot claw back the Islamic votes, which is the same as the Malay heartland vote, then there will be political instability.
Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition received less than 15 per cent of the Malay votes in GE15. PH’s coalition partner, UMNO, received about 30 per cent of the Malay votes, thus giving Anwar’s government some legitimacy among the majority population.
It is thus crucial that PH and UMNO win the majority of votes in Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah, which are currently led by PAS, a component party of opposition bloc Perikatan Nasional (PN).