SINGAPORE: There are growing concerns that Malay Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is failing to live up to his anti-graft certifications, which puts him at risk of losing his liberal help center.
State prosecutors dubiously dropped criminal charges against his lieutenant top, which led to criticism that Anwar’s authorities is only focusing its efforts on corruption.
Anwar’s government has used laws that restrict free speech and stifle dissent to satisfy and please politically prominent conservative forces, which has long been a source of annoyance for activists who had much supported his liberal agenda.
However, the release of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi from numerous transplant charges represents for some the breaking of the democratic red line, where Anwar has shown an apparent preference for power over morality.
In fact, many believed that the action was a political price to pay for maintaining the government’s parliamentary majority by gaining support from the Barisan Nasional ( BN ) coalition and the scandal-tainted United Malays National Organization ( UMNO ) party.
Wan Ahmad Fayhsal, an opposition senator, claimed that the action signaled the” crash” of Anwar’s reformasistruggle. He told Asia Times that” Their & nbsp, raison d’etre & nBSP, for the past 25 years, was all about good governance, anti-corruption.” ” It has been thrown away.” They gave everything up to save one person. Although this state may live, their assist system is in disrepair.
The administration’s posture on corruption cases against another UMNO officials, such as imprisoned former prime minister Najib Razak, whom Zahid has continued to defend while in office, has been the subject of speculation and scrutiny following Indonesian prosecutors’ decision to drop the charges against him.
47 corruption charges against Zahid, including charges of corruption, money laundering, and criminal breach of trust, were dropped by Indonesian prosecutors on September 4. After the Attorney General’s Chambers ( AGC ) decided to give up on the case, the Kuala Lumpur High Court issued a discharge that did not amount to an indictment or DNAA.
That is true even though a court decided in January 2022 that Zahid, the president of UMNO and president of the BN, had been ordered to provide his defense after the prosecution had established an arrest, prima facie, and nbsp, case against him. Senior lawyers and civil society were outraged by the action and mocked Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution’s justification for the release as a” court choice.”
The prosecution’s request for Zahid to be granted a DNAA on all of his charges, according to the AGC, was made for” cogent” reasons. It was Attorney General Idrus Harun’s final significant action before his pension on September 6. According to Malaysia’s law, the AG has full power to start, administer, or end any civil court proceedings for an offense.
Anwar has vehemently denied having any influence over the AGC’s choice. The AG gave his justifications and exercised total power. He was quoted as saying,” It is the AG’s decision, and I can’t interfere.” The DNAA demand, according to the prosecution, was made for a number of reasons, including to enable the regional anti-corruption company to look into the matter further.
Since then, controversy has centered on the twin responsibilities of Malaysia’s AG, who serves as both the government and the principal legal prosecutor. As part of promised administrative measures, the government has announced two specific task forces to hasten the process of dividing the AG’s roles amid the uproar over Zahid. However, no date has been set for its implementation.
The harm to politics and optics has already been done. Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, president of the youth-based Malaysian United Democratic Alliance( MUDA ), withdrew his support for the government bloc in protest against what he views as the” beginning of normalizing corruption ,” costing Anwar’s government its meager two-thirds majority in parliament. & nbsp,
If the government needs a two-thirds majority vote to implement administrative reforms, MUDA said it will support it and add the opposition’s third force. The move won’t affect the stability of the government because there will only be one lawmaker, but the loss of its coveted legislative supermajority is still seen as a setback for the coalition in power.
According to James Chin, a teacher of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania, Zahid’s dismissal was” simply an act of power-building ,” telling Asia Times that Anwar” didn’t really have any decision.” He was compelled to do this because he is aware that if Zahid is overthrown, another UMNO leader will remove the entire BN part of 30 MPs from his administration, and thereby, HE WILL BE COMPLETED.
Despite leading partnerships that were once fierce competitors and a storied record brought on by Anwar’s former UMNO account, anwar and Zahid are known to have friendly individual relationships. The former hegemonic UMNO saw working with the reformist Pakatan Harapan( PH ) as a bitter pill, leading some observers to believe that, given the opportunity, other senior party leaders and nbsp would prefer to support the pro-Muslim opposition bloc. & nbsp,
The political implications of Zahid’s event are also up for debate. Despite the opposition Perikatan Nasional( PN) increasing its vote share in line with national trends, Anwar’s PH-BN alliance was able to win two by-elections in Johor state on September 9. However, UMNO is an uncertain indicator because it is known to demand a more devoted following in the southern condition where it was founded.
Chin, who also served as the Asia Institute of Tasmania’s founding director, argued that the victory of the one coalition should not be interpreted as a sign that most voters support the dismissal of Zahid. He pointed out that Johor, an influential monarchy, had likewise indicated support for the PH-BN pact, and that this was an important factor. People are aware that political life is more important than anything else, he said.
In contrast, former UMNO leader Khairy Jamaluddin asserted that if he were a government strategist, the Johor by-elections represented” an important victory because the issue of Zahid’s DNAA ] had] no effect at all” on the electoral outcome. ” I would say that this is evidence that the populace doesn’t give a damn and continues to support the coalition and Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership ,” he declared.
If BN had wanted to discharge its corrupt officials to drive back against the growing acceptance of PN’s ethnic Malay patriotism, Khairy, a former health minister who founded he had been expelled from UMNO earlier this year for criticizing Zahid for his rule as party leader, had earlier remarked that Najib would have more of an impact than Zhid.
” Najib will provide more value to you than Zahid if you’re going to kitchen-sink the whole thing and let him out.” You’ve already put an end to Malaysia’s sincerity. Grant pardon ,” Khairy sarcastically remarked in a recent podcast in reference to Zahid’s dismal political track record as the leader of UMNO and Najib, who was imprisoned.
Following his party’s worst-ever general election efficiency in November, Zahid received calls to resign. In August’s state elections, where an estimated seven out of ten ethnic Malay voters in six states supported PN, UMNO suffered yet another defeat, winning only 19 of the 108 seats it ran for, underscoring its decline as a political force on the federal level.
Najib, on the other hand, had skillfully campaigned and used social media to amass a devoted following before being sentenced to prison in August of last year after the appellate court unanimously upheld his guilty conviction on charges connected to the multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad( 1MDB ), making him the nation’s first-ever former prime minister.
The biggest myth going around in Kula Lumpur is that Najib is being sought out, which would be a little bigger deal than what happened to Zahid. According to Chin, Najib is a completely different kettle of fish. It’s true that some UMNO members, including some Anwar supporters, think Najib is far superior to Zahid in terms of his political acumen.
By agreeing to calls made by UMNO’s leading leadership and grassroots to release the past premier in order to increase support for the unity alliance, pro-Najib voices have argued that Anwar has more to gain than to lose socially. However, doing so would certainly result in a backlash among the multicultural and primarily progressive supporters of PH. The tragedy of Najib is by no means solely Anwar’s choice.
Analysts, yet, believe Anwar has considerable power because he is a part of the group looking into Najib’s potential pardon. Although it has historically been intended to act on the advice of a Pardons Board, Malaysia’s legal monarch has only judgment to pardon most offenses. Additionally, the impenetrable decision-making process is surrounded by sophisticated political dimensions.
Zahid may rightly never want Najib to be released from prison because, if he is, the former premier and party president will be vying for his old jobs back. If Najib is allowed to leave, it must be without endangering Zahid. It must also be in a way that Najib may join the foe as well, so it is not as straightforward as people believe, according to Chin. & nbsp,
In a separate bone case of audit meddling related to the now-insolvent 1MDB, Najib’s attorneys confirmed on September 12 that prosecutors did not challenge the ex-prime minister’acquittal. This action has increased perceptions of political meddling. The High Court handed down the conviction in March, and the AGC was earlier anticipated to charm against it.
On August 15, the exact court declared four abuse of power allegations against PN president and former top Muhyiddin Yassin null and void, calling them” hazy, flawed, and unfounded.” The AGC has confirmed it will charm the High Court’s ruling, despite the fact that the foe captain was charged in March and, unlike Zahid, was acquitted and discharged.
Muhyiddin is also facing two counts of money laundering in the same situation, and since losing the election in November, his party has been under investigation for graft. The former top calls his case a” political vengeance” and denies wrongdoing.
On September 16, his PN criticism union intends to hold a significant opposition in Kuala Lumpur against the administration’s handling of fraud cases.
We see all the accusations against Muhyiddin as fabricated political persecution and careful persecution, and that’s been proven by the court as an abuse of process ,” said PN legislator Wan Ahmad.” We firmly believe and we all know, since the role of AG and the attorney is also indistinguishable and under the jurisdiction of the minister of rules and also the perfect parson.”
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