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Asian Angle | Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim must revamp economy, defuse tensions in race to unite polarised nation
- Anwar needs to use his political skills and national credibility to convince Malay voters to abandon their conservative, Islamic-oriented turn
- Appointing a second finance minister other than himself to drive economic reforms would help free up the prime minister to focus on politics
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Malaysia must focus on improving the economy to boost the chances of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government winning a second term in four years’ time.
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Anwar’s ruling coalition and the opposition each retained control of three states in last week’s regional elections. The unity government now controls legislatures in nine out of 13 states, giving it confidence that there will be friendly parties at the state level to execute an ambitious national economic agenda.
Time is now of the essence. Malaysia is polarised, angry and divided. The electorate is fatigued and the national mood is glum, not helped by cost-of-living and other economic woes. The Malays, the country’s largest ethnic group, are politically split and have steered right towards conservative and Islamic-oriented parties that vociferously peddle racial politics to attack Anwar’s nine-month-old government.
Anwar’s political skills will be essential for Malaysia to roll back this turn to the right and defuse the racially charged politics. In his unity government, which had to accommodate the discredited United Malays Nasional Organisation (Umno) after an inconclusive general election in November, Anwar is the only leader with national credibility and political capital to spend on politics. That is where his energy should ideally be spent.
Ambitious agenda
Anwar’s unity government took time to outline its economic road map, revealing it only days before the state elections.
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