Malaysia awaits handover to new PM

Updated March 12, 2009 11:43:19

Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi says no date had been set for a transition of power to his deputy, Datuk Seri Tun Najib Razak, but he will name a date soon.

Speculation is rife the handover will take place at the end of this month, after a general meeting of the ruling UMNO party. But Malaysians, from all reports, are indifferent to the leadership change.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Dr Farish Noor is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

NOOR: Over the past year since the elections of March 8th 2008 the country basically has been in a state of flux simply because the ruling Barisan Nasional Coalition has effectively lost in the west of Malaysia, in the peninsula. And I think what we've seen over the past year there's been a lot of politicing rather than governing on both sides. Malaysia has been caught in a sort of deadlock where both the government and the opposition have been trying to regain control or to expand their sphere of control in order to govern decisively in the country. But the country is effectively split. So I think what we will see from the new administration is an attempt to somehow re-centre power in the federal government and also to consolidate the position of UMNO as the ruling party of the Barisan Nasional.

LAM: Given that Najib Razak is urbane, well spoken, British educated; do you think he might be well placed to provide some much invigorating energy into an increasingly moribund coalition government?

NOOR: The coalition government and the opposition coalition as well I think are both in a state of disarray. That's partly because there's been thus far within one year no effective leadership on both sides. Now Najib Razak as you pointed out is someone who is known in international circles, he has that going for him. But if we look again closely at the state of Malaysian politics today you have a ruling coalition that is in many respects in a state of denial after their bad performance at last year's elections. So we have an ironical situation where Najib Razak is strong and popular in his own party and yet the opinion polls that we've seen in the country over the past year would single him out as perhaps one of the least popular leaders in Malaysia. So how he's going to try and balance these two is going to be his main challenge.

LAM: Do you think it might be time for a cultural change within UMNO to stay relevant to the masses and indeed relevant to the Malay electorate, because Najib Razak in many ways represents more of the same, the old fashioned feudal system of UMNO?

NOOR: Oh yes, I think what we see in Malaysia today is basically a generational change. Let's remember again that in the post election analysis that were done last year it's very clear that the vote swing took place in the urban areas and among the young in particular. The next election in 2012 we're going to have many more of these young voters, who really represent a completely different sort of sensibility, a political sensibility compared to the older generation. He's coming into power at a time when Malaysians seem to want change. So this makeover cannot simply be cosmetic, it will have to involve real reforms, institutional reforms both within the party and in the mode of governance itself. Now whether that can be done now while Malaysia is entering a recession and while there's a lot of political uncertainty in the country, that's something that we have to see in the years to come. The reputation of key institutions like the judiciary for example has taken quite a battering over the past decade or so, and for that reason these reforms will have to be first of all quick but they will have to be effective and visible as well.

LAM: You hinted earlier that the opposition itself is also in some kind of disarray, and indeed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has so far failed to topple the government through crossovers and defections. Do you think Anwar Ibrahim has lost momentum, do you think he failed to strike while the iron was hot?

NOOR: Well I don't think the Anwar himself has lost momentum because the momentum is not coming from Anwar, it's coming from the public. But I do believe that there was some very serious miscalculations on their part. If you recall last year in September the promise that there would be a takeover of government through party hop-overs, I mean that turned out to be a major disaster as far as Anwar himself was concerned because he was blamed for that. And I think the Malaysian public is equally sick and tired of this sort of gerrymandering and jockeying and positioning that is taking place in the public domain, because Malaysians, particularly when the country is in economic crisis just want to see effective governance. I mean the first thing they want to see is the government tackle the recession successfully. And I think Malaysians are getting a bit tired of the politicking that is taking place on both sides.

LAM: So is Najib Razak in a good position to show Malaysians some leadership?

NOOR: I think the Malaysian electorate is by and large still moderate, still centrist, and I think if he successfully manages to tone down the discourse of his own party, to move it away from the more exclusive, ethno-nationalist agenda and present himself as a moderate who can actually govern, then well maybe half the battle is won for him.