Following months of political uncertainty, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, with the consent of King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, declared a state of national emergency in the country. While ostensibly addressing the spread of Covid-19, the national emergency also reveals huge challenges to the current government, creating a litmus test for the prime minister to prove the continued legitimacy of his government.
Even as the palace has stated that the emergency is likely to continue till August, it has given undue executive powers to the prime minister and his cabinet to pass laws and ordinances bypassing the normative parliamentary legislative processes. The announcement was made almost immediately after a total nationwide implementation of travel restrictions across several states of the country on account of challenges from the increasing spread of the pandemic.
On the Covid-19 front, from February 2020 to September 2020, Malaysia saw less than 10,000 total cases. However, as on date, the number of cases is approximately 1,90,430, which has been a steep spike. There is a growing concern that the rising cases will place the domestic health sector under considerable pressure if mobility is not restricted and social distancing is not adhered to. While Covid-19 remains a matter of concern, the national emergency has also been viewed as a last-ditch effort by the incumbent government to retain its hold and delay the call for the next general elections.
The political instability brewing over the last year in Malaysia was forcing the move towards an earlier call for elections, which has now been temporarily suspended. The ongoing crisis has its roots in what has been popularly called the Sheraton Move, which occurred in an extremely Machiavellian week in the politics of Malaysia. After having been in leadership for a second time as prime minister since May 2018, Mahathir Mohamad in February 2020 suddenly stepped down in a volte-face to deny passing on the leadership to Anwar Ibrahim, whom he reanointed as his successor while joining the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in 2018.
By pulling out his party, popularly called Bersatu, from the PH coalition, Mahathir was able to achieve two objectives—first he ensured that the support did not go to Anwar. From 2018 onwards, Azmin Ali was slated to be one of the possible successors to the second-term legacy of Mahathir. In 2019, Azmin was implicated in a scandal that rocked his position within the political space. In 2020, as the deputy leader of Anwar’s party, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Azmin split it and joined the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (or Bersatu). The Bersatu was a party jointly started by the current incumbent prime minister Muhyidden Yassin and Mahathir in 2016; it is basically focused on opposing the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) and former prime minister Najib.
Similar to the UMNO, the Bersatu also was a race-based party with the leadership and vote limited to the Bumiputeras, which consists of the Malays and the indigenous peoples known as Orang Asli. With the split in PKR, the position of Anwar was weakened and his claims to form the government did not succeed. The political fallout between Mahathir and his former deputy, Anwar, has been evident for more than two decades. Having been imprisoned and pushed out of the political fray at the turn of the century, Anwar returned to active politics after 2004 and was eventually the leader of the opposition heading the Pakatan Rakyat, a coalition that was in opposition following the 2008 and 2013 general elections.
By the time of the 2018 elections, the corruption scandal engulfed the office of the then PM Najib, bringing various political factions together under the umbrella of a new coalition—the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition with parties like the PKR headed by Anwar, the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia headed by Mahathir, People’s Action Party (DAP) and several other smaller political groups that opposed the Barisan Nasional (BN). The purpose of the 2018 general elections was to clearly defeat the BN and the leadership of PM Najib. In the run-up to those elections, both Mahathir and Anwar buried the hatchet on their political rivalry, even going as far as to declare their mutual love and admiration for each other.
It was also indicated that Mahathir would pass on the mantle of leadership to Anwar, whose wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was Mahathir’s deputy prime minister. While the national emergency allows an interim period for the government to steer its course, the battle for a post-Mahathir legacy will still continue to impact the political landscape. The only time Malaysia had ever declared a state of national emergency was following the racial riots that rocked the country in 1969. The need to ensure a stable government that addresses key areas like good governance and anti-corruption policies and tackles the growing gaps in race relations and rising economic inequality in Malay society will remain vital.
Shankari Sundararaman (shankari@mail.jnu.ac.in)
Professor at School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi