Who is Anwar Ibrahim?

Anwar’s weakness is political strategy and its execution. After the 2008 general election, Anwar announced that with the support of Sabah MPs, he would have the numbers to takeover government. This fizzled out, when the Badawi administration sent many of these MPs to Taiwan and Korea on a ‘study tour.’ After the 2013 general election, Anwar claimed wide election fraud by phantom and foreign voters, although evidence was not presented to prove the large scale he was talking about. Last year, Anwar called a press conference to announce he had the numbers to form a government, where once again nothing happened. This is where Anwar has been labelled the “boy who cried wolf.”

Anwar managed the Kajang move in 2014 to install Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah as chief minister, was a dismal failure. Anwar also failed in managing the split within his own party, where not disciplining Azmin Ali and his group, had grave political consequences. Anwar’s competent handling of party affairs according to insiders has been questionable, leading to the question of how he would manage executive government.

Many of the issues that Anwar has supported, including the abolition of the GST and keeping fuel subsidies appear opportunistic, rather than good policy making. Anwar’s silence on the issues of apostasy and child marriage, has been seen by some as avoiding contentious issues.

The greatest challenge for any reformer in Malaysia is navigating the paradoxes between Islam and secularism, Malay-centralism verses multiculturalism, and appeasing the establishment while bringing equity and reform to the nation.

Inside his own party and wider coalition, Anwar could have spent the time outside government nurturing a future young ministry, through the formation of a shadow cabinet. Capacity building makes for good governance.

Presently, there are few choices for a national leader around who offer any new ideas. The present contenders are locked into the Ketuanan Melayu paradigm.            

Anwar according to his critics has never tried to break free from it.