Hadi deluding himself if he thinks Unity Govt will fall

DESPITE being seen as a "religious" figure who may know how to understand the Quran and some theological issues in Islam, Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang is often wrong on a long menu of issues.

Nor are these minor oversights. Rather they are grotesque mistakes verging on calumny (fitnah) and what in Latin is known as "mala fide" (bad faith).

Malaysians, on most occasions, do like to respect the Royalty, the institutions of the government, the police and the military.

To a large extent, this is reflected, for better and for worse, in the long tenure of the previous administration between 1955 to 2018 at the Federal level. 2018 marked a milestone, when Pakatan Harapan finally ended the long reign of Barisan Nasional (BN).

However, in suggesting that the Unity Government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim can collapse in a matter of moments - which seems to be the flavour of the month for Abdul Hadi - who appears to have a penchant of talking down to any entity or anyone he dislikes, the PAS president is patently wrong, if not maliciously so.

First and foremost, the legion of naysayers, ultimately, against the Unity Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Dtuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim — whose administration began about 100 days ago — came surging like the proverbial sandstorm in a desert.

These pundits worked themselves up into believing the Unity Government will fall. Whether it was some pundits in Asia Times or policy analysts in the West, the victory of Anwar had the likes of these cynics affirming, with deceitful prejudice, that the Unity Government was not meant to last a month; let alone a term of five years.

One of the first to say so was none other than the detractors of the Pakatan Government.

One of whom performed so badly at the 15th General Election that all his candidates lost their electoral deposits. The likes of this group asserted, without any facts, "Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would fail in all his economic policies in a matter of weeks, just you see."

That remark was made in early December 2022, when the Unity Government did not even have the time to get all the coalition partners to immediately regroup.

As soon as the Cabinet was formed, everyone was hard at work to prove their worth. They did. And they are still doing it.

Now that the Unity Government has almost crossed the threshold of 100 Days, with the full approval of the Conference of Malay Rulers to boot, which by extension implies that the Malay civil service that comes under His Majesty must comply to this royal edict, in order to permit it to serve the Prime Minister effectively, the tendency to cast aspersions at anyone that is not a member of PAS or Perikatan National (PN) is manifesting once again in Hadi.

Yet, the national budget has been tabled successfully on Feb 24, 2023, and there are no signs that any of the coalition partners that formed the Unity Government are disagreeable to it.

Thus, Hadi's assertion that the Unity Government can fall any time soon is a replication of those sardonic and pompous skeptics in and out of the Malaysian Parliament. Almost nothing with which others are doing can be right. That is except the sayings and "amanats" (fatwas) of Hadi and his ilk.

How can we ever forget the divisive Amanat Hadi that divided the Muslim Malays at one time. To date, he has yet to apologise for such a horrible act that even resulted in two sets of prayers, divorces and the break of family relationships for decades.

There is actually a phrase for this personality defect: megalomaniac. Hadi and his cult personifies the extreme far right of political Islam.

Both are but two of the same kind. They get to where they are through sheer vitriol and spiel.

Secondly, it is worth remembering that there is now an Anti-Party Hopping Law, that runs in tandem with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between all the coalition partners in the Unity Government.

Anyone that seeks to bolt away from the coalition that underpins the Unity Government would trigger a by-election in which the incumbent is bound to lose.

One must remember that Anwar is not only helming the Unity government but he is the Finance Minister too.

Due to a potential looming global recession, the Prime Minister, who is concurrently the Finance Minister, has had to increase the overall budget by 16.8% to cushion any black swan financial events.

If anything, Anwar carries both the mandate and cachet to lead an effective Unity Government; which is why Umno has been able to purge some of its members in January 2023 without drawing any negative effects on Anwar's rule at all.

Nor is Umno in disarray since Anwar's leadership has been preferred as opposed to that of Perikatan National (PN).

Thirdly, Anwar has received resounding endorsements of various leaders the world over. Foremost of which are the likes of President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Prime Minister Albanese of Australia and President Xi Jin Ping of China, not excluding a series of endorsements from the member states of G 7 and G 20.

These are endorsements that did not come along matter-of-factly, during the governments of the previous prime ministers.

Even with the government of the then prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob whose tenure was a mere 13 months.

Thus it is not without a tad of rich irony that Hadi is suggesting that the Unity Government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would fall.

This is because unlike the current administration that is backed by the anti-party hopping laws and the MOU, the tenure of PAS and Bersatu did not have the necessary cohesion and national interest in mind to have both mechanisms at work.

PN was constantly waiting for other MPs from Pakatan Harapan to jump into their bench. Except those who participated in the Sheraton Move on Feb 29, 2020.

None did; except Dr Xavier Jayakumar, who joined Azmin Ali later. Of the 11 MPs who participated in this traitorous move, voters pushed eight of them out of office in Peninsular Malaysia.

Thus the government of PN fell on its own sword. But the latter does not hold true for the Unity Government of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as the Unity Government is now as cohesive as ever to defeat PAS and Bersatu in the impending at least three of the six state elections, which would be held before the end of July or August 2023.

With the Budget now out of the way, Anwar can now lead the Unity Government to launch a systematic and evidence based anti-corruption drive, of which some of the culprits of PN, and potentially, PAS, would find themselves being called by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) to answer some very serious questions on the circumvention of many direct government tenders that did not follow any standard operating procedures.

Nor is there any likelihood of the Unity Government participating in any selective prosecution as those suspected to be in breach of any laws, even if they are members of the current Unity Government, such as Tengku Zafrul, the International Trade and Industry Minister, who is one of those who had been questioned by the MACC too.

Hence, if Hadi still deludes himself that this Unity Government is bound to fall at any given moment soon, he should ask himself why he was part of two of the shortest administrations in the annals of Malaysian history —- both during and after the Covid-19 lockdown.

Just because Hadi was part of two of the weakest governments in Malaysian history, it does not stand up to reason that the Unity Government will suffer the same fate since Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has made tremendous strides to pacify the feelings Umno, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GSB) and the rest.

Indeed, the two-third majority of the government of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the first since 2005, was not achieved by fluke.

Much efforts were expended by some of the best political thinkers of all sides forming the Unity Government to give Anwar a structural advantage; which will be leveraged in stopping the rot of Malaysia, alternatively the Islamic world, and the Asian Pacific region wracked by the geo-political competing interests amongst the big powers.

Hadi must desist from his old and low way of merchant-trading Islam for narrow and political interests of his party. Instead act as a responsible Muslim to do the right thing for the MANY!

The door to repentance is always open.

Dr Rais Hussin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of EMIR Research, a think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.