Hasten the pace of promised reforms

THE Prime Minister was reported saying that the string of defeats in the by-elections since Pakatan Harapan came into power in May 2018 does not necessarily point to a one-term government. I think he is right because it’s quite common in developed countries that after a brief period of honeymoon, the ruling party’s own members would start to express their feelings in by-elections or in the media to show their disappointments at the local level.

In vibrant democracies like the United States and Britain, the approval rating of the president and prime minister after one year in office usually goes down. It comes up again when the economy is doing well.