KUALA LUMPUR (Politics Now!) - Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's administration is turning into a full-scale and unmitigated joke! With just a year served in office and yet he has to reshuffle more than a third of the portfolios in his Cabinet - and is now relying on crude old-fashioned 'bootlicking pressure', whether directly or indirectly exerted on the multitude of sycophantic media, academics and analysts at his government's disposal, to give him sufficient 'shock and awe' thunder to deflect public attention from his poor judgement and to plaster over the shortcomings of what is basically another below-average and highly questionable lineup.
No wonder his Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil was called "bloody moron" and Anwar's "lackey" by enraged netizens, irritated by what many see as a blatantly staged and scripted response to Anwar's new, enlarged and costly Cabinet lineup.
"Pundits in an earnest desire to curry favour with the Madani administration were excessively complimentary of this latest stratagem. It would be fine to be non-committal but to wax lyrically about a major reshuffle, miffs," wrote Praba Ganesan, a columnist at the Malay Mail.
"If the centre of all concerns is how well the Cabinet can turn the country around via their respective ministries under the supervision of the prime minister, more than a third of the portfolios changing heads cannot inspire confidence about the administration. In and out of the country. It’s a massive reset and for so few eyebrows raised baffles."
"BLOODY MORON" & "LACKEY" - 'WE VOTED FOR YOU TO DO WORK FOR US, NOT TO PRAISE OR KOW-TOW TO YOU'
Malaysian netizens were less discreet in their language, openly displaying their annoyance at Fahmi and other 'Little Anwar Napoleons', who have irked and upset many in the country with their excessive and even bullying efforts to raise him to a hero's pedestal - even to the extent of backpedaling on their reformist pledges by suppressing and blocking blogs and social media that dare to critique Anwar.
"We voted for you to do work for us because you said you could do the job better than the other politicians. We didn't vote you in so that we could kow-tow to you or praise you each morning when we wake up or pass by your office. So this is the sentiment that is spreading very fast among voters and you cannot blame them. It is sickening, this search for self-glory by Anwar or by his minions. It's time to stop before the country mutinies," a long-time political observer told Politics Now!
So vile and underhanded have been their U-turns that the Anwar regime has even used the oppressive Sedition Act, which they once vowed to repeal, to bring to heel critics and opposition rivals who dare to give the country a different view of Anwar's performance - which to many is gross underperformance - and generally calling a spade a spade.
Just because this bloody moron @fahmi_fadzil can’t do a good job, government has to spilt the ministry.
Apart from being Anwar’s lackey, what other things are you good at la, moron? https://t.co/48cFwsypHO
— 🏴StandingOnderYindian (@yindian5) December 12, 2023
Hi @fahmi_fadzil, koyak kaw² ke tu? If you can’t face the wrath because of your incompetency, just resign and get lost!
Because of your incompetence a new ministry which will cost at least 100k per month. How many healthcare workers can we hire with that amount? Useless! pic.twitter.com/lRLjToca8L
— 🏴StandingOnderYindian (@yindian5) December 13, 2023
QUESTIONS GALORE - DOES ANWAR REGIME WANT A 5-YEAR HONEYMOON?
The narcissistic Anwar had earlier this week announced a major Cabinet revamp, where five new ministers were appointed, six were reassigned and only one axed.
"How can the prime minister claim a year of success if 11 different bosses are needed at ministries - along with 16 redeployed, reintroduced or recruited deputy ministers?" questioned Praba.
"Or are Malaysians expected to have mass cognitive dissonance, to accept a reality of one year of excellence topped with at the end a third of the Cabinet reordered? That it was so awesome it just had to be altered radically at the end of Year One?"
Indeed, Anwar - or did the idea perhaps come from Fahmi's ministry - had relied on the long called for appointment of a Second Finance Minister to give a positive stamp on what is basically a wasted year, during which he was accused of 'gallivanting' overseas and neglecting the local economy, to the extent the ringgit has hit a shock low of 4.71 against the U.S. dollar, the lowest in national history.
To Malaysia's misfortune, Anwar had also appointed himself Finance Minister when he swept to power a year ago - riding roughshod over criticisms and warnings that this could lead to conflict of interest issues, as had happened during the scandalous and thoroughly corrupted Najib Razak regime.
On Tuesday, Anwar had named former EPF CEO Amir Hamzah, a relative unknown despite his high corporate ranking, as the second finance minister - but stubbornly refused to let go of the main post.
Yet despite the half-heartedness of the move, it was immediately hailed without question by the 'Professors Kangkong' - which is the local slang for low-quality academia, 'experts' and researchers willing to sing whatever song the government-of-day chooses to hear, perhaps for the sake of improving their own career advancement prospects.
"I am a firm believer in democracy. The peoples' mandate is absolutely necessary for anyone to govern. And yes democratic government means open to public inquiry and public scrutiny. No tantrums and no theatrics." wrote another commentator Syed Akbar Ali.
"We really must abolish the Sedition Act. This has been my stand all along. Gobind Singh Deo announced its abolishment in 2018 but just for a few weeks. Then they put it back. Gobind is now back in the Cabinet. Bhai, one more try - get rid of that Sedition Act.
"There is still no forward momentum in the country. A new fella has been appointed to 'jaga duit' (watch the money, i.e. Amir Hamzah). Folks say he was lacklustre where he is coming from. We will know soon enough. The ringgit has gone down two sen since the reshuffle".
UMNO MUSICAL CHAIRS - CABINET REVAMP OR ANWAR'S OWN POWER MANIPULATION?
The manner in which Anwar rearranged the portfolios of key ministers from Umno, his key coalition ally keeping him propped up in power, has sparked accusations he was using the revamp to manipulate their loyalty instead of picking the best suited people to do the job.
"Consider the version of musical chairs for Umno, where a trio exchanged roles — Mohamad Hasan vacates defence for Khaled Nordin so he can move to foreign affairs as Zambry Kadir departs for Khaled’s now vacated higher education. Which one of them failed to deliver after only a year, or were they bored?" asked Praba.
Meanwhile, according to Malaysiakini, the government has allegedly written to the social media platform X, controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, to request for the post critical of Fahmi to be taken down.
In its notice, X said the Malaysian government had claimed that the post "violates the laws of Malaysia" - a favorite 'trick' since the dark days of the Najib regime, when even the color 'yellow' was banned to stifle dissent.
However, to Elon's credit, X has said it has not taken any action against the content which was posted on Dec 12, after Anwar's announcement that Fahmi's Communications and Digital Ministry would be split in two. The hugely unpopular Fahmi was retained only as Communications minister, while his predecessor Gobind Singh Deo was brought back into the Cabinet to helm the Digital ministry.
ALL EYES ON GOBIND TO REVERSE FAHMI'S EXCESSES, ANWAR TO REVAMP MCMC
Already there are call for Gobind to respond to the complaints and reverse the actions of the self-styled 'Minister of Truth' Fahmi's alleged ultra-vires actions and shenanigans, that some legal groups have called "unlawful", "dangerous" and "Orwellian"
It is also high time that Anwar personally checks who Fahmi had appointed as the head of industry watchdog Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission or MCMC - and assess if the widespread and rising claims of abuse of power are justified.
If so, then a no-nonsense reshuffle of the top MCMC leadership with sackings, if need be, must be carried out immediately to contain the spreading fiasco over the government's perceived effort to strong-arm and manipulate an outraged public and media into bowing to and accepting as the new normal Anwar's 'he who cannot be criticized' or 'deity-like' status.
"This smacks of the Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’. It also appears to be a transparent attempt to justify or lay the groundwork for blocking portals or websites critical of the government. In the latest incident, TV Pertiwi has been subjected to a government block, which has not been denied by Fahmi," Zaid Malek, the head of Lawyers for Liberty, had already warned as early August.
"It is disturbing and unconstitutional for the minister to set himself up as the arbiter of ‘truth’ and arrogate powers to himself to restrict supposed slanderous or inaccurate news. Slanderous or inaccurate according to whom? Is it only the government’s right to decide what is true?"
Written by Wong Choon Mei, Politics Now!
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