The true agenda of the Anwar regime

Murray Hunter

The true agenda of the Anwar regime

Malaysians fall victim to the “Obama disappointment ” syndrome

MAY 27, 2024





Never listen to what politicians say, look at what they do. According to the renowned behavioural phycologist Chris Argyris, what people do is what they actually believe in. What people espouse is what they want you to believe.

Voters were shocked that US president Biden was much more radical than what they were led to believe.

The same goes for prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia.

The 2022 general election resulted in no coalition winning enough seats to form a government in their own right. Anwar came through, managing to form a new government.

Anwar assumed the position as prime minister with high hopes from his supporters. However, these hopes have slowly eroded, as it became clear the new ‘unity government’ doesn’t have reform on the agenda.

There were high hopes that Anwar would bring a ‘new dawn’ in Malaysian politics.

Some of the major agenda positions of the Anwar regime based upon action are summarized below:


A regime of the elite for the elite

Many people were surprised that Anwar, upon being freed from prison made it a top priority to visit each of the royal families in Malaysia. Anwar has shown himself to be accommodating to the monarchs. It was the last YDPA Sultan Abdullah who gave Anwar the chance to become prime minister, hence for many months the Anwar government was sometimes referred to as a Royal government (implying, not to be criticised).

Anwar continued the UMNO custom of making political appointments to government agencies and GLCs. Academics, technocrats and independent experts have all been bypassed (This is a mockery of local professionals and academics who could take such positions). This has strengthened the influence of the Malay-Kongsi on government. We are now watching the abuse of power by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on freedom of speech, and muzzling journalism, where the chairman is an UMNO warlord. This is a major conflict of interest.

The Anwar regime has not moved in to tax the T20 in society. Many budget ‘giveaways’ are clearly aimed at providing funds and grants to Bumiputera firms, which are already solid in the growth stage, ignoring many micro-enterprises which are seriously struggling.


Bringing the interests of the WEF forward

Until the news that BlackRock, through a subsidiary Global Investment Partners (GIP) is taking equity in Malaysia Airports Bhd, there was very little public awareness of the influence of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Malaysia.

Only a year ago, those Malaysian who participated in the WEF “Young Global Leaders” (YGL) program, were very happy to see this news publicised in the local press. Now some of them have requested the WEF management to pull their names of the WEF official website.

Anwar Ibrahim's cabinet has at least half a dozen WEF members. A number of GLCs and government agencies are also WEF members. These include the Finance Ministry, Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Pemodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Employees Provident Fund (KWSP), Khazanah Nasional, Petronas, and Sime Darby. The WEF now has an office in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

A number of local think tanks and NGOs are also members of the WEF. The Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, advises the government on climate change.

The Who’s who of corporate Malaysia are also members of the WEF. These include Berjaya Corporation, Abdul Razak Baginda Malaysian Strategic Research Centre (MSRC), Nazir Razak CIMB, Lim Thian Kiat Multi-Purpose Holdings, Halim Saad Renong/UEM, Sarina Aman-Karim Multimedia Development Corporation, Justin Leong Genting, Anthony (Tony) Fernandas Air Asia, Tong Kooi-Ong The Edge Media Group, Ricky Wong Asia Media, Rohan Ramakrishnan ASEAN Post, Rohana Rozhan Astro Holdings Malaysia, and Shahzad Bhatti Axiom Learning.


Maintaining and enhancing cronynomics

The Anwar regime has continued to allow the rice monopoly and maintained other monopolies that provide special business advantages in the economy. Some of the richest Malaysians have made their fortunes through artificial monopolies.

Syed Mokhtar Bernas


There has been no attempt to break up Malaysia’s kleptocracy’s hold on the economy. The highway concessions are still intact and many contracts are being awarded to firms from the government without any tendering processes. Even the federal government’s car pool is owned and controlled by a concessionary. This is despite what Anwar Ibrahim personally promised and reiterated in a recent live national address to the nation.

This concessionary cancer is so embedded in society that even local government parking enforcement is subcontracted to crony companies.

The Anwar regime supports cronies and kleptocrats, embedding their power over society through political appointments to government corporate bodies. The Malay-Kongsi under Anwar is more powerful than ever before, with the police and their servants covering up corrupt business practices. Whistleblowers rather than criminals are being persecuted openly by the legal system.

MCMC chairman and UMNO warlord Salim Fetah champion of destroying the press in Malaysia

Anwar is running high debt budgets to allocate projects to kleptocrats. Malaysian budget deficits are the highest in the region. Anwar has even gone further than the Najib years, using “landswaps” as a new source of currency to finance deals with kleptocrats. Public land is being transferred to corporate interests at an alarming rate. Anwar’s regime is literally selling off the nation’s prime land holdings.


Machiavellian lawfare against enemies of the regime

The police and even parts of the judiciary have become politicized. Many are crying foul over the Ahmad Zahid Hamidi discharge without an acquittal (DNAA), and Former prime minister Najib Razak’s commuted jail sentence and fine by the Pardons Board on January 29 this year, as examples.

It wont be long before Najib Razak goes home.

The nation is witnessing lawfare used against the opposition with the police and MACC working hand in hand. This persecution is widening the divide in Malaysian society, to even a greater degree than May 13, 1969. Politics is developing a sense of hate Malaysia has never seen before.

A major question to consider and discuss: Are segregated environments breeding grounds for racism?


Building the civil service as a ‘vote bank’

The federal government’s 1.7 million civil servants have been given a 13 percent pay rise effective December 1. This decision was made, when a record deficit of RM 86.9 billion, and the public debt stands at RM 1.19 trillion. This appears to be a direct buying of civil servant votes, so the civil service will become a ‘vote bank’ for the ‘unity government’.

The government has RM 10 billion to spend on public sector salary increases, but nothing available to create a universal wage safety net for the disadvantaged and marginalised in society.

UiTM students fight for Malay privilege, Anwar is fighting for Palestinians, but no one is fighting for the homeless who are also brothers and sisters


Savage suppression of freedom of speech

The freedom of speech and ability of journalists to carry out their proper jobs is being eroded quickly. Journalists are being intimidated and threatened, where the police and MCMC are overzealous in utilizing their resources to censor critics of government policy, and worst of all those who seek to uncover corruption. The MCMC is operating beyond the boundaries of the law, blocking websites that report news and have political content.

The public must be concerned when the government doesn’t respect the laws of the nation.


Increasing political Islam

The semantics of Madani sounded good – sustainability, prosperity, innovation, respect, trust, and compassion, but the realities are the continuing Islamization of Malaysia. RM 1.9 billion has been allocated to the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (JAKIM) and its responsibilities widened to policing censorship on the web, and playing a role in economic planning. The introduction of the 40 hadiths into the school curriculum gives the impression the education system is continuing to be Islamized by the government.

Malay culture is under attack by these institutions. Tragically, no one is seeing this.


High spending government

After 3 straight years of high government spending and budget deficits during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Anwar regime has not sort to curtail the budget deficit and put the budget into surplus. Instead, Anwar in his dual role as finance minister tabled in parliament earlier this year, the largest budge ever with RM 393.8 billion in total spending. The budget came with an estimated RM 86.2 billion deficit, which has been added to with a 13 percent salary rise for civil servants, due to commence in December. Money supply (M2) is continuing upward growth of 5-6.0 percent per month in 2024. This comes at a time when many countries are running their budgets into surplus and cutting back on M2 growth (A BNM responsibility).


The 3Rs as an instrument of tyranny

Anwar’s regime has decreed the 3Rs (race, religion, and royalty) as taboo subjects for society to discuss. This was opportunistically undertaken when the Kedah State Chief Minister Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor was charged with sedition for alleged comments he made about the Selangor Sultan during the state elections last August. At the time, most Malaysians supported this move. Now the use of the 3Rs is being abused.

The 3Rs are not a crime on any statute book. Existing crimes in the criminal code are used for prosecution. Now the 3Rs, are being used against political critics of the Anwar regime and those who investigate corruption under his government. These are now called 3R investigations. The latest against Malaysiakini columnist Andrew Sia for using the word ‘apartheid’ to describe racial discrimination at UiTM.

Malaysia’s IGP Razarudin Husain is using the media as a court to convict journalists by accusation. Journalism in Malaysia is being destroyed in front of everyone’s eyes.


A wolf in sheep’s clothing

At the 2004 US Democratic National Convention (DNC) Barak Obama said, “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.” Everyone believed him. He won the 2008 presidential election and implemented some of the most divisive policies in US history.

Obama did not close Guantanamo Bay as promised, there continued to a US troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama used drones to extra-judicially kill more people (including US citizens) than any other US president. Obama never reformed the banking system after the 2008 financial crisis. Bank CEOs got bumper bonuses, while ordinary people lost their money.

Anwar Ibrahim before he became Malaysia’s 10th prime minister talked about “ketuanan Malaysia” replacing “Ketuanan Melayu”. The realities today are there to be seen.

One should compare Anwar’s language today with the past. Anwar tried to intimidate a school student who dared to ask him a question about quotas for education. Anwar threatened jail to anyone who brought up the Bloomberg Casino issue at Forest City in Johor. Anwar said Malaysia’s fall in press freedom was not important. The psychoanalyst Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries would claim these are examples of paranoid-narcissistic language.

Malaysians waited a long time for a big disappointment.