Anwar succeeds to postpone Rawther’s civil suit: How the odds are stacked against the little guy in Malaysia

Anwar succeeds to postpone Rawther’s civil suit: How the odds are stacked against the little guy in Malaysia


24 Jul 2025 • 7:00 AM MYT


TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

Image credit: SK Studio


When news broke that Yusoff Rawther’s case against Anwar Ibrahim has once again been postponed indefinitely—even though it was filed in 2021 and relates to an alleged incident from 2018—I couldn’t help but feel that the odds are truly stacked against the little guy in Malaysia.


Now, let me be clear: I’m not saying Yusoff is right or wrong in his claims against Anwar. What I am saying is that Yusoff is a small guy compared to Anwar, and the fact that he’s had to wait four long years just to have his case heard speaks volumes about how hard it is to get justice in this country when you're not one of the big players.


It’s no secret that Malaysia has never really been a place that champions the small guy. Everything here—access, opportunities, protection—is controlled by the big guys: corporations, political elites, and entrenched institutions. That’s why people here rush to align themselves with powerful patrons, parties, or companies. Deep down, we all know that merit alone won’t get you very far unless you have the backing of someone powerful.


It wasn’t always supposed to be this way.


Right after Merdeka, there was a genuine effort to break this feudal mindset. Reform-minded leaders like Tunku Abdul Rahman understood how the concentration of privilege and power in the hands of a few, a few that he himself was actually a part of, had weakened the nation to the point that it could be colonized by a handful of foreigners.


Despite being royalty and Prime Minister, and despite never referring to himself as a reformist, Tunku was probably a truly reform minded person, because the government that he instituted, was truly made with sacrifice and selflessness in mind. If Tunku wanted it , he could have easily continued to rule as a feudal overlord, and maintain the practises that had long benefited an elite like him, although it weakened the country as a whole.



Instead, like a person who truly believed in something greater than him, Tunku decided to build fair institutions and educating the rakyat so that one could succeed not through blind loyalty or subservience, but through merit and by engaging with a fair, rules-based system, even when his decision ultimately led to the weakening of the powers that he himself held.


Tunku's sacrifice and selflessness, did bear fruit, at least for a while.


Through his efforts, example and leadership, our institutions like our universities, civil service and judiciary earned praise for their professionalism and independence. These institutions that were built to empower the people then began to attract prosperity and international respect, to the point that in few decades after Tunku was no longer the PM, our country had grown so impressively that we became admired by many other nations, who were also looking for ways to improve themselves and rise out of backwardness.


But then came the irony. The wealth and progress born from those early reforms began to fuel greed. A new generation—armed with education but lacking in ethics—began infiltrating the system, not to improve it, but to bend it to their will. They had no interest in merit or fairness. Only power and profit.


And now, in 2025, it seems like we’ve come full circle. Through such practises as a corruption, nepotism, crony-capitalism and exploitation, we have again returned to our pre-merdeka condition, where the country seems to belong to just a few, instead of all of us , as how our founding fathers envisioned it.


Things have likely deteriorated to such an extent, that today, the small guy doesn’t just need to bribe or bow to thrive—he might have to do it just to survive.


In 1998, Anwar Ibrahim rose to lead the Reformasi movement, vowing to fight corruption, nepotism, and cronyism. After years of imprisonment and exile, he finally ascended to the Prime Minister’s office in 2022. Many "little guys" rejoiced, believing that a new dawn had arrived.


I wasn’t so sure.


Anwar wasn’t an outsider to the system. He was once its rising star. His fallout with the old regime wasn’t because he opposed its values—it was because he tried to take the top spot. How much difference can you expect from someone who came from within the system, and who left it not voluntarily, but because they were forced to leave it?


Reform requires self-reflection, humility, and a willingness to correct one's own flaws before correcting others. That requires a nobility of spirit. I think Anwar is a great man who will have a wide range influence on many people and events, but there is a difference between a great man and a noble spirit. A great man is not necessarily a noble spirit, and a noble spirit is not necessarily a great man.


So while I lack the legal expertise to fully dissect the implications of the postponed case involving Yusoff Rawther and Anwar, I can say with common sense however: this feels like yet another instance of the system failing the small guy.


It feels that in Malaysia, if you’re a big guy, you don’t have to face your accuser in court. You don’t have to finish your prison sentence. If you steal millions, just return some of it and walk away with a slap on the wrist.


But if you’re a small guy? You might have wait years for justice that might never come ,and you may also perhaps need to wave a parang just to prevent your road side from being demolished, despite it having operated there for many years .


Malaysia Boleh.