Anbound Malaysia
The 1MDB scandal that shakes Malaysia has greatly impacted the country, and today there is new major development of the political situation in Malaysia: the Prime Minister Najib Razak announced today of a cabinet reshuffle and a number of cabinet members are sacked.
Cabinet reshuffle in Malaysia is generally seen as a Barisan Nasional coalition clean-up in the wake of Najib's 1MDB scandal; UMNO's former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Hasan Malek, Minister of Rural and Regional Development Shafie Apdal and G. Palanivel the President of the ethnic Indian party MIC are sacked, and they are often seen as pro-Mahathir and anti-Najib fractions among the Barisan Nasional politicians.
On the other hand, the ethnic-Chinese party MCA gains two ministerial positions, namely Second Minister for International Trade and Industry and Deputy Minister of Education.
The newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister is the Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who retains his ministerial portfolio.
The cabinet reshuffling has created much anxiety among the Malaysian Chinese. The new Deputy Prime Minister is regarded as a racially intolerant hard-liner and he changed his position of pro-Anwar in the social movement in 1998; the public opinions pointed out that changing position is not unusual for him. After the reshuffling, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is seen to be the likely successor of Najib’s role as the President of UMNO after the 2018 General Election, even as the successor of the Prime Minister. As the biggest problem faced by the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional is whether it can continue to run the country after the 2018 General Election,some ethnic Chinese share the opinion that after the downfall of Barisan Nasional in the next General Election, similar racial riot like that occurred in May 13 1969 might happen again, and hard-liner like Ahmad Zahid Hamidi might use the Emergency Law to rule the country and in the process stirring up racial conflicts to consolidate his position.
According to Anbound’s analysis, Malaysian Chinese might have two reactions; the first is increasing their support to the Opposition Party, while those who fear another racial riot will appeal the Chinese community to support Barisan Nasional and Najib. Anbound observations indicate that MCA will take the second reaction, though this will reduce the number of its supporters. The median age of the Malaysian population is 26.2 years, a rather young population and a large part of the younger population in the country supports the Opposition.
As for Malaysia-China relations and interracial relationship, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is known to make irresponsible statements on the security issues experienced by China’s citizens in East Malaysia and issues on Chinese tourist visa; some years earlier when he was still the Minister of Defence, he claimed that Malaysians of Chinese origin do not join the military because of their low spirit of patriotism. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s appointment as the Deputy Prime Minister will not help the interactions between the people of China and Malaysia.
The party clean-up of Najib this time will benefit Barisan Nasional because it creates unity in the coalition, but the cost is considerably high. It is likely that the sacked former Deputy Prime Minister will collaborate with the former PM Mahathir for the next assault, and Barisan Nasional will not see a day of peace before the next General Election. The cabinet reshuffling also shows that corruptions are penetrated deep inside the party quarters, and according to some Opposition leaders, Najib is using the exchange of interests to gain the supports of over a hundred UMNO party quarters, which will cause more corruptions in the country and consequently will affect Malaysia’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index which in turn will not be beneficial for the country’s National Credit Rating and foreign investments I Malaysia. The cabinet reshuffling will also intimidate other parties in the Barisan Nasional coalition, and the position of UMNO as the dominant party will be further solidified, which will shake the foundation of Malaysia’s semi-democratic system.
