Offering a power transfer deal in a message to the Malaysians on Malaysia day which fell on the 16^th of September, Anwar Ibrahim suggested that he has to meet the Prime Minister to discuss such a power transfer. He is confident that the support he needs to win over parliamentary majority is in the pockets while the Prime Minister and his allies seem to think otherwise.

In the mean time, in a bold move to safeguard his leadership of the country, the Prime Minister switched a major ministerial portfolio with his deputy PM. He took over the defense portfolio from Najib Razak and handed over the Finance ministry portfolio to the deputy.

This change of folio's has raised concerns in the diplomatic circles in Malaysia, prompting some observers to state there might be a concentration of power in the PM's hands while it is easier for him to call upon the military if necessary without having to lean on another member of the cabinet.

With this concentration of power, the PM can tackle any unrest in the country with ease, a strategy that makes sense since as Prime Minister he has the absolute right to maintain a stronghold on the country’s military. These are desperate times, says an observer to WFOL, adding that while it is not always good for a Prime Minister to concentrate power in his hands the current PM in Malaysia is facing a tougher opposition that is willing to go to great length to topple him.

This taken into consideration, he added that it is possible that the Prime Minister is altogether weary of the members of the cabinet since one or two of the Ministers he appointed openly asked for his resignation.

The first thing the Prime Minister has to do in the case of the rogue minister is to fire him, adds the observer who believe that this will discourage further dissent against the leader of the United Malays National Organization (Umno) while it will also rally those who want to see him take tough actions.

With this consolidation of power, the Prime Minister now has to move a few more steps to halt the possibility of an opposition take over and believe it or not he has a lot more under his sleeve than anyone would think.

After 51 years in power and two bloody noses in elections – the recent one in March 2008 – the Barisan National or National Front has the right to battle it out against the surging opposition. Though it was deserted by a large portion of the non-Muslim support in the March 2008 elections, it survived mostly with Malay support and this support was not because the Malay Muslims detested Abdullah Badawi but because they saw in him a better choice than the opposition.

In order to survive the current onslaught against his majority in parliament, Abdullah Badawi to please his Malay-Muslim electorate despite the fact the recent by-elections in Permatang Pauh won easily by Anwar Ibrahim is now a stigma for him.

The Prime Minister has to press forward with reforms in several sectors and he should not wait for the opposition’s criticism to do that. He has table the necessary bills to relax freedom of the press and freedom of assembly while he has to do something to diminish the importance of the Internal Security Act (ISA). These reforms alone will win him the support of many opposition members, says another observer who hails from Indonesia. He told WFOL that the Prime Minister will gain more than lose if he were to table bills that were to relax the rules of political engagement in the country. The Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) has made it clear that it will struggle with the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as long as it knows the PR will change the laws and revise the ISA or abolish it completely.

The BN is in a position to tackle these issues that will surely bring the PAS closer, once again, to the United Malays National Organization (Umno). At the onset of this possible development it is certain the Prime Minister is to ensure that he has no defections from his coalition besides that of the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) which finally left the Barisan and has been termed a nuisance by the PM.

The BN and the Umno in particular – which is the leading Malay party in the coalition and in the country – will have to realize that they cannot keep power without change. The son in law of the Prime Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin has said in numerous times that he favors change not only in the attitude of the parties in power but also in the way things are done and in loosening the noose that tightens freedom of the press and other basic freedoms in the country.

In Sabah itself, an Umno member said recently that the party needs to adapt to changes. “Umno should be sensitive to the current development happening in the country for it to remain relevant, Sabah Umno deputy secretary Datuk Masidi Manjun said. Masidi said that the party must be ready to make changes from time to time as it remains the backbone of Barisan Nasional,

In an across the board criticism of the PM, the famous Wall Street Journal added fuel to the churning fire by stating Abdullah Badawi has not introduced any substantive reforms during his nearly five years in office, preferring to rely instead on opening up the government purse. It also said the capital that came out of the purse went to cronies and allies. If that was very true, this regime would have collapsed a long time ago hence we can state that the Wall Street Journal is not correct in its criticism on this issue. Not all that it says is true because the good Prime Minister did bring reforms in the economic structure of the country, enhancing the Islamic aspect of doing business and of its finances and so on. These were major reforms committed to the economy and that has brought benefits too. The other major step taken by the Abdullah Badawi regime is the consolidation of the Halal market place which once again is much appreciated by Muslims in general.

What went wrong for the PM is the constant opposition of his own party, his government and his coalition in power coupled with fierce opposition from ‘conservatives’ in the establishment against his plans for major judiciary, law and structural reforms in Malaysia.

In the columns of this website, we said in the past that the opposition and the rejection of these reforms by the establishment will hurt the Prime Minister. And true enough it did. Zaid Ibrahim, de-facto Law Minister in the cabinet until this week, said he quit as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, since he failed to reform the legal system. He said he constantly met “a brick wall” from Cabinet members and Umno to many of his suggestions for reform. He maintained Abdullah had been supportive “within his own constraints.” His statements speaks for themselves on our assertion that the PM might be the sole warrior who is fighting for change and reforms in the government at the present. The leader of the Malaysian nation, who is still preferred to many other Umno and BN leaders by a majority of the population, need to address this thorny issue. He has to get busy and handle the bull of the conservative establishment by its horns.

With power resting well in his hands, Abdullah Badawi now needs the right advisers to carry on forward with reforms. He also has to rally support among the Malay-Muslim population in the first place – they were his main backers in the March 08 elections – in order to move faster forward. How will he do that? Information is the key for the survival of his government and it will all depend on the delivery of the necessary information on the important steps he intend to take to revive his leadership and get back his early days popularity.

Coming back to Anwar Ibrahim’s agenda of change in Malaysia, it will all be possible only if the Parliament is seated and if there is a motion of no-confidence against the Prime Minister. If the opposition manages to get a majority in the Parliament, it will automatically bring the downfall of the Abdullah Badawi regime but that is yet to happen and it is apparent the Prime Minister is in a position to fend off these challenges for yet another month or two.

The changes demanded by the opposition can still be carried out by the current government if the Prime Minister surrounds himself with the people who want change and this may involve getting some opposition parties on board in a bold move that may simply cause a fizzling of the PR’s attempt at taking power.

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