This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 23, 2021 - August 29, 2021

YANG di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah has consented to the appointment of Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the ninth Prime Minister of Malaysia, after the latter received the backing of 114 members of parliament (MPs) to demonstrate majority support.

Ismail Sabri, to be sworn in as PM on Saturday (Aug 21), does not have time on his side. At most, the new administration will have 21 months before the next general election as the mandate must be returned to the people by May 2023, which is five years after the start of the 14th parliamentary session in May 2018. These 21 months or less will determine how Malaysia fares in the near future as the economy is suffering greatly amid a health crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

During this period, the new government must get the Covid-19 outbreak under control. It must ensure that the majority of the population — including foreign workers — are vaccinated, and reopen the economy.

Economic recovery and nation rebuilding will not be easy, particularly as the new administration will have only slightly more than a year to govern.

In a written response to The Edge’s questions, Lee Heng Guie, executive director at the Socio-Economic Research Centre (SERC), says the new PM must ensure the government’s stability, so as to remain focused and not distracted from the implementation of the vaccination programme and the National Recovery Plan. A stable government is essential at this critical moment to overcome the pandemic and to steer the battered Malaysian economy and businesses out of the crisis, he adds.

“The sooner we achieve herd immunity, paving the way for a safer reopening of the economy, the more certain the shape of the recovery. But proactive government policies can improve outcomes,” says Lee, stressing the need to rebuild as well as sustain investor and public confidence and trust by implementing effective Covid-19 containment measures and timely economic responses to limit the financial and economic damage.

The government must also enhance and strengthen pandemic mitigation and containment measures, he says. Stringent implementation of public health and social measures remains the key to curb the spread of the virus, and healthcare facilities should be fully equipped.

“Besides achieving herd immunity, efforts to test, trace, isolate and treat must be scaled up along with communities and businesses practising the SOPs, including social distancing,” says Lee, adding that the government must plan and prepare for booster vaccine shots.

Prof Dr Wong Chin Huat, of the governance studies division at the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia, says it is not so much what policies the new government must take to ensure the economic and health well-being of the country, but the political structures that will enable them to choose necessary but unpopular policies.

Looking back on the administration of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Wong says the former premier started off quite successfully with the first Movement Control Order (MCO), which was reflected in the high approval rating among voters, although it was stronger in the Malay community.

Muhyiddin was seen as the darling of Malay voters then as he demonstrated that a predominantly Malay government could be a global success story in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

But a major turning point was the Sabah state election, which won his party Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia a chief ministership at the expense of Umno. Wong says the win came at a huge political cost. Moreover, the state election resulted in the third wave of Covid-19 infections in the country.

“In any country, it is tough for a government to remain popular in combating a pandemic of an unprecedented scale. In Malaysia, Muhyiddin’s precarious position and antagonism towards the opposition affected his policies,” he adds.

Therefore, according to Wong, it is important for the new PM and government to work together with the opposition through a confidence and supply agreement (CSA). This would immediately diminish the blackmailing power of not just the “kleptocrats” but also the power of underperforming ministers and rule-breaking MPs, he says.

“To stabilise politics, we need a CSA or a few CSAs before GE15 that must cover four immediate major reforms,” says Wong. These include reforming parliament so that it becomes a platform for inter-party power sharing and decentralising the government.”

A CSA is an agreement or arrangement between political parties that is less formal than a full-blown coalition, whereby a minority party agrees to support the majority party on its budget and confidence votes by either voting in favour or abstaining. This agreement is needed so that the government can function as usual and the ruling party does not fall due to a motion of no confidence in parliament.

Meanwhile, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Internal Revenue Board should be reformed to end selective prosecution which, according to Wong, is one of the drivers of party hopping. There must also be a political funding reform, he adds.

Once the pandemic has been brought under control and it is safer for a full reopening, policymakers must figure out how to fix a shattered economy and safeguard it against the next catastrophe, says SERC’s Lee.

The immediate priority is to craft a swift recovery plan focused on growth, resilience, investment, job generation as well as employee reskilling and upskilling, he says. Vulnerable households must continue to be given appropriate social safety protection in terms of income, jobs and skill support.

Businesses and the people must be prepared for the future. Accelerating structural changes and the transformational push through the adoption of new technologies and innovation is important, as well as an enhancement of skill sets.

The country is expected to table the 12th Malaysia Plan soon. The new government will also have little time to prepare for Budget 2022, which is usually tabled in October.

“Fiscal stimulus under consideration has to be bold, sweeping and comprehensive to create jobs, expand productive capacity and unleash more economic and investment opportunities to restart the Malaysian economy post the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic,” says Lee.

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