Politics

Muhyiddin keeps Malaysian politics in lockdown – East Asia Forum

Published

3 years ago

July 19, 2021

Author: Editorial Board, ANU

Just over six months ago Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin talked the country’s monarch into declaring a state of emergency — the first in Malaysia since the devastating racial riots of 1969.

Muhyiddin said emergency powers were to give his government the political stability and the legal powers needed to enforce COVID-19 control strategies. A spike in cases at the time had threatened to derail what had been overall an effective response to the initial wave of the pandemic in 2020.

Since then, Malaysia’s COVID crisis has gone from worrying to disastrous. New daily cases reached a peak of over 13,000 on 15 July — worse, on paper, on a per-capita basis than neighbouring Indonesia (where, admittedly, testing rates remain dismal).

The state of emergency has had its desired short-term political effects over these six months, however. A core element has been the suspension of federal parliament — conveniently so for Muhyiddin, whose government is propped up by politicians who defected alongside him in early 2020 to bring down Mahathir Mohamad’s Pakatan Harapan government. Without an electoral mandate of his own, and supported by a slim parliamentary majority, Muhyiddin has kept his party backers happy by doling out seats in a bloated cabinet.

With the emergency orders set to expire on 1 August, the clock might be ticking down on Muhyiddin’s leadership. In early July the former ruling party UMNO formally declared it no longer supports Muhyiddin. But with many of its MPs nevertheless remaining in his cabinet, the party is half-in, half-out. Rival political bosses — including opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and two-time prime minister Mahathir Mohamad — await Muhyiddin’s downfall for a chance to put together the numbers to support their own prime ministerial bids.

The parliament’s suspension hit pause on this stand-off. It will resume for a ‘special’ sitting on 26 July, just days before the emergency powers expire. Legal experts say that Muhyiddin will need parliamentary approval in order to extend them, but it’s not clear whether he has the numbers to achieve this.

Also unclear is whether MPs will be able to move a motion of no confidence against the prime minister — if such a motion is debated and is successful, parliament must be dissolved and an election called within 60 days. With the government signalling it won’t allow any debate during next week’s session, Muhyiddin’s opponents will likely have to wait for the next regular sitting of parliament in early September.

An election would finally put Muhyiddin’s prime ministership out of its misery. But it’s the last thing Malaysia needs from a health perspective: the country doesn’t have a workable system of absentee voting and going to the polls would further worsen what is an escalating public health crisis.

Not since the economic crisis of 1997–98 have the elite power plays seem more divorced from the real problems confronting Malaysia’s people, writes Bridget Welsh in this week’s lead article. ‘Muhyiddin’s “all Malay” government gave ethnonationalists what they asked for, and it has not performed’, observes Welsh. As a result, ‘more Malays are taking a hard look at ethnonationalist governance and find it wanting’.

The result at the grassroots is that ‘circumstances are opening the way for collaboration across previous political fault lines’. As the safety net struggles to keep many Malaysians from falling into lockdown-induced poverty, ‘COVID-19 has placed the issue of inequality centre-stage, bringing longstanding divides to the surface, but in a manner that differs starkly from the zero-sum ethnic lens of the past’.

Grassroots energy is one thing; whether the political system will be responsive is another. ‘How this mobilisation will evolve remains unclear’, says Welsh. ‘Different notions of rights, responsibilities and community are coinciding with narrower models of race, exclusion and elite entitlement’.

Certainly, the pandemic has had counterintuitive political effects all over the world. In Europe, it has taken the wind out of populists’ sails and to some extent rehabilitated the political mainstream. In Southeast Asia, leaders like Indonesia’s Joko Widodo and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte have remained popular despite botched pandemic responses, benefiting from effective spin machines as well as citizens’ low expectations of health care systems. Malaysia is somewhat different to these lower middle-income democracies: it is a more firmly middle-class country with a well-developed health system that, before the pandemic arrived, was challenged by ‘first world’ chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes.

Just how deep ‘middle Malaysian’ — and particularly ethnic Malay — disillusionment with the political elite runs will only be revealed at an election; in the context of the country’s parliamentary gerrymander, public anger doesn’t necessarily translate neatly into electoral upsets. If Muhyiddin or one of his ministers lead the government to the polls later in 2021, their best hope is that voters in key seats will prefer the devil they know, especially as the vaccination program gains pace.

On that front good news is finally emerging. Malaysia has now given over a quarter of its 32 million strong population at least one shot, with 45 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine on the way to take care of the rest.

That gives Muhyiddin an overwhelming incentive to keep buying time — ideally by using extended emergency rule to keep politics, as it were, under lockdown.

The EAF Editorial Board is located in the Crawford School of Public Policy, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University.

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Politics

‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

Published

5 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

Published

5 days ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

Published

6 days ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

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