New PM rejects salary, luxury car, drives home need for ‘new culture’

Singapore: Just days after being sworn in, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is pushing to tighten the belt in Malaysia, even knocking back the use of a new luxury car as he bids to reshape a country whose standing has been blighted by excess and corruption.

The 75-year-old’s appointment as leader late last week by King Sultan Abdullah Ahmad ended the impasse arising from a tightly contested election in which no party was able to secure a majority.

Newly appointed leader Anwar Ibrahim says “every ringgit counts”.Credit:AP

Having finally ascended to the top job nearly 25 years after the launch of his Reformasi movement and after two lengthy stints behind bars on trumped-up charges, he is quickly setting about making fundamental change.

Anwar has instigated a review of the almost 80 billion ringgit ($26.6 billion) the government spends subsidising fuel, electricity, flour, sugar, and other products and services for all Malaysians, saying they must be targeted to low-income earners only and not the wealthy.

Propelled into power as a predecessor, Najib Razak, resides in prison because of the multi-billion dollar 1MDB corruption scandal, Anwar has also made an immediate point of refraining from indulgence himself.

He has made clear in his first news conference as leader that he will not take up the prime minister’s salary, which he indicated was in the region of 80,000 ringgit a month.

And he took to social media to say he was turning down new wheels – a brand-new Mercedes-Benz S600 limousine.

“I would like to inform you that yesterday I refused to use a Mercedes S600 type vehicle that was purchased and acquired by the Prime Minister’s Department (JPM) before I entered the office,” he posted on Facebook on Sunday night.

“The move was taken because I don’t want any new expenses made on me. Instead, I have decided to use whatever vehicles I have in the office for daily use.”

On the same day he told reporters during a visit to a mosque in Kajang – not far from the prison where Najib has begun a 12-year sentence – that he would have no refurbishments to his office either, insisting that “every ringgit counts”.

“This is a message to all department leaders to remember that in the current situation we should start a new culture,” he said.

Anwar Ibrahim arrives at the prime minister’s office for his first day as Malaysian leader last Friday.Credit:AP

Anwar has also said his cabinet would be smaller than those of previous governments and foreshadowed a reduction in the salaries of ministers.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age before the November 19 election, Anwar said he was intent on “changing the political landscape of this country”.

He now has the platform to do that, although the strong performance in the election of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) – which won more seats than any individual party but is in opposition – is set to keep him on his toes.

Anwar’s so-called unity government, which includes the ousted former long-ruling Barisan Nasional bloc, is yet to have its majority tested in parliament.

“The green wave that made PAS the largest parliamentary party was partly fuelled by a bottom-up Malay frustration of growing inequality during the pandemic, constrained by a distrust of [Anwar’s] multiethnic [coalition] Pakatan Harapan,” said Professor Wong Chin Huat, a political scientist at Sunway University, Malaysia.

“Anwar’s refusal to use the Mercedes S600 and pay cut for ministers are the right measures to address ‘relative deprivation’. On this line, the government will aim to make [the] subsidy more effective rather than cutting its total size.”

He said Anwar may need to be “more pragmatic or expedient than principled” because he has had to embrace Barisan and its dominant party – the United Malays National Organisation – to make up the numbers in his government.

There has been speculation about what the deal between the former foes entails but Wong said he did not expect it would include a free pass for UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is fighting 47 corruption charges, or for ex-leader Najib.

“Anwar is too smart and not desperate to take that move which will see his government losing the public good will immediately,” he said.

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