The end of a year is anything but the end. Life is a continuum, so this period is simply a merciful pause allowing us to reflect on past events, be it with pride in what we accomplished or remorse for things botched up or not done.
This year-end has been particularly rough, however. Not that we ran into anything unexpected, but many were reversals that could have, perhaps in hindsight, spared us some regret.
In mid-November, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) forecast was 4.8% to 5.3%, up from 3.7% in 2023, emboldening Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, also the finance minister, to present RM421 billion for Budget 2025, Malaysia’s largest ever, allocating RM335 billion for operating expenditure and RM86 billion for development. But then, the northeast monsoon dealt us our worst flood disaster ever, and we were told on Dec 5 that a staggering RM392 million would be required for 365 mitigation projects all the way to 2100 to address the 4,619 flood hotspots nationwide.
Anwar also faced some awkward questions. Right after his appointment as prime minister, he rescinded 28 of the 39 flood mitigation projects awarded by the previous government just before GE15, because they were hastily done through direct negotiation and not via tender. So, did the delay in implementing such measures badly compromise our preparations for the catastrophic floods?
Then, on Dec 10, national poverty database eKasih announced Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest number of heads of hardcore poor households — baffling, since Anwar declared 10 months ago that efforts to eradicate hardcore poverty in KL, together with Melaka and Negeri Sembilan, had achieved 100% success. The threat of financial insecurity has not spared others either. On Dec 12, the Employees Provident Fund announced that retirees needed RM390,000 for a “basic” retirement, revised from RM240,000 previously, and RM1.3 million for an “enhanced” lifestyle. According to the Belanjawanku Guide, this worked out to RM2,690 monthly for a retired elderly person living alone.
Meanwhile, headlines screamed that the cost of living had soared, with prices of vegetables up by as much as 80%. Worse, Bank Negara Malaysia warned that medical insurance premiums would rise an outrageous 40% to 70% in 2025 to adjust for the gross increase of 15% in the country’s medical costs. With salaries in all sectors expected to rise only 5% next year, the continued coverage for most Malaysians would be impossible to bear, while insurers make off with astronomical profits. If this was a cruel joke, nobody was laughing.
Nobody laughed either when Anwar disclosed on Dec 11 that it was he who forwarded the application for Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s royal pardon to the Pardons Board on Dec 8, 2023. As he put it, “Najib has been jailed, but there is room for compassion. When an appeal for a royal pardon is made, I present it to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. We cannot ignore it.”
Anwar had led Pakatan Harapan to victory in GE15 by campaigning vociferously against Najib over the 1MDB scandal. His admission thus raised many questions: Was there nobody else on the Pardons Board who had thought that Najib’s pardon deserved consideration? Why the need for stealth and secrecy? If Anwar believed there was “room for compassion”, why not say it openly and earlier, instead of insisting that the decision was the sole prerogative of the Agong, who also heads the Pardons Board?
Anyway, the outgoing King only granted Najib a partial pardon, slashing his sentence from 12 to six years, and reducing his fine from RM210 million to RM50 million. Many Malaysians were outraged; Najib and his diehard supporters were disappointed but, unremarkably, nobody in the government’s coalition objected, resigned or stomped off in protest. The whole debacle saddened me: Malaysians expect and deserve transparency. Without it, the trust deficit will grow, making it harder for people to support the initiatives needed to repair our institutions, revive our economy and take Malaysia forward.
Now, there is a further complication. On April 1, Najib had filed a judicial review application, citing the addendum in his pardon made by the previous King, which, if it indeed exists, would compel the government to release him from Kajang Prison to serve out the sentence at his residence. The High Court threw out Najib’s bid in July, however, and the Court of Appeal is set to hear his appeal against its dismissal on Jan 6, 2025. Should his appeal fail, Najib and his supporters might still pin their hopes on the house arrest bill that Anwar plans to introduce for “first off enders who have not committed serious crimes, as well as pregnant women, senior citizens and inmates with disabilities”.
But wait. On top of the year’s out tray of setbacks and disappointments, another controversy demands even closer attention: the Mufti Bill, which will formalise the position of the mufti of the Federal Territories and empower appointees to propose a fatwa or religious ruling to the King and have it gazetted into law without parliamentary debate or challenge. Introduced in Parliament on July 2 by Religious Affairs Minister Mohd Na’im Mokhtar, the bill is likely to pass, since the government has the support of the majority of the Dewan Rakyat. As Islamic academic Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa has warned, however, it is unconstitutional and divisive, since Article 11 of the Bill would make a fatwa legally enforceable on all Muslims and deprives one of the freedom of personal choice with regard to his or her practice, belief and opinion.
Objections to the Mufti Bill have come mostly from Muslim scholars and civil society organisations, arguing that it is inconsistent with the Federal Constitution, even though it provides a central authority and uniformity in Islamic law. The response of urban Muslims to the bill, however, seems to be generally one of resignation since prior fatwas issued have not been enforced by the authorities.
Such apathy may also be a reaction to the Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings Sdn Bhd scandal, which, despite extensive police investigations, still has not seen the prosecution of the CEO and its other top associates. Neither has it found any evidence linking government officials or political leaders to the conglomerate. Incredible, because how was GISBH able to amass assets worth RM52 million in 10 countries, avoid paying any taxes and engage in religious deviancy, human trafficking and the horrific sexual abuse and torture of 402 children despite 41 police reports fi led since 2011, all under the watchful eye of Jakim, the Department of Islamic Development?
Non-Muslims have been assured that the Mufti Bill will not affect them, but how certain are we that this immunity will hold? This year, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the unilateral conversion of the three children of single mother Loh Siew Hong as unconstitutional. However, laws in five states still permit it. Also this year, a TikTok video showed a Chinese Muslim preacher giving advice on converting teenagers to Islam: “Minors can be informally converted to Islam first and register later.” Honestly, if the Mufti Bill is passed, what hopes would non-Muslims have of protecting their children against conversion? Yes, that is a heavy thought to carry into 2025.
This article first appeared on Dec 30, 2024 in The Edge Malaysia.
