Corruption Wars and the Last Battle of the Malaysian Kaiju: Anwar Ibrahim is Sworn in as Prime Minister as Mahathir Mohamad Loses Re-election Bid

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In the complicated ecology that is Malaysian politics two recent events are worthy of some note.  First, on 19 November 2022 it was announced that 97 year old and master politician Mahathir Mohamad, long punching well above his weight, had lost a reelection bid, and lost in (as has been typical for him in all his political activity) in spectacular fashion. 

“It’s a major surprise that not only has he [Mahathir] lost, but he has lost in a spectacular fashion,” said Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi, reporting from outside Kuala Lumpur.  “He has not only lost his seat but has lost his deposit because he has not been able to get more than an eighth of the votes cast. His party has also not managed to win a single seat.” It was the 97-year-old’s first electoral defeat in more than half a century. He was Malaysia’s prime minister for 22 years from 1981 until he announced his shock retirement in 2003. (Mahathir Mohamad: Ex-Malaysia PM loses seat in shock defeat)

Second, Mahathir's longtime mentee, frenemy, rival, and ally, Anwar Ibrahim, was sworn in as Malaysia's Prime Minister. "Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, capping a three-decade political journey from a protege of veteran leader Mahathir Mohamad to protest leader, a prisoner convicted of sodomy and opposition leader." (Malaysia's Anwar becomes prime minister, ending decades-long wait) Not all is cake and honey. "Anwar's appointment ends five days of unprecedented post-election crisis, but could usher in further instability with his rival, former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, challenging him to prove his majority in parliament.

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The titanic struggle between Anwar Ibrahim and Mahathir Mohamad has spanned decades.  It has brought out both the best and worst of Malaysia's ethno-religious cultural politics. More importantly, it has served as one of the great examples of the weaponization of ideologies of gender and sexual conformity in politics.  For much of this time, Anwar Ibrahim remains on the wrong end of the contest, with Mahathir Mohamad emerging more of less triumphant, and a master manipulator of gendered ethno-religious sensibilities with the occasional utilization of the criminal power of the state to drive home his dominance.

Ideologies of gender remain ascendant throughout the world. For my purposes here ideology might best be understood from the perspective of a community as its "articulated forms of social self-consciousness.". . .  An ideology of gender might, then, be reduced to a cluster of norms, expectations, understandings and the like, derived from the meaning of sex, where sex is used in its multiple and ambiguous senses. These ideologies are imprinted in the law of all states-modem and ancient, religious and secular. These ideologies become increasingly less visible as societies substitute the language of corruption, psychosis, and ethno-national chauvinism for that of gender. Corruption, especially in the political discourse of religion, has reinvigorated gender discipline in some countries. (Larry Catá Backer, Emasculated Men, Effeminate Law in the United States, Zimbabwe and Malaysia, (2005) 17(1) Yale Journal of Law & Feminism 1-63 (2005), pp. 1-2).

Corruption remains the defining issue in the relationship between them, and between the ruling elites and the people and collective structures of Malaysia, as it has since the end of the 1990s. Anwar has focused on institutional and political corruption. "'We will never compromise on good governance, the anti-corruption drive, judicial independence and the welfare of ordinary Malaysians,' he said before leading chants of "Reformasi" - his rallying cry for reform during years of opposition." (Malaysia's Anwar becomes prime minister, ending decades-long wait). Mahathir refined the art of aligning political and personal corruption with sexual corruption--as that concept is understood through the religious lens in Malaysia. "There is irony here: both Anwar and Mahathir deployed the language and imagery of religion to describe the corruption of the other. Anwar focused on the institutional corruption of Mahathir's government and lost. Mahathir focused on the personal corruption of Anwar and won." (Backer, Emasculated Men, Effeminate Law , p. 42-43).

Nonetheless, the public may weigh the conflicting narratives of corruption differently given context--and the clear evidence that the gap between discourse, performance and political realities were both mutable and strategic.  In the 1990s that alignment is understood as political--a metaphor, as well as a physical performance, which when conflated in the body of Anwar produced a spectacularly over the top drag show of a sodomy trial that at the time garnered global attention.  Anwar was "sacked in September 1998, detained without trial and then charged with sodomy and corruption." Succeeding decades exposed the gaps, and strategies. By the beginning of the 21st century, the calculus of corruption moved in a different direction. The rest is the stuff of melodrama.

Anwar was freed in 2004 after Malaysia's top court overturned his sodomy conviction, a year after Mahathir stepped down as prime minister after 22 years in power. But Anwar was imprisoned a second time for sodomy in 2015 — in a case he said was aimed at crushing his alliance which was making gains against the UMNO-led government. Yet, he didn't give up. From his prison cell, Anwar made up with Mahathir. . . Mahathir became the world's oldest leader at 92 after the [2018] victory. Anwar was pardoned shortly after and would have succeeded Mahathir, but infighting led to their government's collapse just after 22 months. (From prisoner to prime minister, Malaysia's Anwar had long ride to top)

 Yet it may be worth noting that the structures and performance of corruption may remain undiminished--culturally at least. 

The use of personal corruption as an intensifier raised the level of Anwar's corruption well above any that could be laid on Mahathir. The intensification effect occurred not only in the court but in the press as well, where the government permitted reporting in a way designed to expose Anwar to the maximum negative effects of the charges.  Mahathir might permit cronyism and even profit from it, but the corruption was not personal, and indeed, the form of corruption itself might be gendered male. (Backer, Emasculated Men, Effeminate Law , p. 43)

That was two decades ago. The balance appears to have shifted; but has the balancing disappeared? The question is not merely important as a matter of the expression of racism, ethno-chauvinism and religious tolerance in developing diverse states--though that is an important enough reason for attention.  It is important as well because those choices will have a significant effect on Malaysia's relations with the rest of the world. Given Malaysia's strategic position for both the Chinese Belt and Road System and the  Trans-Pacific Partnership framework (plus the US), those choices will have significance far beyond the borders of that state (eg here, here, and here).