You had 24 years to prepare for UPSR, Hanipa tells Anwar

Anwar Ibrahim has been chanting “reformasi” since his unceremonious exit in September 1998 and spent more than two decades delivering blistering speeches nationwide on how he intended to transform the nation for the better, recalled Mohamed Hanipa Maidin.

“He had 24 years to prepare for the UPSR examination. And unlike other exams, he was given the luxury of answering the questions for two years.

“Come Sunday, it would have been two years since he became the prime minister,” the former deputy law minister told Malaysiakini.

Hanipa (above) was responding to Anwar describing his Madani government as “still very new” when responding to Bersih rating his administration’s performance to date with a “D”.

The prime minister said he believes that his government could do better in future, saying it would aspire to score an “A” in the SPM examination after obtaining a “D” in Bersih’s test, which he equated to the UPSR examination for Standard Six pupils in the past.

Hanipa, however, did not share the same optimism and he is not certain if Malaysians do either.

Employing the same examination analogy, the former Amanah lawmaker pointed out that there would be a five-year gap between the UPSR and SPM examinations.

“There would be a general election in between. What if the principal, who is the public, kicks his government out of school because there is no improvement before it even gets the chance to sit for the SPM examination?

“Whether the rakyat believe the Madani government would perform better in SPM or not, what is certain for now is that his government only managed to score ‘D’ based on Bersih's findings. What is uncertain is whether his government may score a ‘C’ let alone ‘A’ later.

“So, it is immaterial whether the government is new or old,” he added.

‘Dr M’s govt more prepared’

Hanipa argued that the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government under Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in which he served, appeared to be more prepared to roll out reforms.

Hanipa said this was done even without the constant chanting of “reformasi”.

“This government consistently chants the word reform but its determination to bring meaningful reform is being consistently questioned,” he added.

Hanipa said despite the criticism towards Mahathir, the former premier managed to prosecute the then Umno president Najib Abdul Razak over the 1MDB scandal.

“Under PMX (Anwar), on the other hand, the Umno president (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi) was appointed as the deputy prime minister despite having 47 charges against him,” he added.

Zahid was later granted a discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) on all the charges.

According to Bersih’s mid-term report card, Mahathir and Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Anwar’s immediate predecessor, had performed better than the 10th prime minister.

Mahathir, who holds the record for being the longest-serving prime minister during his first tenure of 22 years, vacated the post in just 22 months after leading Harapan to victory in the 2018 general election.

Whereas Ismail Sabri holds the unflattering distinction of being the prime minister with the shortest stint with 15 months in office.

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