DECEMBER 26 — Victory is relative and our colourful characters who made the list are acquainted with it, about being on top and bottom. Within the next year, their fates may switch but as far as 2024 is concerned this is how they ended up.

Winners, first.

Anwar Ibrahim, maddeningly Madani

The two-year threshold crossed. Not quite a marathon distance but it’s longer than the previous three administrations — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad 2018-2020, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin 2020-21 and Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob 2021-2022.

A stable government? By virtue of time and closest comparisons, it is.

The steady ship claim is reinforced by a job approval survey released this week by Merdeka Center. Anwar and his administration’s approval ratings both rose above 50 per cent — meaning more than half the country chose PMX.

How does he do it? Especially when he is always equally keen on foreign issues as much as domestic ones.

The prime minister has a finger on the pulse of Middle-East developments, eager to chair Asean in 2025 with glee and applies for Brics membership.

Anwar’s adroit handling of Gaza-Lebanon-Iran complexities, to show Malaysia cares embellishes his credentials in the Muslim space. His lifelong commitment to Islamic internationalism is serving him well.

How does it connect with domestic politics?

His only opposition in the country is the Malay right, and his participation towards peace in that region turns into the perfect riposte to Bersatu and PAS.

Their jibes about Malays perennially under threat falls behind the more urgent genocidal episodes in the Middle-East.

Domestically, non-Muslims feel he is the less bad choice, and the Borneo states are interested only in autonomy which they feel Anwar attends to considerably.

The Sabah state election next year is the barometer of success. If as expected Bersatu and PAS are shut out there, glory beckons for Pakatan at the next general elections.

The Umno-PKR relationship is intact, it is indeed happy days for Anwar.

Is he going to crack open a nice bottle of sparkling rose — non-alcoholic — drink over the holidays and hold a thanksgiving prayer gathering? It would be wrong not to.

Mahathir Mohamad, not invisible

Months away from his centenary, Mahathir’s symbolic lead of the opposition to the Unity Government is an achievement par excellence. Put in a different way, it’s just another day in Mahathir’s life.

The man makes his own rules which almost seems like he is making his own reality.

While typical 80-year-olds avoid staircases in their retirement homes, a much older Mahathir considers how to respond to potential criminal proceedings over island sovereignty claims he apparently played fast and loose within his first days in office as PM — second time around — in 2018. That’s already a mouthful.

Whether accuser or victim, he somehow ends up the main actor in the movie.

The Malay right, from Bersatu to PAS, agree he is the star attraction to their "Malays left behind” narrative.

There’s just no end to Mahathir in our lives, and probably his imprint will last the next fifty years in politics, race-relations and urban jokes.

For he is a playlist on repeat ad infinitum. Batteries are included for this one.

No one fails to see him.

Sarawak: The head-hunters are hiring their own

It’s time to start counting the number of times the state reminds Putrajaya it is an equal partner in the Malaysia Agreement and emphasise their autonomy.

The state drives its agenda with demands for a higher share of the country’s coffers.

The latest play to up state oil company Petros’ role in the oil business caused much consternation among Peninsula politicians. Already the state has swivelled its school language to English, looks to owning a series of international schools and the government aims to produce more graduates at home.

The GPS and Parti Sarawak Bersatu have closed ranks, and barring an unlikely surge in support for Pakatan Harapan, the Sarawak for Sarawak agenda is in full swing.

Khairy Jamaluddin, ‘masuk lama lama’

Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi this month opened the party door to those sacked, an obvious overture to the party’s former Youth chief removed in early 2023. Khairy despite his acrimonious relationship with Zahid continues to say his heart is with Umno.

Whatever the motivations, a return to the party offers the former health minister a great opportunity to rebuild his political career even if it comes with any type of conditions privately presented to him by leadership.

If Mahathir used the forced time away from Umno to write the Malay Dilemma in 1969, Khairy utilises the Internet to show up on people’s timelines, with his podcast series Keluar Sekejap and guest turns at mainstream radio station Hot FM.

The losers

There had to be more than a few.

Najib Razak, home arrest resisted

Fans of the former prime minister — and Kajang Prison’s premier resident — were ready to celebrate early this year when the Pardons Board was about to rule. His sentence was halved, which displeased both supporters and haters.

His followers feel nothing short of a release is adequate, especially since Umno props up the Unity Government, and other party men have been left off the hook by the courts. To them, Najib’s freedom is the government’s prerogative.

Word then travels, the remainder of his sentence was to be a house arrest, and not in prison. Speculations were rife but Malaysia does not do house arrests which made it a non-starter regardless of who backed it. The government has since moved on a Bill to do exactly that.

Najib started his 1MDB case defence this month and a guilty verdict may scupper altogether the efforts to convert his ongoing sentence into a house arrest.

In short, Team Najib feels it’s only being placated rather than vindicated.

Muhyiddin Yassin

The high point for the Bersatu president is the party leadership’s recommitment to him. Otherwise doubt seeps in.

Delegating the leader of opposition role to his new deputy president Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin while PAS goads Bersatu at every turn, reminds all the brittle relationship between both parties.

His legal troubles continue as his various cases trudge on in courtrooms. He’ll start 2025 in the UK where he is attended to by medical consultants, hoping to return with better fortune in the new year.

Rafizi Ramli, handed the short straw

The Merdeka Center poll findings out this week indicates the only dark cloud for the Unity Government is the economy, specifically the doubts and questions about the impending subsidy reduction measures. Dead smack in the eye of the storm is the economy minister.

While his mentor Anwar built a national multiracial face through his seven years as finance minister at the height of Asian economic march, benefitting from being there for the economy at the right time, Rafizi suffers from being in charge at an impossible time.

Party insiders feel Anwar has a party election later in 2025 and his deputy president’s misfortunes keeps his ambitions in check.

Reformasi

The Unity Government is allergic to reform. Government has tightened control of the Internet, and by extension dissent, through the amendments to the Communication and Multimedia Act.

The Bill reviled by Pakatan Harapan for decades, the Sedition Act, is retained by a government led by Pakatan Harapan. The subtext presented is that it is necessary until a New National Security Bill succeeds it.

The standard reply from Pakatan leaders is that it’s insurance and unlikely to be used widely.

The problem is that’s the same argument their opponents employed to excuse themselves when they were at opposite ends of power.

Scrutiny, openness, participation and independent oversight are among the weapons of reformasi but they also make the government vulnerable.

Here perhaps, Pakatan is learning more from Umno about how to control and regulate freedoms for the good of the people.

Summary, not as great a time to be a democrat. Was Malaysia ever a great place to be a democrat?

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.