BERSIH Names Ismail Sabri the Best PM Since 2009, Calls Out PMX for Lack of Urgency with Reforms

In conjunction with the upcoming 2nd anniversary (24 November) of Anwar Ibrahim’s administration, The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, also known as BERSIH, decided to take an in-depth look into PMX’s Unity Government’s performance so far and share their assessment.

Additionally, they took the opportunity to rank the current and last 4 Prime Ministers, since 2009.

Taking to their Facebook page, they showcased their press conference where they revealed that Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who served as the 9th Prime Minister of Malaysia before Anwar Ibrahim, ranked number one!

BERSIH wrote, “Has the unity government fulfilled its promises? As we approach the two-year mark since Anwar Ibrahim became Prime Minister, BERSIH is launching a report card to assess the unity government’s performance—broken promises and unfulfilled reforms.”

Prior to launching into their assessment of the unity government’s performance so far, BERSIH’s chairperson, Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz, shared their ranking of the current and past 4 Prime Ministers based on their performances. Here are the rankings: 

1. Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob
2. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (second term – PH government)
3. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
4. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
5. Datuk Seri Najib Razak

Ismail Sabri #1

Ismail Sabri ranked number one due to the reforms that his government implemented, such as the anti-hopping law and the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18. This also includes the allocation of equal development funds to the opposition.

“The lack of significant reforms under Anwar is perplexing, particularly given that the unity government enjoys a strong parliamentary majority. With such a grip on power, and with no immediate threats to his premiership, there should be no excuses for failing to address low-hanging fruits and at least initiate steps towards major reforms,”

“Comparatively, previous governments with more fragile majorities, such as those led by Ismail and Mahathir, achieved more substantial reforms within their first two years. This disparity shows the issue lies not in parliamentary numbers but in political will,” BERSIH reported.

Though they acknowledged Anwar’s willingness to interact with them, as he is the first prime minister to do so, they revealed that Anwar has yet to prioritise reforms since their meeting.

“In our meeting with the prime minister (earlier this year), we urged Anwar to make efforts to deliver, with a clear timeline and adequate resources, a list of outstanding reform pledges,”

“9 months have passed since our meeting with the prime minister and there is still no urgency or seriousness in pursuing major electoral, institutional and civil liberty reforms,” they added.

You can check out their press conference here.

What do you think about this? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

Also read: PMX Offers Financial Aid to Lebanon Amidst Malaysia’s Growing RM1.2 Trillion National Debt