Graft and gridlock: in Anwar’s Malaysia, reformist cracks widen

Two votes. That was the margin by which Malaysia’s prime minister, a man with a supermajority in the 222-seat lower house, failed to pass a bill his own coalition had spent weeks publicly championing. After the numbers were read out, the cameras cut to Anwar Ibrahim. He was mid-laugh, chatting with his deputy. The bill, defeated on March 2, was supposed to be a quick win – a term-limit proposal capping any prime minister at two terms or 10 years in office, chosen precisely because it was...

By Joseph Sipalan