And so it has been decided. Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob will be Malaysia's ninth prime minister after getting the support of the majority of members of parliament, as determined by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
The announcement was made after a two-hour special meeting convened by the Malay rulers, which was presided by the king, yesterday.
Will we see another round of politicking? This political quagmire Malaysia is in seems never-ending. In the 18 months after the "Sheraton Move", it has been a whirlwind of "political this and that", one after another.
For five days, while Covid-19 raged on, we were without a leader or an effective government. It should be obvious by now what the new prime minister and his team are up against. Recent statistics are telling. Yesterday's daily tally of infections reached another record high of 23,564 cases with 233 deaths, the third consecutive day that the number of Covid-19 cases has topped the 22,000 mark, from the 22,948 the day before.
It is 460 infections per 100,000 people reported in the last seven days, according to Reuters. Despite our vaccination rate, which is said to be among the fastest in the world, the spike in cases has not seen a downward trend. Such dismal news.
Malaysians have had enough. The rakyat have been patient. It matters not which party this prime minister belongs to, what is important is he is able to steer us of out this pandemic. No more politics, please. The country is sick. Are we going to continue pouring poison or give the right medicine for it to recover?
All around the region countries are seeing a surge in cases. Japan, for instance, on Tuesday, extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions and announced new measures covering seven more prefectures to counter a spike in infections which is said to be threatening the medical system.
Vietnam is battling its fourth wave, where almost 30,000 workers have been infected in 50 cities and provinces and 390,000 workers are living in lockdown areas. Globally, the number of new infections has been increasing for the last two months with more than 4.4 million cases reported in the past week. The total number of cases now is over 206 million.
We are dealing with an unseen enemy that is two-fold, the pandemic and politics. The new prime minister and his team need to fix the problem. The nation's interests — that of addressing the pandemic and ensuring economic recovery — come first.
After all, the MP appointed as prime minister, and the other MPs, were first and foremost, elected by the people. The mandate was, and is, to serve the nation until their term ends or until the next general election is called. There are no easy fixes for deep-rooted political problems.
But for now, the political parties must settle for a truce and work together for a common cause. The keyword here is acceptance — the king has decided, we must now accept.
The work starts henceforth. Enough with the political intrigues or shenanigans. There are bigger problems at hand.