KUALA LUMPUR: Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as the seventh prime minister of Malaysia by the Malaysian king at the Royal Palace in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Dressed in traditional Malay clothing, Mahathir had waited outside the palace since the afternoon for the “coronation” of his prime ministership.
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman had earlier demanded that the monarchy form the new government immediately.
“We need to form the government now, today. The interim government is now over,” he said.
At a packed press conference, Mahathir urged the Malaysian monarchy to accept the PH leader as the new prime minister.
“We expect today I will be sworn in as the prime minister,” he said.
“If the (new) government is not appointed immediately, the country is without a government,” he said, adding that PH had won the majority of seats and were entitled to form the government under the rule of law and constitution.
Najib Razak in his concession speech earlier on Thursday accepted the Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling government’s defeat at the 14th general elections.
“I accept the verdict of the people,” Razak said.
Despite this, the caretaker prime minister said that there was no party with a majority lead, and so the monarchy would be tasked with making the decision to appoint the new prime minister.
This has led the opposition coalition to present a letter to the country’s king to announce the new prime minister swearing-in ceremony as soon as possible.
The letter was signed by the leaders of the four parties which formed the Alliance of Hope — the Democratic Action Party (DAP), People’s Justice Party (Keadilan), National Trust Party (Amanah) and Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU).
Sabah Heritage Party (Warisan) and a few of the independent parties in Sabah also gave their support for Mahathir’s prime ministership.
“There will be a total of 135 seats,” he said.
Mahathir said that he would get straight to work once sworn in. “There are so many things to get done,” he said.
On the first day he said that he would call for a parliamentary session with all members of Parliament, as well as “have the rule of law fully implemented.”
His agenda includes seeking the “release and full pardon” of Anwar Ibrahim, who has been called prime minister in-waiting, “for him to take part in politics.”
Anwar is due to be released from prison by early next month. He has been in and out of prison due to the decade-long controversial sodomy charges against him from the previous BN government.
“The greatest litmus test of Mr. Mahathir’s commitment to the PH is if he hands over power to Mr. Anwar, as he promised,” said Fung Siu, regional manager, Asia, The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU).
The incoming prime minister also said that he would end the unpopular Government and Services Tax (GST). “There will be no rolling back, there will be a cancelation (of GST),” he said.
For the first time since 1957, the BN did not win the majority of parliamentary seats and the country is facing its first challenge toward a peaceful transition of power between two different political coalitions. The new government will see Malaysia appoint the oldest prime minister, at 92 years old, in the world.
