Hamzah Zainudin is now Opposition Leader. Here’s why it’s abnormal.

A few days ago, it was announced that Hamzah Zainudin is now the Opposition Leader in Parliament. If you’re raising your eyebrow and going “Hamzah who now?”, you’re not alone; 3 out of 5 Cilisos staff we asked also not sure.

As a brief introduction, Hamzah has been the MP for Larut since 2008, starting out as an UMNO politician and later going independent and joining Bersatu. He held several Cabinet posts in the past, the most recent one being as the Minister for Home Affairs from 2020-2021. He had several controversies under his belt, perhaps most prominent among them being labelled as the ‘chief plotter’ by some for his role in the Sheraton Move.

During his tenure as Home Affairs Minister, he was said to have interfered with the PDRM’s internal affairs and abused their service, and targeted migrants and refugees during the pandemic. Still, disregarding the controversies, him being the Opposition Leader is an unusual situation. UMNO supreme council member Puad Zarkashi, for one, questioned whether this is a power shift in Perikatan Nasional (PN).

“Is Muhyiddin no longer interested in becoming prime minister? Is Hamzah PN’s poster boy in the 16th general election and the PM candidate. Is this a power shift? … Five years is too long for Hamzah to be leader of the Opposition. How does he want to play? Don’t let Muhyiddin perish in the hands of Hamzah,” – Puad Zarkashi, as quoted by the Malay Mail.

So why are people getting so worked up over Hamzah being the leader of the opposition? Well, as hinted in the quote…

The Opposition Leader is essentially their pick for Prime Minister

For those not familiar, how Malaysia’s Parliament works is that we have two sides. On one side is the Government side, formed by a majority of the MPs, and these guys get to pick Ministers and form a Cabinet, among other things. The remaining MPs are the Opposition side, and they also get to form their own ‘unofficial’ Cabinet of ministers, called the shadow Cabinet. We’ve written a more detailed explanation of shadow Cabinets in the past, but essentially it’s a sort of backup Cabinet for when the Opposition takes over the Government, if they win the next election or something.

The Prime Minister is the leader of the Government, so the leader of the Opposition is commonly seen as the ‘shadow’ Prime Minister, i.e. the MP they’ll want to be Prime Minister if they form the government. So it’s a pretty big deal, which is perhaps why in the past, the Opposition leader were commonly presidents/leaders of the opposition party with the most number of seats: Anwar Ibrahim or Wan Azizah when PKR was Opposition, Zahid Hamidi (and Ismail Sabri) for BN, Lim Kit Siang for DAP, and Abdul Hadi Awang for PAS.

Following that convention, the Opposition Leader should have been Abdul Hadi Awang since PAS is currently the biggest opposition party, or perhaps Muhyiddin as Bersatu was the second biggest.

However, as revealed by a coalition insider before the announcement, Hamzah might have been chosen because the leaders above him are otherwise preoccupied: Muhyiddin wanted to focus on the pending state elections, Abdul Hadi basically said nope and yeeted out of the picture…

“PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang does not want to be bogged down by it. It is taxing enough being PAS president,” – the source, as quoted by The Star.

…PAS’s deputy president (Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man) is already the state Opposition leader in Pahang, and Bersatu’s deputy president, Faizal Azumu, didn’t qualify as he lost his Tambun seat in GE15. Next in line are the secretary-generals, and Hamzah, Bersatu’s sec-gen, was chosen.

Although this may not be an official statement of how it really happened, with it in mind one might wonder…

Can Hamzah be a functioning Opposition leader?

With all the attention on how the new government is performing, sometimes we forget that the Opposition has a role to play in a democracy as well. They’re supposed to question the government of the day, scrutinize their policies, and hold them accountable. By poking holes in the government’s policies through debates and questions in Parliament, and later figuring out how to fix those holes, we’ll end up with stronger, better laws and practices.

The question then is will Hamzah be able to lead the current Opposition towards this ideal democracy? As one of the biggest oppositions in history, it’s a big task. The man himself seems to already have a vision for PN’s role, though.

“We will be an opposition that looks at all possibilities, give it our all for the sake of the people in ensuring the country heads in a better direction,” – Hamzah Zainudin, as quoted by Malay Mail.

Some had expressed their doubt over his appointment, theorizing that he’s just there as a spokesman to play up racial and religious issues that will ultimately end Harapan. Others are wary of his controversial track record. However, it seems that those from Perikatan Nasional are quite confident in his capabilities.

PN’s Mahathir Mohd Rais feels like Hamzah will give the Opposition a stronger voice, while Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal said that Hamzah’s “gravitas” and “deep experience in government” earned him the post, and that Hamzah is set apart from other great leaders as he’s an “enigma by himself”. Whatever that means.

Either way, perhaps the interesting appointment of Hamzah as the Opposition leader might serve as a reminder to the rakyat that this new government is also a chance for the Opposition to prove themselves. Will they commit to a better Malaysia together, or will they be stuck in the same old issues? Guess we’ll know as early as next week (Dec 19), when the new Parliament meets for the first time.