Sin Chew Daily

Different people may have very different evaluations of PM Muhyiddin's first hundred days in office.

It doesn't matter whether he has performed well or not up to the mark, it is anyway just a beginning. The government will still have lots of harsh challenges to overcome over the next couple of months in revitalizing the anemic economy and restoring public confidence, among many other things.

Muhyiddin moved up the hierarchy in the midst of a political upheaval. The political ripples remain untamed even as his administration has been installed for over three months now. Given the razor-thin majority commanded by Muhyiddin and his PN alliance, any slightest shift in the equilibrium could see the administration brought down again. As such, the entire political climate remains highly unpredictable.

On the opposition front, Muhyiddin finds himself face-to-face with real challenges from his predecessor Tun Mahathir who has vowed to do everything to take him down.

In the government fold, his party PPBM is not the biggest in the ruling coalition, and he still needs to look to Umno and PAS to stay in office. So far the PM has sailed past this first hurdle rather safely, as Umno and PAS reps have been handsomely rewarded for their allegiance. Other than blasting him outside the government, there isn't much Mahathir can do at this moment to rock his status.

Additionally, despite the residual political reverberations during these few months, no aggressive racial issues have been raised, and the Malaysian society has been relatively harmonious of late.

Political challenges aside, the prime minister also needs to tackle the coronavirus outbreak which started to spread wildly during his first few days in office.

To be fair, Muhyiddin has indeed done quite well in containing the virus outbreak. As health DG Noor Hisham Abdullah has said, the prime minister unhesitantly implemented the MCO at a time many other countries were still unprepared for more drastic lockdown policies. This shows his resolution and courage. There is no denying Malaysia has done pretty well in containing the virus.

Economic slowdown has not popped up only very recently, but has aggravated following the spread of the coronavirus.

The government is torn between containing the virus and preventing the economy from heading further south. We need to strike a strategic balance between the two: to stop the free-falling of the Malaysian economy while effectively curbing the spread of the virus.

To offset the impact from the coronavirus, keep the economy running and retain the job opportunities of Malaysians, the government has come up with a series of stimulus packages, including the RM250 billion prihatin stimulus package, RM10 billion prihatin package for SMEs (additional measures) and the RM35 billion national economic revitalization plan.

Although the national economy has yet to be delivered out of the doldrums, at least it has not deteriorated down the path of recession.

Muhyiddin is walking a political tightrope. While he has put up a rather good show during his first hundred days in office, some deficiencies have nevertheless been exposed. But, as mentioned earlier, this is just a beginning and Malaysians are looking to him and his government to take decisive actions post-MCO to institute the much needed reforms to guide the nation forward.