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Anwar starts wielding the axe for Malaysia’s future?
KUALA LUMPUR, March 6, 2025: After warming his seat for more than two years (since November 2022), his Madani Unity Government appears to be on the roll against corruption.
Not only is Anwar going after the corrupt, he is also dismantling Petronas and political hegemony. If he is going for a snap general election (GE) end of this year (Sabah must hold state elections), then he is also aiming to rid the country of racial and religious bigots who have been elected to office (the Taliban-like PAS, Perikatan Nasional and Umno).
Anwar is then hoping for a big win for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to deal with the bigots once and for all - for national unity and harmony, for the rakyat dan negara (people and country).
And, No News Is Bad News does not believe in coincidence as a slew of “happenings” is unravelling just after the racist and unpatriotic Muhyiddin “I Am Malay First” Yassin told his Bersatu grassroots and leaders to prepare for a snap general election, possibly end of this year.
Read the following and a previous posting and judge for yourself what is happening:
*COMMENT | GLC leaders feeling the heat - and they're singing Anwar's tune*
Tuan Muda
Published: Mar 5, 2025 9:15 AM
Updated: 9:15 AM
*COMMENT |* For too long, Petronas has loomed over Malaysia like a colossus - its monopoly strangling the economy, hoarding wealth, and breeding corruption.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim isn’t just trimming its fat; he’s carving it into pieces to ensure no single entity can hold the nation’s wealth hostage again.
As of March, his war on centralised power is clear: a smaller Petronas means a freer Malaysia - one unshackled from the Dr Mahathir Mohamad-era chokehold that turned oil riches into a crony slush fund.
“This isn’t about punishment,” Anwar told Bloomberg in January.
“It’s about liberation - breaking the chains of dependence and greed.”
The case is ironclad. Petronas’ unchecked dominance - controlling 70 percent of Malaysia’s oil and gas revenue - left it ripe for abuse.
Under Umno, it bankrolled everything from 1MDB’s black hole to Mahathir’s pet projects, while states like Sarawak and Sabah got crumbs.
Anwar’s fix? Shatter the monopoly, spread the power, and kill the corruption at its root.
Government-linked company (GLC) leaders across the board are feeling the heat - and they’re singing his tune.
*Voices of the purge: GLC leaders speak*
Petronas CEO Tengku Taufik Kamadjaja Aziz laid it bare in a February briefing: “Without adaptation, there will be no Petronas in 10 years.”
Anwar pounced on that, demanding a leaner operation.
“Rightsizing isn’t enough,” Taufik added in a follow-up X post.
“We’re slashing waste - corruption’s a death sentence now.”
When auditors flagged a RM500 million Sarawak contract tied to an Umno-linked firm, Anwar didn’t blink.
“Terminate it,” he ordered, and it was gone - replaced by Petros, Sarawak’s state player, in under a week.
Khazanah Nasional managing director Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir, overseeing GLC investments, doubled down in a statement: “The old Petronas model choked innovation. Anwar’s breaking it apart to let Malaysia breathe - any leader not on board is out.”
He’s not kidding - Khazanah axed two board members last month after uncovering RM200 million in “consulting fees” to political allies.
Anwar’s directive was blunt: “Clean it or I’ll clean you.”
Proton CEO Li Chunrong, steering the carmaker under Anwar’s reform lens, echoed the sentiment in a February interview: “Petronas’ monopoly drained resources from industries like ours. Smaller is stronger - corruption gets no air here.”
When an RM150 million parts contract smelled of kickbacks, Li scrapped it on Anwar’s orders, bragging later, “We’re building cars, not cronies.”
Even Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s CEO Baharin Din, grappling with energy grid upgrades, weighed in during a January energy forum: “Petronas hogged the pie while we begged for scraps. Anwar’s right - decentralise it, and we all win.”
An RM300 million fuel supply deal with a dubious middleman? Anwar killed it in February, redirecting funds to local grids.
*S’wak contracts: Freedom through fragmentation*
Sarawak is living proof of why Petronas must shrink.
As of March, Petros controls gas distribution - 1.2 billion cubic feet daily - under a deal Anwar brokered with Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Openg. This isn’t charity; it’s strategy.
Sarawak’s 60 percent share of Malaysia’s gas reserves was once Petronas’ cash cow, but now it’s fueling state-led growth.
When an RM700 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport contract hinted at padded costs, Anwar didn’t negotiate - he torched it. “Petros can handle it,” he said, per a Putrajaya insider.
Result? Sarawak keeps more revenue, and Petronas’ bloat shrinks.
Taufik admitted the shift stings: “Our 2024 profit dropped to RM55.1 billion - Sarawak’s rise cost us.”
But Anwar sees freedom, not loss. A smaller Petronas can’t dominate like it did under Mahathir, when billions flowed to his sons’ “konsortiums” instead of Malaysians.
*Sabah gas pipelines: Power to the periphery*
Sabah’s gas pipelines tell the same story. The Trans Sabah Gas Pipeline, stalled for years, got an RM2 billion jolt after Anwar demanded local control.
SMJ Energy now co-runs the Kimanis plant, and when a multi-million repair deal reeked of a Perikatan Nasional crony, Anwar’s response was swift: “Delete it.”
SMJ took over, and Sabah’s rural grids are finally lighting up. “Petronas can’t be king anymore,” TNB’s Baharin noted. “Anwar’s giving us room to grow.”
This fragmentation - Sarawak’s Petros, Sabah’s SMJ - ensures that no Mahathir 2.0 can hijack a single giant. A smaller Petronas, stripped of its monopoly, can’t fund Umno-style empires or bleed the ringgit dry.
*Freedom dividend: Ringgit and beyond*
The ringgit’s value to the US dollar, battered but stirring. Anwar’s shrinking Petronas to redirect its profits - RM20 billion earmarked for Pengerang refineries, not Singapore’s pockets.
His de-dollarisation push - yuan and ringgit trade pacts - cuts the petrodollar leash.
When an RM1.2 billion LNG deal with a US-Singapore firm raised graft flags, Anwar axed it, snarling, “We don’t need their chains.”
GLC leaders get it. Khazanah’s Amirul said, “A smaller Petronas frees capital for real growth - Anwar’s rewriting the rules.”
Proton’s Li added, “Corruption’s dead under him - our freedom’s the payoff.”
Anwar’s not just purging; he’s building a Malaysia where no cartel can strangle its future.
Petronas’ monopoly is history, and with it, the specter of Mahathir’s tyranny.
Anwar is making it smaller to make Malaysia bigger.
Free from cronies, free from foreign masters, and free to rise.
===========
TUAN MUDA is the pseudonym of Mudasir Khan, an American corporate transplant who grew up in Penang and brings a unique blend of global insight and local expertise to the logistics industry 
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
malaysiakini.com
COMMENT | GLC leaders feeling the heat - and they're singing Anwar's tune
PM on a major push against centralised power.
Tuesday, 4 March 2025
Anwar dismantling PN and Umno?
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No News Is Bad News
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Hosts Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim At Downing Street
LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 15: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (not pictured) meets with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at Downing Street on January 15, 2025 in London, England. The two leaders are meeting to discuss strengthening the strategic relationship between the UK and Malaysia. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Anwar dismantling PN and Umno?
KUALA LUMPUR, March 4, 2025: Is Malaysia’s 10th Prime Minister (PMX) Anwar Ibrahim a political maverick?The Coverage has posted an interesting read, claiming that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s political gambit is to bankrupt Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Umno.
No News Is Bad News prefers to read it with a pinch of salt but we reproduce below the article for your reading pleasure.
Also, we note that Facebook is suddenly flooded with "quality" images that run down the Opposition. Is this just a coincidence or part of the strategy to demonise the corrupt leaders from PN and Umno?
This comes after the racist and unpatriotic PN leader Muhyiddin "I Am Malay First" Yassin told his party members to prepare for a snap general election.
View the images and judge for yourself:
Anwar Checkmate Ismail Sabri : Dismantling PN Brick By Brick – Choking Its Cash & The Endgame Was To Bankrupt PN Finances
4 March, 2025
Barely 48 hours after it was reported last Saturday (Feb 22) that former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had collapsed in his residence and was hospitalised, a more shocking “revelation” rocked the nation!
This was after news broke out that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had seized a huge cache of money stashed in the home of a suspect said to be a former senior aide to the ill ex-PM; the money believed to be “political funds” was reportedly found kept in multiple bags and safes in several rooms and believed to be more than a whopping RM170 million!!
Needless to say, the timing of the raid and the humongous sum involved would have raised questions whether another ill-fated “Sheraton Move” may have actually been on the cards.
To add fuel to fire, another news website had also reported on rumours about a “backdoor” plan to take over Putrajaya with the Bera MP allegedly spearheading it with Bersatu deputy president Hamzah Zainudin and PAS vice-president Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar as his deputies.
This latest exposé would have turned the spotlight back to Anwar Ibrahim and his neverending war against the “rebels” from both within and outside UMNO who can’t seem to accept the fact that the once dominant party was now part of the PH-led unity government.
Interestingly, in a scathing judgement on the nationalist party, an observer Tuan Muda had articulated in a reputable news website recently as to how for decades the Malay party had thrived, fueled by a financial empire that was built on state plunder and corporate cronyism – but which was now like a dying beast, and on whose throat PMX literally had his boot on!
But how accurate was that crude observation?
The writer had added: Anwar is actually dismantling Umno brick by brick, choking its cash, crushing its legacy, and suppressing its loudmouth young guns, with the goal to ensure that no flicker of resurgence survives, not from the Mahathir-Daim crypt, not from Najib’s jail cell – and certainly not from Dr Akmal Saleh’s circus!
According to him, UMNO’s lifeblood has always been money – billions churned through a patronage mill that Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Daim Zainuddin perfected in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Was “privatization” really progress… or was it actually a heist?
He went on to claim that companies like UEM and Renong, tethered to Daim’s genius, raked in infrastructure deals – highways, towers, power plants – while (unashamedly) siphoning profits back into Umno’s war chest.
While more recently, the party’s current president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, allegedly dipped into RM31 million from Yayasan Akalbudi, a charity turned personal ATM!
In dealing with UMNO, Anwar’s weapon is simple: cut the cash!
Meanwhile, according to the writer, though younger Umno leaders like Dr. Akmal Saleh, and other right wing hardliners may bark racial rhetoric and Malay supremacy they may be nothing more than “loonies”, thriving on chaos where Umno’s old money once ruled.
The writer further asserted that Anwar was not flinching although these “brats” may threaten his “Reformasi” vision; after all, he just had to freeze the party’s funds, sideline their platforms, and let PKR’s grassroots outmuscle them.
In closing, he cautioned that Anwar’s playbook can be ruthless: with MACC raids and other tactics, the endgame was to bankrupt UMNO’s finances, and bury its “young turks” and disgrace its “old guard!”
Disgrace its old guard…?
Which brings us back to the unfortunate Ismail Sabri and the millions in cash found in the home of his former senior aide, as he lay helpless in the hospital, seemingly unable to defend himself against all the swirling allegations.
Now, the burning question on the lips of many would be: was the recent MACC action against the parties, linked to the ex-PM, part of a move by PMX to foil a “rumoured” coup against his two-year-old administration?
Political funds… or slush funds?
In conclusion, true, it may seem far-fetched to believe that the Madani government could fall so easily given the improving economic scenario and the reforms being implemented, albeit at a snail’s pace – and further bolstered by the anti-party hopping law already firmly in place.
Yet, like it or not, the fact remains that to many, the discovery of such a huge stockpile of cash allegedly running into more than RM177 mil may only point to one of two purposes, either it was intended to be used in elections to bribe voters – or that it was to be used to buy over MPs and state assemblymen!
Source : Newswav
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