“What’s important is what I did during that time,” he told FMT in an interview. “Whether my tenure was short or long isn’t important. If you have a long tenure but do nothing for the rakyat, then it is meaningless,” he said.

His focus was always on the job at hand, he said, after taking over the reins of government during a most difficult period when Covid-19 deaths were skyrocketing, the economy was in tatters and there was a lack of political stability.

“I had to focus on these three issues. We overcame these issues even though I only had a short tenure. The Covid-19 situation improved to the point that we could reopen the economy”, he said.

Cutting through politics

Ismail said he also managed to stabilise the political landscape through the memorandum of understanding with Pakatan Harapan, a first in the country’s history.

The MoU led to the introduction of a number of reforms including an anti-hopping bill and equal constituency allocations for all MPs.

“I felt the political battles were meaningless, the government’s focus should be on fighting Covid-19, reviving the economy.”

He said Malaysia’s Gross Domestic Product growth was the best in the region during his 14-month tenure.

A coalition of rivals

Ismail said he would leave it to the rakyat to judge his performance but hoped people would keep in mind that his government was a coalition that comprised Barisan Nasional’s rivals.

“It’s not easy running a coalition government, especially one comprising your rivals,” he said. “It is important to remember that this was a situation we in Umno didn’t want. ”

Ismail said Umno had wanted a general election to be held after the PH government led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad collapsed in March 2020, but a general election could not be held amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Subsequently, Muhyiddin Yassin was appointed as the prime minister of a coalition government.

Delivering on stability

In mid-2021, Muhyiddin’s government also collapsed when Umno withdrew support from him as prime minister, and a new coalition government was formed by Ismail.

He said his government managed to score some big wins in a short period, despite the complexities and challenges of running a coalition of rivals.

Among his achievements was the record amount of RM77.7 billion spent on subsidies for 2022, double the amount spent in the previous year, as the government understood that many people were still struggling even after the economy had reopened.

“My government also took bold measures to combat rising prices. We abolished the need for approved permits (APs) for food imports, set up a stockpile for essential food items and allocated RM1.1 billion to support poultry farmers to keep prices of chicken and eggs low, while strengthening food security.

“We also banned the export of chickens to ensure there was enough supply for Malaysians.”

To support B40 and M40 households, Ismail said the government also spent RM8.2 billion to provide Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia aid to 9.6 million people, a million more than in 2021.

“There was also the RM2.3 billion we spent on aid for flood victims since the end of last year.”

Looking back, Ismail said he believed that he had given his best in his short tenure and his government had shown that he and BN could deliver on promises of stability, prosperity and political reforms.