Identity politics, which zooms in on race and religion, will be a feature of the Malaysian and Indonesian political landscape and it is important the issues associated with it are deftly managed, panellists cautioned. Prof Joseph Liow, dean of RSIS and the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at NTU, said one interesting aspect of the succession issue in Malaysia is that PM Mahathir Mohamad – having said he would hand over power in two years – would be considered in many a political system as a “lame duck”. But on the contrary, he is more often seen as a “man on a mission”.