The Hindu : ELECTIONS IN MALAYSIA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

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ELECTIONS IN MALAYSIA

THE DECISION BY Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi of Malaysia to dissolve Parliament and call elections nine months ahead of schedule reflects his determination to win his own mandate and emerge from the towering shadow of Mahathir Mohammed. Mr. Badawi was anointed by Mr. Mohammed to succeed him when he stepped down from the premiership of Malaysia last October after 23 years at the helm. Under Mr. Mahathir, Malaysia transformed itself from a cash crop-and-mining economy into a modern, industrial powerhouse and one of Asia's most developed societies. In the four months since taking over the reins of Malaysia, Mr. Badawi has made it clear that while building on Mr. Mahathir's legacy, he will address some of the weaknesses of the system he has inherited, the most entrenched of which are corruption and cronyism. His first steps in this direction — the arrest of a Minister on corruption charges, the cancellation of a big contract to a prominent businessman, and the introduction of competitive bidding for contracts — have sent shock waves through Malaysia and at the same time raised expectations that he will initiate a major reform. Mr. Badawi also wants to shift the focus of development from urban Malaysia to the rural hinterland. He has wisely decided to strengthen his hands with a people's mandate.

There is not the slightest doubt that Mr. Badawi's United Malays National Organisation, and the ruling National Front coalition of which it is the main constituent, will win this election. The main challenge for Mr. Badawi, however, is to prevent the Parti Islam se Malaysia (PAS), the main Opposition party, from making any major gains. The fight between the two parties is for the Malay vote. Malays constitute about 60 per cent of the country's 25 million people and are almost entirely Muslim. The PAS has declared it wants to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state. In the last election held in 1999, soon after Mr. Mahathir sacked and imprisoned his then deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, the PAS managed to wean a significant proportion of Malays to its side. But the PAS may find the coming contest tougher. The Anwar Ibrahim episode, which caused bitter divisions among Malays four years ago, has faded from the public mind. The economic crisis that loomed over South-East Asia five years ago has been resolved and the Malaysian economy, one of the first to bounce back, is humming along. With his understated and non-confrontational style of politics, Mr. Mahathir's successor enjoys considerable personal popularity. As for his religious credentials, Mr. Badawi is a reputed Islamic scholar. Goaded recently by the PAS to make public his stand on the sharia, he set out his vision for Malaysia as "Islamic hadhari" or Islamic governance, describing this as "working hard, hunger for knowledge and information in science and technology," all aimed at the economic development of the country.

The UMNO has the support of the Chinese and Indian ethnic minorities, who together constitute about 40 per cent of the population and who fear the PAS and its vision of an Islamic theocracy. Even so, any significant drop in support for UMNO among Malays could set off challenges to Mr. Badawi's leadership of his party, and, as the leader of the party is also the Prime Minister, to his stewardship of the country. In the last elections, the ruling coalition had a two-thirds majority in parliament. Mr. Badawi is on test for a similar result this time. In this sense, the most important aspect of this election will be the scale of Mr. Badawi's victory.

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