The Hindu : Abdullah emerges from mentor's shadow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2004

International

International

Abdullah emerges from mentor's shadow

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, MARCH 22. The landslide victory that Malaysia's ruling coalition won in Sunday's general election has placed the Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on the upward trajectory as a leader to reckon with in South East Asia.

Crafting nearly a clean sweep of all the seats in the eleventh Parliament of 219 members, Mr. Abdullah has decisively emerged from the political shadow of his towering mentor and former Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad. The governing alliance — Barisan Nasional (BN) — secured 195 of 213 seats for which results were announced by this morning.

A view in the political circles of Malaysia and the wider region is that Mr. Abdullah has given the religion-based "fundamentalist party'' — the Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) — such a drubbing that its reverberations can be of greater importance than might be immediately evident. The PAS claimed that it would remain a political force, despite its crushing defeat that nullified its potential as a factor in the parliamentary politics.

Political observers, puzzled at the sheer magnitude of the Islamist party's defeat, sought to trace the genesis of Mr. Abdullah's triumph to his political credentials. Cited in this context were his ability to project himself as a possible custodian of the cause of Islam in the diverse Malaysian society that harbours a Muslim majority. To this extent, he was perceivably able to erode the claims of the PAS as the sole possible champion of the Islamic cause. This aspect of Mr. Abdullah's politics was talked about even before Sunday's general election. The PAS had troubled the BN in the previous general election in 1999, and the coalition's overall victory, under Dr. Mahathir, was considered an escape towards the sunlight.

One other key factor being cited for Mr. Abdullah's success is his own image as a new face for the Prime Minister's post. He has been in power for just a few months since Dr. Mahathir's retirement.

While the United Malays National Organisation [UMNO], the largest constituent of the BN, stole the show, the other parties in the coalition, which represent the minority communities of local Chinese and ethnic Indians, reaped the gains of a merry band-wagon ride that Mr. Abdullah's `leadership' made possible.

However, an observer's view is that the BN may now need to stay aware of the pitfalls of any "hegemonic politics'' that the poll victory could cause. The UMNO has regained, in terms of electoral politics, the hearts and minds of the Malay community, which got divided over the imprisonment of the former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim. This may leave the minority parties within the BN with a qualitatively new challenge of preserving the political space of the local Chinese and ethnic Indians. The BN's traditional political agenda, as shaped during Dr. Mahathir's long reign, included multiracial coexistence on the basis of Malay predominance and the promotion of moderate Islam in a diverse society besides economic growth.

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