Abdullah Strikes Back
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he hopes to stay on for a second term despite aggressive efforts by his predecessor to oust him in what's become one of the worst political rows in the ruling party in years.
"I will not run. I am here to stay. I have a long-term plan," Abdullah said in an interview with the Malay-language Mingguan Malaysia.
Abdullah added he would not be distracted by criticisms and insults hurled his way because "I know my focus and my aim".
"I will work to ensure all the projects are implemented," he said.
This is the first time Abdullah has indicated that he would continue to lead the ruling National Front coalition, which won a landslide victory during the 2004 election.
The remarks come ahead of the annual gathering next week of Abdullah's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), when party members are expected to demand Abdullah do more for the economy.
Abdullah and Mahathir are embroiled in a bitter dispute, with Mahathir accusing Abdullah of economic mismanagement, corruption and nepotism -- charges the incumbent leader has repeatedly denied.
The feud has shocked and dismayed UMNO members, who have also raised fears of party divisions.
Mahathir is set to be absent from the gathering after suffering a heart attack, but Abdullah's leadership is expected to come under scrutiny.
Abdullah expressed regret rather than worry about the accusations levelled at him.
"I am more regretful than worried. Is this the Mahathir that I once knew? This is a never-ending feud ... He is against me and the government in total," the premier said.
"Let him do what he wants but I will look after UMNO and the government as this is my responsibility," he added.
Abdullah faces a test of his grass-roots support within UMNO during the party's annual assembly this week, although he will be spared a face-down with 81-year-old Mahathir, who will skip the meeting after suffering a mild heart attack.
Abdullah, rehearsing a line he is likely to stress at the meeting, told the newspaper he would not be distracted by the Mahathir row and would focus on implementing a $54 billion five-year development blueprint he had unveiled in March.
"This debate will not decide whether we will win the next general elections. What is important is whether the government implements its development plans," Abdullah said.
"I have too much work. I want to focus on my work."
Though Mahathir will miss the UMNO assembly, he has strong party sympathy and his criticisms may be voiced by supporters, setting the stage for some potentially divisive debate.
One of Mahathir's sons, Mukhriz, told reporters on Sunday that he hoped his father's supporters within UMNO would speak up and defend his stand at the assembly.
"I hope at this UMNO general assembly we will see some of the speakers who still raise these issues and I hope it will be adequately debated," Mukhriz, a senior UMNO Youth member, told reporters at the hospital where his father was resting.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, accused by his predecessor of achieving nothing in three years in power, risks losing support unless he convinces party members this week he's making progress, analysts said, reports Bloomberg.
The gathering of the ruling United Malays National Organization, including an opening speech today by Abdullah, follows months of vitriolic criticism of his policies by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, a plunge in foreign direct investment and a slide down the corruption rankings.
``Expectations were so high,'' said Bruce Gale, a Singapore-based political consultant who has covered Southeast Asia for almost two decades. ``People became disillusioned.''
Abdullah, handpicked by Mahathir as the next premier in October 2003, led the ruling coalition to a landslide election victory less than five months later. Critics say government policies that hand out benefits to the ethnic Malay majority are holding the country back and deterring investors.
``Despite the desperate need to raise economic competitiveness, there is reluctance within UMNO to wean itself off preferential ethnic quotas and government handouts,'' said Andrew Aeria, a Sarawak, east Malaysia-based political analyst with Enterprise LSE, the commercial arm of the London School of Economics, and Ideaglobal.
Under Abdullah, economic growth in Southeast Asia's third- biggest economy accelerated to 7.2 percent in 2004, then slowed to 5.2 percent in 2005. Abdullah slashed spending to cut the budget deficit and export growth shrank.
Police State
Foreign direct investments in Malaysia fell to $3.97 billion in 2005 from $4.62 billion in 2004, last month's World Investment Report 2006 said. Indonesia, which drew $5.26 billion of foreign-direct investments last year, overtook Malaysia as Asia's sixth-most attractive country, the report said.
Mahathir, Malaysia's leader from 1981 to 2003, last month accused Abdullah of jeopardizing growth by neglecting technology investments and turning the nation into a police state. The UMNO gathering may yet be overshadowed by the former leader, who was hospitalized last week after suffering a heart attack.
The decline in foreign direct investments is a sign confidence in the administration is waning, Mahathir said in an Oct. 9 interview. He said the government's failures included scrapping construction of a bridge to Singapore, a project initiated during his time in power.
Corruption Index
The New Economic Policy, introduced in 1971, gives ethnic Malays, who account for about 60 percent of the population, privileged access to housing, education, jobs and company shares. The program was introduced after clashes between Malays and ethnic Chinese in 1969 killed hundreds of people.
Malaysia slipped to 44th in the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index from 39th last year, Transparency International said in a report last week. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang last month demanded a full list of Abdullah's achievements during his three years in office.
All the same, Abdullah, who lost his wife to breast cancer in 2005, is attempting to increase the wealth of rural Malaysians by plowing funds into areas such as education, agriculture and healthcare.
``Abdullah is genuine as a person and leader,'' said Nik Rosnah Wan Abdullah, head of political studies at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. ``His agenda is only to bring the nation forward in development. He needs all the support he can get.''
`Dirty Laundry'
Abdullah expects growth to accelerate this year as he raises development spending by 18 percent to 200 billion ringgit ($55 billion) until 2010 under a five-year development plan unveiled in March.
While Abdullah's spat with Mahathir may weaken the administration in the short term, the criticism may make the government more open and nimble, investors said.
``This washing of dirty laundry in public will keep things transparent,'' said Scott Lim, who helps manage about $330 million as chief investment officer at CMS Dresdner Asset Management Sdn. ``It will keep the government on their toes.''
Less than a month after Mahathir said he couldn't see any projects to boost economic growth, the government said it expects to generate as much as 382 billion ringgit of investments over the next 20 years in the southern state of Johor. That followed a plan to roll out education and agriculture projects totaling at least 100 billion ringgit.
Right Signal
Malaysia's improved relations with other nations is Abdullah's biggest achievement, said Singapore-based Gale.
``There's a certain relief because you don't hear the prime minister of the day making outrageous statements about foreign countries like the U.S,'' said Gale. Mahathir was renowned for verbal attacks against the U.S. and its allies.
Abdullah needs to step up the fight against corruption if he wants to gain more support, Gale said.
``Some tackling of a few high-profile cases and pushing them right through to the end would send the right signal to the ordinary voters,'' said Gale. ``Foreign investors would applaud as well.''
Abdullah must call a general election before March 2009.
``Next year will be critical,'' said Lim at CMS Dresdner, who expects Abdullah to go to the polls in 2008. ``He has to prove something.''
Ex-Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, who was hospitalized last week with a heart attack, plans to continue attacking the government until he sees some changes of policy, his son said.
Mahathir, who stepped down in 2003 after 22 years as prime minister, has this year accused his successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, of achieving nothing since taking over. He took issue with Abdullah after he reversed some investment decisions made under Mahathir, including a plan to build a bridge to Singapore, to focus on areas such as agriculture, health care and education.
``He will still continue to pursue the matter,'' Mukhriz Mahathir told reporters today at the National Heart Institute, where his father is being treated.
Doctors told Mahathir's family that he needs to keep working or his condition would deteriorate, his son said. Mahathir, who was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 9, will probably be discharged in four days, he said.
Still, Mahathir, 80, won't attend a meeting of the ruling United Malays National Organization party on Nov. 15 because he needs to rest, Mukhriz told reporters. He won't return to his normal working routine for another two months, he said.
Mahathir was hospitalized in April 1999 with a lung infection. He underwent heart-bypass surgery in 1989 and has since had regular hospital checkups. He was last admitted at the end of 2005.
Rural Campaign
The former leader, who was Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, usually spends three days a week as honorary president of the Perdana Leadership Foundation and two days a week advising national oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd., he said in an interview last month.
Under Abdullah, the government has postponed a $3.8 billion rail project and dropped plans to sell 60 percent of the state company managing the Bakun dam project in Sarawak state.
Mahathir has said Abdullah's administration has mismanaged unprofitable national carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd., founded by Mahathir in 1983, and has excessive control over the local media, which Abdullah denies.
Mahathir plans to take his campaign to rural Malaysians, who aren't hearing his criticism of the government, according to Mukhriz.
Murder and Politics, Malaysia Style
(Asiasentinel)
Malaysia’s biggest ethnic party, goes into its annual General Assembly on Nov. 13, focused on a sensational investigation involving a murdered Mongolian “freelance model” and her relationship to a top political analyst with close ties to Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak.
The investigation, made public Tuesday, involves Abdul Razak Baginda of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center and three Malaysian police personnel – all of whom are “assisting authorities” in their investigation into the disappearance of 28-year-old Altantuya Shaaribuu, who vanished three weeks ago after demanding to see Razak, whom she claimed fathered her 16-month-old child.
Najib, the defense minister, is a staunch defender of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi against vociferous attacks from former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. It remains to be seen if the investigation, will have any impact on Abdullah Badawi, whom Mahathir has repeatedly charged with corruption.
Until the stunning revelation of the gruesome murder, Mahathir had been the biggest political news in the country with his attacks on the Prime Minister. He has been forced to the sidelines and appears likely to stay there but public attention will certainly focus on Baginda’s link -- if any -- to the model’s murder.
All of this comes at a time when Abdullah Badawi has seemed able to rebuff Mahathir’s challenge and remain firmly in charge of both his party and the government, even if he has nothing like the overwhelming sway Mahathir enjoyed during his 22-year reign. The 80-year-old Mahathir’s support has clearly waned, as exemplified by his failure to even win a September national party election that would have given him the right to speak at the UMNO convention.
Although some delegates to the conclave are asking that Mahathir be given the opportunity to speak, and while he is certain to continue his increasingly irate statements, he had little chance of a comeback or delivering support for his lieutenants, Malaysian sources say, until the murder investigation was made public.
Says, a Kuala Kumpur-based lawyer, “Because Mahathir knows the inside stories and maneuvers, what he says carries more weight and more truth than you get from outside critics. People are sick of the excesses of Abdullah's relatives and blatant corruption and abuses of state leaders and local councilors that have been reported in the newspapers.”
But, the lawyer says, supporting Mahathir’s right to speak out can’t be equated with agreeing with everything he has done in the past, or wishing to see other factions in UMNO remove Abdullah Badawi from power. Malaysia’s sizeable minorities fear that a clash between Malay leaders could make the Chinese the targets of attack so as to divert attention from more important issues. They point to a statement by Abdullah Badawi’s son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, a few months ago that when Malays clash, the Chinese gain.
Other Malay leaders have made bellicose statements that much of the country’s minorities hope are merely rhetoric. The Chief Minister of Johor, Abdul Ghani, particularly questioned the wisdom of promoting the concept of Bangsa Malaysia (an ethnically unified Malaysian nation), a central tenet of the Malaysia 2020 plan put forward by Mahathir’s government in the early 1990s.
The plan is aimed at making Malaysia a fully developed nation with a high standard of living by 2020. It has particularly been embraced by ruling coalition components like the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) party and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) seeing it as an opportunity to set a time frame to creating a Malaysia undivided by ethnicities.
But at a state UMNO convention in the southern state of Johor, Abdul Ghani asserted that the Bangsa Malaysia concept would jeopardize the stability of the country by preventing Malays from retaining their pre-eminence as the country’s leading ethnic group. He has been joined by other Malay politicians as well in asserting racial supremacy.
Debating the 2007 budget in the Rakyat, or Malaysian parliament, Mohd Said Yusof, a government backbencher, also claimed that the equity of the bumiputera (literally “sons of the soil” or ethnic Malays) must not be questioned.
The attempt to gag the debate is all the more remarkable since the September release of controversial academic research titled “Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy” by the University of Malaya and the Asia Strategic Leadership Institute (ASLI), which argued that the government has far exceeded its target of delivering 30 percent of the country’s corporate equity to bumiputeras and that ethnic Malays today own as much as 45 percent.
The government insists that ethnic Malays control only 19 percent, far short of the goal set by Malaysia’s New Economic Policy, or NEP. Although the NEP officially ended in 1990, it was succeeded by a National Development Policy in 1991 designed to continue many of the affirmative action policies until bumiputeras attained their share of publicly listed corporate wealth.
.
The reaction to the report, assembled by a multi-ethnic group of academics, was swift. It was dismissed by UMNO leaders, who said it was intended to incite anger and confuse Malays.
Beyond using racial concerns to fish for support from the rank and file, which is formed of more than 1 million members from 191 divisions, the statements of these UMNO members serve to remind everyone, especially the opposition, of the limits of open discussion.
But there are other factors at work as well that make UMNO careful about losing its grip. The advent of corporatization over the last three decades has strengthened the commercial incentives of many in the party to keep the reins of power within its confines. Since the 1970s elite and ordinary members of UMNO have become beholden to subsidies, contracts, licenses and rent provided by the federal and state governments, ostensibly in the name of affirmative action.
To date, attempting to wean them from such handouts has been Abdullah Badawi‘s toughest assignment, especially granted the absence of outright support for him within UMNO in the face of Mahathir’s criticism.
Indeed, in light of the power of UMNO, cynics have claimed that it is no longer adequate for a Malay to be a bumiputera. Rather, they say, one has got to be an ‘UMNOPutera’ too. Such a view is not lost on those who need the privileged access to get their projects off the ground. Thus, the contemporary economic landscape of Malaysia has been peppered with datuks and tan sris, titles granted by sultans and local state dignitaries at their official birthday celebrations, who are concurrently business allies and occasionally silent nominees of UMNO.
The grip of UMNO is so strong that even non-Malay ministers, corporate tycoons and political activists read the wind carefully before saying or doing anything that might offend party elders. Many private and government-linked companies are also staffed by open or closet members.
To the extent other component parties in the ruling coalition try to set UMNO straight, however, they have had to do it through the respective youth wings in their parties.
Unimpeded by government positions and other trappings of office, these young members are tolerated as easily as they are brushed off by UMNO.
Hence while members of Gerakan Youth, an ethnic Chinese party have spoken out against Ghani’s Johor statements, for example, their opposition has had very little impact on pressuring him to recant. Instead it was left to Najib Abdul Razak, currently the deputy prime minister, to affirm that the Bangsa Malaysia policy remains a central tenet of the present government.
Still, in the days ahead, more UMNO members will blow hot and cold over various issues that are deemed to have affected the status of Malays, Islam and the country over the past year. The prime minister and his deputy must address them one by one, both before and during the UMNO assembly, in order to curtail the tendency of some to be over-zealous in their remarks.
In the interim, what other members of the component parties can do, aside from wringing their hands, is to reassure their party loyalists on the ground that Abdullah Badawi and Najib Abdul Razak carry the collective wisdom and gumption to control the unruly party apparatchiks.
Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Mahathir Asia UMNO
"I will not run. I am here to stay. I have a long-term plan," Abdullah said in an interview with the Malay-language Mingguan Malaysia.
Abdullah added he would not be distracted by criticisms and insults hurled his way because "I know my focus and my aim".
"I will work to ensure all the projects are implemented," he said.
This is the first time Abdullah has indicated that he would continue to lead the ruling National Front coalition, which won a landslide victory during the 2004 election.
The remarks come ahead of the annual gathering next week of Abdullah's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), when party members are expected to demand Abdullah do more for the economy.
Abdullah and Mahathir are embroiled in a bitter dispute, with Mahathir accusing Abdullah of economic mismanagement, corruption and nepotism -- charges the incumbent leader has repeatedly denied.
The feud has shocked and dismayed UMNO members, who have also raised fears of party divisions.
Mahathir is set to be absent from the gathering after suffering a heart attack, but Abdullah's leadership is expected to come under scrutiny.
Abdullah expressed regret rather than worry about the accusations levelled at him.
"I am more regretful than worried. Is this the Mahathir that I once knew? This is a never-ending feud ... He is against me and the government in total," the premier said.
"Let him do what he wants but I will look after UMNO and the government as this is my responsibility," he added.
Abdullah faces a test of his grass-roots support within UMNO during the party's annual assembly this week, although he will be spared a face-down with 81-year-old Mahathir, who will skip the meeting after suffering a mild heart attack.
Abdullah, rehearsing a line he is likely to stress at the meeting, told the newspaper he would not be distracted by the Mahathir row and would focus on implementing a $54 billion five-year development blueprint he had unveiled in March.
"This debate will not decide whether we will win the next general elections. What is important is whether the government implements its development plans," Abdullah said.
"I have too much work. I want to focus on my work."
Though Mahathir will miss the UMNO assembly, he has strong party sympathy and his criticisms may be voiced by supporters, setting the stage for some potentially divisive debate.
One of Mahathir's sons, Mukhriz, told reporters on Sunday that he hoped his father's supporters within UMNO would speak up and defend his stand at the assembly.
"I hope at this UMNO general assembly we will see some of the speakers who still raise these issues and I hope it will be adequately debated," Mukhriz, a senior UMNO Youth member, told reporters at the hospital where his father was resting.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, accused by his predecessor of achieving nothing in three years in power, risks losing support unless he convinces party members this week he's making progress, analysts said, reports Bloomberg.
The gathering of the ruling United Malays National Organization, including an opening speech today by Abdullah, follows months of vitriolic criticism of his policies by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, a plunge in foreign direct investment and a slide down the corruption rankings.
``Expectations were so high,'' said Bruce Gale, a Singapore-based political consultant who has covered Southeast Asia for almost two decades. ``People became disillusioned.''
Abdullah, handpicked by Mahathir as the next premier in October 2003, led the ruling coalition to a landslide election victory less than five months later. Critics say government policies that hand out benefits to the ethnic Malay majority are holding the country back and deterring investors.
``Despite the desperate need to raise economic competitiveness, there is reluctance within UMNO to wean itself off preferential ethnic quotas and government handouts,'' said Andrew Aeria, a Sarawak, east Malaysia-based political analyst with Enterprise LSE, the commercial arm of the London School of Economics, and Ideaglobal.
Under Abdullah, economic growth in Southeast Asia's third- biggest economy accelerated to 7.2 percent in 2004, then slowed to 5.2 percent in 2005. Abdullah slashed spending to cut the budget deficit and export growth shrank.
Police State
Foreign direct investments in Malaysia fell to $3.97 billion in 2005 from $4.62 billion in 2004, last month's World Investment Report 2006 said. Indonesia, which drew $5.26 billion of foreign-direct investments last year, overtook Malaysia as Asia's sixth-most attractive country, the report said.
Mahathir, Malaysia's leader from 1981 to 2003, last month accused Abdullah of jeopardizing growth by neglecting technology investments and turning the nation into a police state. The UMNO gathering may yet be overshadowed by the former leader, who was hospitalized last week after suffering a heart attack.
The decline in foreign direct investments is a sign confidence in the administration is waning, Mahathir said in an Oct. 9 interview. He said the government's failures included scrapping construction of a bridge to Singapore, a project initiated during his time in power.
Corruption Index
The New Economic Policy, introduced in 1971, gives ethnic Malays, who account for about 60 percent of the population, privileged access to housing, education, jobs and company shares. The program was introduced after clashes between Malays and ethnic Chinese in 1969 killed hundreds of people.
Malaysia slipped to 44th in the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index from 39th last year, Transparency International said in a report last week. Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang last month demanded a full list of Abdullah's achievements during his three years in office.
All the same, Abdullah, who lost his wife to breast cancer in 2005, is attempting to increase the wealth of rural Malaysians by plowing funds into areas such as education, agriculture and healthcare.
``Abdullah is genuine as a person and leader,'' said Nik Rosnah Wan Abdullah, head of political studies at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. ``His agenda is only to bring the nation forward in development. He needs all the support he can get.''
`Dirty Laundry'
Abdullah expects growth to accelerate this year as he raises development spending by 18 percent to 200 billion ringgit ($55 billion) until 2010 under a five-year development plan unveiled in March.
While Abdullah's spat with Mahathir may weaken the administration in the short term, the criticism may make the government more open and nimble, investors said.
``This washing of dirty laundry in public will keep things transparent,'' said Scott Lim, who helps manage about $330 million as chief investment officer at CMS Dresdner Asset Management Sdn. ``It will keep the government on their toes.''
Less than a month after Mahathir said he couldn't see any projects to boost economic growth, the government said it expects to generate as much as 382 billion ringgit of investments over the next 20 years in the southern state of Johor. That followed a plan to roll out education and agriculture projects totaling at least 100 billion ringgit.
Right Signal
Malaysia's improved relations with other nations is Abdullah's biggest achievement, said Singapore-based Gale.
``There's a certain relief because you don't hear the prime minister of the day making outrageous statements about foreign countries like the U.S,'' said Gale. Mahathir was renowned for verbal attacks against the U.S. and its allies.
Abdullah needs to step up the fight against corruption if he wants to gain more support, Gale said.
``Some tackling of a few high-profile cases and pushing them right through to the end would send the right signal to the ordinary voters,'' said Gale. ``Foreign investors would applaud as well.''
Abdullah must call a general election before March 2009.
``Next year will be critical,'' said Lim at CMS Dresdner, who expects Abdullah to go to the polls in 2008. ``He has to prove something.''
Ex-Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, who was hospitalized last week with a heart attack, plans to continue attacking the government until he sees some changes of policy, his son said.
Mahathir, who stepped down in 2003 after 22 years as prime minister, has this year accused his successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, of achieving nothing since taking over. He took issue with Abdullah after he reversed some investment decisions made under Mahathir, including a plan to build a bridge to Singapore, to focus on areas such as agriculture, health care and education.
``He will still continue to pursue the matter,'' Mukhriz Mahathir told reporters today at the National Heart Institute, where his father is being treated.
Doctors told Mahathir's family that he needs to keep working or his condition would deteriorate, his son said. Mahathir, who was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 9, will probably be discharged in four days, he said.
Still, Mahathir, 80, won't attend a meeting of the ruling United Malays National Organization party on Nov. 15 because he needs to rest, Mukhriz told reporters. He won't return to his normal working routine for another two months, he said.
Mahathir was hospitalized in April 1999 with a lung infection. He underwent heart-bypass surgery in 1989 and has since had regular hospital checkups. He was last admitted at the end of 2005.
Rural Campaign
The former leader, who was Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, usually spends three days a week as honorary president of the Perdana Leadership Foundation and two days a week advising national oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd., he said in an interview last month.
Under Abdullah, the government has postponed a $3.8 billion rail project and dropped plans to sell 60 percent of the state company managing the Bakun dam project in Sarawak state.
Mahathir has said Abdullah's administration has mismanaged unprofitable national carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd., founded by Mahathir in 1983, and has excessive control over the local media, which Abdullah denies.
Mahathir plans to take his campaign to rural Malaysians, who aren't hearing his criticism of the government, according to Mukhriz.
Murder and Politics, Malaysia Style
(Asiasentinel)
Malaysia’s biggest ethnic party, goes into its annual General Assembly on Nov. 13, focused on a sensational investigation involving a murdered Mongolian “freelance model” and her relationship to a top political analyst with close ties to Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak.
The investigation, made public Tuesday, involves Abdul Razak Baginda of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center and three Malaysian police personnel – all of whom are “assisting authorities” in their investigation into the disappearance of 28-year-old Altantuya Shaaribuu, who vanished three weeks ago after demanding to see Razak, whom she claimed fathered her 16-month-old child.
Najib, the defense minister, is a staunch defender of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi against vociferous attacks from former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. It remains to be seen if the investigation, will have any impact on Abdullah Badawi, whom Mahathir has repeatedly charged with corruption.
Until the stunning revelation of the gruesome murder, Mahathir had been the biggest political news in the country with his attacks on the Prime Minister. He has been forced to the sidelines and appears likely to stay there but public attention will certainly focus on Baginda’s link -- if any -- to the model’s murder.
All of this comes at a time when Abdullah Badawi has seemed able to rebuff Mahathir’s challenge and remain firmly in charge of both his party and the government, even if he has nothing like the overwhelming sway Mahathir enjoyed during his 22-year reign. The 80-year-old Mahathir’s support has clearly waned, as exemplified by his failure to even win a September national party election that would have given him the right to speak at the UMNO convention.
Although some delegates to the conclave are asking that Mahathir be given the opportunity to speak, and while he is certain to continue his increasingly irate statements, he had little chance of a comeback or delivering support for his lieutenants, Malaysian sources say, until the murder investigation was made public.
Says, a Kuala Kumpur-based lawyer, “Because Mahathir knows the inside stories and maneuvers, what he says carries more weight and more truth than you get from outside critics. People are sick of the excesses of Abdullah's relatives and blatant corruption and abuses of state leaders and local councilors that have been reported in the newspapers.”
But, the lawyer says, supporting Mahathir’s right to speak out can’t be equated with agreeing with everything he has done in the past, or wishing to see other factions in UMNO remove Abdullah Badawi from power. Malaysia’s sizeable minorities fear that a clash between Malay leaders could make the Chinese the targets of attack so as to divert attention from more important issues. They point to a statement by Abdullah Badawi’s son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, a few months ago that when Malays clash, the Chinese gain.
Other Malay leaders have made bellicose statements that much of the country’s minorities hope are merely rhetoric. The Chief Minister of Johor, Abdul Ghani, particularly questioned the wisdom of promoting the concept of Bangsa Malaysia (an ethnically unified Malaysian nation), a central tenet of the Malaysia 2020 plan put forward by Mahathir’s government in the early 1990s.
The plan is aimed at making Malaysia a fully developed nation with a high standard of living by 2020. It has particularly been embraced by ruling coalition components like the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) party and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) seeing it as an opportunity to set a time frame to creating a Malaysia undivided by ethnicities.
But at a state UMNO convention in the southern state of Johor, Abdul Ghani asserted that the Bangsa Malaysia concept would jeopardize the stability of the country by preventing Malays from retaining their pre-eminence as the country’s leading ethnic group. He has been joined by other Malay politicians as well in asserting racial supremacy.
Debating the 2007 budget in the Rakyat, or Malaysian parliament, Mohd Said Yusof, a government backbencher, also claimed that the equity of the bumiputera (literally “sons of the soil” or ethnic Malays) must not be questioned.
The attempt to gag the debate is all the more remarkable since the September release of controversial academic research titled “Corporate Equity Distribution: Past Trends and Future Policy” by the University of Malaya and the Asia Strategic Leadership Institute (ASLI), which argued that the government has far exceeded its target of delivering 30 percent of the country’s corporate equity to bumiputeras and that ethnic Malays today own as much as 45 percent.
The government insists that ethnic Malays control only 19 percent, far short of the goal set by Malaysia’s New Economic Policy, or NEP. Although the NEP officially ended in 1990, it was succeeded by a National Development Policy in 1991 designed to continue many of the affirmative action policies until bumiputeras attained their share of publicly listed corporate wealth.
.
The reaction to the report, assembled by a multi-ethnic group of academics, was swift. It was dismissed by UMNO leaders, who said it was intended to incite anger and confuse Malays.
Beyond using racial concerns to fish for support from the rank and file, which is formed of more than 1 million members from 191 divisions, the statements of these UMNO members serve to remind everyone, especially the opposition, of the limits of open discussion.
But there are other factors at work as well that make UMNO careful about losing its grip. The advent of corporatization over the last three decades has strengthened the commercial incentives of many in the party to keep the reins of power within its confines. Since the 1970s elite and ordinary members of UMNO have become beholden to subsidies, contracts, licenses and rent provided by the federal and state governments, ostensibly in the name of affirmative action.
To date, attempting to wean them from such handouts has been Abdullah Badawi‘s toughest assignment, especially granted the absence of outright support for him within UMNO in the face of Mahathir’s criticism.
Indeed, in light of the power of UMNO, cynics have claimed that it is no longer adequate for a Malay to be a bumiputera. Rather, they say, one has got to be an ‘UMNOPutera’ too. Such a view is not lost on those who need the privileged access to get their projects off the ground. Thus, the contemporary economic landscape of Malaysia has been peppered with datuks and tan sris, titles granted by sultans and local state dignitaries at their official birthday celebrations, who are concurrently business allies and occasionally silent nominees of UMNO.
The grip of UMNO is so strong that even non-Malay ministers, corporate tycoons and political activists read the wind carefully before saying or doing anything that might offend party elders. Many private and government-linked companies are also staffed by open or closet members.
To the extent other component parties in the ruling coalition try to set UMNO straight, however, they have had to do it through the respective youth wings in their parties.
Unimpeded by government positions and other trappings of office, these young members are tolerated as easily as they are brushed off by UMNO.
Hence while members of Gerakan Youth, an ethnic Chinese party have spoken out against Ghani’s Johor statements, for example, their opposition has had very little impact on pressuring him to recant. Instead it was left to Najib Abdul Razak, currently the deputy prime minister, to affirm that the Bangsa Malaysia policy remains a central tenet of the present government.
Still, in the days ahead, more UMNO members will blow hot and cold over various issues that are deemed to have affected the status of Malays, Islam and the country over the past year. The prime minister and his deputy must address them one by one, both before and during the UMNO assembly, in order to curtail the tendency of some to be over-zealous in their remarks.
In the interim, what other members of the component parties can do, aside from wringing their hands, is to reassure their party loyalists on the ground that Abdullah Badawi and Najib Abdul Razak carry the collective wisdom and gumption to control the unruly party apparatchiks.
Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Mahathir Asia UMNO
posted by Ah Yun Wong at
10:49 AM
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