“Malaysian politics is all about individuals rather than parties – and as a result character assassination is an effective tool here” - Political Analyst Shamsul Amin Baruddin
“It is getting harder to interpret political developments in the country with just about every one trying to stake a claim to the future. The disorder we’re experiencing is just that: random and inexplicable” Karim Raslan (The Star)
INTRODUCTION
Malaysia, known for its political stability for the last fifty years or so, had a big jolt in the last general elections (March 2008), when the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority besides losing control of four more states to the opposition in addition to the state of Kelantan. The ruling coalition won 63 % of the parliamentary seats in stark contrast to the 91 % of the seats it had won in 2004. Despite calls for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to take the blame and step down, he continues as the Prime Minister, though under pressure more from his own party UMNO, has announced to hand over the reins to his deputy Najib Razak in March 2009, after the party general assembly and elections. Instances of defections, character assassinations, fiery speeches on Malay superiority, ban on popular movements, discussions on the NEP, religious assertion and increased use of Internal Security Act (ISA), have become a regular feature, sullying the Malaysian politics to an unprecedented level.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
The Prime Minister with his “Mr. Clean” image was more accessible and considered more “Islamic” than his predecessor but failed to deliver the goods. The last tenure was uneventful and the country’s economy stagnated though there were other extraneous factors. His management style and decision making were often questioned. He did not have an efficient team of advisors. He came under heavy criticism from his own predecessor, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who went to the extent of repenting for making him the Prime Minister. He could not rein in his own party members to work as one and failed to curb the Malay chauvinism for which the party and the ruling coalition had to pay a heavy price. His concept of Islam Hadhari does not seem to have clicked with the fairly conservative Muslim majority of the nation. The promised reforms of the police and judiciary had not made much headway. At the end of his last term people had started going to the streets for airing their grievances, which was something new to Malaysia.
Anwar Ibrahim
The former Deputy Prime Minister, who had spent six years in jail, was a free man but could not contest the last general elections (March 2008) since there was a ban on him to seek public office till April 2008. He deserves all the credit for bringing together the three opposition parties with different ideologies and racial composition to an alliance before the elections and for winning 82 of 222 parliamentary seats and thereby denying two- thirds majority to the ruling coalition.Despite fresh allegations of sodomy for which he was detained and later released on bail in July 2008, he won a by- election in August 2008 with a landslide victory and returned to the parliament to become the leader of the opposition. Anwar termed the accusation (of sodomy) against him as a ‘sickening’ government conspiracy to prevent his rise.He has his fair share of follies in trying to topple the ruling coalition by announcing the time frame for a specified number of parliamentarians from the ruling coalition joining the opposition. These dead lines could not be met and he has come under harsh criticism from the opposition parties for encouraging the trend of “party hopping”. Since then some of the legislators of the opposition have switched over to the ruling coalition, because of which, the Perak state had changed hands from the opposition to the ruling coalition in February 2009.Anwar is also being accused of criticizing the very same policies backed by him when he was in the Barisan Nasional Government in the 1980s and 1990s.There is an ongoing smear campaign against Anwar both from within and by the ruling coalition (ostensibly by his nemesis Najib Razak).The case against him for sodomy is still pending and he fears he may be rearrested at any time.
Najib Razak
He is the son of the country’s second premier Tun Abdul Razak and currently the Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.There are allegations that he is linked in the case of a Mongolian model who was murdered in 2006. Anwar had propped up a private investigator to spill the beans to the media that Najib was involved in sexual relationship with the model. The investigator, however, retracted the statement and Najib has also denied any involvement in the death of the model.In November 2008, he emerged as president elect of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). By the party’s convention, the prime minister’s post goes to the president. In obtaining 140 nominations from the 192 divisions, he has come out as the unopposed leader of the party with a mandate to retrieve the image of the party after the last poll debacle.Since his nomination as the next party president and in his capacity as finance minister he has started addressing the concerns of the party and the government and taking major decisions and interact with the media as prime minister-in-waiting.Najib is likely to continue with the affirmative action policies and pander to the Malay majority though at times he has toned down to placate the minorities by certain gestures such as apologising for the demolition of a Hindu temple.With Najib coming to power, “some in Malaysia are bracing for a return to ‘Mahathirism’, a leadership style that favours turbocharged, state-led industrialization and promotes ‘Asian Values’ as antidote to Western freedom. So far Najib has done little to dispel this impression” - The Economist He was in charge of the campaigning for two by- elections held since the last general elections and he failed in that as both seats went to the opposition. Though this went against his organizational ability, he managed a political coup in the state of Perak by enticing a few opposition legislators to switch over to the ruling coalition, a few independents to pledge their support and thereby regain control of the state by a slender margin. This has surprised the opposition and shocked the country with the games that are being played by the political parties. This has even dragged the Sultan of the State into limelight for the controversial decision to hand over power to BN instead of dissolving the house.
The Common Man
The common man in Malaysia is perhaps tired of the dirty politics that has gripped the country since March 2008 without any major effort from the government to alleviate his economic woes. The reduction in petrol prices have been in trickles as compared to the world market. Electricity charges have been hiked in July 2008 by over 20% though reductions have been promised. Instances of pressure on the opposition legislators to defect to the ruling coalition or the other way round is a regular feature in the news paper. The non-Malays are often reminded of the Malay superiority and that the affirmative action policies will continue irrespective of who is at the top. Personal assaults and slanderous campaigns against politicians for misuse of power and their private affairs are highlighted regularly in the media. Bloggers criticizing the government policies are being harassed or being tried under ISA. A recent case of an opposition woman legislator’s nude photographs being circulated on the internet has shocked the common man though the Deputy Prime Minister has reiterated that it was not politically motivated. To top it all, the constitutional crisis in the state of Perak, where both the ruling coalition and the opposition are at loggerheads, with the speaker suspending the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) and six other executive councilors, had been hogging the headlines of print, visual and online media for over a week.
The Ruling Coalition (Barisan National - National Front)
The ruling coalition called the Barisan National (BN) is made up of 14 national and regional parties. However the main constituents are the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) representing the Malays, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) representing the Chinese and the Malaysia Indian Congress (MIC) representing the Indians. Of late the Barisan National has acquired a damaging image that it can go to any extent to discredit the opposition. UMNO had its biggest set back in the general elections as the dominant partner of the ruling coalition by winning only 79 seats as against 109 in 2004. Dissensions and rifts within the party surface time and again though denied publicly. Dr. Mahathir, former prime minister, resigned from the party in 2008 citing the inept handling of the party by its leadership. Tengku Razaleigh Hamza, who failed in his effort to contest Najib for the top party post, has often openly criticized the functioning of the party. The general assembly scheduled for last November had to be postponed due to myriad party problems to March 2009 when the elections for the party president and the other office bearers will be held. Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) had its own leadership problems and in mitigating the particular problems of the Chinese Community. Its performance in the last elections was also dismal – winning 15 parliamentary seats as against 31 in 2004.Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) has virtually been annihilated in the last general election. As per a media report, backing of the Indians to the ruling coalition had plummeted from 82 to 47 percent. The party managed to retain only 3 of the 9 parliamentary seats and 6 of the 19 state seats it contested. The President (Samy Vellu), Deputy President, two vice-presidents, the youth chief and women’s wing chief lost in the election. Ethnic grievances, highlighted by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) and the negative response from the MIC to that, was one of the major reasons for the downfall of the MIC.Dato Seri Samy Vellu, despite being dethroned from his cabinet minister’s post, still hangs on to the post of party president (held by him since 1979) disregarding the clamour from the community for him to step down. He is not allowing any of his subordinates to come up and he is contesting for the president’s post in the party elections again in March. The party is ridden with factions, internal fighting and mismanagement of its investment and education wings.
The opposition alliance (Pakatan Rakyat – People’s Alliance)
The opposition alliance is made up Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) representing all the three races, Democratic Action Party (DAP) predominantly Chinese and Parti Islam se Malaysia (PAS) representing the Malays. The lack of experience of the opposition coalition is evidenced in the management of the states under its control. Besides lack of cooperation from the centre, it is facing an uphill talk to govern the states. Soon after the elections power sharing problems between the component parties in the states under their control came to the fore. The alliance has not been able to implement the pre election promises such as curbing of corruption, improvement of human rights and economic reforms by often taking refuge under the absence of ‘a level playing field’. PKR is the party that was being led by the wife of Anwar Ibrahim till he returned to active politics. It is the backbone of the opposition more because Anwar is the coordinator and the unifying force of these three disparate parties. The party is politically young with no able second rung of leaders. It could not field a Menteri Besar (Chief Minister of a State) despite the party having the maximum seats and giving the post to a PAS candidate. The party, in championing the cause of other races is facing the risk of alienating the majority Malays.DAP has some able leadership and has been the main opposition to the ruling coalition till Pakatan Rakyat was formed. DAP has always been opposed to PAS because of its ultimate aim of establishing an Islamic state. Hence co-operation between these two is more at the surface level and the alliance, more a marriage of convenience.PAS was being virtually wooed to join the UMNO (after the last elections) so that the Malay majority will have sufficient strength to tackle the others. Through this did not happen, the possibility will continue to be explored by Najib and his party. PAS, even though it has given up its demand for a Shariah-based Islamic state, has its own woes as it can not shed its conservative image with some hardliners at the helm.. PAS had flirted with UMNO in “Muslim Unity” talks and this has not gone well with the other two in the coalition –DAP and PKR. With all this they are not able to convince the other two races to come to their support in any joint effort.
Conclusion
As of now, the dust after the storm (March 2008 general election) has not yet settled down. There is a political quagmire with both the ruling coalition and the opposition trying to outdo each other and the general public caught in the cross fire.In this political battle the racial harmony which was juggled to balance all these years is getting distorted. The economy is weakening with less of foreign direct investment forthcoming. Even the monarchy and the political institutions are being questioned for their actions. Assertive articulation of deep seated discontent by the ethnic minorities is posing to be the biggest challenge to the new leader. There is more public unrest exhibited through demonstrations, street protests, and blogs. The country should bounce back, be it under Najib, Anwar or a third person at the earliest and become politically stable as before.
C.S.Kuppuswamy
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