One Malaysia ? – in New York Times
Najib’s slogan is “One Malaysia,” an attempt to portray his government as a unifying force. Its actual policies may remain racially skewed in favor of Malays and oppressive of dissent.
Malaysia is a lucky country but not at present a happy one, a worrying situation for a Muslim-majority nation that needs to balance democracy and free choice with religious and racial harmony.
Malaysia is lucky because its abundance of resources has enabled the economy to keep growing. It is unhappy because its politics are between a rock and a hard place.
Malaysia badly needs a break from 52 years of sometimes authoritarian and corrupt rule by a coalition of race-based parties headed by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which controls most levers of power and money.
Yet that change may not come any time soon. The opposition coalition, headed by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, made huge gains in 2008 elections but is finding it difficult to bridge divisions between Malays in the Islamic Party (PAS), ethnically self-conscious Chinese and Indians in the left-leaning Democratic Action Party, and disgruntled moderate Malays and liberals of all races in Anwar’s Keadilan party.
Indeed, the opposition reflects extremes of the racial and religious spectrum while the governing coalition, with all of its problems, still holds much of the middle ground.
The governing coalition had a big opportunity to remake itself after its election setback and with the appointment in April of a new prime minister, Najib Razak, in place of the ineffective Abdullah Badawi. Najib began with a flurry of measures to appeal to the different constituencies.
The Chinese were pleased by a decision to end compulsory 30-percent Malay ownership for some service industries; Malays, by the decision to end the use of English rather than Malay for teaching science and math; Indians, by the release of activists detained without trial for demanding an end to alleged discrimination against Hindus; and foreigners, by moves to liberalize investment in the financial sector.
But hopes that the 2008 election result and a new prime minister would persuade the ruling coalition to address endemic high-level corruption, loosen political influence on the judiciary and end detention without trial have been dashed.
