Malaysia poised for pivotal polls

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Dec 20, 2012

Simon Roughneen, Asia Times

Ahead of what reform campaigners believe will be Malaysia’s “dirtiest ever elections”, the long-ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has engineered something of a clean-up. In recent months, it has reformed some old and oft-derided laws, such as allowing indefinite detention without trial and forcing local newspapers to apply each year for a publication permit, a stipulation that encouraged self-censorship.

UMNO and its allies have governed Malaysia consecutively since achieving independence from colonial rule, a longevity not usually associated with electoral democracies. UMNO and its Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition survived the last election in 2008, though it ceded its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time and lost five out of 13 federal states to the opposition, a coalition of three parties led by controversial former UMNO firebrand Anwar Ibrahim that includes the Islamic party PAS and the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP).

While some in the Malaysian opposition and rights groups have criticized the recent reforms as piecemeal electioneering for next year’s vote, there are indications that the government has made some real positive changes, particularly regarding the overhaul of certain emergency laws and repealing the old Internal Security Act, a law which has in the past been used against the government’s political opponents.

Noting some improvements, Amanda Whiting, a law academic at University of Melbourne who carries out research on the Malaysian legal system, told Asia Times Online that “there now cannot be lengthy detention without trial, there must be a criminal court process, not extrajudicial detention.”

It remains to be seen whether the “two steps forward, one step back” reforms will be enough to help UMNO and its fellow members in the BN (or National Front) coalition to retain power over the Pakatan Rakyat (or People’s Justice) opposition coalition, said James Chin, a political scientist at Monash University’s Malaysia campus. He views the reforms as an appeal by Prime Minister Najib Razak to voters to stick with the devil they know.

“Najib is trying to say, ‘you can have an UMNO that is trying to reform, or you can opt for uncertainty with Anwar and PAS’,” Chin told Asia Times Online.

Many of Malaysia’s main political parties held internal conferences in late November and early December, with the election foremost on members’ minds. UMNO delegates rehashed old themes about continuity while accusing the Anwar-led coalition of being foreign-funded stooges with an anti-Malay, anti-Islam agenda.

These were viewed in some quarters as diversionary tactics. Najib and UMNO have come under fire of late with renewed allegations centering around a possible cover-up of the murder of a Mongolian model living in Malaysia in 2006 who associated with government officials, which in turn has been linked to a kickback scandal involving the government’s purchase of French submarines.

At times, the fear-mongering took unwittingly comic turns. Ibrahim Ali, president of Perkasa, a Malay supremacist organization with links to UMNO, suggested that Malays are economically disadvantaged against non-Malays due to Islamic law and therefore the government’s long-standing effective subsidization of the Malay population at the expense of other ethnic groups should continue.

“Gambling, liquor, entertainment outlets… how could Malays afford, be able to compete?” Ibrahim asked, citing businesses prohibited by sharia law.