A prince of a problem
K U A L A L U M P U R
IT IS a question in desperate need of an answer. What everyone
in
Malaysia wants to know, including the prime minister, Mahathir
Mohamad, is whether Tengku (Prince) Razaleigh Hamzah will mount a
challenge for one of the top two posts in the ruling United Malays
National Organisation (UMNO). The prince may respect the stern advice
of UMNO’s supreme council that Dr Mahathir and his deputy, Abdullah
Badawi, should be elected unopposed as party president and
vice-president respectively. These are powerful positions. Whoever
rules UMNO rules Malaysia; it has long been that way. But on March
9th
the prince hinted he would ignore the advice.
The possibility of his making a challenge to the leadership has
already stirred up the ruling party. A number of senior ministers and
state premiers have proposed that Tengku Razaleigh should be nominated
for one of the party’s three junior vice-presidencies, rather than
threatening what a state official calls “another internal crisis”.
What this means is that, unlike the result of last November’s general
election, in which everyone knew Dr Mahathir’s coalition would be
returned to power, the outcome of the UMNO party polls in May will
be
less predictable. The uncertainty is intensified because UMNO lost
many voters last November in the traditional Malay heartlands to PAS,
the Islamist opposition party, even though the coalition UMNO
dominates won its traditional two-thirds majority. PAS now controls
two states, Kelantan, which is Tengku Razaleigh’s home state, and
Terengganu. The reason UMNO lost so much support is widely put down
to
Malaysians’ disgust at the persecution of Dr Mahathir’s former deputy,
Anwar Ibrahim, who has been jailed for abuse of power and is at
present standing trial for sodomy.
The UMNO party polls are now being seen by both local and foreign
pundits as the most significant since 1987. In that year, Dr Mahathir
was challenged for the party presidency by Tengku Razaleigh. The
prince lost narrowly and was banished to the political wilderness.
He
was brought back into the fold, it was thought, to help UMNO win
Kelantan. Although Tengku Razaleigh won his own seat, he failed to
deliver the state.
The euphoria of the election victory last year was quickly overwhelmed
by what one party insider describes as a climate of “nervousness” and
discontent with the leadership. The hope that the UMNO conference and
polls would help boost morale seems to have been dashed by Dr
Mahathir’s insistence on “party unity” and therefore no challenges
to
the leadership.
Yet a former deputy prime minister, Musa Hitam, does not seem to
agree. He told the Star newspaper that unchallenged leaders “might
get
this false feeling that they are infallible, that they can do no
wrong”. The party’s younger members believe UMNO’s future is now at
stake, especially with many young professionals turning to PAS. The
youth wing of UMNO has already withered.
Yet still the government clamps down. Since its circulation soared,
PAS’s party’s newspaper, Harakah, has had its licence revised to
restrict its publication to only twice a month from twice weekly.
Astro, a satellite-television service, is also being got at. In a new
twist to Dr Mahathir’s previous attacks on western cultural
imperialism, it has faced a campaign accusing it of dispensing the
“yellow culture” of regional Chinese broadcasters—a reference to some
Hong Kong stations. The light entertainment provided by an Indian
Tamil service, Vaanavil, has also been criticised for its
“song-and-dance” values. Even more sinister is a campaign by the
premier of the southern state of Malacca to end the contracts of
opposition-supporting professionals, such as doctors and lawyers. Not
the stuff of a self-confident democracy.
http://www.economist.com/