[Kabar-indonesia] AT: Mahathir's Long, Dark Shadow [+IHT]

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: IHT: In Malaysia, nostalgia grows for the days of
Mahathir

Asia Times
Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Mahathir's long, dark shadow

By Michael Vatikiotis

KOTA BHARU, Malaysia - There's something wrong with former
Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Why else would a man who led his country to such great
economic heights, and in the process established global
stature for himself as a spokesman for the developing world,
try to tear it all down in retirement? Yet this is what many
Malaysians fear will be the result of a bitter feud that has
raged for much of the past China Business Big Picture year
between the octogenarian former premier and his hand-picked
successor Abdullah Badawi.

Malaysia, like Thailand and to some extent Indonesia, is
only superficially modern. Beneath the thin veneer of glass
and steel that sheaths the sleek office towers in Kuala
Lumpur, a largely traditional society grapples with the
impact of globalization. Outsiders often misunderstand
modern Malaysian society, which is still organized along the
ethnic boundaries created more than a century ago when
Chinese laborers, Indian estate workers and Malay villagers
were thrown together in a fast-growing colonial economy
built to supply the world with tin and rubber.

Many aspects of tradition are covered over by the modern
material gloss of capitalism and breakneck economic
development, but one conspicuous enduring characteristic is
the tendency of people here to respect their leaders.
Successful legitimate leadership, as Mahathir's 22-year
tenure demonstrated, endows great power on the individual in
all of Malaysia's component societies.

That respect for leadership has made advances in modern
democratic governance more difficult is not disputed; that
it helps keep a fractured, multi-ethnic society on an even
keel is often forgotten in the rush to criticize Malaysia's
overbearing ruling coalition, the United Malays National
Organization (UMNO). It's not that father knows best, it's
more that father will arbitrate quarrels and make sure that
everyone gets along.

So when leadership is challenged, as is now the case with
Mahathir unleashing almost daily public criticism against
Abdullah, the entire country comes to a standstill and fear
stalks the land. Politicians don't know to whom to turn,
business isn't sure when government decisions will be made
or, if they are, that they will be honored, and the rest of
society fears the fallout from a power struggle.

This would explain why Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak
was recently forced to call publicly on the government to
stay focused. When asked if the government was losing its
way, Najib, who is first in line to succeed Abdullah Badawi,
replied: "We will have to manage. This is unprecedented. It
is not something that we have experienced before."

Sadly, Abdullah's government has lost its focus, and
Malaysia is slipping out of sight in the region - and
Mahathir's myopia is largely to blame. Abdullah came to
power in 2002 on the hopes of both measured change and
continued political stability. The last years of Mahathir's
22-year tenure were colored by rancor and division after the
ignominious sacking and jailing of his controversial deputy
Anwar Ibrahim, who cut a reformist profile and challenged
Mahathir's judgment in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian
financial crisis.

UMNO, which Mahathir led for two decades, started to lose
ground, and there were fears of another state falling at the
ballot box to the opposition Islamic Party of Malaysia,
commonly known as PAS from its Malay name Parti Islam
SeMalaysia. Fed up with the carping and sniping by
disgruntled UMNO members, a tearful Mahathir suddenly and
unexpectedly threw in the towel, leaving the premiership to
a man everyone knew was never Mahathir's first or even
second choice - something Mahathir has now said publicly.

Muddled motivations Then why did Mahathir pick Abdullah as
his successor? Perhaps Mahathir expected Abdullah to falter
at the start of his tenure, and the party rank and file
would come running to him with apologies and pleas for his
return. Instead, Abdullah and his reform message were warmly
welcomed by Malaysians weary of Mahathir's polarizing
politics.

There was a palpable collective desire to be free of all the
brow-beating about failure to achieve; to be rid of all the
extravagance and wastage that came with such ambitious
vanity projects as the world's tallest towers, biggest dam
and a new administrative capital that nobody wanted or
wishes to live in. After years of Malaysia taking on the
developed world and divisive factional infighting at the top
of the party, Malaysians were happy to be governed by a
soft-spoken, gentlemanly figure who lived by religious
values and preached tolerance.

Abdullah does not pretend to be charismatic, nor does he
project himself as the font of all wisdom. Instead, he
brought with him a group of young Malaysians with new ideas
about how to rid the ruling party of corruption, eradicate
corporate cronyism, and manage the role of Islam in society.
Mostly the children of diplomats and successful business
people, this group of younger politicians represent some of
the brightest and most idealistic Malaysians to enter
government in years.

The change has been wrenching but also refreshing. Corporate
favor-seekers found themselves turned away from the Prime
Minister's Office; there were new ideas for attacking
corruption in public service; a commission to check the
Malaysian police was established. Abdullah's own ideas on
civilizational Islam, or Islam Hadhari, struck a chord
domestically and internationally.

The opposition PAS lost significant ground in democratic
elections. At the 2004 elections, Abdullah won a record
landslide victory, increasing the number of ruling-coalition
seats in parliament by 50 at the expense of PAS, which
almost lost control of its power base in the northeastern
state of Kelantan.
Yet Abdullah's trouble with cleaner politics is that so much
of the economy has long ridden along rails of patronage. The
reforms his government steered hit bumps in the road early
and resistance to change has since been strong. Root-and-
branch reform threatened to upset the political apple cart
and affect Abdullah's support inside UMNO. He managed to
remove a state party chief from Melaka, but his anti-
corruption campaign got no further. Critics started to talk
about the hollowness of Abdullah's reforms and the slow pace
of transformation.

Fine political lines Then Abdullah apparently crossed the
line. By abruptly canceling the construction of a bridge
that would have replaced part of the fixed causeway between
Singapore and Malaysia, Abdullah angered his former boss.
For Mahathir, the so-called crooked bridge was a pet
project, one that stood to benefit many of his former close
allies and cronies.

At first it seemed easy to dismiss Mahathir's attacks.
Having decided not to assume a special-mentor ministerial
position in government like his old sparring partner in
Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, Mahathir held only senior advisory
positions in the public corporate sector. Abdullah refused
to be drawn into crossing swords, and the Malaysian public,
perhaps sensing the irony, was not moved by Mahathir's
complaints.

Yet Malaysia's peculiar political culture has worked against
Abdullah. The more Mahathir carped with impunity, including
allegations that Abdullah has favored his own family members
in government business deals, the more people started to
question his strength in the party. Malay politics in
particular thrives on tricks and treachery, and it is always
assumed that loyalty has a price.

Mahathir still has powerful friends in high places, many of
whom are unhappy about the new political climate, often
referred to here as "cronyism lite". Factor in the growing
deep resentment of Abdullah's young stallions, champing at
the bit to change everything and make their own political
marks.

Mahathir, who presided over and shaped Malaysia's political
culture for more than two decades, knows this all too well.
So long as he keeps up the attacks on Abdullah, there will
be those who question the prime minister's vitality. Close
friends say Mahathir's health is faltering because of a
cardiac condition, but that he would rather go out with a
bang than sit at home and wallow in failing health.

Unfortunately for Abdullah, he doesn't have a venal
personality, and all indications are that he would rather
shake hands with his opponents and move on. He built his own
political career on an ability to pick himself up, dust off
defeat and keep moving forward. Now that he has failed to
fend off Mahathir's attacks effectively, the vultures are
starting to circle, smelling political death in the air.

Many Malaysians sense that the country is paralyzed by an
atmosphere of political malaise. Abdullah's domestic reform
program has ground to a halt. Ambitious ideas to project
Abdullah's unique ideas on Islamic tolerance on to a world
stage and contribute to peace in the Middle East have
evaporated. Malaysia's profile as a stable, successful and
modern Muslim nation has suffered because the Mahathir
quarrel has been magnified overseas, raising fears of
potential political instability.

The annual UMNO assembly is set for this month, at which the
party faithful will all endorse the leadership they depend
upon for patronage. At the same time, Mahathir's long, dark
shadow will hang over the gathering. There will be jokes in
the corridors, ribbing about who is loyal to whom, while
Mahathir's supporters leak more poison into the system. It
is the UMNO way, with jocularity and politeness masking more
than a grain of truth.

Michael Vatikiotis is former editor of the Far Eastern
Economic Review. He is currently a visiting research fellow
at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

-----------------------------------------------------------

International Herald Tribune
November 6, 2006

In Malaysia, nostalgia grows for the days of Mahathir

By Thomas Fuller / International Herald Tribune

KUALA LUMPUR: The annual meeting of Malaysia's governing
party is known for fiery talk and dramatic gestures, like
the time during last year's conference when a high-ranking
member brandished a sword to make a point from the podium.

But when the doors to the conference open next week, the
party's most outspoken member will not be speaking. In fact,
he may not even be attending.

Mahathir bin Mohamad, who stepped down as prime minister
three years ago but now is the biggest critic of his
handpicked successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, says he has not
yet made up his mind.

"I may even be expelled from the party," Mahathir said in an
interview. Mahathir's attacks on the government - in the
interview he lashed out at everything from its economic
policies to what he calls the prime minister's short
attention span - are seen by many as a self-serving and
inelegant coda to a long, visionary career.

Yet many Malaysians say they wish Mahathir would be allowed
to stir things up at the party congress. The former prime
minister's campaign against the government is eliciting
increasing levels of sympathy and support here from
investment bankers, lawyers and other Malaysians dismayed
that the government lacks a coherent long-term plan for the
economy and has not delivered on its promises to clean up
corruption.

Even Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister who was
fired, jailed and beaten in prison during Mahathir's rule,
said the government was not paying enough attention to
Mahathir's criticisms.

"He has brought up some very key substantive issues that
include allegations of a police state, rampant corruption,
cronyism, abuse of power and a media that is not free,"
Anwar said in a telephone interview.
"People ridicule this and say all these things were his
policies, too. But notwithstanding that, you have to reply,"
Anwar said. "There is a failure on the part of Abdullah and
the present administration to address the substantive
criticisms by Mahathir, which I think to an extent are
legitimate criticisms."

After he dominated politics here for 22 years and shaped the
destiny of modern Malaysia, Mahathir's voice cannot be
ignored, analysts said.

During an interview at his 86th-floor office in the Petronas
Towers, Mahathir gestures toward the vertiginous vista of
the modern city that he helped build: skyscrapers and an
elegantly landscaped park rimmed by luxury hotels.

He complains that the government is not spending enough on
infrastructure and is letting the economy sag. "All these
new buildings that you see were actually approved during my
time," Mahathir said without a trace of self-effacement.

Abdullah is handing out contracts to friends and family,
Mahathir complained. And he is abdicating Malaysia's role as
a spokesman for the Third World. He should either change
course or step down, Mahathir said.

"He need not go if he is willing to do what is right,"
Mahathir said. "Of course if he is not willing then I think
he should not stand in the way of the country's continued
development."

A government official who works with Abdullah said the prime
minister was traveling in Pakistan and unable to respond.
But the official dismissed Mahathir's comments as a
"distraction."

"The prime minister was elected by the people," said the
official, who requested anonymity because he is not
authorized to speak on behalf of the government. "Ultimately
his future should be determined by the people who put him in
office rather than the wants of one man."

After Abdullah's three years in power, Malaysians admire him
for allowing more debates about sensitive issues such as
race and religion. "He loosened up control," said Sankara
Nair, an activist lawyer. "People feel more free to express
their views."

Abdullah is also credited with making some basic government
services like passport issuance more efficient and easing
the reins on the judiciary.

But there is also frustration among everyone from bankers to
taxi drivers that Abdullah does not have the same vision for
the future that Mahathir did.

'The man on the street is saying, 'Where is the economy
heading?'" Sankara said.

In his quest to challenge or ultimately unseat Abdullah,
some of Mahathir's difficulties are of his own making:
Abdullah remains relatively secure as president of the party
partly because Mahathir made it more difficult to oust the
party leadership during his own reign.
"None of the cabinet ministers are willing to abandon
Abdullah - they know the consequences," said P. Ramasamy, a
political science professor based in Singapore. Siding with
Mahathir would mean dismissal and cutting themselves off
from lucrative contracts, he said.

What may be troubling for Abdullah, Ramasamy said, is that
some of Mahathir's criticisms are sticking. In a sign that
he may fear a challenge to his position, Abdullah recently
postponed party elections that were to be held next year.

"Mahathir may not have the power to remove him but he has
done a lot of damage to Abdullah Badawi. The prime
minister's credibility is at stake," Ramasamy said.

Mahathir holds no post in the United Malays National
Organization, the party that leads the country's coalition
government, and he failed in a recent attempt to win
election as a delegate to the general assembly next week. He
can attend in his capacity as a former president of the
party, but that does not give him the right to speak.

At 81 years old, Mahathir walks more slowly than he used to.
He travels frequently, but he enters the back seat of his
chauffeured cars carefully and deliberately; doctors told
him recently that he has three blockages in his heart.

Yet Mahathir retains his feisty, acerbic style. He complains
that he is being blocked by the police from meeting with
supporters, repeating his claim that Malaysia is a "police
state."

"Muzzled," he said. "I can't talk to anybody. If I talk to
the mainstream press it is either not published or it is
spun in a way that makes me look bad."

After an hourlong interview it is difficult to know what
exactly spurred this former medical doctor to jump back into
politics. He said he was bothered most by the sway that
Abdullah's son- in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, has over policy
and the awarding of contracts. But he was also worried about
preserving his legacy and continuing his aggressive building
program of highways, bridges and ports.

But Mahathir does not seem prepared to abandon the fight.
Asked whether the idea of a quiet retirement - John Grisham
novels on the beach and quality time with grandchildren -
tempts him, he responded without hesitation.

"No, I think I have an obligation to the country and to the
people," he said. "I don't care much about what happens to
me."

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------