Malaysia: Abdullah boleh - or can
he? By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - As Mahathir Mohamad prepared to
hand the Malaysian premiership to his deputy Abdullah
Badawi last October, talk around Malaysia was not about
what would change, but about what would stay the same.
In harshest terms, people said Abdullah was just a timid
puppet of Mahathir.
Few if any Malaysians
expected Abdullah to declare war on graft - then follow
it up with actual arrests, including those of a land
minister and a favorite Mahathir crony, Perwaja Steel
ex-chief Eric Chia.
Few expected him to halt
plans for a controversial railway mega-project
championed by Mahathir, or to investigate allegations of
police brutality, corruption and inefficiency.
But in his first 120 days in office that's
exactly what he's done. And though much work remains if
Abdullah is to make good on his promises to eradicate
corruption and hush skeptics who allege that he's
wagging the dog before upcoming elections, Abdullah's
governing style has begun to awaken Malaysians to some
of the more pressing issues facing their country - and
in turn some of the shortcomings of Mahathir's
22-year-long rule.
"He's saying indirectly that
there are some major holes in our system of governance,"
says constitutional lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.
"Mahathir's style was not to remember or acknowledge
problems corrupting the system."
Malaysia
under Mahathir Mahathir inflated Malaysian
confidence through the state-controlled media with
slogans like Malaysia Boleh (Malaysia Can), and
with megaprojects such as the multibillion-dollar
international airport, a national car company and
construction of the world's tallest twins, the Petronas
office towers.
Mahathir encouraged investment
and trade by stripping away trade barriers, for
instance, and overseeing its rapid industrialization. He
also stood up to Western powers to protect Malaysian
interests, perhaps most famously when he rejected the
International Monetary Fund's advice on how to rebuild
after the Asian economic crisis. He was a visionary who
urged Malaysians to think big.
The feel-good
rhetoric and cosmetic grandiosity proved palatable to
most Malaysians. They were eager to hail Mahathir as a
leader of the Third World and believed him when he said
Malaysia was revered throughout the world as a model
developing nation. As a result, "it was easy for
[Malaysians] to put themselves at the center of this
brave new world," says Malaysian essayist and poet Eddin
Khoo.
Unfortunately, the spirit of boleh
too often lacked the means of getting there. And out of
this, Khoo says, came "the rise and spread - an almost
institutionalization - of our culture of
mediocrity".
Meanwhile, the quality of education
deteriorated, human rights were trounced, corruption
went on unabated and Muslim fundamentalism spread.
To keep spirits high and repress discontent
Mahathir often turned the spotlight on the outside
world. He was famous for his anti-Western rhetoric,
blaming the Asian economic crisis on a "cabal of Jews"
and telling Malaysians that, given the chance,
Westerners would recolonize Malaysia.
It was all
a substitute for self-responsibility, says Fan Khar Ten,
a construction contractor in Kuala Lumpur, who adds that
this time Abdullah is keeping the focus inside Malaysia.
"Abdullah is getting us to look more at the domestic
side of things and reflect on our own situation and how
to change it."
Despite the changes such an
outlook could bring, Khoo warns against expecting a
transformation of the Malaysian mindset, calling
Malaysia, in the wake of the Mahathir era, "a culture of
denial". But at the least, he says, the mild-mannered
Abdullah has injected three crucial things in Malaysian
life: "accountability, a sense of seriousness, and a
sense of responsibility". And through this process,
"Malaysians will get a clear insight into how deep the
rot has set".
Not everything's coming up
roses The picture that's emerging is not entirely
rosy. In recent weeks the usually obsequious
state-controlled media have taken to noting the nation's
rising incidence of rape and incest, falling just short
of saying that Malaysia is experiencing a breakdown in
the rule of law and civil society.
Around Kuala
Lumpur motorists frequently can be found driving on
sidewalks and through red lights. A block from the
immaculate KL Central train station, police officers
don't bat an eye as they stroll past illegal casinos and
the conspicuous pink-lighted entranceways of brothels.
Though Mahathir did much for Malaysia, many
facets of growth during Mahathir's era were neglected in
the name of economic progress. And progress of this sort
can only sustain a country for so long.
"What
you're seeing play out now is the result of Mahathir's
mismanagement," says Sarwar - what author San Suu Kyi
calls the cutthroat morality that arises "when political
and intellectual freedoms are curbed on the one hand,
while on the other fierce economic competitiveness is
encouraged by making material success the measure of
prestige and progress".
Mahathir often justified
his draconian stance against civil liberties by telling
Malaysians it was for the sake of unity and progress.
And the mainstream press propagated the notion,
incessantly declaring Malaysia happy, modern and free.
When Mahathir left office Malaysians were left with an
inflated sense of accomplishment.
A postcard
making the rounds at the time of his retirement and
addressed to the "Thank you Dr Mahathir Campaign" is
telling of this feeling. It read: "Thank you for the
glorious years of development, prosperity and unity -
and most of all for making Malaysia well known all over
the world for our impelling force in technology and
humanity."
Newspapers extolled the strongarm
leader with pullouts, as critical analysis was omitted.
For a man obsessed with how he would be remembered,
Mahathir's exit was a smashing success; his throne in
Malaysian history seemed all but etched in stone.
But that was four months ago.
Reflecting on the past "Quite a few
people are starting to wake up and ask questions about
[the Mahathir era]," says Malaysian historian Khoo Kay
Kim. "They didn't realize certain things were
happening."
But hindsight is 20/20, and it's
often easier to evaluate a leader when reflecting on the
past. As Kim adds: "History is very fickle and leaders
must expect that their actions will be re-evaluated from
time to time."
How history remembers Mahathir
will depend in part on whether Abdullah makes good on
his promises, and how many potholes from the Mahathir
era he manages to fill in.
Human-rights
activists are pessimistic, citing Abdullah's inaction on
issues of transparency, free press, corruption in the
judiciary, and the detention of Mahathir's former deputy
and rival Anwar Ibrahim, who's serving a combined
15-year sentence on what many believe are trumped up
charges of sodomy and corruption.
Others
criticize the moves Abdullah has made as too little, too
late - more gestures of goodwill than evidence toward
action. Some say Chia's arrest was mooted by Ibrahim
years ago and that the formal charge against Chia -
criminal breach of trust in the amount of RM76.4 million
(US$20 million) - is astonishingly light considering all
the available evidence against him. They have clumped
Chia in with ikan bilis (sardines) and are
waiting for Abdullah to go after ikan jerung
(sharks), some of which are said to be swimming in his
own cabinet.
But talk itself - the very idea of
breaking with the past - is stirring interest around
Malaysia. Abdullah's administration recently announced
that 18 high-profile corruption cases are under review.
Malaysia has been rife with speculation ever since.
And not all is talk. Abdullah has launched
probes into the feasibility and legality of
megaprojects. He has spot-checked government agencies
notorious for graft and inefficiency. And he has worked
to smooth relations with neighboring rival Singapore by
adopting a friendlier tone than his predecessor. Still,
many Malaysians have come to distrust their government's
feudalistic culture and its "money politics", and remain
wary of Abdullah's intentions.
But at least
Abdullah has given Malaysians a sense that the
untouchables are no longer untouchable and that old
habits can be broken. And to many Malaysians, that's as
promising a start as any.
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