The
political gap narrows in
Malaysia By Anil Netto
PENANG - Malaysia enters what is widely
expected to be an election year with its ruling
coalition looking uncharacteristically frail.
Economic grievances, inter-religious
disputes and unfulfilled pledges have spawned
growing disillusionment with Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi's administration, threatening to
erode popular support for his United Malays
National Organization (UMNO) party at the ballot
box.
Abdullah took over the reins of power
in 2003 after 22 years of
autocratic rule under
Mahathir Mohamad. After pledging sweeping reforms,
he cruised to a landslide victory in a general
election the following year. But critics say he
has failed to live up to the heightened
expectations - and the calls for reform have
strongly resurfaced.
Several trends during
the Mahathir era continued into the Abdullah
administration. The old blueprint for national
development based on an affirmative action policy
known as the New Economic Policy (NEP), which was
first implemented in the early 1970s and continues
to favor the majority ethnic Malays and other
indigenous groups over the minority Chinese and
Indian communities. Now it appears that policy is
falling apart as wealth becomes more concentrated
among a narrow elite.
During the second
half of Mahathir's long reign, however, the
emphasis shifted from primacy to Malay political
dominance as the well-connected elite scrambled
for contracts and licenses, one political analyst
observed. "No longer was it a priority to
eradicate poverty, including Malay poverty;
Mahathir wanted to create a select group of Malay
billionaires."
That, he said, resulted in
a massive misallocation of resources for projects
that critics say were of little value to the
masses such as the lavish administrative capital
Putrajaya and the gleaming Petronas Twin Towers,
once the tallest in the world. Parts of the public
service were also privatized to well-connected
firms while ailing firms were bailed out - a trend
that some economists describe as the
"privatization of profits and socialization of
losses".
Analysts believe the ruling
coalition's legitimacy and ability to entrench its
position depend on a robust economy, abundant
powers of patronage, and a dominant leader who can
hold together the coalition. These conditions may
not be as strong as they once were.
Even
though the economy grew around 6% year-on-year in
2007, for many Malaysians the "trickle-down
effect" has not been enough to ease the pain of
higher food and fuel prices. Neo-liberal economic
policies and the import of cheap migrant labor
have depressed local wages and widened the gap
between the rich and the poor. The richest 10% of
the population earns 22 times the average income
of the poorest 10%.
Economic pains for the
working class, after heightened expectations
Abdullah would implement a more equitable economic
system, have spawned a season of discontent. A
series of small protests along with a couple of
huge demonstrations over the past two months have
called for greater social justice and
accountability and revealed just how much the
political landscape has changed.
Political
analysts have observed that UMNO's political
dominance within the ruling coalition and its
access to enormous financial resources has
resulted in factionalism within the party. Every
decade since the mid-1970s, UMNO has erupted in
factional strife in varying degrees. "The fuel for
internecine strife in the party is economic
stringency when there is insufficient patronage to
go around," says the political commentator.
Some observers now predict that conditions
are ripe for another convulsion, perhaps over the
increasingly influential role played by the prime
minister's ambitious son-in-law, Khairy
Jamaluddin, now the deputy UMNO youth head.
Analysts say UMNO's dominance has
relegated other ruling coalition parties,
including those representing minority interests,
to insignificance and fueled discontent over
ethnic, religious and economic marginalization.
This was starkly evident when 30,000 Indian
Malaysians rallied in Kuala Lumpur on November 25
to voice their grievances.
Old
complaints, new response The
disillusionment has also been fueled by a series
of allegations of corruption and abuse of power in
the main institutions of government, including the
judiciary, the anti-corruption agency and the
police force. Critics say these scandals reflect
poorly on the premier and his three-prong reform
program of eradicating corruption, police reforms
and a civil service revamp.
The latest
perceived failure was the withdrawal of a bill to
set up a special complaints commission to oversee
the police after widespread criticism that it fell
short of a royal commission's main recommendation
to establish a more powerful independent police
complaint and misconduct commission.
Abdullah has also been seen as weak on
freedom of religion issues, disappointing those
who once saw him as a "moderate" leader. A string
of inter-religious disputes has surfaced and been
allowed to simmer under his watch. These disputes
range from competing civil-sharia jurisdictions to
a controversy over the construction of a
36-meter-high Chinese "Goddess of the Sea" statute
in the north Borneo state of Sabah.
"Unless the ruling political leadership
gives due attention to democratic institution
building, we are not going to have the systems and
processes to deal with the dialogue that is
critical and the accountability that is essential
if justice and fairness are to prevail," said
social activist K Haridas in a recent commentary.
Meanwhile, opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim
has been hitting the hustings, trying to draw the
disparate opposition parties together into a more
cohesive force. His task is apparently made easier
now that the main opposition Islamic party, PAS,
has allowed its long-term goal of setting up an
Islamic state, once a major stumbling block to
closer opposition party ties, to fade into the
background.
Although the opposition's
economic platform has not been widely publicized,
Anwar himself wants the NEP scrapped. In its
place, he favors a growth-oriented market economy
balanced by what he characterizes as "humane
considerations and distributive justice".
There is now a growing confidence among
opposition parties of a significantly improved
performance at the upcoming general election -
despite complaints of politically motivated
gerrymandering of constituencies, vote-buying and
abuse of the media and government agencies for
UMNO campaign purposes.
What makes it even
more challenging for the ruling coalition is its
loss of a near monopoly over information flow -
though it retains a stranglehold over television
and radio. The proliferation of independent
websites and blogs such as Malaysia Today and
Malaysiakini means the ruling coalition's
propaganda machinery now faces agile and
resourceful opponents in cyberspace.
Controversial or embarrassing incidents
that once could be swept under the carpet are now
being posted on YouTube, blogs and websites.
"Nowadays, it is difficult not only to lie but
also to conceal effectively," said media analyst
Mustafa Kamal Anuar.
Last week, for
instance, the senior cabinet minister who heads
the ethnic Indian party in the ruling coalition
was jeered when he officiated at a regional dance
competition in Penang. It would have passed
unnoticed if a video-clip of the incident had not
been quickly posted on YouTube.
"So the
monopoly on truth has been cracked by bloggers and
others," said Mustafa. "A lot more people have
become more discerning especially after recent
demonstrations revealed the stark contrast between
the mainstream media's coverage and [that of] the
bloggers."
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