Asia Times: Barrage of allegations bewilders Malaysian voters



	November 6, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Barrage of allegations bewilders Malaysian voters

PENANG - Malaysians are being treated to a dizzying exchange of allegations between the government and the opposition, leaving many bewildered in the run-up to the most bitterly contested election in years.

The latest claims were made by relatively unknown figures, but their impact may yet have an impact on public opinion.

In a seven-page declaration on October 28, a former assistant governor of Malaysia's central bank, Bank Negara, alleged that he was made use of by then deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim to finance Anwar's political agenda, using funds from a 3 billion ringgit ($790 million) war chest.

Abdul Murad Khalid accused Anwar, now the opposition's main rallying point, of maintaining more than 20 master accounts through his ''cronies'' to fund his political activities. He claimed he personally knew of nine parties, including Anwar himself, being paid various sums totalling $32 million between 1992 and 1997. These recipients, Murad alleged, included key figures in the opposition such as Chandra Muzaffar, deputy president of Anwar's wife's National Justice Party (keADILan), and social reform group Aliran.

Denying the claim on November 3, Chandra slapped Murad with an $18.4 million libel suit. Aliran has said it will file legal proceedings soon. Other parties named in the declaration have also denied the charge.

Murad had resigned from Bank Negara on February 1, and was charged on September 16 for failing to declare assets worth 23 million ringgit. His case is pending. Murad's claim signaled a countermove against the political opposition led by Anwar, who had been claiming corruption on the part of several of Mahathir's ministers and saying in court there was a political conspiracy behind the premier's dismissal of him last year.

On November 2, a factory worker who triggered the resignation of a key official of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's dominant United Malays National Organization five years ago, stunned Malaysians with her claim that she had lied about their affair.

Norhayati Mohamad Yusop, now 20, whose identity had hitherto been kept confidential, told a press conference on November 2: ''I was kidnapped and kept in Kuala Lumpur for two weeks where I was taught and forced to lie to the prime minister and the police in Bukit Aman [police headquarters].'' Her statement reversed her own allegations in 1994, which forced then Malacca chief minister Rahim Tamby Chik to resign from all government and party posts, amid public outrage. The case also led to the one-year jailing of opposition lawmaker Lim Guan Eng, who had championed the girl's cause as a rape victim, on charges of ''sedition'' and ''publishing false news''. Rahim is seen as a bitter foe of Anwar, who was convicted of corruption last year and is now being tried on sodomy charges.

Anwar said in court recently that Mahathir had directed him to tell Rahim to resign after the scandal with the underage girl surfaced. ''A few weeks later, Rahim came to my office and I asked him to write his resignation letter as directed by the prime minister,'' said Anwar.

On November 3, Norhayati's shattered grandmother, Pendek Ahmad, flanked by Lim and opposition politicians, told a press conference that she believed that her granddaughter was lying the previous day when she denied the affair with Rahim. ''I believe she has been pressured and used by certain parties to make the declaration and statement denying the affair,'' Pendek said. Her remarks add yet another complicating twist to the matter. This has led to talk of possible political motives behind the newest denial by Norhayati.

Analysts say it is hard to gauge the impact of these 'revelations', but there are signs many urban dwellers are sceptical about both Murad's allegations against Anwar and Norhayati's claim that she was forced to lie. Others wonder about the identities of the masterminds, if there are any, behind the statutory declarations. Fresh on their minds are earlier statements by others linked to Anwar who said they were coerced while in custody into implicating Anwar in various misdeeds and ''confessing'' their involvement.

''Most Malaysians have reached a threshold of disbelief in anything the government has to say now,'' says human rights activist and former opposition member of parliament Kua Kia Soong. ''I think we are suffering a crisis of credibility at the moment. People have made up their minds.'' Kua concedes, however, that he can only speak for the people he knows and not for those from, say, rural areas, where conditions are different.

Some analysts see the latest revelations as ''overkill'' in efforts by the government's allies to discredit Anwar - not least because talk is rife that the Mahathir government could call elections soon. He has until June 2000 to do so, but is widely believed to be gauging the right time to call a snap poll. A judgment by government supporters that they have the upper hand against Anwar's camp is likely to affect the poll's timing.

Recent developments - such as independent medical test results released on October 5 that show no clinical evidence of arsenic poisoning of Anwar - do not help the case of the Barisan Alternatif (Alternative Front) coalition of Malaysia's main opposition parties. Earlier, Anwar's allies and family had said he was suffering from arsenic poisoning while in custody, triggering some of the biggest protest rallies since his arrest in September 1998.

Likewise, there is little time for the Barisan Alternatif, which has opted for Anwar as its prime ministerial candidate, to fight back. Indeed, some observers now believe the election may be held later this month or in January.

Either way, for Malaysian voters it means more political salvos to come.

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.