Malaysia: Abdullah's long honeymoon
over By Liew Chin Tong
KUALA LUMPUR - Hopes that Abdullah
Badawi's nominally reformist government would
shake up Malaysia's political status quo have
started to fade about two-and-a-half years after
he succeeded strongman Mahathir Mohammad.
February was a rough-and-tumble month for
Malaysia's leader, one in which his reformist
credentials were firmly brought into question.
Abdullah was notably on the defensive after his
February 14 cabinet reshuffle
failed to dislodge Mahathir loyalists and promote
younger reformers in his government.
His
government also cracked down hard on the media,
shutting one Malaysian newspaper and suspending
two others temporarily after the publication of
controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet
Mohammed, eerily similar to the heavy-handed
tactics Mahathir used to undermine the press and
quell criticism. And Abdullah appeared to expend
his last store of political capital when he
reduced subsidies and hiked gasoline prices by
18%.
Until recently Abdullah, widely
viewed as one of the world's more moderate Muslim
leaders, had enjoyed a long honeymoon period. He
was officially anointed Mahathir's successor in
June 2002, and was finally handed the leadership
baton in October 2003. In a March 2003 speech, at
a time when many political commentators had
written him off as a puppet transitional leader,
Abdullah firmly established his reformist
credentials by publicly distancing himself from
Mahathir's spendthrift, monument-building ways and
vowed that his government would work to root out
corruption.
In that memorable speech, the
premier-in-waiting cited the unfortunate
combination of "First World infrastructure and a
Third World mentality" as the "malaise"
undermining Malaysia's global competitiveness -
lightly veiled criticism of Mahathir's
supercharged, and often controversial, economic
policies. While crediting Malaysia for having one
of the most stringent anti-corruption laws in the
region, he said that "is not sufficient if we are
unable to empower legislation with enforcement".
To Abdullah's credit, he followed up those
tough words with tough actions, positioning
himself as a transformational rather than
transitional leader. In the months leading up to
the March 2004 general election, Abdullah
galvanized reform hopes when his government
charged with corruption then land and cooperative
development minister Kasitah Gaddam and a former
managing director of a state-owned steel company,
Eric Chia.
The government also announced
in 2004 that some 18 other cases involving
prominent personalities were being investigated by
the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), and the
"National Integrity Plan" aimed at reducing
corruption was launched with great fanfare.
Widely portrayed as a pious Muslim from a
family of prominent Islamic scholars, the
soft-spoken premier captured the national
imagination that sweeping change was imminent when
he initiated a royal commission to make proposals
on police reform, a plan to improve the
transparency and performance of state-linked
companies, and a commitment that future government
contracts would be distributed only through open
tender.
The Federal Court's release in
September 2004 of imprisoned former deputy prime
minister Anwar Ibrahim, who made the mistake of
challenging Mahathir's hold on political power in
the wake of the 1997-98 regional financial crisis,
indicated that Malaysia was clearly headed toward
a more liberal era under Abdullah.
Indications were that the general public
approved. Abdullah's ruling coalition won the 2004
elections with the second-highest popular mandate
in history, which yielded a commanding 92% control
of parliament. His party resoundingly trumped
Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), which holds sway in
the country's north, and Abdullah's landslide
victory was seen as popular approval for his brand
of moderate Islamic rule.
But Abdullah's
reform movement arguably lost momentum in late
2004 with the defeat of his allies - including
three of his reform-minded cabinet ministers -
during United Malay National Organization (UMNO)
internal party elections. The refrain then from
Abdullah supporters to those who were not
satisfied with the speed and direction of reform
was that the premier needed more time to
consolidate his political base.
The nearly
three decades of Mahathir's rule resulted in a
cohort of old-style politicians, with the premier
personally defusing internal competitions within
UMNO and openly rewarding loyalty over competence.
Most of those politicians have a vested interest
in politics as usual, and they are widely viewed
as antagonistic to Abdullah's reform drive.
Many observers were taken aback by the
re-emergence of so-called "neo-Mahathirists" and
the dearth of new, young blood during Abdullah's
latest cabinet shuffle. Indeed, expectations of a
major political overhaul that would have replaced
Mahathir's old cronies and appointed younger
pro-reformers clearly failed to materialize.
Analysts cite the re-emergence of former
agriculture minister Effendi Norwawi, who was
elevated at the request of the coalition's
powerful Sarawak United People's Party, as one
clear example of a resurgent old guard. Similarly,
Abdullah has found it difficult to remove heads of
UMNO's coalition partners, which explains the
continued presence of the controversial Works
Minister Samy Vellu, 70, also seen as a defender
of the status quo.
Moreover, known
Mahathir loyalists, including former federal
territories minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor
and Deputy Information Minister Zainudin Maidin,
made surprising comebacks. Both of those men were
appointed by Mahathir in his November 2002 cabinet
shuffle to avoid a lame-duck fate after he shocked
the nation, and the world, during a teary-eyed
national address when he unexpectedly announced
his intention to retire that year.
Mahathir's actual influence on the
day-to-day running of Abdullah's government is
minimal, government insiders say. Yet his way of
running the business of government - which
Abdullah vowed to change - is still entrenched and
strongly influences the policy process.
Abdullah now presides over a cabinet room
packed with ministers who have accumulated plenty
of baggage as a result of their long tenures
without independent scrutiny. It is not
surprising, then, that they are loath to open up
the reform floodgate, which could lead to probes
into their past records. In the course of
protecting their own interests, they have also
ensured that many of Mahathir's suspect policies
will not be subject to backward-looking
investigations.
Indeed, it appears the
"neo-Mahathirists" are effectively protecting
their interests against uncomfortable scrutiny.
International Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz, 63, is
one such politician who, though she has fallen out
openly with Mahathir, has made clear her aversion
to Abdullah's reform program. Last year Rafidah
emerged unscathed from alleged corruption
involving the approvals for imported cars, a story
that had surprisingly made headlines in Malaysia's
media.
Until now, a freer, more
scrutinizing local media was seen as one of the
hallmarks of Abdullah's more liberal
administration. Malaysian newspapers are still
regulated by stringent laws that require annual
renewal of their licenses, and the internal
security minister has discretion to revoke permits
for arbitrarily defined reasons. Malaysian media
companies are owned mostly by individuals and
corporations with strong connections to the ruling
elite.
Even so, media practitioners,
members of the opposition and even some dissident
groups agreed that the space for political
discourse had expanded considerably under
Abdullah's watch. That honeymoon period, however,
has come to an abrupt end. Two top editors of
China Press were removed by government authorities
in January for wrongly identifying as a Chinese
national a Malay woman mistreated by the police.
Meanwhile, a witchhunt of newspapers that
reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed has
undermined Abdullah's professed commitment to
media freedom and brought down international
criticism on his government. Clamping down on the
three newspapers was intended to shore up his
popularity among Muslims and demonstrate his
government's willingness to defend the Islamic
faith.
This was followed by the squabbles
between the seemingly more open-minded Abdullah
lieutenants at the New Straits Times, the
country's oldest paper, which is known to be run
by UMNO, and the newly appointed Information
Minister Zainuddin Maidin, whose background is
more in propaganda than in straight news.
Zainuddin led the chorus calling for the
New Straits Times to be punished for publishing a
syndicated cartoon, notably not part of the 12
condemned Danish caricatures, a decision by the
newspaper that hinted that drawing caricatures of
the Prophet was a permissible act.
Mahathir weighed in that the paper should
be allowed to continue to publish while its
editors should be suspended for two or three
months, and a cabinet meeting chaired while the
premier was overseas by a known "neo-Mahathirist",
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, resulted in a
threatening letter to that effect being sent to
the newspaper.
But perhaps most worrying
to Abdullah has been the furor surrounding his
government's decision to hike fuel prices. UMNO's
main constituency is the ethnic-Malay lower middle
class, and while criticism of cabinet shuffles and
media freedom are often dismissed as normal
cut-and-thrust elite politics, fuel-price hikes
have hit Abdullah's main supporters where it hurts
- in the pocketbook.
The recent 30-US-cent
gasoline price hike - the highest in the country's
history - outraged nearly everyone. Pump prices
have rocketed from RM1.35 (36 cents) to RM1.92 (52
cents) a liter, a whopping 42% rise, since
Abdullah took office. Global market forces are
pushing up fuel prices everywhere, but many
Malaysians believe that as a net fuel exporter,
the government has the room to temper price hikes
and that subsidized fuel prices could give the
country's exporters an important competitive edge.
But it is apparent that Abdullah doesn't
see it that way, and his political popularity has
taken a hit as a result. Malaysia's economy grew
modestly at 5.3% in 2005, compared with 7.1% in
2004. But with the fuel-price jump, the threat of
inflation and a decline in domestic consumer
demand will arguably put pressure on overall
employment and economic growth.
A hastily
arranged television briefing by the deputy prime
minister, who asked the people to "change their
lifestyle", failed to assuage critics and instead
backfired. As discontent mounts over the policy,
Abdullah has since conceded that it was an
unpopular but necessary decision.
And so
the record numbers of Malaysians who voted for his
promise of a more reform-minded government are
increasingly being disappointed. And it is unclear
how an embattled Abdullah will deal with criticism
of his nominally reformist government. So far,
however, the signs don't look good.
Liew Chin Tong is a research
associate with Research for Social Advancement, a
Kuala Lumpur-based non-governmental
organization.
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