Asia Times: Malaysian opposition inches closer to common stand



	August 07, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Malaysian opposition inches closer to common stand
By Anil Netto

PENANG, Malaysia - Malaysia's disparate opposition parties are on the verge of announcing a common manifesto as a general election, the stiffest challenge to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in decades, looms.

The manifesto will put the seal on a united opposition front that will square off with the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in straight fights for each of the country's 192 parliamentary constituencies, without splitting the opposition vote.

On July 31, the president of keADILan (the National Justice Party), Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, announced the framework of her party's manifesto, ''Agenda for Change'', and asked for feedback from the public. Much of this framework is likely to be included in the opposition front's manifesto, which is nearing completion.

Spelling out its policies should it win power, the Agenda for Change calls for the repeal of the Internal Security Act, which permits detention without trial, and other repressive laws. If elected, keADILan vows ''to guarantee freedom of speech, association and assembly, along with other basic human rights.''

The party also wants to limit the tenure of the prime minister and state chief ministers to two consecutive terms. This would ''reduce the possibility of abuse of power plus the tendency of leaders to use the government machinery to strengthen their personal power, the draft document says. Likewise, it promises to reintroduce local government elections to strengthen ''the principle of accountability at the grassroots level.''

KeADILan also has an ambitious goal: to wipe out absolute poverty by 2005.

It pledges to review some of the Mahathir government's most controversial policies, including those on privatization, so that ''unnecessary'' privatization of highways, for instance, would be brought to an end.

Not wishing to rock a system that has kept the peace in multi-ethnic Malaysia, keADILan's agenda sticks to the basic tenets of the original Malaysian constitution. The agenda confirms that the country would retain its constitutional monarchy, with Islam as the official religion and Malay as the official language, while guaranteeing freedom of worship for other religions and the right to use and learn other languages.

Work on a manifesto among the opposition parties behind closed doors has been hard, given their disparate natures. But to many, it is no small achievement given the wide political differences that have for many years prevented a real alliance among the opposition to Mahathir.

Analysts add that a common manifesto that uses vague language to paper over differences will not go down well with voters. ''After four decades of Barisan rule and taking into account the insecurity felt by many Malaysians, the common opposition manifesto should be clear and specific, not abstract,'' says social reformer Jubal Lourdes. ''People need to be told what they [the opposition front] are going to do for the people.''

The opposition parties - or 'alternative parties' as opposition politicians refer to them - could not be more apart in ideology. The Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) commands a large following in the Muslim heartland in the northern states and on the peninsula's east coast. The multi-ethnic but Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) is likely to capture votes in urban areas where the Chinese Malaysians predominate. Then there is the tiny multi-ethnic Malaysian People's Party, a party with socialist roots.

PAS has always set its sights on establishing an Islamic state in Malaysia, which made it off-limits for cooperation on the part of the Democratic Action Party. But all that has changed with keADILan's entry into the fray.

Led by Azizah, the wife of ousted deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, the new party is playing a unifying role and leading the ''reformasi'' (reform) movement unleashed by Anwar's dismissal from government in September.

As for how a united opposition would deal with PAS's goal of setting up an Islamic state, a senior opposition leader says that all parties have agreed not to push their respective ideologies for now and instead focus on commonly sought reforms.

The Anwar saga prompted opposition parties to close ranks, as concern mounted over the administration of justice in Malaysia even among Mahathir's traditional base, the ethnic Malays. In April, Anwar was sentenced to six years' jail for allegedly abusing his position to hinder police probes into complaints of sexual misconduct against him.

Just before the conviction, Azizah, who took over as flag-bearer of the reformasi movement, launched keADILan to push the struggle for reforms into the political arena.

As discussions on the manifesto go into the home stretch, talk is starting to shift to the next stage of the political battle: who would lead the government as prime minister if the opposition wins a majority in the election. ''They should outline how they are going to share power and what their economic and business plans are,'' says Lourdes.

In any case, says keADILan deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar, the idea of having a dominant person as the prime minister will be a thing of the past and a future premier will not be as powerful as he is now.

Along with the final common manifesto, the opposition parties are expected to announce how the 192 parliamentary seats will be divided among themselves when forming election slates. Negotiating the seat allocations has been just as tough but pressure to ensure 'one-to-one' contests - to avoid splitting opposition votes - is forcing opposition party leaders to compromise among themselves.

Apart from directly contesting most of the 192 seats, the four main opposition parties are likely to forge an electoral understanding with regional parties in Sabah and Sarawak states in north Borneo, where 48 of the 192 seats are up for grabs.

But despite their detailed preparations, opposition politicians know that even with a common manifesto, they face stiff odds in an electoral campaign heavily stacked against them. The Barisan Nasional won five sixths of the parliamentary seats in 1995 and controls most of the electronic media. Its claim to rule is also underpinned by political stability and a minor economic recovery.

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.

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