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Malaysia news!



Hi Burma netters,

Here is the news about Malaysia.  We need to learn from our neighboring
countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia who strongly support SPDC.  Why?
because they share the same mentality.

Htun Aung Gyaw

The Nation (Bangkok) 21 Sep 98	"Editorial & Opinion" heading

     Where can Anwar go from
     here?

     Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim is now desperately
     fighting for his political survival. Can he make a
     comeback?

     Here's a quiz posted on the Internet after
     Malaysia's No 2 was kicked out. Question: Who is
     he?

     He was once imprisoned because of his political
     views. He wrote a book lauding racial chauvinism.
     His country was poor until he industrialised it. He
     promoted the manufacturing of the first national
     car. He launched a slew of mega-projects and
     hosted a world-class sport event. He had to face a
     severe currency devaluation.

     He insisted the problems of his country were due
     to a conspiracy by foreign powers. He pulverised
     his political enemies and muzzled the media. He
     had a deputy who called for reforms and caused
     jealousy among party big wigs. His No 2, who had
     been with him for some 17 years, was finally
     removed under accusations of homosexuality and
     treason.

     The answer: Adolf Hitler.

     Perhaps it is too harsh to equate Prime Minister
     Mahathir Mohamad with Hitler, but the
     resemblance is uncanny, especially in the way he
     ''blitzkrieged'' his political rival, Anwar Ibrahim.

     The reversal of Anwar's fortune couldn't be more
     dramatic. One day the Malaysian media had
     Mahathir denying Anwar would resign. The next
     Anwar was not only sacked but unceremoniously
     expelled from the party. That the media had
     missed perhaps the biggest story of the decade,
     that problems were brewing between the two top
     men, says a lot about press freedom in Malaysia.

     Which explains why Web sites providing Anwar's
     side of the story appeared soon after the sacking.
     Many Malaysians, even those who would normally
     support Mahathir, are horrified by the high-handed
     manner in which Anwar was dismissed. And
     frustrated by a near-total news blackout in the
     local media, they turn in droves to the Internet. For
     example, Anwar Online, one of the dozens of new
     Web sites, registered some 250,000 hits in its first
     10 days of operation.

     Ironically, Mahathir was instrumental in
     encouraging Malaysians to embrace the Internet
     revolution. Now, to his chagrin, the Net is being
     used for a very different kind of revolution.
     However, with no more than 500,000 Net users in
     a country of 22 million, this new medium cannot
     possibly pose as an effective alternative to the
     docile mass media. Not yet.

     Nevertheless, such a phenomenon represents a
     remarkable shift in the Malaysian political ground.
     Anwar, who took pains to fashion himself as a new
     breed of leader, has successfully wooed the
     backing of the ''virtual'' community, whose
     denizens are mostly young professionals and
     students. Their support will no doubt help bolster
     Anwar in his show-down with Mahathir.

     No doubt Mahathir is perturbed by the political
     standoff with Anwar. Originally his plan was to
     confront Anwar with a barrage of allegations which
     Mahathir hoped, by sheer number alone, would
     force his deputy to resign quietly.

     Indeed no one in Malaysian history has been
     assailed with so many allegations and threatened
     with so many laws. Anwar was accused of
     committing sodomy, sexual impropriety, bribery,
     treason, tempering with evidence, interfering with
     police investigations, abuse of power, sedition and
     now organising illegal rallies. In addition the police
     have vowed to use a battery of laws against him
     from the Internal Security Act to the Protection of
     Women and Girls Act. Still Anwar remains
     unmoved.

     Mahathir has no doubt grossly miscalculated
     Anwar's resolve to slog it out. Now that Plan A has
     failed, Mahathir is caught between a rock and a
     hard place. He could arrest Anwar under the
     Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite
     detention without trial, but if Anwar was not taken
     to court, it would only raise further questions
     whether Mahathir could prove Anwar's
     wrongdoing.

     Since he fired Anwar, Mahathir has been telling
     just about everyone to trust him. He has, he says,
     conducted his own investigations. He has
     interviewed witnesses himself and examined the
     veracity of their claims, and he has concluded that
     his former deputy was ''unsuitable'' and guilty of
     ''conduct unbecoming'' to a national leader.

     If this is so, there shouldn't be any need for
     Mahathir to resort to the ISA. That's why Mahathir
     would prefer to arrest Anwar on criminal charges.
     It would not only legally hobble Anwar for years
     but also damage Anwar's image as a pious,
     religious man. And even if all the charges were
     later proved wrong, Anwar's reputation would be
     gravely tarnished, perhaps irreversibly. Indeed
     with so much mud being thrown at one man,
     surely some of it will stick.

     However, for Plan B to work, the police need to
     produce evidence which can stand up in court and
     not just the nameless and faceless witnesses
     mentioned in their affidavits. Nevertheless if the
     police were to dig deep enough, they would be
     bound to find something rotten. For someone who
     has been in government for 16 years and clawed
     his way up to be the second most powerful man in
     a country where corruption is endemic, abuse of
     power rampant and government machinery at best
     opaque, Anwar cannot be possibly clean.

     Already the line of police inquiry appears to be to
     find ''witnesses'' who can be badgered into
     incriminating Anwar. On Saturday Anwar's
     stepbrother, Sukma Dermawan, and a Pakistani
     friend, Munawar Anees, both of whom were
     detained earlier for ''questioning'', confessed to
     being sodomised by Anwar and were sentenced to
     six-months' imprisonment. That's rather odd: the
     ''victims'' are punished while the alleged sodomist
     is still walking free.

     Moreover the two were not allowed access to
     relatives or lawyers since they were detained
     earlier this month. Relatives were also forbidden
     to talk to them while in court when their
     confessions were read by lawyers their families
     had not appointed. All this smacks of a political,
     not a criminal, persecution.

     By now Anwar would realise that he is not going to
     get a fair trial should he be arrested. He is already
     being tried and hanged by the media. His only
     remaining option is to go to the court of the people
     with the immediate aim of getting himself
     reinstated in the ruling United Malays National
     Organisation (Umno). This would be Anwar's
     quickest and easiest road back to power. But it is
     also the most unlikely. To return to Umno's fold,
     Anwar would need to literally walk over Mahathir's
     dead body.

     He can still opt to join the opposition. In this,
     Anwar doesn't have much of a choice. Joining the
     fundamentalist Islamic Party or the Chinese-based
     Democratic Action Party would rob him of
     broad-based support. Perhaps he would form his
     own party and stitch together an alliance with
     other opposition groups. However, his most likely
     option is to sit it out. Anwar can indeed afford to
     wait for a few years until Mahathir goes and be
     invited back into the party. Time is on his side:
     Mahathir is 73, while he is only 51.

     But meanwhile can Anwar keep himself in the
     political spotlight?

     Anwar, unlike other out-of-favour Umno politicians
     who are consigned to the political wilderness once
     they are expelled from the party, can survive,
     indeed thrive, on the outside. He boasts an
     independent power base. Most importantly, he
     has the support of a group of energetic students
     and Muslim youth. And even if Anwar was jailed
     for years, this group of activists could help keep
     his political hopes alive.

     However, Anwar must also win the support of a
     key group of Malaysians, the non-Muslims, who
     represent some 40 per cent of the population.
     Over the years, Anwar has successfully cultivated
     the suave and urbane image of a Muslim leader.
     He talks often about democracy, human rights and
     civil society, and few can fault him for any sign of
     fundamentalism. Yet many non-Muslims are not
     convinced.

     His Permatang Pauh declaration, launched when
     Anwar began his roadshow, will go some way to
     reassure those who are still wary of his Islamic
     firebrand past. The declaration which sought to
     give substance to his reform movement not only
     stressed the need to combat corruption and abuse
     of power, but also sought a more equal
     distribution of wealth across class and ethnic lines
     and vowed to keep the cultural traditions of all
     races intact.

     All this is very much in keeping with Anwar's Asian
     renaissance. On the week when Anwar was
     sacked, students in Jakarta called for the ouster of
     Indonesia's B J Habibie, their fellows in Rangoon
     demonstrated against the military junta, and the
     opposition in Phnom Penh lambasted strongman
     Hun Sen for what they said was massive electoral
     fraud in the recent polls. Indeed Asian
     renaissance is in the making. However, if Asian
     renaissance is to see the light of day in his own
     country, Anwar himself must survive.

     But he faces a formidable opponent. Ironically, for
     someone who can afford to wait, time is fast
     running out as he expects to be arrested any time
     soon. Clearly one must never underestimate the
     old man. Mahathir knows well that if there is
     anything which could spook Malaysians into
     rallying behind the government it is the spectre of
     racial riots, and if all moves to check Anwar fail,
     Mahathir could quite possibly engineer mayhem
     Jakarta-style which would pave the way for him to
     declare a state of emergency, allowing him to
     suspend Parliament and postpone the elections
     due in 2000.

     Already Mahathir is the prime minister, home
     minister and finance minister. Soon, say the
     opposition, Malaysia will degenerate into a
     one-man government. The ruling party, Umno, is
     now dubbed the United Mahathir National
     Organisation. He has an iron grip over all three
     branches of government, the executive, the
     legislature and the judiciary. At best, democracy in
     Malaysia today exists only on paper, and at worst,
     the country is turning into a police state.

     Perhaps it is unfair to compare Mahathir to Hitler.
     Then again, it was Hitler who once said: ''The
     bigger the lie, the easier it is to believe.''

     BY STEVEN GAN

     The Nation

     Steven Gan is member of The Nation's editorial
     team. This is part of a speech delivered at the
     Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on Sept
     16.