Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain (fantasy novels to read .TXT) 📕

As the Malay community split into two mutually antagonistic and irreconcilable camps, members left UMNO in droves for the only logical alternative, PAS, among them many young, middle-class professionals. PAS offices worked around the clock, signing up 15,000 new members a month at the height of the stampede. Smaller numbers joined the National Justice Party, a multi-ethnic grouping formed much later by Anwar's wife. As if Anwar's incarceration was not enough, the arrest of many of his supporters, sometimes in mosques, left the government's Islamic image in tatters. To his many detractors, Dr. Mahathir was identified with everything un-Islamic in Malaysia. Farish Noor, the academic-commentator, wrote that "whatever the man says — even if he claims that two plus two equals four — is now dismissed as the words of the great Mahazalim, who is cruel, tyrannical and unjust...the charm of the old spell has been broken".[94] The minimum standards of respect, which had remained intact through the most bitter political clashes in the past, collapsed. Dr. Mahathir was pelted with used paper drinking cups by Anwar supporters as he left the UMNO Supreme Council meeting that expelled Anwar, and Malaysia's foremost novelist, Shahnon Ahmad, directed a political satire at the prime minister. It was simply titled Shit, and it became a best seller.

Anwar's treatment dominated the dirtiest election campaign in Malaysian history, held in late 1999 after another year of high drama and confrontational politics. Dr. Mahathir prepared for the poll on 29 November by relinquishing the finance and home affairs portfolios, appointing Abdullah Badawi deputy prime minister and reshuffling his Cabinet. The ruling National Front faced a coalition of major opposition parties that for the first time was pledged to a common reform platform. Four parties — PAS, the Democratic Action Party, the National Justice Party and the small socialist People's Party of Malaysia — formed the Alternative Front. They named Anwar, who at that time had been sentenced to six years imprisonment for corruption and faced further charges in a legally disputed trial, as their leader.

Apart from the government's alleged cruelty, symbolized by ubiquitous posters of Anwar and his black eye, issues that figured prominently were those highlighted by the Reformasi movement that emerged with the Asian economic crisis in 1997 — corruption, economic mismanagement, injustice and lack of transparency and accountability. Islam was also a factor, the prime minister having defined his deputy's dismissal with the statement, "I am a better Muslim than Anwar is."[95] As if to underline the point, Dr. Mahathir and several close associates went on the hajj to Mecca early in the year. PAS's goal of an Islamic state was not included in the manifesto of the Alternative Front, which campaigned generally for vastly improved democratic governance.

Although the government retained a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, regarded as a necessary minimum, UMNO suffered the worst electoral setback since the first post-independence election in 1959. Its parliamentary representation collapsed from 94 seats to 72, with four ministers and five deputy ministers being defeated. In his constituency, Dr. Mahathir's majority fell from 17,226 to 10,138. Overall, more than half the Malay vote went to the opposition. PAS retained power in Kelantan and took control of Trengganu for the first time since 1959. Holding 27 of the 45 non-government seats in Parliament, PAS assumed the leadership of the opposition from the Democratic Action Party.[96]

It seemed obvious that UMNO needed to change its policies and address demands for reform in order to rescue the party's claim to majority Malay support. Anecdotal evidence, supported by subsequent interviews, confirmed that UMNO was identified with gross abuse of power. For example, the majority of Muslims interviewed in Trengganu who voted for PAS said they cast their ballots in anger and frustration: Like their non-Muslim counterparts, they regarded the National Front state government as thoroughly corrupt. They did not vote for PAS because they wanted to live in an Islamic state.[97] Dr. Mahathir claimed otherwise. He insisted UMNO's reversal was due to Anwar and allies spreading lies, Malay ingratitude and PAS's bribery in promising a passage to heaven for its followers.[98] Rather than admit to a deficient performance that might warrant a mea culpa over Anwar and a wide policy front, Dr. Mahathir embarked on what he portrayed as a renewed mission to thoroughly Islamize the party, the government and the nation.[99]

Although popular sentiment clearly favoured good governance, PAS sometimes acted as if it had received an endorsement of its Islamic state agenda. After party leaders continued to restate their intention to create a juridical Islamic state if they obtained power at the federal level, the Democratic Action Party withdrew from the opposition coalition, effectively dismantling the Alternative Front. At the state level, PAS demonstrated its commitment by trying to impose the kharaj, land tax, on non-Muslims in Trengganu, the scene of its latest electoral triumph.[100] Following Kelantan's earlier example, Trengganu's PAS government forced through unconstitutional legislation adopting hudud, but went further by providing for the execution of apostates.[101] Those laws were "inspired by the most conservative, narrow and chauvinistic interpretation of the Qur'an".[102] Prodded by the Dr. Mahathir-directed federal government, UMNO-ruled states began passing Islamic laws that were almost as harsh.[103] Thus was "moderate" Malaysia subjected to an ever-escalating "Islamic policy auction", with mounting implications.[104]

From April 2000, various National Front-controlled state legislatures began considering their own laws to stop Muslims from straying religiously. Perlis adopted legislation, prepared in the Prime Minister's Department, which allowed the state's religious authorities to take criminal proceedings against Muslims accused of heresy, deviation or other "crimes" related to their beliefs. The bill provided for an accused to be confined to a "faith rehabilitation centre" for up to a year, to allow him or her to be "brought back" to the proper fold of Islam. Those judged unredeemable would be declared apostates and lose their rights as Muslims.[105] A more extreme version of the law, which would have allowed for the prosecution of a Muslim accused of misleading