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

In a rancorous race with Musa, Tengku Razaleigh was the early favourite, but his declaration that he could not lose and would leave the Cabinet if he did so worked against him in a community that valued compromise and politeness.[35] Musa won by a vote of 722 to 517. When Tengku Razaleigh nominated again and challenged Musa for the deputy presidency in 1984, Dr. Mahathir was much more confident of his own leadership, having steered UMNO to an impressive victory in a general election in 1982. He openly backed his deputy this time, helping Musa weather another roiling contest to retain his post by a slightly wider margin.

After using Musa to dampen the threat from Tengku Razaleigh, Dr. Mahathir reversed their roles to ensure Musa did not build too strong a power base in UMNO. Musa wanted Tengku Razaleigh out of the government altogether, on the grounds that his presence would perpetuate a growing split within the party. Indeed, Musa was under the impression he had an "unwritten agreement" with Dr. Mahathir that Tengku Razaleigh would be purged from the Cabinet and denied any nominated post in UMNO if he contested again in 1984 and lost.[36] Instead, Dr. Mahathir shifted Tengku Razaleigh to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, while replacing him as UMNO treasurer. Like Tengku Razaleigh earlier, Musa and his backers considered that Dr. Mahathir had broken his promise, or at least half of it.

Although trade and industry was less prestigious than the treasury, it was deeply involved in the implementation of the New Economic Policy and offered just as many possibilities to distribute benefits and gather supporters. In a confidential letter of protest to Dr. Mahathir that was leaked, Musa listed all the patronage points available to Tengku Razaleigh, including granting import permits, recommending local partners for foreign investors and nominating individuals for the distribution of shares. Musa said Tengku Razaleigh would have "the greatest opportunity ever to prepare himself for his political future, even better than [in] Finance".[37] In truth, Dr. Mahathir kept Tengku Razaleigh's candidacy alive for a third clash in 1987, just in case the prime minister needed to cut Musa off at the knees.

While Dr. Mahathir did not invent the informal system of checks and balances to restrain rivals and remind others they were in constant competition for the prime minister's favour, he embraced it with a Machiavellian touch. One technique he copied from predecessors was to ensure that in the politically more important Malaysian states a particularly powerful UMNO figure was offset by another prominent politician.[38] The chief minister, for example, often had to look over his shoulder at the head of an UMNO state liaison committee or a cabinet minister.

Dr. Mahathir used the 1982 general election, called more than a year before it was due, to promote a new generation of Malay leaders, who would start to balance some of the old-line, entrenched politicians. Almost half of the existing members of parliament and state assemblies, among them three ministers, were dropped in favour of fresh candidates, younger and better educated, who might share Dr. Mahathir's outlook.[39] In a campaign that lacked compelling issues, it became a referendum on his first nine months in office, characterized by vigorous attempts to shake up the bureaucracy, denunciations of corruption and promises to push ahead with heavy industrial and infrastructure projects despite a slowing economy.

Dr. Mahathir personally co-opted star candidate Anwar Ibrahim, the charismatic president of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement and a fierce government critic, who had positioned the movement as independent of both UMNO and the opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS). After Anwar easily captured a PAS constituency and took his place in Parliament, Dr. Mahathir immediately made him a deputy minister, promoting him to a full minister the following year. Attending his first UMNO General Assembly in 1982, Anwar aggressively contested the leadership of the party's youth wing as Dr. Mahathir's man, defeating the stodgy incumbent, who was also a deputy minister. As head of UMNO Youth, Anwar automatically became an ex-officio vice president — all within a year or so of joining the party. His rapid ascent was resented by younger aspirants who had toiled long and loyally for UMNO, only to find their further advancement blocked by a man who spent those years denouncing the party. His arrival also spelled more uncertainty for Musa and Tengku Razaleigh over their leadership ambitions.

With Dr. Mahathir at the helm for the first time, the 11-party National Front took all 13 states in the election. It won 132 of the 154 seats in Parliament compared with 131 in 1978, and it could count on backing from five nominally independents in Sabah. Peninsular Malaysia delivered an even broader mandate for Dr. Mahathir, with the pattern of voting showing he had overcome his reputation as a Malay extremist and won the trust of Chinese Malaysians.

Within UMNO, however, unhappiness over the way Dr. Mahathir was handling the party boiled over at the 1983 General Assembly, after he declared his faith in Musa a year ahead of party elections. Dr. Mahathir's explanation that he spoke not so much to support Musa as to squash malicious rumours that they were drifting apart politically, which hampered the administration of the country, was rejected by many of the more tradition-minded delegates. They said a how-to-vote directive from the president violated convention and opened the way to dictatorial action in future.[40]

While Dr. Mahathir's political acumen kept him in power, his actions in fending off rivals and encouraging them to fight among themselves contributed to unprecedented open factionalism in UMNO. As he gradually strengthened his position, opposing factions also became better organized and more defined. UMNO's direct and deepening involvement in business with the implementation of the New Economic Policy raised the economic stakes and sharpened competition for government contracts, privatization awards and other benefits.

Musa Hitam's abrupt resignation as deputy premier and home affairs minister in early 1986 opened more fissures within UMNO,