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New dynamics in Malaysia

It is a measure of new dynamics in Malaysia that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should be asked by Mahathir Mohamad — its chief architect of modernity — to step down soon after winning a comfortable majority in last week’s parliamentary election. Mr. Abdullah’s political failure is this. He squandered, in a snap poll, the 90 per cent parliamentary hegemony (199 out of 219 seats) of the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front), which is led by his United Malays National Organisation. The coalition fell short of a two-thirds majority, the magical figure for constitutional activism and also, for the first time, lost control of five of the 12 state legislatures at stake. The gainers have been the Democratic Action Party, a secular and multiracial party that draws most of its support from Malaysia’s largest minority, the ethnic Chinese; the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), a single-race conservative Islamic party; and the centrist Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Familiar allegations — corruption, cronyism, nepotism, and failure to control rising prices as also crime rates — were levelled against of a politician who took office as a hands-on leader with a soft touch. Voters were also influenced by political echoes of pre-poll protest rallies on three key issues: Mr. Anwar’s new and vibrant campaign for electoral reforms; the evocative pleas by lawyer-activists for freedom of assembly; and demonstrations by substantial sections of the ethnic Indian minority for “equal rights” with the Malay-Muslim majority. Discernible at the heart of this new political awakening across Malaysia are signs of informed debate on how to redefine or restructure its polity, which is based on power-sharing among ethnically oriented parties. A cluster of coordinating opposition parties is seeking to reconfigure power-sharing as an endeavour that cuts across racial lines and does not depend on race-based bargains as at present. The non-registered Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which claims credit for the defeat of Malaysian Indian Congress president Samy Vellu, a long-time federal Minister, played a part in a subplot of the opposition campaign. It is time Hindraf disbanded or reinvented itself as an outfit committed to political pluralism and free from any communal odour.

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