.IF MALAYSIA is ever going to adopt politics separate from prevailing race issues, most analysts agree it is far from a simplistic black or white. It is more likely we are all staring at a grey area. .At one end, there are arguments against jumping to conclusions — that the historic March 8 election, which saw ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) lose its long-heldtwo-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time since independence, as an end to race-based politics. .In May, for example, some 200 ethnic Malay non-governmental organisations (NGOs) formed the Council for Malay Solidarity to protect ethnic supremacy which they felt was under threat. .Taking a leaf from that chapter, retired Professor Cheah Boon Kheng formerly from the Universiti Sains Malaysia cast doubt over the immediate growth of non-communal politics. He referred to 1951 when Mr Onn Jaafar, a founder-president of the United MalaysNational Organisation (Umno), left it to form the multi-racial Independence of Malaya Party but failed to secure the support of Malaysia’s different ethnic groups at the polls. .More recently, political analyst Karim Raslan told a captive audience at a talk on Wednesday at the fifth Asean Leadership Forum: “I don’t think we are post-race???. .A chance encounter with a Malaysian Malay businessman at that very same function lends some credence to Mr Karim’s reading. He whispered his vehement disagreement over a recent decision taken by the Cabinet to accord more government scholarships to non-Malays. .Still, how do we reconcile the findings of a post-March 8 survey conducted by Kuala Lumpur-based Merdeka Centre which found that two in three Malaysians polled wanted the ethnic component parties of BN to merge into one multi-racial model? .Mr Karim offers his perspective: “What has happened is a growing understanding among those of different races in the lower, working and middle classes that their interests are actually closer to one another.??? .In the run-up to the March 8 election, high inflation emerged as a primary theme, suggesting that class was a stronger identity marker than ethnicity, at least in this general election. .One can almost forget that this was once the nation where political rhetoric during campaigning periods were structured along racial lines as Malays, Chinese and Indians grapple with issues such as the neglect of Chinese schools, demolition of Indian temples or the creation of an Islamic state. .So, at the other end of the spectrum, it is also flawed to assume that the attitude towards race politics has not changed. .The true scenario probably lies somewhere in between. .To put it simply, there is ambivalence across the Causeway. Malaysians want race to figure lesser in their endeavours, but they are also bogged by a historical baggage that prevents them from ignoring its presence. .The real litmus test hinges on opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s next move. .While de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s former Deputy Prime Minister, has led the charge to abolish the pro-Malay New Economic Policy (NEP), Mr Karim observed that the Malay-majority opposition party has not questioned the privileged position of the Malays as enshrined in the Constitution. .“That means they (Keadilan) are very much wedded to the primacy of the Malays,??? he said. And so he concludes: “Keadilan, even at their most liberal, when you scratch them, is their rhetoric not similar to moderates within Umno???? .Or, is it? .Until Mr Anwar and his colleaguesdecide to criticise the Constitution for itspro-Malay stance, even the abolishment of NEP-styled policies would at best be a superficial victory for multi-racialism in Malaysia.
Anwar Seeking `Redemption' as Champion of Malaysian Equality By Angus Whitley, Bloomberg News Service Friday, 13 June 2008
On his first night in detention, the father of six was beaten by the country's head of police, Abdul Rahim Noor. ``I thought I would be left to die there, I could see blood all over,'' Anwar recalls. Noor was eventually convicted of causing harm to Anwar.
(Bloomberg) -- Confined to a wheelchair by a police beating and facing corruption and sodomy charges, Anwar Ibrahim wasn't about to let his jailer spoil a good photo opportunity.
``He scolded me for blocking photographers and preventing supporters from shaking his hand,'' says Ahmad Romli, recalling the 1999 High Court appearance in Kuala Lumpur. ``Anwar said his life was in politics and he would never surrender.''
Now Anwar, unbowed by the six years he spent in prison and calling himself ``a wiser man'' for the experience, may be on the verge of ending five decades of rule by the ethnic Malay party that once groomed him to become Malaysia's prime minister.
His multiracial coalition -- dedicated to scrapping a system that gives the Malay majority preferential access to jobs, housing and education -- scored record gains in March elections; Anwar says he can line up enough government lawmakers to topple Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi within three months.
``He's not seeking revenge,'' says former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, who has known Anwar for years. ``He's seeking redemption.''
It's a description far removed from the firebrand leader of the 1970s who formed and led an Islamic youth group and later, as deputy president of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, defended Malay supremacy.
Conversion or Ploy?
Now 60, the former finance minister says the country's pro-Malay rules hamper growth in Southeast Asia's third-largest economy, which the central bank says is likely to slow this year to between 5 and 6 percent from 2007's 6.3 percent. That stance, putting him on the same side as the nation's ethnic Chinese and Indians, is just the latest twist in a political journey that inevitably stirs suspicions that his conversion to championing equality is simply a ploy to win power.
In three interviews in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in the past three months, Anwar rejected opponent's charges that he is little more than a political chameleon.
``Chameleon means you say different things to different people,'' he says. ``My message is consistent; the examples must be different to cater to the audience. I go to the urban area, I quote Shakespeare; I go to the village, I quote the Koran; you quote Confucius to the Chinese; to the Hindus, I quote Ramayana.''
Anwar got his start in politics as a student activist at the University of Malaya and helped found the Islamic Youth Movement of Malaysia, many of whose members supported the Pan- Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS. Imprisoned without trial under security laws in 1974 after leading protests against rural poverty, he shocked his allies in 1982 by joining UMNO, the party that has ruled Malaysia since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1957.
Mahathir's Protege
Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister from 1981 to 2003, appointed Anwar minister for youth, agriculture and education. As education minister between 1986 and 1991, he changed the national language in school text books to ``Malay'' from ``Malaysian.'' ``I had very strong views on the position of the language, of the culture, of the religion,'' Anwar says. ``But I also realized the hypocrisy of religion, the ultra- conservative views that will stunt intellectual growth.''
In 1991, he was named finance minister; two years later, he defeated the UMNO deputy president and became deputy premier. Then, in 1998, Mahathir fired Anwar amid speculation that the deputy was moving to oust him. Not long after, Anwar was arrested, charged with corruption and sodomizing his wife's former driver. He denied the allegations; the sodomy conviction was eventually overturned.
Leper Colony
Between 1998 and 2004, Anwar was incarcerated at Sungai Buloh prison, a former leper colony nestled in oil-palm-covered hills 22 miles (35 kilometers) northwest of Kuala Lumpur.
On his first night in detention, the father of six was beaten by the country's head of police, Abdul Rahim Noor. ``I thought I would be left to die there, I could see blood all over,'' Anwar recalls. Noor was eventually convicted of causing harm to Anwar.
While on trial in 1999, Anwar scribbled editorials for foreign newspapers in the margins of his court documents, and in jail, the government regarded him as an opponent. For more than six months, he washed his own bed sheets using a tap and toilet in his cell. From morning to midnight most days, he read religious scripts and plays to broaden his understanding of Indian and Chinese faiths.
Memorizing the Koran
According to head guard Ahmad, 56, who is now retired, Anwar would memorize the Koran, pray five times a day and run around the prison soccer pitch in the evenings for exercise.
Anwar was isolated for most of his sentence in the hospital wing, where guards were ordered by the government to log his movements every 15 minutes.
``Eleven o'clock: Sleeping. 11:15: Still sleeping. One o'clock: Got up to go to the toilet,'' Ahmad said in an interview at his home in Taiping, a three-hour drive north of Malaysia's capital. ``We'd write it down.''
Anwar says that his contacts with his guards and fellow inmates, as limited as they were, started him on the path to reconsider his pro-Malay past, embodied by the 1971 New Economic Policy that legalized the system of preferential treatment. Under the program, listed companies must sell 30 percent of their stock to Malays, property developers offer them cheaper homes, and public universities allow them easier entry than Chinese and Indians.
Stolen Jeans
Anwar cites a 19-year-old Malay inmate who was serving a six-month sentence for stealing a pair of jeans. The youth, who he didn't identify, said pro-Malay policies only encouraged corruption and benefited government officials, rather than ordinary Malays -- the case Anwar now makes to argue that the preferences hinder economic growth.
``We are not here representing non-Malay sentiment,'' Anwar says. ``We are persuading Malays to respect the new economic realities.''
In April 1999, Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail formed a new party that is now the country's largest opposition group in Parliament. During that year's election campaign, opposition parties campaigned with pictures of Anwar taken after his police beating.
In 2004, Anwar was finally released, under terms preventing him from immediately re-entering electoral politics. Even so, ``he came out more purposeful than when he went in,'' James Wolfensohn, who was president of the World Bank in 1998 when Anwar was chairman of the bank's development committee, said in an interview.
Changed for the Better
``He certainly has determination to lead his country,'' says Wolfensohn, who adds that he believes the prison experience changed Anwar for the better.
Not everyone agrees. ``He now puts his interest above the nation,'' says Ezam Mohamad Nor, 41, a former aide to Anwar who is chairman of Gerak Malaysia, a non-government organization that campaigns against corruption, and who last month joined Abdullah's party. ``After coming out from prison he is so obsessed with becoming the prime minister. This is one of the main reasons I left.''
Even Anwar's new political allies are still a bit wary of his conversion to their cause, but say it's a chance worth taking.
``We feel that we should be able to take the risk, despite his past record, that he wants to be an agent for reform and change,'' says Lim Guan Eng, the ethnic Chinese chief minister of Penang.
Worst Result
This year, Abdullah, 68, called elections for March 8, before the ban on Anwar's competing as a candidate was to expire. The gamble didn't pay off: Anwar's multi-ethnic People's Justice Party, the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party won control of five of Malaysia's 13 states, handing the ruling UMNO its worst-ever result and denying the government coalition it leads its usual two-thirds majority in Parliament.
The results prompted calls from within Abdullah's own party for him to step down; amid the political instability, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index has fallen 15 percent this year. So far, though, Abdullah has weathered the crisis. Criticized for failing to cut graft, he proposed a new anti-corruption commission and a panel to vet and pick judges. He has also courted corporate Malaysia by removing price restrictions on steel and cement makers, and some now think he will be able to hold on.
``There seems to be a wrong perception that the government has lost control,'' says Wai Kee Choong, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in Kuala Lumpur. ``There'll be no change of government.''
That doesn't stop Anwar, still waiting for Malaysia's attorney general to clear him to run for public office, from plotting his comeback from the suburban Kuala Lumpur home that serves as his office.
Alongside his desk, a prayer mat is draped on a stand. Nearby, Islamic art and scriptures hang on the wall beside pictures of him, laughing. ``I've never had the desire to walk away,'' he says.
Iskandar Malaysia project to go ahead as planned Channel NewsAsia - Saturday, June 7
SINGAPORE: The Iskandar Malaysia project will go ahead as planned, Malaysia’s High Commissioner to Singapore N Parameswaran said on Thursday.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s poor showing in the recent general elections has left investors concerned about his pet project — Iskandar Malaysia, which was launched in late 2006.
However, the High Commissioner noted that the project — a special economic zone three times the size of Singapore — will have the support of any political party that comes into power.
"There should not be any concern that any changes (that) take place in Malaysia... will... affect the on—going developments in Iskandar," he said.
About 530 square metres of the Southern Industrial and Logistics Clusters (SiLC) at Iskandar Malaysia have been launched. According to developer UEM Land, more than 95 per cent were taken up by Singapore—based companies.
Managing director of UEM Land, Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim, said: "The opportunity is the price, the price is extremely low."
Phase one of SiLC was completed in April 2008.
Since its launch in 2006, Iskandar Malaysia has attracted some 33 billion ringgit worth of investment. — CNA
Malaysia's Anwar says 'multi-racial' opposition emerging AFP AFP - Saturday, June 7
MANILA, June 6, 2008 (AFP) - Malaysia's opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim said Friday that a "multi-racial, multi-religious" opposition was emerging in his country for the first time to challenge the ruling party.
The 60-year-old former deputy prime minister said many Malaysians of all races and religions were "sick and tired of corruption, of the destruction of the judiciary."
There is a "multi-racial, multi-religious cohesion of emerging forces in Malaysia which is clamouring for change," Anwar told an academic forum in the Philippines.
Recently there have been growing fears over "Islamisation" of Malaysia and the increasing polarisation of the three main ethnic communities.
About 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people are ethnic Malay Muslims. The country's minority Chinese and Indians are mostly Buddhists, Hindus or Christians.
Anwar, once heir-apparent to long-time former premier Mahathir Mohamad, spent six years in jail on sex and corruption charges, but now leads a resurgent opposition.
India and Malaysia risked the wrath of voters by raising the price of subsidized fuel, measures that could further weaken the governments of both countries, already made fragile by recent electoral setbacks.
In India, the increase was quickly condemned by political parties from all sides, two of which promised demonstrations. A Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman called the move the equivalent of “economic terrorism.???
Economists and policy makers described the increase as painful but necessary. Fuel subsidies in Malaysia alone would have totaled $17 billion this year.
Consumers in Malaysia, like the woman above, will see gasoline prices go up by 40 percent, and more increases are planned, said Shahrir Abdul Samad, Malaysia’s domestic trade and consumer affairs minister. Gas prices vary across India, but the announcement amounted to an increase of around 10 percent.
