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March 12, 2008

Malaysia's Elections - Political Tsunami Or New Wave?

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.
Malaysia's Elections - Political Tsunami Or New Wave?

On Friday, January 25 this year, Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, suggested that he would bring forward the date for national elections. His coalition parliament was not officially obligated to hold general elections until the middle of next year.

He said: "We will call for the election when I think everything is all right and at the moment I think people are ready for the election." He soon set the date for elections for Saturday March 8, 2008.

The elections took place at the weekend, but though the coalition led by Badawi's UMNO party obtained a majority, the results have nonetheless been viewed as disastrous. This coalition, called the Barisan Nasional, comprises 14 parties. UMNO (United National Malays Organization) is the largest party. The coalition has ensured that UMNO has led the country since Malaysia's independence on August 31, 1957.

At the last elections on March 21, 2004, the Barisan Nasional won 196 of the 219 parliamentary seats. Badawi knew that the coalition would not be so successful this time. Two of the Barisan Nasional parties are ethnic - the MIC, or Malaysia Indian Congress and the MCA, or Malaysian Chinese Association. Since 1996, the MCA has been the second largest party in the coalition. Despite having these partners, UMNO has promoted policies which favor Malays over Indians and Chinese in housing, jobs, and government contracts. Recently Indians have felt particularly alienated by UMNO policies, and as Indians comprise only 8% of the electorate, it seems Badawi assumed he did not need Indian support.

The results from Saturday's elections - the 12th since independence - have caused shock within Malaysia. With 222 parliamentary seats being contested this year, the Barisan Nasional won only 140 seats (63 percent of the total). UMNO itself has only 78 seats in the parliament. This was the worst election for the coalition and for UMNO since independence.

1969 and Policies Of Discrimination

The only election which was close to this in its outcome was that of 1969. In that election, the Barisan Nasional won 66 percent of the seats in parliament. In the 1969 election, the Chinese parties of Gerakan and DAP (Democratic Action Party) won significant seats. These had campaigned on a platform opposing Article 153 of Malaysia's constitution.

This article, in place since the "merdeka" or independence" of Malaysia in 1957, gives the king privileges to "safeguard the special position of the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of other communities in accordance with the provisions of this Article." This goes on to specify where Malays are to be guaranteed places in universities, positions in the public service, business contracts and similar.

On May 12, 1969, two days after the elections, the Chinese parties held victory rallies. The next day conflicts between Chinese and Malays began in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, at an UMNO rally. Soon rioting between Malays and Chinese spread to the surrounding state of Selangor. These only subsided in late July, after at least 196 people had been killed and many women had been raped. As a result of the riots, parliament was suspended until 1971.

The government then introduced the New Economic Policy, or NEP, as a response to the conflict. This policy of affirmative action to promote Malay Muslims into jobs, at the expense of the Chinese and Indians, was intended to last for only 20 years, but has been indefinitely prolonged since then.

When it became clear after the 2008 elections that the Barisan Nasional had fared worse than it had in 1969, and the opposition parties had dramatically raised their status, victory rallies were prohibited.

One UMNO member of parliament who lost his seat in the 1969 election was Mahathir Mohamad. He wrote an open letter criticizing the UMNO prime minister of the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman, for not properly supporting the Malay population. This led to his expulsion from the party. He then wrote a book called "The Malay Dilemma" which maintained that Malays (called Bumiputra, or "sons of the soil") were second class citizens. The book gained popularity, and in 1974 Mahathir Mohamad was invited back into the party. In 1981 he became prime minister and ruled for 22 years until his retirement in October 2003.

Under Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the policies of NEP became the cornerstone of the UMNO's ethos of "ketuanan melayu" - Malay hegemony - which claims special privileges to Malays as their birthright. This policy, along with the NEP, had been introduced by the party in 1971.

Mahathir Mohamad introduced massive building projects which transformed the skylines of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. Mahathir was pro-American, and sent many young Malays for government-sponsored education abroad at American universities. He supported the US after 9/11, But he was also a bigot. He once said that "Anglo-Saxon Europeans" were the proponents of "war, sodomy and genocide."

He accused US financier George Soros of being behind a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the Asian economy in the late 1990s. This personal animosity against Mr Soros was only buried at the end of 2006.

Shortly before he resigned in 2003, Mahathir addressed the Organization of Islamic Conference in Putrajaya. He said: "The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

Mahathir could at times be a ferocious tyrant, treating some of his deputy prime ministers with contempt. In 1998, he sacked Anwar Ibrahim, who was then falsely accused of sodomy. Ibrahim was jailed for this, as well as on a charge of corruption. After six years behind bars, he was released in 2004 after the original conviction for sodomy was overturned. Under Malaysian law anyone who has served a jail sentence is barred from political office for five years, so Anwar is still banned from taking any political position until April 14, 2009.

In the September 20, 2005 edition of the Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News it was reported that Anwar Ibrahim was threatening to sue Mahathir, after the former prime minister had once again made the claim that Ibrahim engaged in sodomy. Ibrahim said: "I will not allow this lie and slander to continue. Thus I have instructed my counsel to initiate legal action against Mahathir."

Mahathir's successor as the head of UMNO had been Abdullah Badawi. He initially had the full support of Mahathir. About two years ago, that support had started to disappear. After the recent election result, on Sunday Mahathir suggested Badawi should resign. He said: "I think he should accept responsibility for this, just as in 2004, the huge majority, the huge victory, was reportedly due to him 100 percent. Now also he should accept 100 percent responsibility."

Badawi has not resigned, despite calls from some within his party. He was sworn in as Prime Minister on Monday May 10. Even though his party has continued to promote divisive policies which discriminate against non-Muslims, he said of the Barisan Nasional: "It is not just exclusively for any particular community. We speak for the minorities, whose representatives are not in the government, in the cabinet. We speak for them, too."

The Indian population is among the most deprived financially and educationally in Malaysia. On November 25 last year, Indians staged protests eight miles north of the capital at at Batu Caves, a site of religious significance to Hindus. The protesters were complaining of state-sponsored racial discrimination. As well as enduring economic lack of opportunity, Hindus have over the past two years seen widespread destruction of their temples.

After the Batu Caves protest, numerous members of Hindraf (Hindu Rights Action Force) were arrested. Five members of this group were jailed indefinitely without trial on Badawi's orders. From prison, one of these individuals, M. Manoharan, contended for a seat in parliament, standing for the opposition DAP party.

A 46-year old lawer, M. Manoharan stood for the state seat of Kota Alam Shan. His opponent was Ching Su Chen of the Barisan Nasional coalition. Though having to campaign from Kamunting detention camp, Monoharan beat his opponent and won the state assembly seat by a 7,184-vote majority.

Samy Vellu, the head of the Malaysia Indian Congress (MIC) the Indian party in the Barisan Nasional coalition, was not so lucky in Saturday's elections. Vellu had been widely criticized for ignoring the plight of Indians over recent months. His complacency cost him the seat he had held for more than thirty years.

Vellu had been the Works Minister in Badawi's last cabinet. His losing a parliamentary seat is hugely significant, where the party he leads has supported UMNO since independence. UMNO has made few concessions to Chinese and Indians, but Vellu as an individual has suffered from the same allegations of corruption that have dogged other Barisan Nasional cabinet members.

In July 2006, Samy Vellu was named as the politician who had run up the highest amount of unpaid traffic fines. He had gathered 143 fines, totaling $4,782, closely followed by the foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar of UMNO, who had 121 fines worth $4,163. In third place came MCA member Fong Chan Onn with 115 traffic fines worth $4,171.

A New Opposition?

In the last parliament, only 19 seats were held by members of opposition parties. In the current election, the number of opposition MPs has risen to 82.

Anwar Ibrahim is still unable to stand for parliament until next year. He founded a party called Parti Keadilan Rakyat or PKR. His wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, heads this party. In the 2004 election, she lost to Fu Ah Kiow of the Barisan Nasional's MCA party when contesting the Permatang Pauh seat. In the latest election Wan Azizah Wan Ismail won against Fu Ah Kiow, who had been the Deputy Internal Security Minister at the time of the election. She has said she will support all races.

In 2005, Anwar Ibrahim called for the discriminatory NEP policies to be abolished. Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has said that she will tater stand down to let her husband take her place. Anwar Ibrahim announced: "Tomorrow we will start building a brighter future. This is a new dawn for Malaysia."

In the 2004 elections, the Barisan Nasional coalition had control of all states in Malaysia except Kelantan, which adjoins the border with Thailand. Kelantan then (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia). This party is Islamist, and extreme. In the past, it has claimed that people who voted for it would go to Heaven. It traditionally believes in stonings and amputations as sharia punishments for Muslims, but in the run-up to this election, PAS did not campaign on its Islamist policies.

PAS leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat did at one early stage claim that Islamic law was better for Muslims. He said: "It is more important for the Chinese to accept hudud (Sharia) laws because those who steal do not steal from the poor... Thieves steal from the rich and the Chinese are more well-off than the Malays. If a thief's hand is amputated and he goes to the football field or he goes to the market, people can see that he is a thief. Everyone will be afraid and won't steal." On another occasion in Kedah state, Nik Mat claimed that UMNO members were like orangutans "who do not know religion or the law ... orangutans don't know anything but lust."

For the most part, PAS presented itself as a party committed to reducing the cost of living, and guaranteeing racial equality. Its election slogan was "a nation of care and opportunity".

PAS party president Abdul Hadi Awang pledged to bring "equal justice to all, justice in economy opportunities and freedom of religion. We promise a government that is trustworthy, just and clean which will be able to give the people a better life." He predicted that PAS would retain Kelantan in the 2008 elections, but also would win in the neighboring state of Terengganu and also northern Kedah.

In practice, it did not gain full control of Terengganu, but retained Kelantan and gained control of the seats in Kedah. Additionally, it was able to form coalitions with other parties in the states of Penang, Perak and Selangor.

The battle to declare which party was more Islamic was taken up by the Barisan Nasional coalition. A week before the election, deputy prime minister Najib Tun Razak said: "Islam carries a wide meaning. For instance, welfare work is one aspect that is enjoined by the religion, so is the provision of job opportunities." Prime minister Abdullah Badawi, campaigning in Terengganu, said: "Islam is a religion of development."

On the day of the election, police in Kuala Lumpur fired tear gas and water cannon upon a group of PAS members who were complaining about unregistered voters in the election. 22 PAS members were arrested. Police were accused of injuring the PAS party president's son in the confrontation.

On September 8 last year, seven PAS supporters were injured in Terengganu state when police attacked party members who rioted when they were prevented from holding a rally. Two of the injured were shot when a police officer fired live rounds at demonstrators. The prime minister claimed PAS had stage-managed the riot. Surprisingly, in the elections Barisan Nasional increased its representation in the Terengganu state assembly.

PAS made alliances with the PKR party, even fielding one non-Muslim candidate under the PKR banner.

Voters, including Malays, seemed generally unimpressed by the incumbent government's claims to be able to improve the situation in the country. The dramatic losses gained by UMNO and the Barisan Nasional were described by some commentators as a "political tsunami".

The Democratic Action Party (DAP) made gains in the election. This party is predominantly Chinese and leftist, but it has a good record of exposing abuses made against any non-Muslims, including Indians, under Malaysia's racist and Islamist laws. It has fielded Indian candidates in the election.

DAP won the majority of seats in Penang state, which is where Malaysia's lucrative electronics industry is based. DAP had 19 of the 40 available seats, but it had formed an electoral pact with PAS, who gained one seat, and the PKR which gained nine. The Barisan Nasional only secured 11 seats.

The willingness of PAS, a party regarded as traditionally hardline, to make electoral and post-election alliances with the DAP party and PKR have been heralded as the start of a credible opposition to the Barisan Nasional and its control of power since 1957.

PAS is still an Islamist party, and it is doubtful that most Muslims in Malaysia would want public stonings and amputations. The alliances made within the Barisan Nasional between UMNO and the Indian MIC party and the Chinese MCA failed to prevent discrimination against Chinese or Indian civilians. The current PAS/PKR/DAP alliances may signal that there is a desperation to break the Barisan Nasional's stranglehold on power. Yet in practice, such alliances would probably fail to address the discriminatory policies that currently prevail in Malaysia.

The general public, Malays included, seem less convinced that UMNO and the Barisan Nasional are good for the country. Alliances are merely political expedients, not strong political entities. The DAP has tried to appeal beyond its Chinese support base, and PAS has tried to appeal to non-Muslims. PKR is Islamic but similarly tries to appeal to all races. It has even been suggested that the elections were held early to prevent Anwar Ibrahim, the founder of PKR, from taking part.

In a nation that has spent its entire 51 year history governed by divisive policies that discriminate on the basis of race and religion, it will probably be a long time before any single political movement successfully captures the hearts and minds of the majority of Malaysia's 27 million citizens.

Policies For All?

In Malaysia, all Malays are regarded as Muslim under law. Muslims cannot change their religion unless they apply to the nation's Islamic (Syariah) courts. SInce UMNO introduced an amendment to the constitution in 1988 (Article 121 A), civil courts have no power to interfere in any area covered by the jurisdiction of the Syariah courts. Apostasy is covered by such courts, and no Islamic judge has ever allowed a living person to leave Islam. Indians and Chinese who have been declared Muslims have suffered problems both in life and in death, as I described last month.

With a strong position within the Organization of Islamic Conference, UMNO leaders have upheld the "Islamic" identity of the nation. But Muslims only comprise 60% of the electorate. They have been given financial, educational and social privileges under the ketuanan Melayu policies introduced by UMNO and the Barisan Nasional.

One of the basic aspects of a democracy is to uphold freedom of religion and that must include the freedom of leave a religion. I wrote last month on the case of Kamariah Ali, a mother of four. She is a Malay, and thus is classed officially as a Muslim. She joined the colorful Sky Kingdom Sect which opened its dorrs to Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. The sect was deemed heretical by the Syariah (Islamic) High Court in Terengganu state in 2005. She and 58 other members of the sect were brought before this court on July 21, 2005. She had been jailed in the same year in Terengganu for "insulting Islam". Her husband who had converted from Islam into the Sky Kingdom Sect was also jailed, dying soon after his release.

In 1992, Kamariah Ali was sentenced to spend time in jail for being an apostate. She spent less than 20 months in prison. In 1998, she had asked a civil court to recognize her conversion out of Islam. This was refused because of Article 121 A. In 1999, Kamariah Ali told an Islamic court in Kota Baru that she had renounced Islam.

She was placed on trial by Terengganu state Syariah High Court in June 2006. She was accused of only declaring her apostasy in 2005 to a lower Islamic Court to avoid punishment. The prosecutor maintained that: "The onus is on her to bear the burden of proof (of apostasy)". The case was not resolved until March 3 this year, five days before the elections.

Kamariah Ali was given a two-year jail sentence for apostasy. Her lawyer Sa'adiah Din, said: "She informed the court that she is not a Muslim... This has to stop. They can't be sending her again and again to prison for this."

Judge Mohamad Abdullah said: "What she did was not within the concept of freedom of religion." The Islamic court had ruled in February this year that she was still a Muslim, despite her protestations. The prosecutor had demanded the highest penalty, saying that "her case was of public interest and could affect the faith of other Muslims in Malaysia."

Kamariah Ali had not been immediately sentenced on February 17, as she had been given time to "repent" and convert back to Islam. On March 3, the judge said: "The accused also failed to respond when I greeted her by saying Assalamualaikum during the start of the court proceeding. This shows that Kamariah has not repented."

At present, Kamariah Ali is in jail for the ridiculous "crime" of leaving a religion she does not believe in. Under Malaysia's twisted political system, there is no court in the land that has the power to reverse the Islamic court's decision. Secular courts are powerless to address such issues.

Her problems are due to get worse. Her lawyer that she is also facing further charges. She is accused of joining a banned sect, contravening Section 10 of the Syariah Criminal Offense Enactment (Takzir) Terengganu 2001. If she is found guilty on this extra charge, she could spend an additional two years deprived of her freedom.

It is refreshing to see UMNO and the Barisan Nasional, which have promoted racism and discrimination, suffer in the polls. But for Malaysia to really function as one nation, it must have one law and equal rights for all its citizens. The freedom to change one's faith is a fundamental right, denied to all people who are classified by their race as Muslims, the Bumiputra or "sons of the soil".

Until there is one law in Malaysia, under which all citizens are equal, irrespective of race or religion, injustices and divisions will prevent it from growing. There were real fears that when the Barisan Nasional did not win a two-thirds majority in this election, there would be riots between Malays and non-Muslims.

If race riots are feared so much, there is a pressing need to remove discriminatory aspects of legislation, including Articles 121 A and Article 153 of the constitution. Abdullah Badawi and Dr Mahathir Mohamad share a responsibility for worsening the racial divisions of Malaysia.

Despite the electoral pacts of the "new opposition", there is little hope of these parties in the future repealing the discriminatory policies which have given extra privileges to the Malay majority.

Malaysia - by denying religious freedom, and enshrining racism in its constitution and legislation - is anti-democratic. The elections at the weekend may have shaken the status quo, but the whole country's institutions need to be shaken to their very foundations or shaken out of existence to build a true democracy, where all have equal rights.

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at March 12, 2008 6:34 AM

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Posted by: janeabraham at March 12, 2008 11:13 PM

Posted by: Giraldus Cambrensis at March 13, 2008 9:39 PM

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