MALAYSIA-POLITICS: For Mahathir, Winning is Part of a Day’s Work

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - Anil Noel Netto

PENANG, Malaysia, Oct 16 1996 (IPS) - Entrenched as he is as leader of Malaysia’s ruling multi-party coalition, two recent events on the domestic political scene would have made Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad feel even more secure about his political future.

The first took place on Oct. 6 when Parti Melayu Semangat 46 (Spirit of ’46 Malay Party), an opposition party led by one-time arch-rival Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, disappeared from the Malaysian political map.

The second occurred last Thursday when his close allies in the ruling United Malays National Organisation or UNMO Baru, scored impressive victories for three key vice-presidential posts during the party’s triennial elections.

Both events were significant for different reasons.

The dissolution of the opposition party paved the way for Razaleigh and about 200,000 of his supporters to cross over to Dr Mahathir’s UMNO party, while the election result would have postponed any plans of a leadership challenge that deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim may have intended to mount.

Without taking away anything from the significance of the internal elections of the party — always keeping in mind that in Malaysian politics whoever holds the reins of power in UNMO automatically becomes prime minister — the dissolution of Semangat 46, deserves a longer obituary.

Political observers say that the demise of Semangat 46, set up in 1987 by Razaleigh after he narrowly lost a bitterly fought contest for the presidency of the original UMNO, was a sad day in Malaysian politics.

“When they broke off from UMNO, Semangat 46 provided an alternative vision for Malaysians,” explained political analyst Jubal Lourdes. “…the opposition as a whole was stronger and more multi-ethnic,” he added.

The making and the breaking of Semangat 46 in itself speaks volumes about modern day politics in Malaysia, and how the 70-year- old Mahathir has for 15 years managed to maintain a tight grip as UNMO party chief and prime minister.

When Razaleigh lost the UMNO presidential elections in 1987, disgruntled supporters disputed the results and took the issue to court. The issue took a turn when to the surprise of most, the High Court declared that UNMO, formed in 1946, was as a result of a legal technicality, not a properly registered political party.

Mahathir’s supporters then moved fast, registering a new party, UMNO Baru (New UMNO), to fill the vacuum — and at the same time keeping out Razaleigh sympathisers.

Razaleigh meanwhile made an unsuccessful return to the supreme court in an attempt to reinstate the old UMNO, and decided then to form Semangat 46 — named after the year the original UMNO was founded.

One year after the party was formed, Razaleigh sniffed triumph in the 1990 general elections when two broad-based coalitions he helped put together, captured almost 50 per cent of the popular vote though Mahathir’s Barisan Nasional multi-party coalition managed to maintain a two-thirds parliamentary majority.

In the predominantly Malay-Muslim east coast state of Kelantan, Razaleigh’s coalition with the Islamic party PAS, swept the polls with UMNO failing to win even a single state seat.

What then led to Semangat 46’s demise?

After 1990, the party’s fortunes nosedived as Malaysia’s economy prospered. A desperate Razaleigh tried to increase Malay support for his party by highlighting the economic woes of the majority Malay population — in spite of the country’s strengthening economy.

But that alienated the ethnic Chinese, the second most dominant ethnic group, which was capitalising Mahathir’s liberal approach to business and to private tertiary education.

It also failed to diminish Mahathir’s support among the Malays who saw him, and continue to see him, as a champion of the Malay people and at the same time an integrating force in multi-ethnic Malaysia.

In the event, Mahathir’s Barisan Nasional coalition crushed the opposition in parliamentary elections held in 1995. It also made inroads into opposition-held Kelantan.

On hindsight, historians of modern Malaysian politics will probably argue that there is no room for another Malay-based party in Malaysia.

With Semangat 46 espousing essentially the same ideology as UMNO, they will probably argue that it was difficult for voters to see anything different in Razaleigh’s party which may have seemed almost like an UMNO — minus the trappings of power.

Without access to the reins of patronage, the media and government machinery, Semangat 46’s hopes of taking over the mantle left vacant by the old UMNO were thus doomed from the start.

Even in predominantly Malay-Muslim Kelantan, Razaleigh’s party was forced to play second fiddle to PAS. For Razaleigh, who had in 1987 come close to becoming prime minister, this must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Not surprisingly, cracks soon began to appear in the Semangat 46- PAS coalition amid allegations by the Islamic party, of palace interference in the Kelantan administration. Razaleigh, a prince of the Kelantan royal house, then started making overtures to Mahathir.

After a couple of meetings between the one-time archrivals, Mahathir triumphantly announced on May 8, this year, that Razaleigh and his party members would be returning to UMNO’s fold.

“I can see sadness in them (party delegates) as they can no longer pursue their struggles on Semangat’s platform,” Razaleigh was quoted by local press as saying shortly after the dissolution of the party was unanimously agreed on earlier this month.

“However, all of us know that our decision is necessary and right as we had discussed the process at length and it was through consensus that we are here today,” he said.

Semangat 46 deputy president Dr Rais Yatim, who at the time of the 1987 break with the original UNMO was quoted saying he had “burnt his bridges” upon leaving the party, was quick to put that bitter break-up behind him.

“I may have had a bridge then, but now we are building a new one, the bridge for Malay unity,” he said.

Analysts like Lourdes are disappointed that Razaleigh and company, have thrown in the towel. They argue that it is the Malaysian people as a whole who will suffer from a now weakened political opposition.

“They (Semangat 46 members) are being very opportunistic in returning to UMNO,” says Lourdes. “They don’t seem sincere about serving the people. They are going where they can find the goodies.”

For Mahathir though, it was more than just neutralising the challenge of a former adversary since having Razaleigh, Kelantan’s favourite son back in UMNO’s fold, should strengthen his coalition’s grip on power,

Without Semangat 46’s elected representatives, PAS still holds a simple majority in the Kelantan state assembly.

But with Razaleigh now expected to spearhead UMNO’s campaign in the state, analysts are predicting a battle royale pitting PAS’ conservative religious leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat against the Kelantan prince.

“It’s difficult to predict the outcome,” says Lourdes. “But if the Kelantanese are influenced by UMNO’s emphasis on the now rather than the hereafter, then PAS’ hold on Kelantan could be undermined.”