BN VS BA TODAY

Badawi Faces Acid Test Today Mushtak Parker, Arab News

Abdullah Badawi, the Malaysian premier and head of the ruling National Front, reacts during campaigning in Penang on Friday. (EPA)   LONDON, 8 March 2008 — Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi faces probably the toughest test of his political life in today’s general elections as millions of Malaysians go to the polls in 16 states, including the federal territories of the capital, Kuala Lumpur; the new government administration hub in Putrajaya; and the offshore financial center of Labuan. Not that the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, is in danger of losing the election. Its victory is a forgone conclusion. But the odds are increasingly in favor of the BN, which combines the dominant United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), losing its two-thirds majority in the Dewat Rakyan (the Malaysian Parliament) for the first time in its history. The problem with Malaysian democracy is that it is effectively a one-party democracy and the opposition DAP, PAS (the Islamic party) and others have no chance of forming the next or any future government. Unless of course Malaysian democracy and political culture undergoes a political earthquake well off the Richter scale. Perhaps more worryingly for Prime Minister Badawi is his eroding position in UMNO, of which he is the current president. “Even if he wins the general election, there is a real danger that Paklah (the truncated pet name for the prime minister) may lose the UMNO leadership battle at the next party convention in November 2008. If that is the case, then he will be forced to resign as premier, and make way for the new president of UMNO,” explained a prominent UMNO insider. Badawi’s main rival is the current UMNO Deputy President Najib Tun Abdul Razak, who is also the defense minister. Najib’s political pedigree could not be better. He is the son of the federation’s second prime minister, the much-loved Tun Abdul Razak, and has a much stronger grassroots support in UMNO than Badawi, the son of a prominent imam and considered to be an increasingly aloof and indecisive technocrat. Not that Badawi does not have a mean political streak in him. He called the election on March 8, which is coincidentally one week before the ban on former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s participation in Malaysian elections expires. Anwar was barred from Malaysian politics for a certain period, because he was convicted on corruption charges. Malaysian political sources concede that this was one of the considerations for the prime minister in setting the election date. Anwar, however, has been trying to enter the election fray from the sidelines, although one of his sons, Mukhriz, is standing on the BN ticket in the Jerlun constituency. He has stressed that petrol prices under his watch as finance minister were much lower and has maintained that if he were in government he would divert the 40-billion-ringgit windfall with state-owned oil company Petronas to cutting back oil prices and paying for free education for all. Both Badawi and Mahathir Mohamad have dismissed Anwar as “yesterday’s man” who lost his opportunity because he was too impatient to work his way up the UMNO leadership ladder. “Two days after he joined UMNO,” stressed Mahathir recently, “he wanted to be the youth leader, a year later vice president and a year after that deputy president… I after 18 years only got a chance to be an elected representative and 28 years after that became a minister.” There is growing disillusionment and discontent in Malaysia, even among BN supporters, about the Badawi administration. The prime minister is perceived to be weak and dithering, seemingly ineffective in dealing with potentially emotive and explosive issues relating to rising ethnic discontent, especially with the 10 percent Malaysian Indian minority which comprise mostly Indians of Tamil origin and which encompasses Indian Muslims, Hindus and Christians. The Indians, with some justification, stress that the Malays constitute 60 percent of the population but they get 90 percent of the government jobs. The Chinese, who comprise 30 percent of the population and who, like the Indians were “imported” to the country by the British colonialists to work on the rubber and palm oil plantations and the tin mines, and who today effectively run the Malaysian economy and have fared much better economically than all the other ethnic groups in the country, on the other hand complain about the poor state of teaching of the Chinese language in state education, and the ethnic quota system at Malaysian universities which they say is heavily skewed in favor of the Bumiputras (the ethnic Malays). Premier Badawi has also failed to deal with religious issues relating to the rights of Muslim women in inheritance, especially in polygamous marriages; he has banned the use of the word “Allah” in the literature of other religions; there has been strong discontent especially among Malaysian Christians and Hindus in the rulings of the Shariah and Supreme Courts in recent cases which critics stress the Malaysian judiciary is “institutionally in favor of the majority Muslims” when it comes to matters of religion. Badawi has entrusted his long-serving but controversial no-nonsense MIC Cabinet Minister Sammy Vellu to sort out the issues pertaining to the Malaysian Indian discontent. He has already accused extremist religious troublemakers backed by foreign organization of stirring up things. Badawi was seen as a breath of fresh air when he succeeded Mahathir as prime minister more than three years ago. He projected himself as Malaysia’s “Mr. Clean” promising to wipe up money politics in elections (where candidates in the past have virtually bought votes by handing out cash to voters) and corruption in government, the bureaucracy and in corporate life. He also promised to champion the lot of the rural poor, although this had to be reconciled with the stated policy of diluting the country’s New Economic Policy (NEP) which openly promotes affirmative action in favor of the Malays. Perhaps more perniciously is the role of Badawi’s controversial son-in-law Khairy, who has been accused of running policy behind the scenes and allegedly benefited from business deals as a result of his position. His father-in-law seemingly is oblivious of these concerns and has failed to reign in both his forceful daughter and son-in-law. Not that Najib, his main UMNO rival, is untainted. The recent Daphne Class submarine order from France totaling some $2.5 billion saw a company owned by a close friend of the defense minister raking in a whopping $100 million in commission and fees from the deal. Instead of acknowledging the potential conflict of interest and cronyism, neither the prime minister nor the defense minister could see anything wrong with the deal, stressing that this was normal in defense contracts. Najib also has other potentially serious personal failings as many UMNO apparatchiks are only too aware of. “We are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. We believe he is changing and he will be strong in his commitment to wipe out corruption and cronyism,” stressed one UMNO insider. Mahathir of course had a celebrated public spat with his successor stressing that if he had known Badawi was going to abandon his policies, he would never have endorsed him as the next prime minister. He has also hinted that BN losing its two-thirds majority may not be a bad thing for the party and for the country. Mahathir was seen as a strong and charismatic leader at ease with the people, and some Malaysians loathed him for that. Badawi is seen as a weak and aloof leader cut off from the mainstream society, and some Malaysians loathe him for that. The elections, however, will see some interesting battles and scenarios. Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop, a senator in the last government, is standing as an MP for the first time in Tasek Gelugor constituency in Penang. Only a year ago, he was adamant he was stepping down from government to devote more time to his family and business interests. In Putrajaya, incumbent MP and Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, after seeing off the challenge to represent BN in the constituency from the “Young Turk” of UMNO politics Zaki Ahmad, an adviser to Badawi, is confident of staving off another challenge from the only opposition candidate — from the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). Putrajaya is the only constituency in the federal administrative capital which has a voter role of only 6,608. Tengku Adana has proven to be a controversial politician and his controversial remarks last year about Malaysian women has stigmatized him as a politician with misogynistic tendencies. Perhaps the most remarkable story of today’s election could belong to an 89-year-old great grandmother, Maimun Yusof, who is standing as an independent in the Kuala Trengganu constituency. Her chances are not very good, but then a day is a very long time in politics, especially as voters are disillusioned with the two main parties in the Trengganu state — BN and PAS.