Mahathir slams rival for visiting pig farms<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Government criticism mounted against
\nMalaysia's main Islamic opposition party on Thursday after Prime
\nMinister Mahathir Mohamad accused one of its top officials of
\ntraipsing through disease-devastated pig farms to curry ethnic
\nChinese support.<\/p>\n
Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, a provincial chief minister of the
\nPan-Malaysian Islamic Party, is under attack for meeting with
\nethnic Chinese villagers whom he claims invited him to their hog-
\nrearing heartland in central Negri Sembilan state March 11.<\/p>\n
Mahathir has dubbed this an attempt to court ethnic Chinese
\nvoters, who generally distrust the party for advocating Islamic
\nfundamentalism as its basic political tenet. Most ethnic Chinese
\nin this Southeast Asian nation are staunch Buddhists or
\nChristians.<\/p>\n
The criticism focused on Nik Aziz trying to win support from
\noutside the Malay Muslim ethnic group, rather than being in close
\nproximity to animals considered unclean by Islam.<\/p>\n
Nik Aziz is famed among Malaysians for introducing new rules
\nlike ordering Muslim women to wear headscarves and has been
\ndubbed by Mahathir as a fanatic who wants to transform Malaysia
\ninto an extremist Islamic state.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of Malay voters abandoned their
\ntraditional support for Mahathir's ruling United Malays National
\nOrganization in the last general election held in 1999.<\/p>\n
Many among the Malays, Malaysia's largest ethnic group, were
\ndisillusioned by Mahathir's treatment of his jailed former
\ndeputy, Anwar Ibrahim, and what they felt was growing corruption
\nin the government, led by UMNO since independence from Britain in
\n1957.<\/p>\n
In the last election, Chinese support proved vital for the
\nruling coalition to maintain its two-thirds majority support in
\nParliament.<\/p>\n
Before that vote, the opposition had hoped to garner Chinese
\nsupport by capitalizing on dissatisfaction over the government's
\nhandling of a deadly virus in early 1999 that hit ethnic Chinese
\npig farmers hard.<\/p>\n
The Nipah virus, which causes raging fevers, convulsions and
\nvomiting, caused the deaths of 84 people and caused many pig
\nfarmers to lose their livelihoods when nearly 1 million animals
\nhad to be killed to prevent it from spreading.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Mahathir paid an unannounced visit to townships
\non the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur for the first time since the
\narea was rocked by Malaysia's worst ethnic violence in three
\ndecades.<\/p>\n
According to police, six people, five of them ethnic Indians,
\nwere killed in fighting which started on March 8 and continued
\nintermittently for four days. Fifty people were injured and some
\n315 arrested.<\/p>\n
Mahathir said a new government that is thrust to power through
\nriots will suffer a similar fate.<\/p>\n
\"But let me state it clearly here that once a government is
\ntoppled through riots, the one replacing it would also suffer the
\nsame fate,\" the premier was quoted as saying by Bernama news
\nagency.<\/p>\n
He said there were some groups which believed by staging riots
\ndaily, the country would be destabilized and subsequently the
\ngovernment of the day could be toppled.<\/p>\n
In another development, Mahathir said that jailed Anwar would
\nnot return to Malaysia if he was allowed to go overseas for
\nspinal surgery.<\/p>\n
Mahathir said this was a key reason why the government had
\nrefused to let the ex-deputy premier, who has been in hospital
\nfor four months due to back pain, seek treatment in Germany.<\/p>\n
\"We know why he wants to go overseas for treatment. We know
\nthat if we allow him to go, he will never come back,\" the premier
\nwas quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.<\/p>\n
However Anwar's wife Azizah Ismail, who heads the opposition
\nNational Justice Party, told AFP the premier's claim was
\nbaseless.<\/p>\n
\"It never crossed his mind. I give an ironclad guarantee that
\nhe will return if he is allowed to seek medical treatment abroad.
\nAnwar will not run away. He will return to serve the people,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>",
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