Anwar's party fights to contain dissent

By Ranjan Roy

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP): To hear Marina Yusof tell it, the opposition party she left is almost finished.

Less than two years after the National Justice Party was formed amid a euphoria of political change in Malaysia, the party of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim is being torn apart by dissent. The rift in the party became public with Marina's resignation as party vice president earlier this month over a dispute with another top party leader, Chandra Muzaffar.

A wave of defections and a split in the party's senior leadership also are straining a broader alliance against Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who remains firmly in power despite opposition gains in parliamentary elections last November.

A proposed merger between two components of the opposition coalition has been postponed, and the groups appear to have lost their ability to organize protests in the face of a government ban on demonstrations.

In recent weeks, several hundred Justice Party members have defected to Mahathir's ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which has led all Malaysian governments since the country's independence from Britain in 1957.

"The divide (within the Justice Party) is very deep," said Marina, a former senior UMNO leader who joined the Justice Party to protest the way Mahathir sacked his former deputy, Anwar, in September 1998 and prosecuted him on charges of corruption and sodomy.

Marina said this week that she gave up on the National Justice Party. "I felt I was wasting my time in the party," she said.

Other politicians shared her feeling. Just before a parliamentary election to fill one vacant seat this month, at least 60 members of the Justice Party crossed over to UMNO. The Justice Party lost the election, but its leaders claimed the defections had little to do with it.

At least five local web sites dedicated to issues of political reform shut down briefly this month in protest against the refusal by the party's leaders to listen to criticism. The web sites called for the resignations of top leaders.

Although the party may not split, a contraction of its 300,000-membership could reduce it to insignificance. It has five seats in the 193-member Parliament. UMNO, which has a two-thirds majority, is a party of 2.7 million members.

The infighting could fracture a fragile alliance with other opposition groups that was formed with the help of the party president and Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, after mass anti- government protests that followed Anwar's arrest in 1998.

The anti-Mahathir sentiment eventually brought together the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, the Democratic Action Party, the People's Party of Malaysia and the Justice Party, vowing to end Mahathir's 19-year rule.

The Islamic party made most of the opposition gains in last November's elections. But the Justice Party didn't do as well as supporters had hoped, blunting any challenge to Mahathir.

Rustam Sani, a leader of the People's Party, which is expected to merge soon with the Justice Party, acknowledged that disarray within the Justice Party could lead to weakness.

"A weakened component is not good. The alliance already has its problem of evolving an opposition coalition culture," Rustam said.

Since spontaneous anti-government protests faded quickly after Anwar's prolonged court battles began, the Justice Party has failed to organize large gatherings.

Anwar's only contact with his wife and other party leaders has come during brief court recesses in his sodomy trial and infrequent family visits to the prison. As the yearlong hearings closed Wednesday, it signaled an end of Anwar's contacts with his political allies.

Anwar is serving a six-year jail term for corruption and faces up to 20 more years if convicted of sodomizing his former family driver. He says all the charges are trumped up by Mahathir to end a challenge to his 19 year-hold over the country's top office.

Analysts say the clash within the Justice Party was inevitable because it was in fact a loose grouping of politically diverse people joined by their disapproval of Mahathir.

Azizah, its president, is an eye doctor and until her husband's arrest was a nonpolitical figure. Chandra, the group's No. 2 leader, was a professor. Below them, Marina, had filled one of two vice president positions.

Azizah has refused to discuss the dispute, but it is generally believed her position as leader is secure.

Marina said she squabbled with Chandra over tactics and policy from the time the party was created. Marina had tendered her resignation once before, but changed her mind after Azizah persuaded her not to make her dissent public.

"Chandra likes to rule with an iron fist," Marina said. If the party comes to power, she said, "he will run the party, and he will be 10 times worse than Mahathir. We are better off with Mahathir."

Chandra rejects the accusations, but says he does not want to enter into a public debate with Marina.

"I have been very generous in my remarks," he said in an interview this week. "I said she had done a good job. She cited business and health as reasons for quitting. The party accepted her reasons, and it is more united now."