Is PM Mahathir gradually handing over power?
Is PM Mahathir gradually handing over power?
By Juergen Dauth
SINGAPORE (DPA): Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is giving himself a break. After 17 years in office, his designated successor Anwar Ibrahim is being handed the reins of power for two months.
Political observers are speculating and the business world is looking on anxiously at this ordeal by fire.
Anwar Ibrahim, who has been Malaysia's deputy premier and finance minister since 1993, is to take over full responsibility of office during this period.
Mahathir, who has been premier since 1983, is keeping his cards close to his chest, as is his custom. He says he wants to relax and write books.
He also wants to promote in European capitals Malaysia's leap into the information technology age and his personal vision of the country as a cyberspace giant.
There has been no mention that he might be growing tired of office or of an imminent transfer of power.
During his 17 years in office, Mahathir has led the Southeast Asian constitutional monarchy from being an agrarian exporter of raw materials into the industrial age.
The nation of rubber producers and palm oil exporters today makes cars and has carved out for itself a large slice of the advanced electronic technology market.
Mahathir has consolidated Malaysia's social structure, evened out latent tensions in the multi-racial state and thereby created a political stability which the international business world has rewarded with billions of dollars worth of investments.
Mahathir has also pragmatically mediated between his strive towards modernization and the country's Moslem majority.
Many political observers say Anwar Ibrahim, aged 50, is still an unknown quantity. As leader of the Islamic youth movement Abim, he made headlines with his brand of Islamic socialism.
The establishment, led by the Malay party Umno, thereupon arrested him under the provisions of emergency legislation on internal security for a cooling off period.
He joined mainstream politics in 1982, having been hand-picked by Mahathir. He became education minister, minister for youth, culture and sport and since 1993 has been Mahathir's deputy and designated successor.
He may not share the occasionally provocative anti-western rhetoric of his political patron, but the two agree on Malaysia's political course.
Anwar makes no secret of the fact that he is a Moslem and that Islam must take a prominent place in Malaysia's political and social life. But he is certainly no radical, as some observers believe.
Anwar categorically dismisses the common argument that democracy is a western invention. Yet he preaches an "Asian Renaissance", claiming Malaysia must shape its own form of democracy from its own history and intellectual inheritance.
It remains to be seen if Mahathir is indeed ready for quieter times. Yet his handover to Anwar unmistakably shows that he considers his political course to be stable.