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.