Islamic victory goes sour from KL's vengeful prime
Islamic victory goes sour from KL's vengeful prime
By Jasbant Singh
KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia (AP): The owner of the Scissors
Comb hairdressing salon expects to be out of business soon. Women
and men may not cut each other's hair, the local Muslim
authorities have decreed.
"All my workers are females and 80 percent of customers are
men. I might as well close shop," said Lim Eng Keong.
Like the owners of pubs, movie theaters, pool halls and
betting shops, Lim is tasting the bitter aftermath of a voter
uprising a year ago that threw out Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad's party and elected a puritan Muslim government in
eastern Malaysia.
Not only are the 1 million people in Kuala Terengganu being
squeezed by Islamic restrictions, they are also being punished by
Mahathir's government which has cut off the state's earnings from
offshore oil, the foundation of its prosperity.
Until November last year, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or
PAS, controlled only one Malaysian province. The rest were mostly
run by Mahathir's United Malay National Organization, which
governs Malaysia as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society where
Islam is pre-eminent but religious militancy is firmly
discouraged.
In 1998, the iron-fisted Mahathir stirred sweeping discontent
by jailing his popular deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, and in elections
the following year he paid a price. Although his coalition
retained two-thirds of the 193 seats in Parliament, the Islamic
party tripled its strength and captured its second state
government, Terengganu.
Since then, Mahathir has tried to crush the opposition party
by threatening its leaders with prosecution, shutting down its
publications and choking off oil royalties.
In Terengganu, men and women line up separately at supermarket
registers. Muslim women have to wear headscarves. Muslims are
banned from working in the few restaurants that are still allowed
to sell liquor. Those jobs can only be held by people of
Terengganu's 5-percent Buddhist and Christian minority.
Chief Minister Abdul Hadi Awang, who heads the state
government, is also an Islamic preacher. He holds weekly classes
to make sure government employees keep the faith.
The burden is heaviest on services, tourism and entertainment,
largely run by non-Muslims like hairdresser Lim, an ethnic
Chinese, and Gopi Chand, an ethnic Indian grocer.
"No one comes here any more," says Chand. "I thought with
Terengganu under PAS, we could become another Brunei, but now
there is no oil money, just more strict laws."
Terengganu's white sandy coastline boasts some of the best
tourist attractions in Malaysia. But few tour operators are
advertising because they fear that Islamic restrictions will put
tourists off.
Over the last 22 years, under the rule of Mahathir's party,
the state received billions of dollars in oil royalties from the
federal government. This year it was expecting 810 million
ringgit (US$213 million) from Petronas, the national oil company
run by the Prime Minister's office.
But in September, Mahathir's government abruptly announced the
money would instead be used to fund infrastructure projects in
Terengganu. Which projects? A federal agency would decide, the
government said.
"The federal government fears that with the oil money, we can
deliver what we promised to the people. They want to cut the
lifeline so that we can't move. That is the strategy," Mustafa
Ali, Terengganu's economics minister, said in an interview.
Federal officials say the Islamic government cannot be trusted
to administer these funds for development. Two other oil-
producing Malaysian states, controlled by allies of Mahathir's
party, continue to receive royalties.
Salleh Abas, Malaysia's former top judge and now a minister in
the PAS government, questions Mahathir's adherence to the
federalist principles on which Malaysia is built.
"By denying oil royalties to the Terengganu government, the
federal government is showing that it does not recognize the
existence of the Terengganu government," he said.