Mahathir fears election violence, 'Bernama' says

Mahathir fears election violence, 'Bernama' says

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
warned on Monday of opposition violence in coming elections and
accused foreign media of working against him, the official
Bernama news agency reported.

"Supporters of the opposition comprise those who have taken
part in demonstrations last year," he said, referring to protests
by supporters of his ousted deputy Anwar Ibrahim, jailed for six
years for abuse of power.

"I am sure they will resort to violence to achieve their
objective."

Mahathir, who has ruled for 18 years, said the opposition
planned to use dirty tactics while seeking help from foreigners
and said campaigning for the next election should be kept short
to avoid security problems.

"We will not adopt such dirty tactics. We will not seek the
help of foreigners," he said.

"We believe in the people in this country, they are the ones
to determine our fate and future and the government they want to
rule."

He added: "The campaign period should not be long because we
have had this experience in 1969 when we had a long campaign
period and tension built up and in the end there were the racial
riots."

Although the current term of parliament does not expire until
April next year, speculation is growing that Mahathir will call
snap polls to capitalize on recent signs of economic recovery.

Mahathir said opposition parties were "using the foreign media
to attack us" during anti-government protests supporting Anwar,
who went on trial on a new charge of sodomy on Monday.

"The foreign media works for the opposition," he said. "At
present, safeguarding the nation's security is a problem because
the foreign media ... their television will trail the police.

"If the police were to hit a demonstrator, that's what they
will show," he said. "When the police were to use a little
violence to control the situation, they will record this and the
footage will be shown throughout the world with the purpose of
tarnishing our image."

Mahathir also criticized a plan by opposition parties to forge
an alliance.

"When (the) election approaches, they will be busy
establishing cooperation between their parties but this is not a
serious and meaningful cooperation. The various parties have
their own agenda," he said.

"Malaysians will be confused with their different policies.
Before they have formed a government, they are already fighting
among themselves on who will become prime minister.

"They will not be able to cooperate during the election, much
less after the victory they have hoped for."

A new opposition party headed by Anwar's wife has forged an
alliance with three other parties to oust Mahathir.

The four parties, including Parti Islam Semalaysia (PAS) which
controls the northeastern state of Kelantan, hope to have a
common manifesto and an agreement not to stand against each other
in constituencies.

But cracks have recently appeared over PAS' policy goal of
establishing an Islamic state and over who would be prime
minister.

Further problems emerged when the party headed by Anwar's
wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, recruited defecting members from
another party in the alliance, the Democratic Action Party (DAP).
Mahathir's United Malays National Organization has ruled Malaysia
since independence from Britain in 1957. It has 168 seats in the
192-seat parliament while the DAP has nine and PAS seven.