Mahathir government caps biggest ever win

Mahathir government caps biggest ever win

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
capped this week's landslide victory in the Malaysian elections
by snapping up the last undeclared seat in the north Borneo state
of Sabah yesterday, the Election Commission said.

The commission delayed polls in the Kinabatangan seat until
yesterday as officials in the constituency forgot to open a
polling station on April 24, the first day of the elections.

Victory in the Sabah seat underscored Mahathir's National
Front coalition's biggest ever election victory. The coalition
has 162 of the 192 seats in the expanded parliament.

The coalition also won 10 of the 11 state assemblies
contested, its only setback being the failure to recapture
Kelantan from fundamentalist Moslem All-Malaysian Islamic party.

Mahathir met King Ja'afar Tuanku Abdul Rahman at the national
palace in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to seek ceremonial consent to
form a new government.

The 69-year-old prime minister said on Wednesday that he would
form a new cabinet next week after consultations with National
Front leaders.

"This week is too short. It will take a bit more time to form
the cabinet," Mahathir said.

He said he would not expand his 29-man cabinet despite the
increased majority and bigger pool of parliamentarians.

"We don't want a top-heavy administration despite the large
numbers," Mahathir said.

Mahathir's cabinet has six vacancies after one minister
retired, one lost his seat and four others contested state seats.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's largest opposition party, humiliated in
the just-concluded general elections, swore yesterday it would
make a comeback and dismissed rumors that its chief was quitting.

"The DAP shall overcome the present setback in no time at all.
It shall climb back from the valley and get back all the seats
and more by the next general election," Tan Seng Giaw, national
vice-chairman for the Democratic Action Party (DAP), told
reporters.

The DAP, a largely ethnic-Chinese party, was thrashed by
Mahathir's predominantly Malay National Front in Tuesday's polls.

The opposition party only won nine of 192 parliament seats and
11 of the 394 state seats in the polls, compared to National
Front's 162 parliamentary seats and 338 in the states.

Tan said following its worst election defeat in its 29 years,
the DAP has been the target of many rumors, including that its
chief Lim Kit Siang was resigning from politics.

Lim, Malaysia's opposition leader of 25 years, suffered his
worst embarrassment in the polls by losing the party's battle to
capture Malaysia's wealthiest state, Penang in the north.

Lim was trounced in a one-on-one battle against Penang
National Front head and chief minister Koh Tsu Koon and has
declared he would not make another bid for the state.

Tan, a physician, said newspapers have speculated he was going
into private practice after the elections and that Lim was also
ready to quit politics.

"Please stop talking about Kit Siang or me or others
resigning. The DAP shall have a post-mortem on the election,"
said Tan.

He attributed the National Front's landslide victory to unfair
coverage by the largely pro-government media and rumors that a
huge DAP win would result in racial riots.

Tan said euphoria over the nation's booming economy had helped
the National Front but warned that the good times may not be on
for long.

"The stock market is not doing well. The public and private
sectors are competing for savings. The current account deficit
continues to be big. All Malaysians must be prepared for economic
depression," said Tan.

Editorial -- Page 4

Photo -- Page 14