Mahathir re-establishes party control

Mahathir re-establishes party control

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysia's ruling party ended its annual conference here Sunday with a rousing show of support for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, setting the stage for his re- election attempt.

With elections expected to be held within months, Indonesia's ruler of 18 years used the general assembly of the United Malays Nationalist Organisation (UMNO) as a forum to re-establish full control of his party.

It was his first chance to stamp his dominance on the full party since sacking his deputy Ibrahim Anwar last September and expelling him from UMNO.

After his dismissal, Anwar, who led his own substantial UMNO bloc, led mass protests accusing the government of corruption. He was later arrested, and in April jailed for corruption. He is currently on trial again accused of sodomy.

After UMNO's four-day, 2,000-member assembly came to an end, Mahathir told a news conference: "The reception this time is quite unusual because there is no more confusion. I think unity in UMNO now is very strong.

The 73-year-old added: "We are making preparations for elections."

Mahathir has until June 2000 to call a general election, but is expected to do so within the next few months to take advantage of a resurgent economy and opposition disarray.

At the congress, speaker after speaker pledged support for Mahathir, and delegates vowed to work for election victory for the UMNO-led National Front coalition.

"The most important agenda for us is to ensure victory in the forthcoming general elections. Not a small victory but a big triumph, by retaining a two-thirds majority," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

A key Anwar ally, former UMNO youth wing chief Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, on Sunday declared support for Mahathir and asked for his forgiveness.

"I take this opportunity to seek forgiveness from (Mahathir) for the things I did when I was leading the UMNO yout movement," he said, pledging to be "loyal to the party's cause" and to Mahathir.

Zahid admitted it was Anwar who told him to raise the issues of nepotism and "cronyism" at last year's assembly, which was seen as a thinly-veiled attack on Mahathir and caused an uproar in the party.

During the congress, Mahathir rejected speculation that he would soon step down. He and key aides also devoted much effort to attacking Anwar.

UMNO officials conceded Anwar still had some support among the rank and file and set out to prove Mahathir was right to fire his former deputy.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's four main opposition parties have agreed to join forces against Mahathir's coalition in general elections expected soon, politicians said on Sunday.

The four parties plan to put up a single candidate in each of the 192 parliamentary constituencies against nominees from Mahathir's Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition.

"All four opposition parties have agreed to field only one candidate to face the Barisan Nasional in each of the constituencies," Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) secretary-general Sanusi Osman said. Another politician confirmed the pact.

The parties have also agreed in principle to hammer out a common manifesto for the elections, due by June 2000 but expected soon, Sanusi was quoted by the official Bernama news agency as saying.

Two of the parties -- the Democratic Action Party and the Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) -- won only 16 seats between them in the last elections in 1995 when Mahathir's coalition won a stunning four-fifths majority.

The PRM won no seats and the National Justice Party led by the wife of jailed former Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim was only recently formed.

The opposition parties are divided by ideology. The Moslem fundamentalist PAS seeks to establish an Islamic state -- a goal opposed by the Democratic Action Party, made up largely of urban ethnic Chinese.