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.