Mahathir refuses to bow to pressure, call election
Mahathir refuses to bow to pressure, call election
KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Wednesday he won't be pressured into calling early elections despite weekly street protests demanding his resignation.
"I do not see why I should be pushed into an earlier election because that will have the effect of undermining our economic programs," the national news agency Bernama quoted him as saying.
Since former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was arrested on Sept. 20, once-dormant opposition groups have become more strident in urging that Parliament be dissolved and general elections held.
Demonstrations against Mahathir's 17-year leadership have become commonplace, even in rural areas, despite stern police warnings and hundreds of arrests.
General elections do not have to be held before April 2000.
Meanwhile, Mahathir said, he was ready to weather the barrage of demonstrations aimed at toppling his administration.
He stressed that Malaysia would continue its recent plans to revive its flagging economy by aggressively lowering interest rates, imposing broad capital controls and pegging the currency against the dollar.
Anwar had disagreed with the prime minister on economic policy before Mahathir fired him on Sept. 2, saying he was morally unfit to lead.
Anwar is to go on trial Nov. 2 on 10 charges of sodomy and corruption. He says the charges against him have been trumped up to block any challenge to Mahathir.
Anwar's wife, Azizah, said Wednesday she hoped she would not be arrested on charges of encouraging protests against Mahathir. Her comments came after rumors of her arrest swept across Kuala Lumpur.
Fears of her arrest were fueled by comments by Mahathir Tuesday just before he concluded a five-day visit to Tokyo. "I hope the police won't arrest (her), but I don't know. That is the police business," Mahathir reportedly said.
Soon after Anwar's Sept. 20 arrest following a mammoth public rally demanding Mahathir's resignation, police warned Azizah she would face the same fate if she led the campaign her husband started.
She drove up to a street protest for the first time on Saturday, waving at the slogan-shouting demonstrators and shaking hands with many of them.
Azizah said on Wednesday the prime minister seemed to be directing his wrath toward her.
"I implore Dr. Mahathir to be more responsible and not be so arrogant," she said, denying that she had joined the protest. She had driven to the demonstration out of curiosity, she said.
A senior United Nations official visited her Wednesday and described her as "a courageous lady."
Abib Hussain, the special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion of the UN Commission on Human Rights, did not say, however, whether he had come to Malaysia specifically to meet Azizah Ismail.
"I'm very encouraged that he came to visit me," Azizah said of Hussain, who was India's ambassador to the United Nations in the early 1990s.
Deputy Home Minister Tajol Rosli declined to give an assurance in Parliament on Wednesday that Azizah would not be arrested under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial. The ISA was used against Anwar and many of his allies.
The law would be used only against those who threaten public security and national stability, the minister said. Of the nearly two dozen people arrested under the ISA in recent weeks, four are still in jail.