Mahathir says in no hurry for elections

Mahathir says in no hurry for elections

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad said on Friday that he could call general elections at
any time but was in no hurry to organize polls.

Mahathir, who earlier this week stirred financial markets when
he said he planned a surprise announcement at his party's annual
meeting, was asked by a reporter what the surprise would be. "The
surprise is there is no surprise," Mahathir said.

There had been speculation Mahathir would announce election
dates at the annual meeting of his United Malays National
Organization (UMNO) party, which started on Friday. Elections
must be held by June 2000.

"We can have the election any time but we are in no hurry, and
we are not going to indicate when we are going to have
elections," Mahathir told reporters on the sidelines of the UMNO
meeting.

There has also been speculation that Mahathir, in office since
1981, might signal a willingness to turn over power. "I have a
duty to lead the party until the election is over," he said.

Mahathir's Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition won a
four-fifths majority in the last elections in 1995 but the
opposition hopes to pare that to below two-thirds in the next
polls. "We are very confident we can retain the two-thirds
majority despite the fact that others have told us we cannot,"
Mahathir said.

In an interview with CNN, which was aired on Friday, Mahathir
said that Malaysia will not fully lift capital controls until
sufficient reforms are implemented in the global financial
system.

"No, I don't think so," Mahathir told Cable News Network when
asked if it was time to lift the controls imposed last September,
including a fixed exchange rate of 3.80 ringgit per U.S. dollar.

"We have been making some minor adjustments, fine-tuning so to
speak, but we have said right from the word go that until the
international financial system is amended to prevent such raids
that were carried out by the currency traders on us, we will not
be able to lift these currency controls," he said.

"We are in no hurry, it has not done us any harm at all," he
said, citing the continued inflow of foreign investments and the
stock market's rebound since the controls were imposed.

The 73-year-old prime minister, accusing former deputy premier
Anwar Ibrahim of conspiring to topple him last year with foreign
support, also blasted opposition parties which have banded
together in a bid to end UMNO's dominance.

"Prospective colonialists and their puppets in Malaysia are
still trying to weaken this country," he said an a heavily
nationalist speech. "Malaysia can only be recolonized over UMNO's
dead body."

It was the first UMNO general assembly since Anwar was sacked
from the government and party last September, and subsequently
arrested under internal security laws after leading mass protests
that rocked Malaysia.

Anwar was jailed for six years in April on charges of abusing
his power by intervening into investigations into charges of
sexual misconduct. He is on trial again for sodomy, which could
add 20 years to his prison term.

On his favorite theme of global financial domination by the
West, Mahathir said their weapon was to depreciate the value of
currencies and shares to "open up a country unconditionally and
unrestrictively" to foreign capitalists.

"A tiger does not lose its stripes," he said. "Europeans still
have the desire to rule to world, to colonize ... indirectly by
dominating the weak countries or the use of their puppets."

The attacks on Anwar and foreigners were robustly applauded by
the delegates to the assembly. Observers from foreign parties,
including communists, were in attendance at the opening ceremony.

Mahathir also trained his guns on opposition parties which
have formed a loose and often quarrelsome alliance ahead of the
general elections, and adopted Anwar as their figurehead.