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.