Mahathir's megaproject comes under fire

Mahathir's megaproject comes under fire

By Andreas Baenziger

KUALA LUMPUR (DPA): The recently completed Prime Minister's Office rages mightily over a landscape that until recently was covered by dense palm and rubber plantations. But the vast granite structure, with its green onion domes, cannot be called beautiful and certainly not tasteful. In fact, it conjures up a rather dark and forbidding impression; perhaps its design was really aimed at instilling respect for -- or even fear of -- the new building's resident, Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

At the foot of this colossal shrine to temporal power, the Grand Mosque is nearing completion. It, too, is a grand affair of pink marble with a minaret that towers 116 meters above the ornate boulevard it adjoins. Both buildings are surrounded by a complex of artificial lakes and linked by a series of elegant bridges bearing lampposts vaguely reminiscent of Paris.

In the far distance, on the other side of the lake, shimmers the prime minister's new residence, a building of laughable proportions which was designed to be bigger than Washington's White House.

A building site surrounds the new edifices, where guest workers from Bangladesh and Indonesia toil to complete Malaysia's future capital. This is Putrajaya, the futuristic model city 25 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur, supposed to represent Mahathir's noble efforts at paying tribute to Malaysia's now somewhat doubtful economic miracle.

And yet Mahathir is not deriving as much pleasure from the mega-project as he might. Putrajaya, designed to house office and living space for 330,000 people, has become a symbol of almost pharaonic self-indulgence deeply at odds with Malaysia's current economic malaise.

Mahathir expects to have shelled out US$4.6 billion on Putrajaya by 2012. His prime political opponent, the now imprisoned former deputy premier and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim, accuses Mahathir of having squandered almost $50 million on his residence alone; a claim denied by the government.

"This money could have achieved wonders in the area of affordable new housing," says Syed Husin Ali, leader of the small social-democratic people's party (PRM).

But then again, for subversive comments like this Husin Ali was already sentenced to six years jail under Mahathir's Internal Security Law. The statute permits Mahathir to imprison political opponents without an irksome court case. Husin Ali had the opportunity to meet Anwar Ibrahim in prison, before the latter's rise to the country's number two slot. Now Anwar is in prison again on corruption charges and is still answering charges of sodomy in court.

There are two topics currently holding an otherwise hopelessly split opposition together in their constant battle against Mahathir: the premier's giantism and the internal-security law which has been turned against so many opposition figures.

Pre-election tension is sweeping Malaysia. The premier can call elections at any time, as long as they take place within a year. Paradoxically, this has taken the wind out of the sails of the democracy movement which sprang up after Anwar's removal from office and later arrest.

"Everyone's energy was directed to building up opposition parties," says Elizabeth Wong, president of the important non- governmental organization Suaram. But its current concentration of forces could mean the opposition appears best-prepared for the elections at completely the wrong moment.

New in the opposition's ranks is the Parti Keadilan Nasional (National Justice Party) led by Wan Azizah Ismail, wife of Anwar Ibrahim, who aims to take the call for reformasi (reform) further into political territory.

Keadilan sees itself as a multi-ethnic organization, pulling Malays, Chinese and Indians all in the same direction. This compares with the government camp's National Front, which is constructed along ethnically-defined lines.

The modern and secular Justice Party has joined ranks with the Chinese opposition Democratic Action Party and the PRM, both of them non-religious, to form a pact with the Muslims of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). The latter's aim is to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state.

But the opposition is split on fundamental issues. The Chinese DAP tends to give Mahathir the kid-glove treatment. "Mahathir is not Soeharto," said Tan Seng Giaw, the party's vice-president. "In fact, there is nothing dramatically wrong with Malaysia. All we say to people is that they shouldn't give the ruling National Front so much power."

The Islamic PAS is a lot more radical. "Mahathir is the Milosevic of Malaysia," said Subky Latif, Kuala Lumpur district party leader. "Mahathir must go."

Despite all the differences, the opposition is determined to stick together, so great is the dissatisfaction with the autocratic Mahathir, who has monopolized power for 18 years.

So far, the biggest party in the opposition alliance is the PAS, which already governs Kelantan in the north-east of the country, the only state of Malaysia where Mahathir's National Front is not in power. And things certainly look different there than they do in Putrajaya or in Kuala Lumpur with its gigantic skyscrapers.

"Kelantan is one of Malaysia's poorer regions," says Husam Mussa, political secretary to the state's chief minister Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, speaking in the state capital Kota Baharu. "But the quality of life is better."

It is better, he says, because Kelantan treats its rain forests carefully, because there is less traffic on the roads, because Kelantan has not fully surrendered to industrialization.

The Kelantan parliament unanimously approve the introduction of the Sharia, the Islamic code of law. "Why should British colonial laws be correct for a country where 95 percent of the people are Muslims?" Mussa asks.

But the federal government in Kuala Lumpur overruled the state parliament, and Kelantan has only been able to make some small changes. Gambling is banned, alcohol consumption restricted and the state has deposited its money in an Islamic bank.

However, the central government's destabilization attempts have failed. PAS has shown that you can get by without Mahathir, indeed in opposition to him. Husam Mussa says that numerous people from all over Malaysia have come to Kota Bahara just to see how it works.

"It has really given a boost to tourism."