Malaysia and Indonesia

Malaysia and Indonesia

Having imprisoned his longtime deputy on questionable charges
and secured reelection for his ruling party on equally
questionable laws and methods, the prime minister of Malaysia is
now extending his anti-democratic crackdown. Last week his
government hauled into court the editor of an opposition
newspaper, a lawyer for the jailed deputy and several other
opposition leaders.

They were charged with various forms of sedition, which is to
say, with making statements displeasing to Prime Minister
Mahathir bin Mohamad. To criticism from Amnesty International and
others, a Mahathir loyalist responded with the age-old retort of
dictators defending the indefensible: "It is not up to
international bodies to decide how we should administer our
laws."

Mr. Mahathir is following a classic plot line, but its
ramifications are particularly sad in Malaysia's case, given that
country's successful postcolonial history. The long-ruling
autocrat unwilling to tolerate thoughts of succession, the
turning on a protege who gains too much popularity, increasing
isolation and intolerance -- all this has played out many times
before. But in Malaysia it seems far from inevitable.

Perhaps Mr. Mahathir looks across the narrow strait to his
south at Indonesia's perilous passage to democracy, and trembles.
There a newly elected president is bravely confronting a host of
problems, how to tame a military long accustomed to excessive
power, how to accommodate regional demands for autonomy while
keeping the country together and more. But Indonesia's challenges
are grave precisely because its longtime dictator, president
Soeharto, for so long repressed any independent political action
or civic organization.

Mr. Mahathir may postpone Malaysia's day of reckoning, perhaps
even until after his own death. But the more repressive his
behavior now, the more difficult for his country that eventual
reckoning will be.

-- The Washington Post