Malaysian general elections shaping up

Malaysian general elections shaping up

Lawrence Bartlett, Agence-France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's first elections in 22 years without Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad's dominating presence are shaping up as a fight
for the soul of the Muslim majority, a congress of the hardline
Islamic Party (PAS) showed at the weekend.

The challenge to Malaysia's moderate policies comes at a time
when Mahathir himself has warned of the growing popularity of
Islamic parties around the world in the face of the West's war on
terrorism, which is often perceived as a war on Islam.

Declaring a belief that PAS can wrest power from Mahathir's
United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in elections due
within a year, the party congress emphasized its dream of turning
Malaysia into an Islamic state complete with punishments such as
amputation and stoning to death.

The reason for PAS's existence is "to establish Islam in its
entirety," party president and fiery cleric Abdul Hadi Awang told
the annual gathering.

"It is now our turn to govern. Be prepared to embrace the
coming victory."

At the same time as holding themselves out to be true
Islamists in contrast to UMNO, analysts say, PAS is trying to
present a more moderate face to the 40 percent of Malaysian
voters who are not Muslims.

"PAS has been making strenuous efforts to engage with the non-
believers and allay their fears about an Islamic state," the New
Straits Times wrote in an editorial on Sunday.

But, it added: "Make no mistake, PAS is situated within the
Islamist movements in which the Taliban, Wahhabis and al-Qaeda
lie at one extreme ...", going on to describe PAS as "disguised
extremists".

Observers said there appeared to be a swing in PAS's new
leadership lineup taking shape at the congress, with more
moderate professionals winning key roles in the women's and youth
wings compared to hardliners.

But the party's highest decision-making body, the Syura Ulama
Council, is still headed by PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik
Mat, an unrelenting conservative who recently warned that women
wearing lipstick invited rape.

"There may be more professionals in the PAS leadership but
they hold little clout because the Syura Ulama Council is the one
calling the shots," a Kuala Lumpur-based diplomat said.

Despite fears among non-Muslims of Islamic militancy after the
Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, he said PAS held firmly to
its Islamic state goal because "they believe it is their destiny
to win ultimately" after gaining in 1999 polls.

PAS captured a second state and tripled its parliamentary
seats in the last election in 1999, benefiting from the 1998
sacking and arrest of Mahathir's popular ex-deputy Anwar Ibrahim
which divided ethnic Muslims who makeup some 60 percent of
Malaysia's 23 million people.

PAS and UMNO each has some 35 percent hardcore supporters
among Malays, the diplomat estimated.

"Around 30 percent are fence sitters who are being wooed by
both parties. The conventional view is that many Malays may have
returned to UMNO but it is hard to say."

A crucial element in the next election, which must be held by
the end of 2004 but is expected much earlier, is that UMNO will
be led by a new and untested leader, current deputy Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who takes over when Mahathir
retires next month.

He is an Islamic scholar and brings his religious credentials
to bear in picking up the anti-extremist cudgels wielded for so
long by Mahathir.

"We must battle PAS in the schools, in the streets,
everywhere," Abdullah told Singapore's Sunday Times earlier this
year.

"PAS's narrow interpretation of the Islamic faith is a
challenge to the racial harmony in multi-ethnic Malaysia and the
fight against the party was a "battle for the hearts and minds of
the Malays," he said.

Mahathir's UMNO has ruled since independence in 1957 through
an alliance with Chinese and Indian parties, and observers say
that even if PAS wins the battle for the Muslim soul, it is
unlikely to gain enough support among these minorities to achieve
its aim of taking power.