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.