Malaysia's 'reformasi' movement shifts tack

Malaysia's 'reformasi' movement shifts tack

By Benjamin Low

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Off the city streets and back to the villages.

Cowed by police batons and tired of fighting, anti-government demonstrators in Malaysia's capital say they have not given up the fight, just shifted tactics.

"To say that the feelings are dying, that is rubbish!" an irate 30-year-old management consultant said.

He was one of thousands who took to Kuala Lumpur's streets after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad expelled his former protege, Anwar Ibrahim, from the cabinet last September.

Anwar's supporters thronged to his suburban home, spontaneously taking up the rally cry "reformasi" (reform) which they borrowed from Indonesian students whose street protests helped topple former president Soeharto last May.

Unprecedented in Malaysia where Mahathir has ruled with a strong grip since 1981, the demonstrations grew in size until 30,000 protesters led by Anwar marched through the streets on Sep. 20, shouting for Mahathir to step down.

That night, police commandos wearing hoods and carrying automatic weapons broke down the door to Anwar's house and arrested him.

Nine days later, he was charged with sodomy and corruption. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is standing trial on some of them in the capital's High Court.

"Reformasi" demonstrations filled the capital's streets, drawing police baton charges and water cannon laced with eye- irritating chemicals and indelible yellow dye.

On Oct. 24, at least 14 people were injured and more than 240 demonstrators were arrested during clashes between protesters and police in a mostly Malay section of the capital.

The violence was unusual in Malaysia, where the last race riots in 1969 left social and political scars still visible today.

"Who wants to get their heads knocked off?" said the consultant, who like most others interviewed asked not to be identified.

"We have stopped because it is not good to confront the police who are our fellow Malays and Moslem brothers," said a 30-year- old engineer who created a "Laman Reformasi" webpage.

The engineer's words underscored one of the significant features of the protest movement: Anwar's supporters are largely Moslem Malays who form the core of Mahathir's United Malays National Organization (UMNO).

The organization has dominated Malaysian politics since independence in 1957.

Demonstrations fizzled out just as U.S. Vice President Al Gore endorsed the "reformasi" movement during a Pacific Rim summit in Kuala Lumpur.

That sparked a backlash by Mahathir's supporters who accused Washington of interference.

Many blamed the halt of reformasi demonstrations in the capital on crackdowns by baton-wielding police who arrested more than 500 people. The protesters accused the police of using unnecessary force in making many of the arrests.

Fatigue and frustration have also taken their toll.

"Unless all 22 million people protest, Mahathir is not going to step down. After so many times demonstrating, Mahathir is still not stepping down. Why continue?" a 30-year-old stockbroker told Reuters.

"Reformasi" supporters said the movement was shifting its attention to the rural heartland and outskirts of the city ahead of general elections, scheduled to take place by April 2000.

"Our 'balik kampung' (back to the village) strategy is to prepare for the next elections," one of the movement's leaders said in Malay.

The movement's members including Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, have stopped short of forming a new political party, fearful such a move could split the opposition and play into the hands of Mahathir's National Front coalition.

Anwar's wife last month formed the Movement for Social Justice (ADIL), a new non-governmental organization to press for reforms, both political and social.

In another show of change in tactics, ADIL held its first major public meeting on Saturday in a luxury Kuala Lumpur hotel, but promised to remain apolitical, for now.

"We need a political party, but for now it is just a movement. This movement is beyond politics. This movement says that we need to fight for justice for everyone," she told a cheering crowd of over 1,400 at a luxury Kuala Lumpur hotel.

The movement will also campaign on political issues, she told the ADIL supporters, packed into the hotel ballroom in a carnival-like atmosphere. "When it comes to elections, it is a different story," she said.

The five-hour gathering, at which euphoric supporters hunted for autographs from Wan Azizah and cheered Anwar's defense lawyers, was ADIL's first major public meeting and the first at which Anwar's supporters were not dispersed by police.

"This response is unprecedented. The government thought the movement was dead, but it is alive and kicking," said a political analyst who declined to be identified.

Political analysts at the meeting said ADIL might be able to bring together opposition parties whose inability to unite has contributed to their failure in mounting a credible challenge to the ruling National Front government.

"The National Front have successfully indoctrinated the public that anything from the opposition is bad and should be rejected," said one 30-year-old teacher and creator of a Reformasi website (http://www.reformasi.com).

A 30-year-old human resource manager said: "It is a trick. We will not play to their rhythm."

ADIL has found it difficult to reach residents of the poorer outskirts who have little access to the Internet, the movement's main means of communication.

But members, mostly from Malaysia's educated middle class, said they were confident they will find support.

"We are middle class, we are educated. Mahathir might win the upcoming election but he has lost the people who will continue his legacy. In fact, in our hearts, he has no legacy at all," the teacher said.