PM Mahathir launches election alert

PM Mahathir launches election alert

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday told the youth wing of his ruling party to woo more members and listen to grassroots opinion to prepare for the next general election.

Mahathir also told them to be prepared to take over from the current leadership and hinted about his own retirement, saying "20 years is a little long."

The premier, Asia's longest-serving elected leader, has been in power since July 1981. After the November 1999 election he said this would be his last term in office.

"I urge all UMNO youth members to go down to the field to meet the grassroots," the premier said in a one-hour pep-talk to some 3,000 youth wing leaders of his United Malays National Organization (UMNO).

"Each one of you must attract five new members, all of you must register as a voter and every UMNO youth branch must set up an operations room," the premier said.

"Apart from gathering and shouting 'Long Live the Malays', this is practical work. It is not that romantic but it reflects our commitment."

The gathering followed last month's divisional-level elections which saw many new faces elected to the youth wing, officials said.

It precedes next month's annual assembly of UMNO, which dominates the coalition which has ruled since independence in 1957.

In November 1999 UMNO lost 22 parliamentary seats and ceded control of a second state assembly -- partly over perceptions it has become corrupt and partly over anger at the sacking and jailing of Mahathir's former deputy Anwar Ibrahim.

Parliamentary elections must be held every five years but the government can call polls earlier if it chooses.

Tuesday's Sun newspaper said UMNO had begun a campaign to visit households supporting the opposition, hear their grievances and work on winning their support before the next election.

The premier urged youth wing members to shun "money politics" which he said could destroy the party.

UMNO's leadership this month suspended six local-level officials from holding party office for six years for vote-buying attempts and announced other moves to stamp out graft.

UMNO youth leader Hishammuddin Tun Hussein told reporters that the wing currently has some 850,000 members and aims to have one million before the general election.

"The message is clear that we must be in the election mode...our activities must not just revolve around our members, we need to get the voters to be part of our program to support the party," he said.

Meanwhile, after almost two months of trying, Malaysian human rights commissioners on Tuesday met some of ten anti-government activists who are jailed under a draconian security law that allows detention without trial.

Five senior officials from the Malaysian Human Rights Commission were ushered into police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur for the meeting, which was tightly controlled and off-limits to reporters.

Commissioners left the station after about 4 1/2 hours without speaking to reporters who were waiting outside the police station.

Citing concerns for the detainees' well-being and human rights, the commission began seeking access to them just days after police on April 10 began a string of arrests of activists linked to the opposition National Justice Party, or Keadilan.

Opposition leaders, who claim the arrests were ordered by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government to stifle dissent, have urged the commission to put pressure on the government to release the ten detainees.

The commission's statement was carefully worded to describe only Tuesday's meeting, and did not comment on the legitimacy or otherwise of the arrests.