In Malaysia, Someone Old is New Again

By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

 

Meet the world’s oldest newly-elected prime minister: Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad, whose opposition coalition won the country’s parliamentary election on May 9.

But this is even more amazing: he was first elected prime minister 37 years ago – as leader of the party which he has now deposed from power. A party, by the way, that had ruled the country uninterruptedly for 61 years.

Ever since Malaya, as it then was, gained independence from Great Britain in 1957, it has been led by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Indeed, until now the party and its broader coalition, the National Front, had never lost its parliamentary majority.

Mahathir served as its prime minister between 1981 and 2003, when he retired from politics. But disgusted by the activities of his UNMO successors, Mahathir returned to political life as the head of a four-party multiethnic opposition, Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope). 

Formed three years ago, the Alliance included his own newly-formed Malaysian United Indigenous Party. A collection of reformers, nationalists, Islamists, ethnic minorities and even some of Mahathir’s former enemies, it has now ousted a government long dependent on stoking the fears of Malaysia’s Malay Muslim majority to prolong its grip on power. 

The Alliance gained almost half the popular vote and won 122 of the country’s 222 parliamentary seats, while the National Front, with 36.4 per cent, took only 79. A coalition of Islamist parties came third with 13.6 per cent, good for 18 seats.

Yet Mahathir is a strange choice to reform this corruption-ridden nation. During his years as prime minister from 1981 to 2003, he hounded the media, jailed his opponents on what were seen as trumped-up charges and turned a blind eye as members of his governing UMNO-led National Front coalition personally profited from their political positions. 

Mahathir’s ethnic Malay nationalism also alienated Malaysia’s sizable Chinese and Indian minorities. Mahathir brought in an affirmative action scheme policy gave “sons of the soil,” as Malays and indigenous people are known, preferential treatment in education and employment. Most civil service jobs went to Malays.

What kept Pakatan Harapan together was revulsion for Prime Minister Najib Razak, accused of immense greed and graft during his nine years in office. 

At least $3.5 billion stolen from a government fund was spent on expensive real estate, jewelry and art. Among the items the money was spent on was a $27.3 million diamond necklace for Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, as well as a luxury yacht. 

The United States Justice Department believes much of the money has been laundered through American financial institutions.

Najib, whose father was the second prime minister of Malaysia, and whose uncle was the country’s third, grew up thinking that leading the country was his birthright.

 “You know the mess the country is in,” Mahathir said at a news conference after the election, “and we need to attend to this mess as soon as possible.”

Mahathir secured a pardon for another onetime protégé, the former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was serving his second prison sentence after being convicted on sodomy charges three years ago. 

He was once Mahathir’s deputy prime minister, but the two had a falling out, and both of Anwar’s convictions were widely seen as politically motivated. Anwar’s supporters hope he can someday become prime minister himself. 

Mahathir has appointed Lim Guan Eng, an ethnic Chinese, as finance minister, the first non-Malay to be appointed to the powerful post in 44 years. He also named former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as home affairs minister and Mohamad Sabu as defence minister. The three are party leaders in his alliance.

The “old-new” prime minister promises to fight corruption, prosecute Najib – he and his wife have been prevented from fleeing the country -- and unite this diverse nation of 31 million people.