Malaysians Look Ahead
The
Straits Times, September 4, 2004
WHEN, on Thursday, Malaysia’s
highest court decided to free former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar
Ibrahim, convicted in August 2000 for sodomy, it drew the curtains on a
six-year political saga that has done the country little good. That point was
made by the Kuala Lumpur stock market, which moved up nearly 2 per cent to a
six-week high, and by bond prices, which rose as well. According to investors,
the verdict was seen as lowering Malaysia’s political risk. It is not
difficult to see why. Mr Anwar’s sacking from his post in 1998 after a
fallout with then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, and his expulsion from Umno,
led to the country’s worst political crisis. Instead of accepting his fate,
Mr Anwar rallied tens of thousands of supporters behind his call for reformasi—reform
and an end to corruption. In scenes that would have been considered
inconceivable in Malaysia before the Anwar affair broke loose, protesters
converged on the premier’s residence, the police fired tear gas and water
cannon, and Mr Anwar was arrested at home. When he arrived in court with a
black eye, saying that the police had beaten him unconscious after his arrest,
he became an icon for the opposition, which took reformasi from the highways
to the by-ways of Malaysian politics. Voters punished Umno and the ruling
Barisan Nasional coalition in the 1999 general election. It was not till
Malaysia went to the polls under a new premier that the Anwar factor receded.
The question is whether it has returned with his release.
He is barred from taking an active role in politics until April 2008, but his
legal team wants to have his remaining criminal conviction, for corruption,
overturned. Success there would pave the way for an immediate return to
politics, his family lawyer says. In the meanwhile, he has decided to remain
in the opposition and has accused the ruling party of a lack of clarity in
embracing reform, but he has added that he can work with Prime Minister
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. This nuanced appraisal of his options is to be expected
given his need to temper his anger over his incarceration with gratitude to
the new government for not coming in the way of his release. However, his
release does take some wind out of the sails of the reformasi movement since,
obviously, he himself was the movement’s banner. More important, Malaysians
appear to desire a closure to a divisive and disruptive era which ended, where
Umno was concerned, with Datuk Seri Abdullah’s accession to power. Mr Anwar
now has an excellent opportunity to help Malaysia move beyond the saga
centring on him. The needs of stability, on which prosperity rests, are
supreme.
Developments in Malaysia are of a piece with trends in
the wider region. The Asian economic crisis of 1997 played havoc with politics
as well. Differences between Mr Anwar and Tun Dr Mahathir over handling the
crisis worsened bad relations between the two, and led to the heir-designate’s
downfall. In Indonesia, President Suharto’s grip on power unravelled because
his iron hand could no longer offer the iron bowl of growth and progress.
Today, the region shows economic and political stability going hand in hand
once again. Political transitions have occurred in several countries,
economies are looking up, and Asean has recovered much of the confidence which
the crisis battered. Singaporeans, like Malaysia’s other well-wishers, would
hope that the country progresses under the talented and forward-looking
leadership of Datuk Seri Abdullah. It is the future that matters.
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