Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times Barry Wain (grave mercy .TXT) 📖

running out for Dr. Mahathir, he saw no reason to be rushed into retirement. A buoyant Dr. Mahathir subsequently declared he would not set a date for his departure. "The moment you give a timetable, you are a lame duck," he said. He added, "I can go anytime now or ten years later or whatever. Depends on what the situation is like." As for naming a successor, "Whoever is in place as my deputy will succeed me."[18]

With both men making light of speculation about their differences as they entered 1997, Anwar got a taste of the top job when Dr. Mahathir took two months leave in May. For the first time since the 1980s, Dr. Mahathir made his deputy acting prime minister, an indication of his confidence in Anwar and something of a trial run. As Dr. Mahathir joked when asked if it were to test whether Anwar was capable of succeeding him, "Yes, he has to sit for an examination. When I come back, I will make him sit down and answer questions. I will then mark the paper."[19] On his return in July, Dr. Mahathir declared himself satisfied with Anwar's management of the country.

But Acting Prime Minister Anwar's actions, specifically his declared war on corruption, alarmed sections of UMNO and the business community, and they joined Anwar's rivals in committing themselves to blocking his ascent.[20] The Anwar sponsored Anti-Corruption Bill 1997 increased penalties, enhanced the powers of the Anti-Corruption Agency and contained provisions allowing for the prosecution of a public official even after leaving office. Anwar won Cabinet acceptance of the proposed legislation over the objections of some ministerial colleagues. It was clear not only to Anwar's political adversaries, but also to some of Malaysia's well-connected corporate players, that he could not be relied upon to protect their interests if he became prime minister.[21]

In August 1997, a month before the annual UMNO General Assembly, Anwar's enemies struck, circulating surat layang aimed at his high moral character. While a common way to denigrate lofty aspirants in Malay politics, this onslaught of poison-pen letters came in more than half a dozen versions in what Anwar called the "most concerted, well organized and well orchestrated" effort to sabotage him politically. The letters alleged he had an affair with the wife of his private secretary and fathered her child, and also had a homosexual relationship with his former family chauffeur.

As some of the letters were sent to the prime minister and signed by their authors, they could be easily investigated by police, who were answerable to Dr. Mahathir as home affairs minister. After Anwar lodged a complaint with the police and they conducted inquiries, Dr. Mahathir told a press conference the allegations were "absurd" and just the usual slander to prevent Anwar's succession. "It is totally political. There is no truth in it," he said. Dr. Mahathir gave an example of the way the campaign to blacken Anwar was organized, with one person signing a letter dictated by another. "The letter was written in a language beyond the capacity of one of the writers," he said.[22]

With such a categorical dismissal of the "lies" by the person who mattered most in the prime ministerial stakes, the perpetrators might have been expected to retreat. But no action was taken against them, and the "flow of anti-Anwar literature was not stemmed".[23] Calumnious books appeared, one of them titled Talkin Untuk Anwar Ibrahim — Requiem for Anwar Ibrahim. The political conspiracy against Anwar was well-funded and real, confirmed by former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam, an UMNO elder who was neutral in the Mahathir-Anwar fallout. "Definitely", he said later. The people involved in the planning had told him, Musa said, "what will be done against Anwar to make sure he will be toppled".[24]

The Asian economic crisis, which originated in Thailand in July 1997, put additional strain on the relationship between leader and deputy as the effects spread to neighbouring countries. Dr. Mahathir's vilification of foreign equity and currency traders as "manipulators" and "criminals" accelerated the implosion of Malaysia's currency, stock and property markets. It fell to the more urbane Anwar, as finance minister, to calm growing domestic and foreign alarm over Dr. Mahathir's pronouncements and policies.[25] While playing good cop to Dr. Mahathir's bad cop boosted Anwar's reputation abroad as the voice of "reason and moderation",[26] it was deeply resented by Dr. Mahathir. And he was even more annoyed when some international media suggested that he should step down in favour of Anwar.[27]

As the recession bit deeper and government spending was reduced, tension between the two also increased over the continued financing of Dr. Mahathir's mega-projects and the rescue of favoured bumiputra corporations. Anwar had long grumbled about some of the big-ticket infrastructure items, and he took the first opportunity to shelve a few. Despite Anwar's public opposition to bailouts, the government threw lifelines to some major companies aligned with factions or prominent figures in UMNO. Anwar and Dr. Mahathir argued privately over payment to Ting Pek Khiing, the entrepreneur behind the postponed Bakun Dam, and to Mirzan Mahathir, the prime minister's eldest son, for the purchase of the entire shipping business and assets of his Konsortium Perkapalan Bhd. by Petronas.[28] Now, Dr. Mahathir had reason to share the doubts about Anwar's willingness to protect certain interests after Dr. Mahathir's premiership.[29] As Musa Hitam, the former deputy premier, said, "To put it simply, this is all about the search for the next leader who could ensure that the past leader and his cronies will not be in trouble."[30]

Although Anwar said later he thought Dr. Mahathir had made up his mind to remove him by December 1997, there was little sign of it at the time, though differences between them were beginning to show. The day after a pivotal cabinet meeting chaired by Dr. Mahathir on 3 December, before Anwar could announce a second austerity package to cope with the spreading economic malaise, Dr. Mahathir made a statement that suggested it was business as usual. He declared