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

honeymoon period customarily extended to a new leader, Abdullah called a general election for 21 March 2004, less than five months after he became prime minister. Some of the gloss had begun to wear off when he re-appointed most of Dr. Mahathir's ministers to his Cabinet, a clear message that anti-corruption would not be pushed too far. And when it came to nominating UMNO candidates for the election, few of those commonly thought to be corrupt were excluded.[32]

Still, built around Abdullah's amiable and pious personality, the National Front's campaign stressed the by-now familiar themes of Islam and corruption. The government went close to condemning the ancien regime by admitting in one full-page newspaper advertisement that Malaysia had become "rotten to the very core with no single aspect of life untouched by corruption".[33] The ads urged the electorate to give Abdullah a landslide so he could continue cleaning up the mess.

Dr. Mahathir, who did not seek re-election, was seen on balance as a liability and given a limited role. He canvassed for votes in parts of Kedah, his home state, and mainly in constituencies where ethnic Chinese were in a majority. On UMNO's advice, he did not venture into Kelantan or Trengganu, PAS's strongholds, or other parts of the Malay heartland.[34] The one-time Malay champion was now more popular with non-Malays.

While Abdullah eschewed the crude and offensive campaign tactics employed by the National Front in 1999, he had no hesitation in using the vast resources of the state, as usual, to overwhelm his opponents. He was aided by a redistribution of electoral boundaries that added 26 seats to Parliament in a way that would obviously favour UMNO while reorganizing some PAS-held seats to make it hard for the party to retain them. In addition to the gerrymandering, the Election Commission was responsible for a litany of errors in the conduct of the entire electoral process that could be explained only by a combination of gross incompetence and a desire to benefit the government.[35]

Abdullah led the National Front to its greatest electoral win ever in terms of parliamentary seats, capturing 199 of the 219 on offer. The opposition won only 20 seats compared with 4S in the outgoing smaller Parliament. Although the National Front's 64 per cent of the vote trailed its 65 per cent previous best in 1995, it was up sharply from 56 per cent in 1999. The National Front regained control from PAS of the legislature in Trengganu state, where Abdullah was running the campaign, and went close to dethroning the party in Kelantan. PAS ended up with a mere 6 seats in Parliament, down from 27.

An analysis showed that while UMNO had scarcely crushed PAS in the showdown for the Malay vote, the outcome was still a strong endorsement for UMNO and a personal triumph for Abdullah. Malays were prepared to give Abdullah a chance with his moderate brand of Islam and reform agenda. They still hoped he was sincere in his declarations to eliminate corruption.

Where the country responded to Abdullah's promise of good governance, however, UMNO resisted, indicating it was out of touch with public opinion, or prepared to ignore it. At the UMNO General Assembly in September 2004, Abdullah dodged a ballot for the party's presidency only because Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the former finance minister who almost defeated Dr. Mahathir in 1987, could not persuade 30 per cent of divisions nationwide to nominate him as a challenger. Acting President Abdullah was confirmed in his post, as was Najib, his deputy, though Abdullah's failure to get key allies elected to top party positions made it less than a repeat of his general election success.

In the ballot for the party's three vice presidents, the likely future leaders, incumbent Muhyiddin Yassin, an Abdullah supporter, narrowly retained his position. Another incumbent favoured by Abdullah, Muhammad Muhammad Taib, lost. Two relative outsiders, Federal Territories Minister Mohamed Isa Samad and Malacca Chief Minister Ali Rustam, finished first and second, respectively. Abdullah retained a majority on the Supreme Council, though only because he was allowed by the rules to appoint up to ten members himself. Four cabinet ministers lost their seats on the council, while three old-line, pro-Mahathir politicians made surprising comebacks.[36] As delegates were giving Abdullah a standing ovation for his ringing cries to cleanse UMNO of political corruption, some of them were accepting cash and other payments in return for their votes. "Money politics" was worse than ever, delegates suggested, and could help explain the surprising poll results. Their view was confirmed later by an internal investigation that led to Mohamed Isa Samad, the poll topper, being suspended from the party for bribery.

With his huge electoral mandate, Abdullah persisted with policies that implicitly pictured Dr. Mahathir as irrational, irresponsible and profligate. Abdullah withdrew approval for a gambling concession that almost nobody knew had even been granted. The government said Dr. Mahathir, in his capacity as finance minister, had awarded the licence to Ascot Sports, a private company controlled by a tycoon who vied for the title of crony-in-chief, Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, not long before resigning. Dr. Mahathir denied that he was "personally responsible" for granting the licence.[37] It would have allowed Ascot Sports to conduct nation-wide off-site betting on local and international sports events for 20 years. The company paid a RM20 million fee for an operation that industry experts calculated would have generated annual turnover of RM1 billion from horse racing, soccer and other sports. While the government would have collected substantial revenue in taxes that was being lost to illegal gambling, Abdullah worried that the concession would expose the government to attacks by conservative Muslims, especially PAS, which had long campaigned to close existing gaming outlets.[38] Nobody explained why the public — and the Cabinet — had been kept in the dark about the original decision in 2003. Abdullah's aides said they learned about it only in 2004, when Tan informed them he was planning to start his new betting business.[39]

A wounded and angry Dr. Mahathir conveyed his