‘Houdini of Malaysia’ : Prime Minister Tightens His Grip

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed has been called the Houdini of Malaysian politics, and with good reason.

After a year of unprecedented political turmoil, including leadership challenges, corruption scandals and mounting racial tension, the bespectacled and abrasive former physician has confounded analysts by using the various crises to solidify his grip on power.

He now controls virtually every aspect of the country’s political life. He uses the government-controlled media as his personal propaganda machine. He is using legal maneuvers to purge his rivals from the newly reconstituted ruling party.

In early March he used his unchallenged majority in Parliament to push through new laws that legal analysts fear will strip the British-style judiciary of its independence.

Strong but Unpopular

“The government is stronger than it’s ever been before,” a Western diplomat here said. “But it’s also more unpopular than it’s ever been before.”

Some analysts said that Mahathir’s unpopularity is rooted in his authoritarian and combative style, his heavy-handed way of crushing opponents and his often-blunt language--such as calling his political party rivals “traitors.”

It is a style that many find abrasive in a society that has traditionally solved disputes by consensus and has tried to keep in-house squabbles behind closed doors.

“Mahathir has broken all the conventions,” a respected Malaysian journalist said.

Called ‘Misunderstood’

Others here said that Mahathir is not really a bad fellow, that he is, to use the prime minister’s own constant refrain, “misunderstood.”

“He is probably one of the most misunderstood leaders in the world,” a diplomat from a neighboring Asian country said. “And his public relations are terrible.” The diplomat and others mentioned the arrests last October of 119 people under Malaysia’s sweeping Internal Security Act as a case in point.

Malaysian and foreign analysts said that Mahathir was forced to make the dramatic arrests after racial tension between Malays and ethnic Chinese had reached a boiling point.

Some embassy officials and private lawyers said that tension was so heavy in the days before the arrests that many of their employees refused to come to work, fearing a possible recurrence of the violent race riots of 1969.

Massacre Feared

Some rural Malays were seen converging on the capital with crude homemade weapons in preparation for a massive “Malay unity” rally that officials feared could turn into an anti-Chinese massacre.

“The population as a whole really approved of the arrests,” a Western diplomat said. “It reinforced stability so they could go to work, take their kids to school. They had this nightmare, this trauma, of 1969. People still remember seeing dead bodies in the river.”

The arrests were roundly criticized by human rights groups, editorials in the foreign press and by Mahathir’s opponents, who said it was further evidence of his authoritarian tendencies.

Mahathir, in an interview published in the January issue of Malay Business magazine, brushed aside criticism of the arrests in his typically blunt manner. “I tried to be liberal,” he said. “It was not appreciated. People talked about the prime minister being weak. You know, you can’t be nice to some people.”

Confrontational Style

Asked by the interviewers about what his critics call his confrontational style, Mahathir promptly confronted his questioners:

“How can you say that I have a confrontational style,” he said, “when I have given places (in government) to those who have lost, to those who have gone against me?”

He said political scientists “look for evidence that I’m confrontational. When you approach it in that manner, of course you’re going to find I’m confrontational. Along those lines then, everybody’s confrontational.”

The biggest political crisis for Mahathir was a challenge last April by his rival, former Trade Minister Razaleigh Hamzah, for the presidency of the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and, by extension, the office of prime minister.

Survived Election

Mahathir survived the intra-party election by 43 votes, but the losing Razaleigh faction--known as Team B--set out to have the elections overturned in court.

The eventual court ruling on the election surprised even the 11 Team B dissidents who brought the complaint. The judge ruled that the party had violated a controversial provision of the law and thus declared it an illegal institution.

Initially the dissidents were elated. Some of them, led by elder statesman Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s first prime minister, prematurely announced plans to form a new Malay party to replace UMNO.

Mahathir, temporarily on the political defensive, quickly announced that he would remain as prime minister even without a party. And he got all of his supporters in Parliament to take a televised loyalty oath to him as the head of government.

New Party Formed

Then he received permission to form a new party, UMNO Baru (New UMNO). He announced that at least two dozen Team B stalwarts, whom he described as traitors, would not be invited to apply. A joke that made the rounds in political circles was that the new UMNO stood for “Under Mahathir, No Opposition.”

“I think it was a brilliant maneuver by Mahathir,” a Western diplomat said. “He’s now in a position to purge the party completely, from Razaleigh down to the lowest clerk. He can now make a more cohesive party.”

The challenge to Mahathir within the party reflects a maturing of Malay politics as a newer breed of Western-educated, urban and middle-class Malays vies for more influence in a ruling party traditionally anchored in the country’s rural and uneducated masses.

“The mechanistic process of succession in UMNO is being challenged,” a diplomat said. “It isn’t a breakdown of the system, but it is a departure for them. They are groping with how to deal with this. As the Malays have been brought into the economic mainstream, their interests have come to diverge more than they ever did in the past.

“You have a group of middle-class Malays who are worried about different things than the rural Malays. The inclination is to go back to the old ways, instead of grappling with the new realities.”