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Mahathir Vows To Crush Opposition
by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 (IslamOnline) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad vowed in Parliament on Tuesday to use all mechanisms available to crush opposition and salvage the country from foreign manipulation.
Mahathir added he would use all laws currently existing in Malaysia to safeguard the interest of his government from the dangers of an increasingly free and daring opposition front.
He said that if the peace and stability of Malaysia were threatened, having foreign friends to back their (the opposition) illegal acts will not save them from the full force of Malaysian law.
"This government will act, and act decisively, to protect this country from foreign manipulation and their proxies in this country," he added.
An observer interviewed by IslamOnline said the Prime Minister's warning must be taken into consideration. "It is an indication that soon he will crack the whip and bring his opponents to terms with him."
Asked whether it was another means to sow fear among the opposition in Malaysia, the observer said, "Mahathir is always serious in what he does.
"If he wants he can brandish the ISA [Internal Security Act] to clamp down on his opponents who are becoming more vociferous these days. He also has the Sedition Act, the Official Secrets Act [OSA] and the emergency laws.
"The PM is obviously not happy with recent developments surrounding the Anwar Ibrahim foreign operation bid. The secret meeting between the National Justice Party [NJP] and foreign diplomats in Kuala Lumpur made things worst. This is called foreign meddling in the internal affairs of Malaysia.
"The possible resignation of a member of the United Malays National Organization [UMNO] in the state of Pahang could have a domino effect on his government.
"Allegation[s] of misappropriation of funds by a Minister while he was the Chief Minister of the Pahang state is also as troubling as the forceful means used by the opposition to sap the moral of the regime," the observer, a veteran politician, said.
"On top of that, the continued insistence of Anwar Ibrahim's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, to have him to be operated in Munich, is also seen as a challenge to the leadership of the country," he said.
Masyuri, (not his full name), a veteran UMNO politician who left to join the NJP last year, told IslamOnline that the recent ruling by Malay Rulers on the use of the "Islam" tag in politics was a set back for the UMNO who had hoped the Party Islam Se Malaysia (PAS) would be contravened to drop "Islam" from its name.
Masyuri added that it was now almost definite that Malaysia is entering an era of tightening of controls on the flow of information, with the opposition and leaders of the Alternative Front (AF) surely facing court charges on sedition.
Police have launched a sedition investigation against four opposition leaders after they suggested that the death toll in riots between ethnic Malays and Indians might be higher than the official figure. Those investigated include the leader of the NJP, Wan Azizah.
Malaysia was rocked in March by unexpected ethnic clashes in which six people were killed with thousands of police deployed to control the situation presently under control.
Ezam Mohamad Noor, head of the youth wing of the National Justice Party founded by Anwar's wife, has been charged with sedition over his alleged call for street protests to topple the government. He is currently on bail.
The opposition youth leader denied he told the government controlled press that he was going to topple the regime through illegal means. He says the newspaper and the journalist lied and misreported his comments.
The government has used the local press, namely the Berita Harian and the Utusan dailies, both published in Malay, to try and regain the support of the majority Malay-Muslim community in the country.
However, the plan backfired and resulted in a sales drop of the papers, sources said. Some of the reports printed in the newspapers have also backfired on the popularity of the regime, and Malay support for the ruling coalition.
The most recent blunder created by the Utusan concerned an alleged secret meeting between John Mallot, former U.S. ambassadors in Kuala Lumpur, with NJP leaders last week.
The Utusan said the former ambassador, who became famous when he lambasted the Indonesian government for manhandling Anwar Ibrahim, was in Malaysia and assisted in a secret press briefing with foreign ambassadors.
Mallot, however, denied he was in Kuala Lumpur that day, with the U.S. Embassy confirming he was not here. The latter said he was in the United States in his retreat home and was shocked to read on the Internet that he was in Malaysia instead.
He demanded a retraction from the Utusan daily, failing which, he would enter a libel suit against the editors and writer of the article, whom he said told him she was forced to write the story.
Mallot, the NJP and several observers in Kuala Lumpur, said the government was using the two Malay dailies as propaganda machines for the Mahathir regime.
In 1998, the Malaysian government alleged that Anwar Ibrahim was an agent, or spy, of the U.S. government, and that he would face the gallows if the Official Secrets Act (OSA) were used against him.
He was accused of having shared cabinet papers with a local businessman, an offence condemnable under the OSA.
Mallot urged the Malaysian government to bring forward any proof that Anwar was an American spy, insisting that his government was ready to face the challenge.
Mahathir also said his regime was ready to break from so-called international norms if his opponents tried to topple his government through street violence with the help of foreign sympathizers and has called the opposition proxies of foreign forces attempting to manipulate the future of Malaysia.
Mahathir used the ISA in 1987 to detain 120 people, including leading opposition supporters, without trial after a period of racial tension and political instability.
The ruling coalition in Malaysia has been in power since independence in 1957 and has remained in power since.
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