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Mahathir's National Front Faces Identity Crisis
KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Malaysia's ruling coalition discovered that it was facing a major identity crisis in the wake of a rise of Islamic activism and a growing support for the Pan-Islamic Party (PAS), news reports said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the President of the National Front (NF), a coalition of 13 parties that has ruled the country since independence, said the front must function as a single component.
He added that due to major challenges posed by a reluctant youth force and the "lies" of the PAS, the NF would face serious difficulties during future elections.
Mahathir, who marks 20 years in power this month, said the ruling alliance was being treated as "the enemy" by opponents, whom he accused of preferring to be "allies of foreign forces."
A. Abdul Majid, a professor at a University in Kuala Lumpur, said on Monday that the NF was bound to face its worst challenges in the near future, due to the "irrelevancy of a race and communal based coalition in modern Malaysia."
He said the NF functions as a "race-based group" with every party pushing forward with their own communal agendas. "This is irrelevant. The Malaysian people have matured and they are not willing to accept this kind of arrangement," he said.
"There is bound to be a lot of pressure on the NF to align itself as a national party, a single party with a single leadership. As long as it is dominated by Malay-Muslims it will be a credible force," he continued.
The NF had gathered earlier to discuss the need for the coalition to unite and meet at the grassroots level, in order for it to be seen as a platform for unity.
"The new approach is necessary because the sentiment of Malaysians had changed," Mahathir said at the NF convention.
"A new generation of voters were less interested in the coalition's track record over 40 years of building up the country. They were also being wooed by the opposition front," he noted.
"In such a hostile environment, the ruling coalition approach had to be more realistic… Starting from today, let's get closer. Let's function as one party, rather than as a coalition of parties," he said, adding that he believed that NF would one day be registered as a single political party for Malaysians.
The pressing need for a change of tactic by the NF is being forced upon Mahathir due to the united front of the opposition that has survived the 1999 general elections.
"It was not in the calculations of Mahathir to see the opposition Alternative Front (AF) survive until today. It was also not in his calculations to see the Anwar Ibrahim issue drag on until 2001 and surely beyond!" Abdul Majid said.
"He is merely trying to put up a brighter face by urging the other component parties to unite and show a multi-racial agenda.
"However this is problematic. As I said earlier, if the coalition is to be run by Malay-Muslims, then there is little problem. Yet many of these parties in the coalition have narrow agendas - racial agendas," he added.
Abdul Majid said that the NF must answer to the opposition's forceful stances on broader issues, such as: democracy, liberty, human rights and freedom of expression.
The problems faced by the NF were explained simply by Mahathir in these words, "Do not look at our own races. We must stress the Malaysian race because NF represents Malaysians."
Mahathir also predicted that the country's opposition coalition will collapse from internal conflict by 2004.
Ha also predicts that the government's main challenge will come from a hostile generation of young voters.
He said the government could no longer count on the younger generation to thank the government for giving them a comfortable life -- and that society had become savage toward the government.
But, Mahathir also said the ruling party could not simply rely on its past glories to woo voters but instead had to prove to them its ability to govern the country well.
"We have to attract a part of the present new generation to support us. If we work hard, I am confident the majority of the people will vote for the National Front," he said.
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