March 14, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S prime minister faced fresh calls to resign as an opposition alliance reached a tentative power-sharing agreement Friday amid rising political turmoil following shock election results.
Adding to the tensions, boisterous ruling party activists demonstrated in two states won by the opposition before dispersing when police arrived at the scene.
Such partisan struggles are almost unheard of in this Southeast Asian nation, whose government - in power since 1957 - insists political stability is necessary to attract foreign investment and keep racial peace between majority Malays and ethnic minority Chinese and Indians.
Malaysia's political landscape turned upside down after last Saturday's elections, in which Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's ruling National Front coalition suffered a string of defeats, and forced the ideologically divided opposition parties to work together in a fragile alliance.
Mr Collin Abraham, a political analyst and author of books on Malaysian racial and political issues, said the continued instability makes for 'a very dangerous situation'.
The government has tried to nurture harmony among the three races since ethnic riots in 1969 that killed more than 200 people. But the Chinese and Indians have voiced growing fears in recent years that they get second-class treatment.
'All you need is a group of hotheads and extremists to shout racial slogans, and you will have riots again,' Mr Abraham said. 'This has happened like a snowball. Those who are in power are not going to give up easily.'
The sense of instability intensified on Friday after the son of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad asked Mr Abdullah to resign to take responsibility for the election debacle.
The National Front lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in four decades, winning only 140 of the 222 seats in Parliament. It also lost elections for legislatures in an unprecedented five states.
The results 'sent a sufficiently clear message regarding the people's rejection of (you) as the country's leader', Mr Mukhriz Mahathir, a government lawmaker, said in a letter sent to Mr Abdullah on Thursday. It was made public on Friday.
'There is no point denying what is obvious, simply to keep your position as prime minister,' Mr Mukhriz wrote.
Mr Abdullah has insisted he won't step down, claiming he has the full backing of members of his ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which forms the fulcrum of the National Front.
Mr Mukhriz is a popular official in UMNO's youth wing and won a parliamentary seat in Saturday's elections. Other UMNO members have circulated an online petition urging Mr Abdullah to quit as prime minister and UMNO president.
The opposition, meanwhile, was not without its own troubles.
After coming together for the elections, the three parties in the alliance - the multiethnic People's Justice Party, or PKR, the Pan-Malaysian-Islamic party of mostly Malays, and the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party - struggled to form a government in Perak state.
Besides Perak, the opposition also won the states of Kedah, Kelantan, Selangor and Penang.
After bickering over which party's candidate would become the Perak chief minister, they fought over the share of the Cabinet. The tussle forced the chief minister's swearing-in ceremony to be postponed Thursday.
The three parties apparently reached an agreement early Friday and signed an accord.
'Everything is settled ... we are ready now,' Mr Dzulkifly Ibrahim of the People's Justice Party said. But it was not clear when the swearing-in ceremony would be held.
Meanwhile, about 300 UMNO members protested outside the administrative headquarters of the Penang government Friday in the first sign of partisan tensions after the elections.
They demanded the newly installed Penang government retain affirmative action policies, known as the New Economic Policy, for the majority Malays. They dispersed after an hour when police arrived.
Penang's new Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced on Monday he planned to do away with the NEP, saying it 'breeds cronyism, corruption and systemic inefficiency'.
The NEP gives huge privileges to Malays in jobs, education, business and religion. But even some Malay critics say it has been misused to benefit a well-connected Malay elite.
In Selangor state, about 60 UMNO members also demonstrated near the Selangor chief minister's office, demanding the state government not to meddle with the NEP. They dispersed after 20 minutes after seeing police vehicles. -- AP
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