since November 24, 1998
Out Of The Bottle |
By NISID HAJARI
Near midnight Ibrahim's shiny new Mercedes pulls out of the dirt schoolyard. "Good crowd, eh?" he grins, lighting a cigarette. "Since the party sacked Anwar, I've been doing this every night."
They could not be faulted for lack of trying. After prayers last Friday, riot police, some still wearing their black combat boots, stormed into the National Mosque to break up a loud, pro-Anwar rally--prompting fears of a backlash from outraged Muslims. With more protests scheduled in the coming days, an unapologetic Mahathir vowed that Anwar would not receive a trial until he "tells his followers not to riot." The Prime Minister's hard line had been drawn at the beginning of
the week, when the daily gatherings at Anwar's house gave rise to the largest
political demonstration ever seen in Kuala Lumpur. On Sunday more than 30,000
students, workers, professionals and housewives By then, the threat that Anwar posed had become clear to the leadership
that had recently expelled him. And so, as the thin, bespectacled politician
prepared to deliver his nightly press briefing, masked troops from the elite
Federal Reserve Unit kicked down his front door and knocked aside assembled
aides and journalists. After leaving in an entourage that included Anwar's
family and lawyer, the authorities switched cars and hustled Anwar into
the night. By The authorities' crackdown, however, has shown little other weakness. Since Monday morning, when an angry crowd at the central courthouse was scattered by water cannon, Kuala Lumpur's streets have been largely quiet. The more powerful members of Anwar's inner circle have also been detained under the draconian Internal Security Act(ISA)--including Ahmad, the four seniormost members of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia and the president of the National Union of Malaysian Students. Others have gone into hiding or fled the country. A day after her husband's arrest, the soft-spoken Wan Azizah vowed to take his place. But by the end of the week she sat isolated in her home, ringed by police, unable to address crowds or even individual journalists. Anwar himself could speak only through a videotape recorded hours before his arrest and broadcast outside Malaysia on CNBC. On camera he warns darkly of corruption involving UMNO and the Prime Minister's family, and claims to know of a "billion"--he doesn't specify dollars or ringgit--that has been funneled into a Swiss bank account. Mahathir quickly laughed off the charges, perhaps assuming that most Malaysians would never see the tape. "Malaysia is now a one-man show," says a financial analyst in Singapore."It's a completely different animal." Indeed, a smiling, newly confident Mahathir seemed to relish the chance to take on skeptics from the media. At a press conference Tuesday, an avuncular "Dr. M" praised police for breaking up the demonstrations and defended the decision to arrest Anwar with something akin to regret. He pledged that his onetime heir-apparent would not be denied his rights under Malaysian law. Generously, Mahathir even allowed that he appreciated Azizah's loyalty to her husband. "When the truth is known," he predicted calmly, "everyone, even his friends, will reject him." The "truth," however, seems drawn from some overheated tropical potboiler. The day before Anwar's arrest, judges sentenced two men--an adopted brother of Anwar's and one of his former speech writers--for allegedly allowing the former Deputy Prime Minister to sodomize them on several occasions (an accusation that received unusually detailed play in the prim local papers). The charges were the latest in a perplexing series that date back over a year--that Anwar had sodomized his driver, that he had seduced an aide's wife and other women, that he had leaked state secrets through his tennis partner. (The driver and the aide's sister-in-law later recanted their testimony, but now say they were pressured to do so.) Several acquaintances--including Ibrahim Ali, who shared a detention camp with Anwar in the mid-1970s--say that, until recently, they saw no signs of Anwar's alleged sexual proclivities. Many more worry that the case against him has already been so muddied that no verdict is likely to be credible. That cynicism could pose the greatest threat to Mahathir's attempts to reassert his authority over the long term. Many of the Malaysians drawn to Anwar's rallies expressed anxiety about the heavy hand of the state. Citizens in the capital now openly question the good intentions of formerly respected institutions like the police and the press, and their anger grows with each new sign of a crackdown. "Anwar has gotten the Malay middle class to take a new look at their relationship with authority," says political scientist Chandra Muzaffar. "People who used to be passive are becoming skeptical about what the organs of state are doing." The question remains whether anyone besides the incarcerated Anwar can forge those doubts into a true reform movement. The person Anwar has entrusted with that task, Wan Azizah, has until now won admirers more for her kindness and loyalty--even her husband's enemies refer to her as the "Angel"--than for her skills as a brawler. Yet fortitude alone cannot rally troops to the barricades, and thus far the devout housewife has shown more concern for her husband's well-being than she has a taste for challenging the authorities. She herself faces possible prosecution for expressing concern about a rumor that the police were planning to inject Anwar with the HIV virus to "prove" allegations of his homosexual dalliances. Few think she can be more than a symbol, although she plans to run against Mahathir in elections due by 2000. Yet the cause of reform could draw strength from a more unlikely source--the computers Mahathir himself seeded across the country. Before his arrest Anwar took a whirlwind tour around Malaysia; while the official media blacked out his speeches and gave full vent to his accusers, allies turned increasingly to the Internet to spread their message. "No one over 45 knows how to use the Net, so that worked in our favor," says Khalid Jaafar, Anwar's former press secretary,who helped organize the flow of information on the Net. Soon the ex-Deputy Prime Minister's fiery speeches were being downloaded and distributed by civil servants and others. Until last week printouts were sold, along with videos,in street markets across the country. "Anwar tapped into a vein of discontent that no one knew was there," says a Western diplomat in Kuala Lumpur. That sentiment won't disappear simply because Anwar does, a point he seemed to acknowledge in his last words of advice to aides--to appreciate how the distribution of tapes and faxes helped bring down the Shah of Iran nearly two decades ago. But, say aides, Anwar's true aim was to force a debate within UMNO itself over Mahathir's rule, in the apparent hope that such a rift would widen after his arrest. Party members say that argument has begun--largely between older Mahathir stalwarts and younger members incensed over the arrest of youth wing leaders--and will likely continue in the run-up to internal party polls scheduled for next year. Analysts agree that if elections were held now, UMNO would almost certainly lose its two-thirds majority in parliament. That doesn't mean, however, that Mahathir does not still command loyalty. "The party hierarchy is very strong," notes Muzaffar. "And in the end, what the rank-and-file understand is power." The Prime Minister has already taken steps to purge the ranks of his enemies and has even called on youth wing members to demonstrate against Anwar. Given the lack of any rivals of Anwar's stature, it's unclear in any case whom dissidents would rally behind. Unlike the military in neighboring Indonesia, whose May revolution is constantly cited by Anwar supporters as an inspiration, the Malaysian armed forces are not politicized and will not likely disobey orders. (Authorities can, however, be as aggressive as their Indonesian counterparts: the"water" sprayed on demonstrators last week was laced with an acidic substance that stung the eyes and skin.) In fact, the drumbeat of criticism may sound loudest abroad, where Anwar was renowned for his friendships with officials and the media: messages of support for the detained leader have arrived from Indonesia and South Africa, while countries from Australia to the United States have deplored his arrest. (World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz even warned that Malaysia ran the risk of sanctions similar to those imposed on apartheid-era South Africa.) Such critiques, though, will likely only harden Mahathir's resolve. "It's difficult to predict what will happen because we have nothing to fall back on historically," says Khoo Kay Kim, a professor of history at the University of Malaya. "It could go either way." The vital difference between Indonesia and Malaysia--and between post colonial contemporaries Suharto and Mahathir--is the vast gulf in prosperity between their citizens. Malaysians still boast an average income nearly four times that of their battered neighbors--an achievement that the PM must maintain if he is to bottle up dissent indefinitely. For now Mahathir has blasted former Finance Minister Anwar--a darling of Western fund managers--for mishandling the economy and taken radical steps to wall off Malaysia from the outside world. But if, as many expect, Mahathir's more unorthodox policies fail as well, what seem mere doubts today could become the seeds of his downfall. Reported by John Colmey and David Liebhold/Kuala Lumpur |
The answers are at the bottom of the translation.
he seeds of doubt are planted in the dark. "We're not sure who's
wrong and who's right," whispers a young man, sitting apart from the
crowd that has gathered outside a schoolhouse in the tiny, moonlit town
of Batu Laut. Inside Ibrahim Ali steps to the podium. Stout and authoritative,
a member of the powerful Supreme Council of the ruling United Malays National
Organization(UMNO), he spends more than an hour soothing the doubts of 100
local party cadres. In ringing tones he hails the achievements of Malaysia
and its leader, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Then he turns to his true
task, defending the arrest of Mahathir's onetime protege, Anwar Ibrahim,
three days earlier. His voice rises as he mocks Anwar's pleas of innocence.
"If Dr. Mahathir hadn't acted," Ibrahim repeats the mantra of
his leader, "the nation would have been endangered." Throughout
the room, heads nod in approval.
But it will take more than a war of words for the powers-that-be
to quell the doubts of ordinary Malaysians. Dumped as Deputy Prime Minister,
Anwar had been able to whip up a crowd estimated at more than 80,000 on
Sept. 20, calling for Mahathir's resignation. That night, as police helicopters
circled overhead, hooded commandos burst into Anwar's home in Kuala Lumpur
and whisked him off to Bukar Aman police headquarters. At least 14 others--including
the head of UMNO's youth wing, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi--were soon rounded up
as well. Few doubt that Anwar had in the weeks since his ouster opened a
Pandora's box in Malaysia. The question now is whether Mahathir and his
allies have managed to close the lid for long.
gathered to hear
Anwar rail against his former mentor from the balcony of the National Mosque.
Tens of thousands more joined in after Anwar suggested that protesters "take
a walk" with him to Merdeka Square, near where Britain's Queen Elizabeth,
in town for the closing of the Commonwealth Games, attended a church service
earlier that afternoon. After dark, when most of the protesters--including
Anwar--had gone home, several thousand stragglers marched on UMNO headquarters
and then the Prime Minister's residence, where troops and armored vehicles
awaited them. "Malaysians are not what they were 20 years ago,"
says Mahinder, a supporter who spent that evening outside Anwar's home.
"People will not keep quiet any more."
week's end, neither his wife Wan Azizah Ismail
nor his lawyers had seen him again. The fact that he was being denied access
to counsel and had not been brought before a court has led many to doubt
the strength of the case against him, which seems to hinge on various charges
of sodomy and adultery.