Malaysia Wednesday November 18, 2009
By Arnaud Dubus, Kuala Lumpur

Meet with the chief of the opposition Anwar Ibrahim whose party recorded recent electoral successes. For the former Deputy Prime Minister who spent six years in prison, the reforms of the new Prime Minister Najib Razak do not attack the intrinsic weaknesses of the system of positive discrimination For its political enemies, he is “the man of the Americans” or “the man of the Jews”. Moslem cosmopolitan, familiar of the circles of the international elite, Anwar Ibrahim is a politician under pressure. As leader of the parliamentary opposition, the former Deputy Prime Minister carries on his shoulders the hopes of a transformation of Malaysia, directed since independence in 1957 by a coalition centered on the plain National organization of Malayan (UMNO), in a harmonious company where each of the three ethnic communities (65% the Malayan one, 25% of Chinese and 8% of Indians) would see its respected rights. “It is hard to be in the opposition in this country. You are constantly in state of siege”, entrusts it, between two parliamentary meetings. He speaks about experiment: he spent six years in prison (1998-2004), condemned for sodomy and abuse of power, a judgement largely recognized as being the fruit of a political score-settling. Since its political comeback, at the beginning of 2008, the Party of justice and the people, which it directs, and the coalition of opposition Pakatan Rakyat recorded several electoral successes, depriving, for the first time in fifty years, the government coalition of the symbolic system majority of two thirds of the seats at the Parliament.

“Impression” of change
In front of this disavowal, the government, under the aegis of the new Prime Minister Najib Razak, tried to rectify the bar by initiating an internal reform of the UMNO, party sclerosed and gangrené by corruption, and by arranging the policy of positive discrimination, which grants since 1972 of the privileges to the Malayan one. With this intention, Najib skilfully plundered in the program presented by the opposition to regild the blazon of its own party. These reforms leave Anwar skeptic. “Najib saw that our proposals were supported by the population. When it arrived at capacity [note: last April succeeding Abdullah Ahmad Badawi], it operated adjustments while launching the countryside One Malaysia, on the suggestion of Epco, an Israeli firm of public relations which had designed the countryside One Israel for the member of the Labour Party Ehoud Barak in 1999. The concept is gravitational because it integrates all the communities. I must recognize that Najib manages to create the impression that it tries to make changes.” For the chief of the opposition, the fundamental positions of the opposition and government remain however clearly opposite. “We are for a democratic and liberal government, known as Anwar. None the basic rules of the democracy is followed to Malaysia, except for the elections. And still. Even thing for freedom of the press.” For the leader of the opposition, the reforms of Najib do not attack the intrinsic weaknesses of the system of positive discrimination in place. “I am for positive discrimination for the poor, without references to the races. But the policy of positive discrimination based on the races remains. Najib just operated some adjustments.” For the opponent, the policy of positive discrimination is not condemnable in oneself, but it should not be based on ethnic criteria. “I am against any policy of assistance based on the races, because these programs open the door with the abuses. Only the rich person profit from it. In Kuala Lumpur, 70% of the poor are Malais, 20% Indians and 10% Chinese, it is them which must be helped”, strikes it.

Weight of divisions
Malaysia seems made have great difficulty to escape the weight from divisions between communities. In Kuala Lumpur, one of the most modern capitals of Southeast Asia, the Malayan ones, the Chinese and the Indians cohabit peacefully, but do not mix. Anwar thinks that this permanence of cleavages is likely in the future to pose serious problems for the country. “When my daughter junior brought her close relation Chinese friend on our premises, this one said to me that it was the first time of its life which it entered a Malayan house. I find that it is strange, because I was high on the island of Penang where my neighbors were Chinese and Indian and where, in the years 1950 and 1960, the communities mixed much. It is different in Kuala Lumpur. There is tolerance, respect, but not this spirit to want to live together, at least not yet. And I think that we must make efforts to instill this frame of mind”, says it. Its party is only from which the members and the deputies come from the three communities. “It is a very daring experiment. If we can transfer this frame of mind to the level from the States and the districts, the country will go from front”, estimates it.

Islamic courts
The multiplication of incidents testifying to a rise of Islam ultraconservator worries also the chief of the opposition, which is defined as a strict Moslem. One of these incidents relates to the case of a young Moslem woman condemned by an Islamic court to be struck with blows of cane duck to have drunk beer. “You can be preserving, but you must make sure that the application of the law is right and transparent. In the case of this woman, it is particularly hypocritical, because it is known that many political leaders drink alcohol in the comfort of the hotels five stars”, says it. In its eyes, the UNMO tries, by this rigorism of frontage, to be made pass for an Islamic party, in order to recover the preserving Malayan electorate which deserted it at the time of the last polls.