The results of the general elections held on March 21 in Malaysia were as expected (see Crescent, March 2004): a return to the pre-Anwar-Ibrahim saga situation...
Riding high after his speech at the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in October, Malaysia’s Dr Mahathir Mohamad finally kept his promise by stepping down after 22 years in power. He seems to have followed the advice from his mother...
It could have been yet another festival of tears for the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), Malaysia’s ruling party, when it held its annual congress last month. That party-president-cum-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad would weep as he has in previous years was taken for granted.
There are no permanent enemies or allies in politics. Malaysia’s opposition front, dominated by the Islamic Party (PAS), which has joined hands with former UMNO members disenchanted with prime minister Mahathir Mohamad over his injustices to Anwar Ibrahim, are already feeling the winds of betrayal blowing.
The Malaysian regime has engaged in a fresh round of arrests: another 14 people were abducted on April 18 under the Internal Security Act, accusing them of links with ‘Islamic militants’...
Carrying out his promise earlier last month that he would “defy international norms” to ensure the nation’s “security”, Malaysia’s besieged prime minister Mahathir Mohamed continued his crackdown on political dissent with the arrest of individuals under the feared Internal Security Act (ISA).
In what is seen as a sign of desperation by the Mahathir regime, Ezam Nor, a leading Malaysian political activist, was arrested on March 5 for his role in a series of well-attended street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur over the last few months.
Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed was returned to office in the general elections late last month, as widely predicted, but was severely bruised in the process and faces a difficult and uncertain future...
Malaysian politics went into overdrive last month, after prime minister Mahathir Mohammed finally called the country’s long-awaited elections on November 10. The polls were scheduled for November 29 (after Crescent press time).
The Malaysian government has bungled anew with the fresh sodomy charges it has brought against the jailed former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.
Politics in Malaysia is at a crossroads. The aftermath, or rather the aftershock of Anwar’s verdict, which virtually all Malaysians have now dismissed as a shameless show-trial, is still felt all over the country. The judgement, as Anwar himself described it, ‘stinks to high heaven’.
Although Anwar Ibrahim’s ‘conviction’ on corruption charges was a foregone conclusion, the April 14 verdict still sent shock waves through Malaysia. The sentence - six years in jail - was even heavier than expected, and Judge Augustine Paul’s decision to have the prison term begin from the day of the conviction...
The Anwar Ibrahim corruption trial ended abruptedly on March 23, when the presiding judge, Justice Augustine Paul, ended proceedings without the defence having completed presented their closing arguments.
Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed must be getting a sinking feeling that events are fast slipping out of his control. This is not to suggest that the Malaysian judiciary, press or the police have turned against him.
So despised is Uncle Sam globally that too close an identification with him can spell the death-knell for any political figure, especially in the Muslim world.
If prime minister Mahathir Mohamed believed that by dismissing Anwar Ibrahim and accusing him of moral turpitude would destroy his reputation, the people of Malaysia have proved him dead wrong. Showing uncharacteristic defiance, the people have held massive rallies in support of Reformasi, the reform movement launched by Anwar.
Amid uncharacteristically strong defiance, the people of Malaysia have kept the tempo of demonstrations despite the arrest of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim last month.
Malaysia has been taken by storm since Anwar Ibrahim, the relatively youthful former deputy prime minister, was unceremoniously sacked on September 2.
Anwar was brought to court with a swollen eye and bruises on his right arm, the result of being severely beaten by police when he was first arrested ten days ago.
‘Reformasi’ or reform, has become the rallying cry of opponents of prime minister Mahathir Mohamed in Malaysia since his unceremonious sacking of deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim on September 2.
