Malaysia: Prime Minister Badawi to step down, political environment tense

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdulla Ahmad Badawi is expected to step down on March 31 after five years in power as leader of United Malays National Organisation, according to an official close to the PM. The move has not been publicly announced, likely because political tension is in the air: just this week Badawi’s coalition BN (National Front) staged a take-over in the northern state of Perak , one of four northern states where an opposition-led coalition has power. Opposition lawmakers switched parties, giving the Front majority power in Perak, and government officials have seized 20,000 copies of a widely distributed local newspapers, in a move one of the opposition parties is calling ‘politically motivated’ and an attempt to restrict information flow.

This is just the most recent chapter of a larger narrative that has seen the National Front silence opposition, using Malaysia’s equivalent to American Patriot Act, the Internal Security Act, to strike fear in opposition parties. Last year three political dissidents were incarcerated - blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, reporter Tan Chee Hoon and Democratic Action Party politician Teresa Kok - under the broad-reaching ISA.

The latest Human Rights Watch World Report has accused Malaysia of letting national security concerns override fundamental human rights. On the upcoming elections, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin recently wrote in Malaysia Today, ” when the rats begin to desert the ship then you certainly know that the ship is about to sink.” Kamaruddin continued that the UMNO way of doing things is to say “Take the money or die. Take the money or get sacked. Take the money or go to jail.”

Link and Sources:

Badawi steps down, The Straits Times

Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Malaysia Today

Reporting on new Human Rights Watch and Malaysia, Asia Sentinel