An establishment-backed movement is mobilising hundreds of groups and thousands of Malaysians to oppose war in Iraq, but strangely missing from its ranks are civil-society groups that would have been expected to be leading such a movement.

The anti-war movement, the People's Alliance for Peace Malaysia (Malaysians for Peace), says its aim is "to mobilise Malaysians from all walks of life through non-governmental channels towards resolving the issue of global peace".

It says it also wants to highlight the Western powers' double standards and their possession of weapons of mass destruction. It is working to collect a million signatures and submit a declaration to the Non-Aligned Movement summit, which will be held o­n Feb 20-25 in Kuala Lumpur.

Few groups in Malaysia would quarrel with the movement's aims and, at first glance, Malaysians for Peace appears to have won the backing of a wide spectrum of people in this mainly Muslim country of 22 million people.

But a closer look at the some 450 groups listed o­n the Malaysians for Peace website reveals a preponderance of establishment groups, including the youth wings of the ruling coalition parties, universities, a string of state family-planning councils, police family associations, and another list of state youth councils. The patron of Malaysians for Peace is the head of the youth wing of the dominant United Malays National Organisation (Umno) party, Hishammuddin Hussein.

To the chagrin of activists, most of the critical non-governmental groups in the country are missing from the movement.

"Why were none of the human-rights groups invited to be part of this initiative?" asked Cynthia Gabriel, executive director of the Kuala Lumpur-based rights group Suaram. "Instead, we see a lot of groups that are not critical o­n human rights, democracy and peace-building issues in the movement."

Credibility, consistency lacking

Critics find that the groups in Malaysians for Peace lack credibility since the government's calls for justice at the international level is undercut by the behaviour of some members of the group.

For instance, even if they were invited, these critical groups might find it awkward to sit together with Umno Youth officials, after it played a key role in a controversy last month that resulted in a police raid o­n the offices of the independent news website malaysiakini (See Raid bad news for free media, Jan 22). The raid came after Umno Youth in January filed a complaint about malaysiakini's publication of a "seditious" letter by a reader, who criticised the country's affirmative policies for majority Malays.

Gabriel points to the double standards in the government's call for justice at the global level and the shoddy treatment of malaysiakini. She also said that Umno Youth had broken up a conference held in Kuala Lumpur in 1996 to discuss strategies to end Indonesian oppression in East Timor.

"One has to question the lack of consistency of people who were callous enough to do that sort of thing - and now they are trying to do something in the name of peace," said Johan Saravanamuttu, a political science professor.

"A lot of these groups have actually not thought deeply about these issues but are now happy to ride the government's bandwagon," he added, noting that the way the government is going around mobilising the people in a massive signature campaign drive has made sceptics wary.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is due to step down in October and the next general election is due by 2004, but could be held earlier.

In any case, Hishammuddin said he was confident that a million signatures would be collected before a mass gathering o­n Feb 23, where the signatures would be handed to Mahathir.

Again, the contradictions are stark. Since 1998, the government has cracked down hard using riot police to disperse largely peaceful demonstrations. It has since banned outdoor political gatherings. But such restrictions do not seem to apply to government-backed gatherings, including the officially sponsored anti-war gatherings.

Logo colours

Activists grant that there is indeed genuine public alarm, including by those signing o­n to the petitions, about a US-led war o­n Iraq. "But the campaign itself looks orchestrated," said o­ne social activist, glancing through mainstream newspapers that report pro-government news.

"On the o­ne hand, it is a very good idea that the Malaysian public be informed about the current developments o­n Iraq, but they should not be simply led by the nose by politically motivated groups," said Johan.

Others are wary that some politicians will use genuine public disquiet about a possible war to boost support for the ruling coalition here. "A broad-based peace movement like this would in fact strengthen the international image of the prime minister" in what could be an election year, said a human rights activist.

Indeed, some say the colours used in the Malaysians for Peace logo (left) - white letters against a dark blue background - bear a subliminal resemblance to those in the ruling coalition's logo (bottom right), which depicts white weighing scales against a deep-blue background.

Meantime, the anti-war calls have also been divided along political lines.

A parallel movement - Stop the War Coalition, Malaysia - has since emerged and so far some 50 groups, including most major human rights groups, have joined its ranks. They are submitting a joint anti-war memorandum to United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan.

"It is very important to build a coalition for peace, nationally, regionally and globally against the current drive by the US and British governments for war o­n Iraq," observed Johan.

But he added: "At the same time, the push for peace cannot be divorced and separated from the structural violence that exists in our societies such as the abuse of human rights and the derailing of democratic processes by authoritarian governments." - IPS