The November general elections returned Barisan Nasional to power with a more than two-thirds parliamentary majority, although they won only about 56 percent of the votes cast. Umno was the biggest loser in the election. Its share of the parliamentary seats decreased from 88 to 72, losing mainly to PAS and KeADILan. In addition, PAS recaptured Kelantan and gained control over Terengganu.

All constituencies having more than 90 percent Malay majority voters returned PAS candidates. A number of Umno ministers and deputy ministers lost their seats. For a long time the Umno leaders have always held that Umno equals Malay and Malay equals Umno. This was the formula they used to attract and retain Malay support. But the latest general election results destroyed this myth.

PAS made inroads into the Malay heartland, while KeADILan, though formed about seven months earlier, managed to hold its own, although it won only five seats. As expected, the BN succeeded to attract more Chinese and Indian votes than the BA. This helped the MIC to win all the seats it stood for, and the MCA almost all. It also helped the BN to win in Chinese majority mixed constituencies. In East Malaysia, the local component parties also helped the BN, by winning a big majority of the parliamentary seats.

Many observers were expecting that after having done so well in the elections, Mahathir and the government he leads would try to be more liberal and widen the democratic space in the country. This was not to be. Mahathir never hides his anger against the opposition. Almost immediately after the elections, he launched several attacks against them by taking several suppressive actions, as the following:

The BN government continued to manipulate the media in order to discredit the opposition parties, especially PAS. It accused that PAS was determined to pursue its Islamic state objective, when the media reported that some PAS leaders said that the Terengganu government was going to implement kharaj (land tax).

In actual fact, there was no decision to implement it, but there were only preliminary discussions. PAS managed to countervail the attempt to create suspicion and fear among the Chinese towards it by announcing that slaughter and rearing of pigs will be allowed in Kelantan and Terengganu. Then, in order to get support from women, Umno leaders through their controlled media raised controversy over the use of tudung (head cover), which certain PAS leaders in Kelantan and Terengganu had advised Muslim women to wear.

The BN government began to control opposition newspapers and also other publications that were considered to be critical of Umno/BN. The Home Ministry renewed the permit to publish Harakah, the PAS organ, only at the last hour and ordered that it should be published only twice a month instead of twice weekly, as in the past. The circulation of Harakah had increased from 50,000 to about 300,000 following Anwar Ibrahim's sacking. It played a big role to help especially PAS to win the elections.

At the same time, the permit for monthly magazine Detik, known to be quite supportive of reformasi and critical of Umno/BN (especially the leadership) were not renewed. Recently the permit for Eksklusif, which had tried very hard to stay neutral, has also been suspended. It looks as if there is no room even for a neutral newspaper.

PRM submitted an application to renew its permit for Suara eight months ago, and still there is no reply, while KeADILan too is waiting for a response to its application to publish Keadilan. Under the Printing Press and Publications Act, a permit must be obtained from the Home Ministry first for any periodical, and this permit has to be renewed annually and can be withdrawn or terminated at any time.

In February, DAP deputy chair Karpal Singh, KeADILan vice-president Marina Yusof, KeADILan Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, Harakah editor Zulkifli Sulong and its printer Chia Lim Thye were arrested and charged in court.

Karpal was charged for allegedly making some seditious remarks in the High Court in the course of defending Anwar during his trial. Marina was charged for a speech that she made on the 13th May Incident (relating to racial conflict) during one of her election campaign speeches. As for Zulkifli, he was charged for publishing an allegedly seditious statement in Harakah and Chia for printing it. All of them are charged under the Sedition Act. As regards to Ezam, he faces charges under the Official Secrets Act, in connection with police reports he had made on corruption committed by certain ministers.

Public rallies are no longer allowed now. According to the law, a permit must be applied for from the police 14 days before any public meeting can be held. When the BA leaders met the Inspector General of Police last year, he assured them that there would be no difficulty in issuing permit, so long as conditions are complied with.

But in April this year, the head of police in Kuala Lumpur announced that all public rallies or meetings would not be allowed. As a result, several rallies already planned had to be cancelled. Some KeADILan leaders, who proceeded with a number of rallies in connection with its first year anniversary celebration, despite being warned by the police, have been called to the police headquarters to record statements. There is every possibility that they may be charged later. Now, the ban on public rallies has spread to Selangor too. Apparently it is also in effect in the rest of the country.

There have been very strict measures taken by the police against public gatherings or demonstrations, even if they are peaceful. In the past, the police often dispersed public gatherings by force and arresting the suspected leaders and participants.

Recently, there was an attempt to organise a gathering at Dataran Merdeka, a field in front of the court where Anwar was facing his second trial, this time for alleged sodomy. It was to commemorate the first year of Anwar's imprisonment on April 14th. Even days before the gathering was held, Mahathir had accused the gathering as illegal and aimed at causing a riot. He also alleged that the organisers were planning to bring sticks and Molotov cocktails.

In fact, what Mahathir did was to create an atmosphere of fear, to justify whatever action he planned to take. The police picked up a few KeADILan leaders who were accused of organising the gathering a day or two before the gathering. Police blocks were put up on almost all roads leading into Kuala Lumpur. There were several FRU trucks, with hundreds of uniformed and non-uniformed police personnel, stationed at different places, especially near Dataran Merdeka, the National Mosque and the Istana Negara.

Despite these strict measures, some people still managed to gather at the National Mosque, near the KL railway station and at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. The police chased them away with canes and fired water cannons. Nearly 50 people were arrested. A few people wanted by police were also detained. They were remanded between five to six days. Sixteen people, including the KeADILan vice president Tian Chua and Youth chief Ezam were charged in court for illegal assembly or inciting it.

The government has constantly alluded that the Malay community is split, and this they claim has been caused mainly by an opposition party. PAS has been accused of spreading wrong teachings of Islam, causing split and thereby threatening national security. This appeared to be a veiled threat to PAS.

In the past people have been detained under the ISA and organisations banned for being involved in so-called deviationist teachings and accused of threatening national security. A few years ago, government disbanded an organisation called Al-Arqam and several of its leaders were detained under the ISA. Later a number of persons, accused of being followers of the Shiite sect were also arrested and held without trial under the same draconian law. They were accused of being involved in deviationist teachings that threatened national security.

The PM has been quite persistent in his threats and attacks on PAS for causing disunity among the Malays, by misrepresenting some of the teachings of Islam. Rais Yatim, Minister in the PM's Department, who holds the law portfolio, has indicated the possibility of government forbidding any party to use any religion, as its ideology or for its name, to operate in politics.

As an initial move the government has set up a National Religious Action Council (Matin), to monitor and combat deviationist teachings and groups using religion as a political tool to create disunity among the Malays, which performed very well in the last elections. It is clear that this is actually a move to combat the growing influence of PAS.

Tomorrow: Final part

[#1]Part 1: The seeds of Anwar's destruction[/#]



This is the second of three parts of a paper which formed the basis of addresses to students and academics in Cambridge, London (LSE & SOAS), Manchester, Oxford and Warwick Universities, during PRM president Syed Husin Ali's seven-day "lecture tour" in the first two weeks of May. Part 3 appears tomorrow.