Wouldn't Mahathir benefit from freer debates?
October 29, 1998

There's something undoubtedly disturbing in the way Anwar Ibrahim was tossed out of the cabinet, then arrested and later roughed up. Taking stock of the heavy-handedness with which Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad sacked his former protege, Malaysians in the past month have been questioning his leadership. But how much support has actually eroded from the prime minister remains a question. Absent hard numbers, most pundits are speculating that it's a lot. Perhaps Dr. Mahathir would himself profit from the transparency he has been demanding of global capital markets.

Last Saturday, around 10,000 people gathered in the old shopping precinct in the centre of Kuala Lumpur, in a curious protest that appeared more like a convention of shoppers. Protesters milled around carrying shopping bags--it was the weekend before the Indian Festival of Light, known locally as Deepavali. Many lofted pictures of Mr. Anwar and broke to shouts of "Reformasi," the rallying cry for political reform, borrowed from Indonesia.A group of about 130 were arrested in a separate march to the royal palace. These and earlier protests are unprecedented. And the banner seen by an eyewitness, reported in his internet-circulated account,says it all:"Mahathir, please resign." Never before has there been a public demand for a prime minister to quit.

But while the protests have prompted comparisons between Dr. Mahathir and President Suharto, we wouldn't ourselves be so quick to reach this conclusion. After all, Dr. Mahathir won elections at the Umno party level--the de facto electoral college--and was most recently confirmed at the 1995 general elections. Still, there is little doubt of many Malaysians' unhappiness with the prime minister. One woman we met in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month told us that though she had long admired Dr. Mahathir, she now felt compelled to withdraw support. But do 10,000 protesters and one woman in Kuala Lumpur--in a population of 20 million--amount to a wholesale rescission of approval? In fact, several others we met said that though they supported reformasi, they hoped that it is Dr. Mahathir who may be persuaded to carry it out. So absent the existence of opinion polls,there is no way to judge the prime minister's support--or lack of--at this time.

But there's a chance that the protests have forced the government to consider an accounting through fresh elections.Information Minister Mohamed Rahmat has now twice told members of the ruling coalition to begin preparing for polls. Elections would give a wider spectrum of Malaysians the chance to express their opinion, now only available to those who brave illegal street protests.

Dr. Mahathir complains that the foreign media has overly focused on demonstrations in the capital, giving the impression of a restive Kuala Lumpur. But without public debate on his performance--maybe in a less uptight local press--is it any wonder that the foreign media instead has focused on the credible evidence of discontent against him? We agree that transparency is a good thing. Were there more of it in Malaysia perhaps Dr. Mahathir wouldn't be suffering unwarranted comparisons with Mr.Suharto.