1999 Scores

Status: Partly Free
Freedom Rating: 5.0
Civil Liberties: 5
Political Rights: 5

Overview

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's ruling National Front coalition retained its two-thirds majority in parliament in Malaysia's November 29, 1999 elections. However, many ethnic Malay voters shifted their support to the main Islamic opposition party, Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas), which nearly quadrupled its parliamentary seats and won two state assembly elections.

Malaysia was established in 1963 through a merger of independent, ex-British Malaya with the British colonies of Sarawak, Sabah, and Singapore (Singapore withdrew in 1965). The constitution provides for a house of representatives (193 seats in the 1999 elections), which is directly elected for a five-year term, and a 58-member senate. Executive power is vested in a prime minister and cabinet. The king serves as a largely ceremonial head of state, but can delay legislation for 30 days.

The 14-party, ruling National Front coalition has captured at least a two-thirds majority in the lower house in ten straight general elections since 1957. The Front is composed of several race-based parties, led by the conservative United Malays National Organization (UMNO), an ethnic Malay-based party. The government has gained considerable legitimacy by presiding over rapid increases in per capita income, but continues to use the judiciary and other instruments of state power to limit dissent.

In 1969, anti-Chinese rioting occurred in the context of mounting Malay frustration over the economic success of the ethnic Chinese minority. In 1971, the government responded with still-existing minimum quotas for Malays in education, the civil service, and business affairs.

The current prime minister and UMNO leader, Mahathir Mohamad, took office in 1981. In 1988, a breakaway UMNO faction formed Semangat '46 (Spirit of '46, the year UMNO was founded in Malaya). In 1989, Semangat '46 joined the country's first Malay-led opposition coalition, but it failed to unseat the Front in the 1990 national elections.

In the 1995 parliamentary elections, the National Front took 162 seats, led by UMNO with 88; the remainder went to four opposition parties, including Semangat '46. In 1996, Semangat '46 members folded the party into UMNO.

By 1997, a decade of excessive corporate borrowing, financial distortions exacerbated by crony capitalism, and high government spending on prestige infrastructure projects had contributed to a large domestic debt and a high current account deficit. With the economy headed into recession, in spring 1998, long-simmering leadership tensions between Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim, the deputy prime minister and Mahathir's presumed successor, flared openly over financial policy. Anwar favored higher interest rates and lower spending, while Mahathir supported expansionary policies. On September 2, Mahathir sacked Anwar on charges of sexual misconduct, and on September 20 police arrested Anwar under the Internal Security Act. In the ensuing weeks, police forcibly dispersed antigovernment demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur and several towns.

On April 14, 1999, a court found Anwar guilty on four counts of corruption following a seven-month trial that fell short of international standards and sentenced him to six years in prison. Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Ismail, responded by founding the National Justice Party (keADILan), which subsequently helped form a four-party, opposition coalition called the Alternative Front. Other Alternative Front members included Pas, the main Malay-based opposition party; the ethnic Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP); and the Tamil-based Malaysian People's Party.

Anwar's arrest and trial, which included revelations of torture and allegations of police intimidation of witnesses, also sharpened a generational divide within the ethnic Malay majority. Thousands of students and other youths joined unprecedented pro-reform demonstrations that called for Mahathir's resignation.

Final results from the November 29 election gave the National Front 148 seats, led by UMNO with 72; the Alternative Front, 42 (Pas, 27; DAP, 10; keADILan, 5); and Bersatu Sabah, an opposition party based in Sabah state, 3. The National Front's share of the popular vote fell to 56 percent from 65 percent in 1995. On December 8, the Alternative Front named Pas president Fadzil Noor to replace the DAP's Lim Kit Siang, who lost his seat, as parliamentary opposition leader. On December 10, Mahathir announced that he was beginning what would be his last term, and appointed a cabinet that included deputy prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his presumed successor.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Malaysians have a limited ability to change their government through elections. The government uses the state-run media to partisan advantage and relies on numerous security laws to restrict freedoms of expression and association. Nevertheless, in the 1999 elections, the opposition Pas retained control of the state of Kelantan and captured oil-rich Terengganu for the first time.

The timing of the 1999 general elections, and the lengthy voter registration process, meant that some 600,000 voters who had signed up during the last registration drive in April and May 1999 were not yet eligible to vote. The opposition alleged that Mahathir had timed the vote to prevent these new voters from participating. The Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) monitored the 1999 elections and said it found evidence of irregularities in the voter registration process and of ineligible voters, particularly foreigners, casting ballots. ANFREL also said that the short, eight-day campaign period and the government's monopoly of the major media raised questions about the fairness of the elections. A local monitoring group, Permantau, also reported irregularities. Following UMNO's victory in the March 1999 Sabah state elections, the opposition Parti Bersatu Sabah and human rights groups accused the ruling National Front of bribing and intimidating voters, and mobilizing illegal immigrants to vote, charges the Front denied.

The government influences the judiciary in sensitive political and commercial cases. Mahathir, as home affairs minister, controls key judicial appointments. In September and October 1999, the Canadian journalist Murray Hiebert served a four-week jail term after becoming the first journalist imprisoned for contempt of court in a Commonwealth country in 50 years. Hiebert had written a 1997 article in the Far Eastern Economic Review that noted that a civil suit brought by the wife of an appeals court judge appeared to have moved unusually quickly through the judicial system. Amnesty International (AI) expressed concern over several aspects of Anwar Ibrahim's trial, including threatened or actual contempt of court proceedings against Anwar's defense team. In April, a Royal Commission of Inquiry confirmed that the former head of the Royal Malaysia Police had seriously assaulted Anwar in prison in October 1998. AI noted that it had also received credible reports of the use of torture and other abuse to force confessions in other cases.

Sharia (Islamic law) courts have authority over family and property matters in the Muslim community. Nine states in Malaysia have traditional sultans, and the sultans are at the apex of the Islamic religious establishment in each of these states. The king, who is elected by and from among the nine sultans, supervises Islamic affairs in the four remaining states. Mahathir has angered many conservative Malays by advocating a progressive practice of Islam, criticizing the ulama (religious scholars) who head the Sharia courts for discrimination against women, and supporting the unification of the state Islamic laws under a federal system. Authorities in Kelantan have imposed some religious-based dress, dietary, and cultural restrictions on Muslims. Successive governments have used security laws to detain alleged Communists, religious extremists, Vietnamese boat people, and, occasionally, opposition figures. The exact number of people presently detained is not known. The 1960 Internal Security Act and the 1969 Emergency Ordinance both permit detention of suspects for up to two years. The 1970 Sedition Act amendments prohibit discussion of the privileges granted to Malays and other sensitive issues.

In August 1999, authorities released Lim Guan Eng, the deputy leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party, after he had served two-thirds of an 18-month sentence under the Sedition Act and the 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) for having publicly criticized the government's handling of statutory rape allegations against a former state chief minister in 1994. As a result of his conviction, Lim is barred from parliament and from practicing his accounting profession. In September, police arrested more than 20 opposition supporters following a large antigovernment protest in Kuala Lumpur. During the year, the social activist Irene Fernandez continued to stand trial after being accused in 1996 of "malicious publication of false news" after her organization, Tenaganita, issued a report in 1995 detailing the alleged abuse and torture of migrant workers at detention camps.

The PPPA, as amended in 1987, bars the publication of "malicious" news, permits the government to ban or restrict allegedly "subversive" publications, requires newspapers to renew their publication licenses annually, and prohibits publications from challenging such actions in court. The government used the law to close three newspapers in 1987, and journalists reportedly practice self-censorship. Most major newspapers are owned by individuals and companies close to the ruling National Front, and give the opposition minimal coverage. State-run Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) generally provides only token coverage of the opposition. In July 1999, the information minister placed an unprecedented ban on opposition access to RTM during the upcoming election campaign.

The 1967 Police Act requires permits for all public assemblies. Following the arrest of Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998 and continuing into 1999, police forcibly broke up numerous peaceful opposition rallies, mainly in Kuala Lumpur but also in rural towns. Since 1969, authorities have banned political rallies and have only permitted indoor "discussion sessions." The 1966 Societies Act requires any association (including political parties) of more than six members to register with the government, and authorities have deregistered some opposition organizations. Nongovernmental organizations operate openly but face some harassment. In February 1999, the University of Malaya dismissed Chandra Muzzafar, a prominent academic and supporter of Anwar Ibrahim, ostensibly on financial grounds.

Official policy discriminates against Chinese, Tamils, and other minorities in education, employment, and business affairs. Some 60 percent of Malaysians are Muslim, and Islam is the official religion, although non-Muslims worship freely in this secular country.

There are considerable restrictions on worker's rights to organize and hold strikes. The law permits each union and labor federation to represent only one trade. In the export-oriented electronics industry, the government permits only "in-house" unions rather than a nationwide union. The government must certify all unions and can deregister them.

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