Author: Mark Landler,
Agence France-Presse
Publication: The New
York Times
Date: August 13, 2000
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia,
Aug. 12 -- It was the trial of the century in Malaysia. But
on the morning after this country's former deputy prime minister, Anwar
Ibrahim, was found guilty of sodomy last Tuesday, the newspapers here gave
more ink to another hearing, held in a court up country. Twenty-nine
members of an Islamic sect were charged with treason for looting two army
camps last month in the northern state of Perak. The attackers made
off with rocket launchers, more than 100 assault rifles, and 1,000 rounds
of ammunition. They seized four hostages -- torturing and killing
two -- before surrendering to security forces after a siege at their jungle
hideout.
The violence stunned
this normally tranquil country, awakening fears of Islamic terrorism in
a nation where 40 percent of the people are non-Muslim. Malaysia,
with its large Chinese and Indian minorities, is a model of multiethnic
harmony in Asia. But people here believe the peace is fragile.
They look in fear at neighboring Indonesia and the Philippines, which are
battling Muslim insurgencies.
While Mr. Anwar
evokes sympathy, he has been consigned to history -- the victim of ruthless
political infighting in the turbulence of the Asian economic crisis.
The sect's attack, on the other hand, augurs a stormy future for Malaysia
as a whole, in which Islam is a rising political force.
"There is no real tradition
of Islamic-oriented violence in Malaysia," said Bruce Gale, a Singapore-based
political commentator who lived in Malaysia for 10 years. "That's
why this incident shocked people so much."
Mr. Gale said Malaysia
was less susceptible to Muslim unrest than Indonesia or the Philippines
because its institutions, notably the army, are stronger. Yet fundamentalist
Islamic beliefs have been taking root here since the Iranian revolution
in 1979.
The Pan-Malaysian Islamic
Party tripled its seats in recent parliamentary elections and won control
of a key industrial province, Terengganu. The victory alarmed Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has been in power for 19 years, even though
his party kept its majority. After leading the campaign against Mr.
Anwar, Dr. Mahathir now saves his fire for the Islamic party, which
he says is a threat to Malaysia's future.
The party, known as Pas,
advocates the eventual creation of an Islamic state. In the northeastern
province of Kelantan, where it gained power in 1990, women are encouraged
to wear headscarves. But Pas also has a reputation for honest government.
That has made it an appealing alternative to Dr. Mahathir's regime,
which has been soiled by its perceived vendetta against Mr. Anwar.
"Politically, they are
now the biggest threat," said K. S. Jomo, a professor of economics
at the University of Malaya. "Mahathir is smart enough and savvy
enough to go after one enemy at a time."
The arms heist has become
a weapon in the prime minister's campaign. Although the Islamic party
has tried to distance itself from the sect, Dr. Mahathir said the
sect's 1,800 members belong to the party. Government-controlled newspapers
have made much of the fact that the sect, known as Al-Ma'unah, killed only
its two non-Muslim hostages, after torturing them savagely.
"The fear tactics have
worked, especially among the Chinese," said Teresa Kok, a member of Parliament
from the opposition Democratic Action Party, which is supported by ethnic
Chinese who make up 26 percent of Malaysia's population of 22 million.
Opposition leaders mutter
that the government may have staged the heist as a way to discredit the
Islamic party. They sneer at the official version of events: a ragtag
gang, impersonating senior military officers, showed up at two camps after
midnight on July 2 for a surprise inspection. They walked past the
guards, and loaded three vans with hostages and weapons.
"There are so many unanswered
questions," said Wan Azizah, the wife of Mr. Anwar, who leads another
opposition party. She would not speculate on whether there were other
forces behind the attack. But she said that by linking the Islamic
party to the sect, Dr. Mahathir was attempting to cut it off from
the mainstream of Muslim Malays who have been the backbone of his party,
the United Malays National Organization. The party has ruled Malaysia
since it won independence from Britain in 1957.
Many of those voters
have soured on Dr. Mahathir. They deserted his party in droves
in the last election, largely because of the Anwar trial. Though
Mr. Anwar is not viewed as without sin, few here believe he sodomized
his family's former driver, for which he was sentenced to nine years in
prison.
"The driving force of
our success was the Anwar case," said Syed Azman, a member of Parliament
from the Islamic party. "The Malay community thought it was too much
to stomach. Dr. Mahathir thought that whatever he did, the
Malays would support him. That's not the case."
Still, hard feelings
do not necessarily translate into support for Islamic rule. Dr.
Mahathir has led the transformation of Malaysia into one of Asia's most
advanced economies. Critics of Pas say that Malaysia cannot stay
on this silicon road with a government that frowns on karaoke singing.
"It really frustrates
us," said Ms. Kok, whose ethnic Chinese party is in a shaky alliance
with the Islamic party against the government. "They recently banned
women from participating in the Koran recitation exercises. It strengthens
the impression that Pas is fundamentalist."
Moreover, Malaysians
are deeply suspicious of anything that would upset the harmony of their
country. When Dr. Mahathir warned people to stay off the streets
after Mr. Anwar's verdict, the vast majority complied.
On Tuesday, the members
of the Al Ma'unah sect were charged with "waging war, or attempting to
wage war" against the king of Malaysia -- the actual head of state in a
system in which the monarchy rotates in five-year terms among the hereditary
rulers of the nine Malay states. The crime is punishable by death.
If the accused are found guilty, there is little likelihood that people
here will bemoan their fate as they have Mr. Anwar's.