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Violence by a Muslim Sect Stuns Malaysia

Violence by a Muslim Sect Stuns Malaysia

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.
 


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