KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's prime minister has used a key party meeting to cement his grip on power after enduring months of sharp attacks on his policies by a former leader, but key challenges still remain.
Midway through the annual gathering of his ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appears to have appeased critics for now, having weathered pockets of discontent over his policies and leadership.Abdullah described himself as God's humble servant on Wednesday in a 90-minute speech laced with Quran verses aiming to rally the ranks of the 3.2-million strong party and put the house back in order. That tactic seems to have worked.
His predecessor Mahathir Mohamad has accused him of selling out Malaysian interests, nepotism, personal betrayal and penny-pinching.
“Abdullah seems to have succeeded in overcoming the Mahathir challenge for now,” said Yang Razali, a senior fellow at Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
“But Abdullah's key challenges will be to inspire and mobilise the UMNO rank-and-file behind the 2020 Vision which Mahathir developed and which Abdullah has embraced.”
Mahathir's ambition to turn Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020 was at the heart of the Vision 2020 programme.
So far, Abdullah has declined to return Mahathir's fire directly, though he made an oblique reference in his UMNO speech to some of the grouses aired by his predecessor, whose 22-year rule took Malaysia from agricultural backwater to industrialised state.The six-month feud with Mahathir has gripped the nation, dismayed investors and alarmed the leadership of UMNO, which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.
Abdullah is banking on his credentials as an Islamic scholar and his three-year record of governance to shore up support ahead of a general election that could be held as early as next year.
Half of Malaysia's 26 million people are Malays, who by definition are Muslims. “He's using religion to lure back the Malay people,” said political analyst Yahya Ismail. “But people want to see real action and not mere words. The real test will be the elections.”
UMNO itself has delayed internal polls, due next year, until after the general elections. Abdullah won a record mandate in 2004 polls on a ticket of good governance and less corruption.
Most speakers and delegates at the three-day UMNO assembly spoke openly in support of Abdullah but were careful not to directly attack Mahathir.
“The row has in a way tested Abdullah's leadership,” said Ahmad Darus, a delegate from the prime minister's home state of Penang. “But I think he has emerged stronger.”
Abdullah and Mahathir met for two hours on Oct. 22 but hopes for a reconciliation faded when Mahathir made a fresh complaint -- that Malaysia had become a “police state”.
But Abdullah remained silent on the various issues raised by Mahathir, a move that did not go down well with some members.
“I think strategically and tactically, it is wrong not to answer one person as opposed to having to answer to 26 million people,” said Effendi Zahari, a delegate from Kuala Lumpur.
Independent political analyst Bruce Gale said Abdullah had handled the dispute with Mahathir adroitly, however.—Reuters
