7 Politicial Allies of Anwar Are Arrested as Violent Clashes Rock Kuala Lumpur : Malaysia Police Step Up Their Crackdown 
International Herald Tribune
September 22, 1998
Thomas Fuller

As thousands of demonstrators clashed with policemen in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian government widened its crackdown on dissent Monday, arresting at least seven political allies of Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister who was detained by the police on Sunday.

Mr. Anwar, 51, was charged Monday under the country's Internal Security Act, which allows him to be held indefinitely without trial.

The street battles between the police and protesters and the arrest of Mr. Anwar, who until last month was the anointed successor to Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, 73, has damaged the image of Malaysia as one of the most stable countries in Asia.

It has also removed from the political scene a man who outside Malaysia was considered a modern and dynamic counterpart to Mr. Mahathir, the country's leader for 17 years.

The unrest in Malaysia's capital is a result of a power struggle between Mr. Mahathir and his former deputy and finance minister. Before Mr. Anwar was ousted from government earlier this month, there were no street protests, and no credible calls for Mr. Mahathir's resignation.

The crackdown leaves Mr. Anwar's wife, Azizah, as the leader of the opposition movement that her husband formed after his removal from government Sept. 2.

"My dignity, like Mrs. Gandhi's, is to follow my husband," said Miss Azizah, an opthamologist by training.

But Miss Azizah faces major obstacles in her efforts to lead the nascent movement. She said Monday that she had agreed to a police order that she not give any speeches to the public.

And with very little sympathetic coverage in the local press, which is closely monitored by the government, that could end opposition hopes of garnering significant support in the short term.

Mr. Anwar's speeches around the country over the last few weeks had galvanized tens of thousands of people and led them to march through central Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, the largest such demonstration in the capital's history.

On Monday afternoon, policemen battled thousands of protesters outside Kuala Lumpur's central courthouse using tear gas and trucks that sprayed chemically treated water designed to irritate the skin. The protesters had congregated there in the mistaken belief Mr. Anwar would be brought to court.

Several dozen protesters — almost all of them young men in their teens or early 20s — were arrested. Some had minor injuries.

The government provided extra police protection for Queen Elizabeth II, who toured the city Monday before officiating at the closing of the Commonwealth Games. In a meeting with Mr. Mahathir, Britain's foreign secretary, Robin Cook, stressed that the queen's visit "should not be caught up in internal controversies," according to a spokesman for Mr. Cook.

The queen visited the Petronas Towers, the world's tallest buildings, and was given a formal welcome at Parliament square, about a kilometer from the spot where Malaysian policemen were dispersing protesters with tear gas and water cannons.

The unrest in Malaysia comes as the country faces its worst economic crisis since independence in 1957. Analysts predict a contraction in the economy this year of around 5 percent following nearly a decade of 8 percent growth.

Parallels to the protests leading up to the May riots in neighboring Indonesia are striking — large crowds in a Malay-speaking Southeast Asian country beset by economic crisis taking to the streets and calling for an end to corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

But Indonesia, with a population of 200 million, is 10 times the size of Malaysia and has been much harder hit by the regional economic crisis.

Malaysia is also much wealthier than Indonesia. There are four times the number of people below the poverty line in Indonesia than there are Malaysians.

In a move that seemed to strengthen Mr. Mahathir's position, top members of the country's ruling party, the United Malays National Organization, met Monday to reaffirm their allegiance to him.

Although the official reason given for Mr. Anwar's dismissal from his post as deputy prime minister was unsuitable morals, government officials close to Mr. Mahathir say that the prime minister felt undermined by Mr. Anwar on several occasions.

Mr. Mahathir reportedly resented Mr. Anwar's interviews with foreign publications in which Mr. Anwar projected himself as a modern and internationally acceptable alternative to Mr. Mahathir.

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