Malaysian Protests Fade After Comments by Gore 
International Herald Tribune
November 26, 1998
Thomas Fuller

The nascent Malaysian anti-government movement is in retreat, with one of its leaders in prison, demonstrations reduced to a few dozen people standing on a street corner once a week and outrage fading over the treatment of the best-known leader of the movement, Anwar Ibrahim.

The Malaysia of two months ago, where weekly street protests drew tens of thousands of citizens, looks unlikely to return soon, Malaysian political analysts and business leaders say.

The killings of dozens of people in ethnic-related violence in neighboring Indonesia in the past two weeks has undercut support for street protests, especially among Malaysia's large and influential Chinese minority.

And after Vice President Al Gore praised voices of reform in Malaysia this month, the government has waged a widespread campaign to drum up patriotism; radio spots and daily full-page advertisements fill local newspapers that exhort Malaysians to condemn the "stupid, ignorant, ill-bred idiots" insulting the country, words aimed at Mr. Gore.

The streets of Kuala Lumpur are filled with cars flying miniature national flags, which are given out free.

All of this would appear to be a victory for Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, who just two months ago was under siege, widely criticized abroad for the treatment of his former deputy and facing large-scale demonstrations at home.

But political analysts here say the political mileage that Mr. Mahathir has earned amid the outrage over Mr. Gore's comments will fade just as the black eye Mr. Anwar got after he was imprisoned is no longer seen as a major issue.

"Although the prime minister seems to be in front today, I'm not sure he can sustain it over the next few months," said an aide to one of the top politicians in Malaysia. "We are not sure how the economy will fare."

But for now, the government seems to have the upper hand.

Opposition groups are finding it more difficult to communicate their anti-government message. Tian Chua, who helped cobble together the diverse political parties and humans rights groups that formed a key element of the reformasi movement, was arrested last weekend, several hours after a small street demonstration.

He is still in police custody and is being charged with demonstrating illegally.

The government has also tried to put out the message to Malaysia's large middle class that any kind of demonstration can easily turn into a racial and ethnic issue. That seems to have had success among the ethnic Chinese, who make up about one-third of the population of Malaysia.

"What we're scared of is that, if it's allowed to go on and it gets out of hand, then the price to be paid will be very expensive," said Paul Low, the head of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, which represents 2,000 companies.

Editors at local newspapers, which are closely monitored by authorities, say they have been instructed to run photos from around the world of street violence.

Photos of bloodied corpses on Jakarta streets run on the front page. The images resonate among Malaysians who remember the ethnic riots that rocked the Malaysian capital three decades ago.

But looming over the political scene is the issue of Mr. Mahathir's health. After two major international events in the capital — the Commonwealth Games in September and recently concluded Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum — the 72-year-old prime minister appears tired.

Mr. Mahathir, who underwent open-heart surgery a decade ago, does not have a clear successor following the September dismissal of Mr. Anwar, the former deputy prime minister whose trial on corruption and sodomy charges rumbles on.

For now, the prime minister's bold experiment with capital controls has impressed many business leaders in the country. The measures, introduced in September, insulate the country's currency, the ringgit, from global trading and peg it to the dollar.

"Interest rates have been brought down, the stock market has been going up and the earlier general pessimism seems to be slowly and gradually overturned," said Looi Teong Chye, head of the Association of Small and Medium-Scale Industries.

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