Malaysians Sent Abroad Rankle Mahathir at Home
International Herald Tribune
April 14, 1999
Thomas Fuller

It was a February evening in London and several hundred Malaysian students, a long way from home, were packed into a basement meeting hall, listening to a special guest, Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, talk about how fortunate they were to be studying abroad.

When the prime minister finished, a Malaysian graduate stood up and criticized Mr. Mahathir for the way the government had treated Anwar Ibrahim, the country's deposed, jailed and indicted deputy prime minister.

"You should step down," the graduate said, according to a journalist present in the hall. The suggestion — unusually confrontational by Malaysian standards — received rousing applause.

Those students in London, who went on to challenge Mr. Mahathir on many issues, are just a small sampling of the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians

who traveled abroad to study during the past two decades. Encouraged and often financed by the government, they came back as engineers, lawyers, business people and doctors.

Now, many of them are at the forefront of the movement opposing Mr. Mahathir. They are organizing and participating in demonstrations leading up to the verdict in Mr. Anwar's trial, due Wednesday, and they manage anti-government Web sites on the Internet. (Page 6)

Malaysians educated abroad are not the only people demanding change; Mr. Anwar's supporters are a mixed group. But many of the former deputy prime minister's supporters are young and have been exposed in one way or another to the outside world.

Whether trained in Malaysia or abroad, they form the outlines of a generation that could strongly influence the politics of the next few years — no matter what happens to Mr. Anwar.

"Malaysian politics will never be the same again," said Rustam Sani, a sociology professor and former newspaper columnist. "The Anwar incident was a catalyst. These people have been angry for some time. Beyond Anwar vs. Mahathir there has been a transformation of the political culture."

In the short term, the prospect that opponents of Mr. Mahathir will come to power are dim — especially if Mr. Anwar is sentenced to several years in prison, as he believes he will be. But even if Mr. Anwar is imprisoned, it seems unlikely that whoever is in power will be able to ignore this younger generation.

Mr. Anwar faces 14 years in jail or a 20,000 ringgit ($5,260) fine, or both, on each of the four charges against him. He is accused of ordering police officers to cover up allegations of sexual indiscretion.

For Mr. Mahathir, who is the longest-serving leader in Asia, there is considerable irony that much of the opposition to his government is coming from students who went abroad.

It was he, during his 18 years as prime minister, who encouraged Malaysians to study overseas and embrace globalization. Study science and technology in the West, Mr. Mahathir said, and your knowledge will be the motor for Malaysia's economy into the next century.

But today, in the twilight of his career, the prime minister is finding that these former students came back with more than just academic knowledge. They returned with theories about democracy, personal freedoms and human rights.

"Many of the people who are protesting Mahathir's regime are the ones who studied overseas," said Said Azman, a professor at the University of Malaya who himself studied in the United States.

"You spend four to five years in the States. You see the free press there, you turn on the TV and see debates and arguments. Students protest peacefully. So you come back here and you say, 'I want that here. I want change."'

From Mr. Mahathir, one senses a feeling of betrayal. In London two months ago, he called the students ungrateful and said they were biting the hand that fed them.

And he was livid at the suggestion that he step down.

"I will not resign unless somebody shoots me or tries to assassinate me, which maybe some people are thinking of," he said sharply. "Even if I am cursed, even if I am told that I should resign and go away, I will stay because I have a duty to perform."

The Malaysians who left to study abroad during the past two decades went, among other places, to the United States, Britain and Australia, and many of them were sponsored by the government.

Last year, there were about 50,000 Malaysians studying overseas, of whom 15,000 were on full scholarship from the government.

Last year, following Mr. Anwar's dismissal, the presence of these foreign graduates was felt during the weekly anti-government demonstrations.

To be sure, not all Malaysians who have studied or lived overseas oppose Mr. Mahathir. Far from it.

Many of the prime minister's closest political allies are foreign-trained, including an older generation of business pioneers who form the backbone of his corporate support.

It is the younger generation of returning students who have been most active in opposing the government.

"It used to be that you could come back from overseas and become a top executive within three years," Mr. Rustam said.

"It's not as simple nowadays. This last generation is the one that is beginning to ask questions."

Wary of their influence, Mr. Mahathir has attempted to silence the dissent at its source. Since the troubles with Mr. Anwar began last year, Mr. Mahathir has admonished students to stay out of politics.

"I don't mind if students are interested in politics, but they shouldn't go to university just to become politically active," he wrote this month in a column for a Japanese newspaper.

"We spend public money to educate them. It's irresponsible to waste funds earmarked for education."

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