Mahathir Savors Victory In Key Malaysian Election 
International Herald Tribune
March 15, 1999
Thomas Fuller

The ruling coalition of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad scored a decisive victory in a state election here over the weekend, bolstering the federal government's position and fueling speculation that Mr. Mahathir could call national elections soon.

The prime minister's party came away with a perfect slate, winning all 24 seats it contested for the Sabah state legislature. With the seven seats won by his coalition partners, Mr. Mahathir secured firm control over the state, one of Malaysia's largest. "I'm ecstatic," he said after the polls closed Saturday. "We had a clear victory."

The elections were the first major test for the government since the dismissal of Anwar Ibrahim as deputy prime minister in September and subsequent unrest.

Opposition leaders said the results from Sabah showed how difficult it will be to end Mr. Mahathir's 18-year rule.

"I was surprised by the margin of victory," Lim Kit Siang, head of the opposition Democratic Action Party, told Reuters. "This is a very sobering result for all who are trying to bring about change in the next election."

Mr. Mahathir said Sunday that he was now confident his coalition would "secure the majority support of the people" when national elections are held. They must be called before April 2000.

He also said that voters in Sabah had proved foreign leaders and the Western media wrong by keeping his coalition in power, the official Bernama news agency quoted him as saying, according to Reuters.

Noting that some foreigners had said that he and his government no longer enjoyed popular support, the prime minister said: "Actually, they want me to be removed and replaced by someone who will bow to them, who will sell the country. That is why they initiated efforts to topple the government. They can always try but it is the Malaysians who decide the fate of the nation, not foreign leaders or the Western media."

Strong support from Sabah in those elections would buttress the government's control of Parliament; Sabah and neighboring Sarawak, the two Malaysian states of Borneo, account for a quarter of the seats in Parliament.

Party leaders who led the campaign in Sabah were clearly relieved to hear the results late Saturday after weeks of intense campaigning that saw Mr. Mahathir come to Sabah three times in the past month.

"Everybody focused on this election, focused on the mood of the people and the capabilities of the Barisan Nasional," Siti Zaharah Sulaiman, a cabinet member who helped lead the campaign, said of the ruling coalition. "It just goes to show that even under the most trying circumstances we can win."

At the top on the list of "trying circumstances" is the economy, which shrank by 6 percent last year — although Sabah was protected from severe hardships by its timber and oil industries.

If anything, Mr. Mahathir's handling of the economy — including moves to impose limits on the amount of money Malaysians can take abroad — seem to have helped the prime minister and his allies in the state. "They are very happy with the performance of the prime minister," said Herman Luping, a retired Sabah politician. "They look at Mahathir as their economic savior."

Clearly not all voters agreed. The election was split largely along racial and religious lines, with Muslim-dominated districts voting for Mr. Mahathir and those with large numbers of Kadazandusuns — Sabah's largest ethnic group — voting for the opposition.

The opposition Parti Bersatu Sabah, led by Joseph Pairin Kitingan, a Kadazan cultural leader, won 17 of the 48 seats. Mr. Pairin and others complained that redrawn electoral boundaries had benefited Mr. Mahathir's party and they accused the prime minister of blackmailing voters by telling them that they would receive no federal assistance if they voted for the opposition. Mr. Pairin also said he was considering lodging a police report on alleged voting irregularities.

The results Saturday leave the Kadazandusuns massively underrepresented in the state government. Although they make up 54 percent of the state's population, the new ruling coalition is less than 10 percent Kadazandusun.

What remains to be seen is whether Mr. Mahathir can translate the support he received in Sabah into a convincing electoral victory on the peninsula, where the prime minister has faced the strongest criticism since Mr. Anwar's dismissal, beating and trial on charges of sodomy and abuse of power.

The prime minister's allies say the Sabah victory shows that the party machinery is ready for the challenge even if the issues on the peninsula are very different.

The coalition's campaign was orchestrated by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who took over Mr. Anwar's job as deputy prime minister in January. The stakes were high for Mr. Abdullah, a veteran politician who is now in line to succeed Mr. Mahathir. Sabah was seen as his proving ground.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune