Yearbook 2008
Malaysia. It was a politically turbulent year, when
former Deputy Prime Minister - now chief opposition leader -
Anwar Ibrahim returned to the political hot air. At the same
time, UMNO, which has ruled the country since independence
in 1957, was in crisis since the party made its worst choice
ever.
According to
Countryaah reports, Prime Minister and UMNO leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
announced parliamentary elections until March 8, a year
earlier than necessary. Assessors felt that the election was
triggered by the fact that Anwar Ibrahim in April would be
allowed to make a political comeback after being suspended
for several years because of a corruption verdict.
In the elections, the ruling 14-party coalition National
Front, which is dominated by UMNO, fell sharply and lost its
right to make amendments to the constitution alone, losing
its two-thirds majority in parliament. However, the
government could retain the National Front. Together, the
parties included in the National Front received 140 of the
222 seats in Parliament. UMNO collapsed with a full 30 seats
compared to the 2004 election to 79 seats.
The parties of the opposition coalition Alternative Front
won 82 seats together. The largest opposition party was
Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party (PKR) which received
31 seats, an increase of 30 seats compared to 2004. The
Islamist opposition party PAS won 23 seats. Also locally,
the National Front backed down and lost power in four of the
eleven states.
One reason for the government coalition's losses was
likely to be Anwar Ibrahim's harsh criticism of the
governing bodies, but the government's stubborn way of
handling a series of ethnic demonstrations in 2007 also
contributed to the cancer. It was primarily voters from the
country's Chinese and Indian minorities who left the
National Front.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was allowed to remain as prime
minister, but criticism of him became fierce and confidence
in him gradually diminished during the year. In the fall,
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that he will not run for
re-election as party leader at the UMNO Congress in March
2009, which in practice means he also leaves the post of
prime minister. Tipped successor was Deputy Prime Minister
Najib Razak.
In August, Anwar Ibrahim was once again indicted for
sodomy after a younger ex-employee accused him of this. The
opposition leader was jailed in 2000 for sodomy and
corruption, which prevented him from acting politically for
many years. However, he was later cleared of all charges and
awarded damages. This time Anwar Ibrahim could face up to 20
years in prison if convicted. That same month, Anwar Ibrahim
regained a seat in Parliament, after ten years in the cold,
after winning a filling election.
Before Mahathir's visit to the United States in May 2002,
police arrested 14 suspected militant Islamists - including
the wife of a person suspected of assisting the men behind
the September 11, 2001. US terrorist operation, warmly
received by Washington, thanking the Malaysian government
for its support for the "war on terror" for which the United
States sees itself at the forefront.
Prime Minister Mahathir declared in June 2002 that he
would resign from the post in 2003. It sparked surprise and
uncertainty in the country. The 77-year-old Mahathir
articulated very harsh criticism of the United States and
Britain. Among other things. he declared that Malaysia had
to prepare for future attempts at colonization because the
United States and Britain want to return to colonial times.
The speech was in continuation of the Alliance Free Lands
Summit in Kuala Lumpur in February 2003. Here they had
sharply condemned the US war on Iraq. The country's attitude
aroused US President George Bush, threatening economic
sanctions.
After 22 years in the post of prime minister, in August
2003, Mahathir handed it to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Abdullah Badawi's National Front coalition won the
election in March 2004, regaining control of the state of
Terengganu on the East Coast, which had otherwise been in
the hands of the Islamic Party. The coalition also got 2/3
of the seats in parliament.
In September, a Malaysian court ordered former economist
Anwar Ibrahim released, who had otherwise been convicted of
sodomy.
On December 26, Southeast Asia was hit by a powerful
submarine earthquake that triggered a tsunami. Despite
Malaysia's proximity to the epicenter of the earthquake, the
country is predominantly sheltered by the Indonesian island
of Sumatra, and it was therefore only the northern coasts
that were hit by the tsunami. On the island of Penang,
dozens of people were affected by the masses of water and
also the provinces of Kedah and Perak were affected.
Just weeks after the government launched a major
operation in May 2005 to expel migrant workers from the
country, the government decided to soften immigration rules
so that former illegal and deported migrant workers could
return to look for work. The peculiar retreat was due to the
fact that the government had initially wanted to reap
political fruit from a hard-hitting policy towards migrant
workers - most of whom come from Indonesia - but
subsequently the government was forced to reopen due to the
shortage of labor. The migrant workers make up 10% of the
Malaysian workforce.
At an international conference to promote dialogue
between Islamic and Western thinkers in Kuala Lumpur in
February 2006, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi called for
bridging "the huge divide between the Islamic world and the
West".
In the April 2007 elections, the government coalition
stepped forward, while the opposition led by former Deputy
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim resigned. Ibrahim had
re-entered politics after being released from a prison
sentence in 2004. He accused the government of electoral
fraud, but international observers described the election as
pure.
At the March 2008 parliamentary elections, the government
coalition declined and had to settle for 50.3% of the vote.
A decline from 63.9% in 2004. The votes were first and
foremost lost to the major opposition coalition Pakatan
Rakyat (People's Front) led by Anwar Ibrahim. Pakatan got
46.8% of the vote. The opposition also prevailed at the
state level, winning 5 of 13 states against 1 in 2004. There
was not a single reason for the government coalition's
decline but a wide range: inflation, commodity shortages,
gasoline prices, rising crime, poor governance and
corruption. Despite its strong progress, the opposition
claimed there was widespread electoral fraud and that it
would have won the election without this scam. International
observers confirmed a number of irregularities.
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