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MALAYSIA: Unprecedented No-Confidence Motion Against Abdullah

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 19 2008 (IPS) - National politics in Malaysia entered uncharted territory this week after a party in the ruling 14-party National Front coalition said it will move a motion of no- confidence against beleaguered Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. This unprecedented act of rebellion could potentially force Abdullah out of office or call for a snap general election.

Persuaded by opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim, the Sabah Progressive Party said its two legislators in the federal parliament will move or back a motion of no-confidence against Abdullah when parliament resumes after a two-week break on Jun. 23.

“We have lost all confidence in Mr. Abdullah’s ability to manage the country,” party president Yong Teck Lee told IPS when contacted by telephone Jun. 19. “The people are weighed down by skyrocketing fuel and food prices.”

Lee urged all lawmakers in the 222-seat parliament to exercise their right and vote beyond party lines to oust Abdullah during the election sometime in the next fortnight.

Malaysia has never experienced a serious no-confidence vote before and it is unclear what is the next step if, in the unlikely event, Abdullah loses the vote – whether a snap election is held, or whether the King dissolves parliament, or whether a new leader is given the opportunity to form a new government.

“This is uncharted territory and we don’t have a precedent to fall back on,” Ragu Kesavan, vice chairman of the Malaysian Bar Council, told IPS. “We have to see how this develops.”

No Malaysian Prime Minister has ever faced a vote of no-confidence presented by a member of his own coalition before. The National Front has 140 lawmakers in the 222-member Parliament – enough to defeat any vote against Abdullah who is also president of the premier Malay party, the United Malays National Organisation or Umno.

The Anwar-led Peoples Alliance opposition coalition controls 82 seats and needs just 30 more to form a one-seat majority government that is likely to be very unstable.

But after the government’s dismal performance in the Mar. 8 general elections – where it lost two-third majority in parliament and five states to the opposition – Umno leaders themselves have urged Abdullah to step down.

The question now is how many of the 78 Umno lawmakers in parliament will stand by Abdullah when the vote is taken.

Anwar has been unashamedly wooing government backbenchers since the Mar. 8 polls, although critics say it is unethical to entice backbenchers to cross the floor.

The possibility of a no-confidence vote toppling Abdullah – no matter how remote a possibility it may be – is causing political turmoil nationally, raising fears among diplomats and foreign investors that the country is entering a long period of political instability.

Not only are national politics roiled by the power tussle between the weakened incumbent Abdullah and the energised challenger Anwar, but a challenge is also brewing within Umno to topple Abdullah as Umno president and consequently as prime minister.

Former finance minister and Umno vice-president Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is crisscrossing the country whipping up support to challenge Abdullah for the president’s post in Umno elections in December.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who resigned from Umno last month in a failed bid to pressure Abdullah to quit, is piling up the pressure on Abdullah to throw in the towel.

In a bid to blunt the campaigns against him, Abdullah has offered to handover to his deputy Najib Razak and quit by 2010 but few people are convinced he will last that long.

Businesspeople and the middle class Malaysians are worried that the period of conflict between incumbent Abdullah and challenger and democracy advocate Anwar Ibrahim will see a long period of economic and political uncertainty.

However, most ordinary Malaysians are excited that a victory for Anwar will usher in a new Malaysia minus the racism and ‘ketuanan Melayu’ – or Malay supremacy ideology of the past five decades.

“We are excited that Anwar is aiming for the prime minister’s post…we hope he succeeds and starts building a new Malaysia,” said Gopalan Marimuthu, who runs a roadside food stall in the well-heeled Bangsar suburb of the capital.

“I have five children and they have no future unless the politics of this country is rewritten,” he said speaking in fluent colloquial Malay.

“Only Anwar can do, Abdullah’s reforms are all still-born,” he said expressing the general mood in the country following the Mar. 8 elections that radically changed the political landscape of the country.

Although Abdullah is reforming the battered judiciary – which is accused of corruption, inefficiency and open to political interference – and had in addition sought to reform the equally abysmal police force, critics dismiss these measures as “half-hearted.”

At the same time Mahathir-era ministers in Abdullah’s cabinet are watering down even the “half-hearted” reform measures further angering reform minded Malaysians who have generally given up on Abdullah’s lukewarm measures.

“We need strong political will to carry out the fundamental reforms the country needs,” Yap Swee Seng, executive director of SUARAM, a leading human rights NGO, told IPS.

“We don’t see such reforms coming from the besieged prime minister,” he said.

Anwar is offering Malaysians a Reform Agenda under which the affirmative action policies that favour only native Malays will be extended to all Malaysians on the basis of need and not of race.

“All Malaysians who need it, deserve the aid, it is pointless to give aid to rich Malays just because they are Malays,” Anwar said during a campaign speech in Selangor state last week.

“I am confident of forming the next government by this year and we will practise a new era of transparency, accountability, respect for human rights and democracy,” Anwar said. “All races are equal and none are more privileged than the other.”

He also promised to reduce fuel prices, offer food aid to the poor and curb rising inflation besides battling corruption and cronyism.

Anwar has welcomed the no-confidence move against Abdullah describing it as a bold move by a brave party.

“I am happy with these early actions and call upon other friends to act quickly in order to guarantee stable politics and efficient economic management that will lead to dynamic growth and equitable distribution,” Anwar said.

“His political and economic agenda is all well set out… the challenge now is to win state power and that involves a major battle because the old Malaysia will not die without a fight,” said a academic with the National University of Malaysia.

“The worry now is how long a battle and victory to whom,” he said declining to be named.