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Mahathir girds for fresh battle with radical Islam

By Barani Krishnan

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Asia's longest-serving elected leader, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, is waging an old battle in the twilight of his career -- beating down the multi-ethnic country's Islamic opposition.

Over the last month, police have shut down political and religious forums known as ceramahs, banned videos and tapes of political speeches and locked up more than 20 political activists accused of violent extremism.

One of the detained men is a son of Parti Islam se-Malaysia's (PAS) spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat. Several others are members of PAS, now the country's main opposition party and one which advocates Islamic law.

"The motive is to portray PAS as an extremist party, which is dangerous," said respected PAS lawmaker Kamaruddin Jaffar, referring to the recent police crackdown.

Mahathir blames PAS, which governs two of Malaysia's 13 states, for dividing the Muslim Malay community.

Race and religion are highly sensitive issues in Malaysia.

Malays and other Muslims make up around two-thirds of the 22 million population, with Chinese, Indian and tribal Christians, Buddhists and Hindus accounting for the rest.

DOCTOR MAHATHIR'S PRESCRIPTIONS

The outspoken premier -- a former physician who prefers to be called "Doctor Mahathir" and has all sorts of prescriptions for his country's socio-political ailments -- says PAS's attitudes threaten to retard Malaysia's development into a modern state.

"They are nothing but traitors to Islam," Mahathir told his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) at its annual party conference in June.

In the years before and after independence from Britain in 1957, Malaysia's main internal threat was a communist insurgency in the jungle-draped countryside.

But since the early 1980s, following the Islamic revolution in Iran, Malaysia's biggest internal security threat has come from various radical Islamic groups.

The 76-year-old Mahathir, an ultra-Malay nationalist early in his career, has been dealing with the challenge of radical Islam since he was first elected prime minister in 1981.

LINKS TO TALIBAN

In the latest case, police say 10 men arrested in August were members of the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, a group fighting for a "purist" Islamic state, with alleged links to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.

Malaysians were also implicated in two bomb attacks on churches in neighbouring Indonesia last month.

"This is not normally a politically violent place," said Khoo Boo Teik, who teaches political science at Science University in Penang. "People would be scared if they thought there was any threat from political or religious extremists, but these accusations are as yet unproven."

PAS said if the 10 arrested men were militants involved in murder and robbery, as the police have suggested, they should be tried in court, rather than held under the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial.

Whatever the merits of the case, some UMNO members say the get-tough policy toward PAS was overdue.

"They must admit they have provided the grounds for the authorities to act," Zulkifli Alwi, an official from the youth wing of UMNO, told Reuters.

SEX AND CORRUPTION

Up until recently, Mahathir had been circumspect in his dealings with PAS, the largest party in the opposition front that supports Mahathir's jailed former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar is serving a 15-year sentence for sex and corruption crimes that he says were trumped up.

Just six months ago, Mahathir was still trying to entice PAS into joining so-called Malay unity talks to heal the rift caused by the sacking and jailing of the popular Anwar.

The Islamic party's apparent answer to the overture was to heap criticism on Mahathir, even questioning whether an UMNO member can be a good Muslim.

An exasperated Mahathir told his party at the convention the rest of the world knows Malaysia is a Muslim nation. "But in Malaysia, there are Muslims who allege that Malaysia is a non-Islamic nation and its government is infidel."

PAS became a formidable force two years ago by throwing its support behind Anwar, an enthusiastic mosque builder who was seen as the UMNO leader with the strongest Islamic credentials.

"The chief perception in the Malay political divide is the vote-winning idea that PAS is more Islamic than UMNO," wrote Rashid Yusof, a columnist in the pro-Mahathir New Straits Times.

PROPAGATE ISLAMIC LAW

While PAS is the largest party in the opposition front, its refusal to moderate an ambition to propagate Islamic law is testing the patience of its largely ethnic Chinese ally, the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

Women's and human rights groups worry about how strictly PAS would interpret Islamic laws if it ever came to power.

The party has not clearly defined its plans for an Islamic state or whether laws meant specifically for Moslems would be extended to cover non-Moslems, as well.

The conservative PAS has so far banned alcohol sales, gaming and some forms of entertainment in the two states on Malaysia's east coast that it controls.

It also once proposed harsh Islamic penalties such as stoning and amputation of limbs for thieves and adulterers, but did not get federal approval from Mahathir for the plan.

Some DAP leaders reckon the alliance with PAS was a mistake that should be rectified as soon as possible.

"I've always been of the view that we should break away," Karpal Singh, the DAP's vice president, told Reuters.

PAS members say such concerns are misplaced and reckon the government is playing on those fears for both domestic and foreign policy reasons.

PAS president Fadzil Noor, in the latest issue of the party's newspaper, Harakah, said linking the party with Afghan militants could help Mahathir improve relations with the United States, which considers Anwar a political prisoner.