http://livenews.lycosasia.com/cgi-bin/get.pl? pi_news_id=848841&pi_ctry=my&pi_lang=en

Malaysia's Mahathir still in the saddle after 20 years

By Simon Cameron-Moore

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's wags say Asia's longest serving elected leader Mahathir Mohamad will be humming his favourite song "I did it My Way" when he reflects next Monday on the twentieth anniversary of his rule.

The spry septuagenarian prime minister, who loves horseback riding, fast cars, Frank Sinatra and big ideas, likes to be in control and those who disagree had better watch out.

"If you make problems the state comes down very hard and very swiftly on you. It is saying enjoy the fruits of Malaysian development and don't make waves," commented William Case, a political scientist at Griffith University in Brisbane.

Not many other countries' post-colonial experiences can match Malaysia for levels of stability and economic progress in the 44 years since the British pulled out.

Mahathir deserves credit for this and keeping the peace amid stark racial divisions -- despite the odd flare-up, as when six people were killed in Malay-Indian racial clashes near Kuala Lumpur in March -- but Malaysia has paid a political price.

At present one former finance minister, Anwar Ibrahim, is serving a 15-year jail term, six of his supporters are locked up under a law allowing detention without trial, and two student activists suffered the same fate earlier this month.

Lim Kit Siang, leader of the Chinese opposition Democratic Action Party, has spent his political career baiting Mahathir, and was detained, along with his son, during an earlier crackdown.

"When Mahathir first came to power I knew this man was capable of doing great good or great evil -- he proved me right on both counts," Lim told Reuters.

The credibility of Malaysia's law enforcement and legal institutions has been a casualty of Mahathir's reign, critics say.

Critics also say his dominating personality has left the ruling United Malays National Organisation short of strong successors. Mild-mannered Abdullah Badawi is Mahathir's fourth Deputy Prime Minister, and lacks the power base Anwar once had.

BALANCING ETHNIC INTERESTS

Mahathir evolved from an UMNO rebel in the ultra-Malay camp to command support from wealthy Chinese businessmen and ensure peace, if not harmony in an ethnically divided nation.

Discotheques and short skirts co-exist with Islam and headscarves in Mahathir's Malaysia.

But while nurturing plurality among the Malay, Chinese and Indian communities, Mahathir's version of democracy is different from western liberal varieties.

The humiliation of Anwar coalesced Malay opposition around an increasingly bold Islamic party, whose long-term ambition is to create an Islamic state in multi-cultural Malaysia.

Critics also say Mahathir's policies have led to crony capitalism, with all its inefficiencies and room for corruption.

Even supporters say one of the prime minister's failings is being overly loyal to old friends.

But Mahathir has begun a campaign to clean up the tarnished image of his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

In a separate development last month, his long-time confidant Daim Zainuddin quit as Finance Minister. People wonder why, but few regret the departure of one of Malaysia's richest men.

Mahathir's penchant for big projects also stirs scepticism.

Erecting the world's tallest building, the Petronas Towers, helped raise international consciousness about Kuala Lumpur.

The new administrative capital at nearby Putrajaya, where Mahathir now lives in splendid isolation, the new hi-tech centre at neighbouring Cyberjaya, and the under-used new international airport, are all not without merit.

As for the revival earlier this year of the controversial Bakan dam project, the $2.4 billion mega dam project in Sarawak state, infrastructure developers say it "is extremely large" given local demand on Borneo island.

The question is did they have to be so big?

"Too grandiose, too expensive," commented Case.

Mahathir says his critics are shortsighted.

FOR 1969 READ 1998

With his popularity down, Mahathir has not planned any big celebrations for the 20-year milestone.

"None at all, he thinks of it as just another day doing his job -- not as a landmark," says his son Mokhzani Mahathir, who sold off his business interests in April to save his father's reputation from a slur campaign.

But an uncritical mainstream domestic media will undoubtedly thank the redoubtable 75-year old for still being there.

The shame for him is that most of his own racial community -- the country's majority ethnic Malays -- don't feel the same way.

If they are fed up with him, Mahathir is disappointed with them, complaining in speeches about the ingratitude of a people he has lifted out of the paddy fields and fishing villages with a controversial affirmative action programme.

Even bitter critics credit Mahathir for bringing Malaysia to a point where it can challenge for developed nation status, with annual per capita income up at $4,000 and poverty reduced to seven percent from around 50 percent 30 years ago.

It is a better record than any other sizable nation in Southeast Asia and is founded on the political stability Mahathir has imposed on a country where race issues are ever sensitive.

Malays make up 65 percent of the 23 million strong population, ethnic Chinese 25 percent and Indians 8 percent.

In the opening line of "The Malay Dilemma", the book Mahathir wrote in 1970, he asked, "Where did it all go wrong?"

Mahathir was then referring to the eruption of racial violence in 1969 when around 200 people were killed in post-election clashes between Malays and Chinese.

If he asked the same question today the answer would be 1998, with the Asian Crisis and Anwar's challenge.

The economy, though faltering, bounced back from the crisis, but Mahathir still rails against currency speculators and can barely bring himself to utter Anwar's name.

And more Malays are putting their faith in Islamic politics than in Mahathir's way.