Good news for Malaysia, says AWSJ

Good news for Malaysia, says AWSJ
KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — News of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation from Umno yesterday dominated the newspapers today. But it was not quite the reaction he envisioned.

While many expressed shock by his action, quite a few called it divisive and irresponsible. Doubtless, Dr Mahathir will put it down to the muzzling of the mainstream media. A “muzzling” he fully supported when he was Prime Minister, by the way.

Interestingly enough, the Asian Wall Street Journal in its editorial called his resignation “good news for Malaysia's economic reformers and a sign that the country may finally be able to move beyond the divisive affirmative action policies that have hampered economic growth and soured its democracy for so many years”.

The editorial also noted that his reason for leaving Umno — the whipping BN received at the March election — speaks of an even greater underlying bitterness. Not only did the BN lose its two-thirds majority in Parliament, it lost to a coalition of political parties unofficially led by his former deputy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“The defeat to a party led by his former deputy prime minister must have been especially bitter to Dr Mahathir. Mr Anwar was nastily ousted when he challenged the Umno establishment in the 1990s. The economic and political liberalisation he championed then is resurgent today.”

Whatever it is, the results of the 12th general election have created a crisis within Umno. There are those like Dr Mahathir who want the party to “reassert its traditional preferences for Malays. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, on the other hand, is trying to shore up his base by responding to what voters want. In the past few weeks, he has announced an anti-corruption drive and judicial reform measures".

AWSJ goes on to say that this internal squabbling “gives opposition parties a chance to show they're capable of governing”. At the end of it all, it sees Dr Mahathir's departure from Umno as something positive. That it is a sign that things are changing.