Ex-Army General challenges Deputy Prime Minister in Malaysian Election

Producer: Bharati Jagdish
First broadcast: 10 March 04, Radio Singapore International

A former army general is standing for the hardline opposition Islamic Party, PAS, in a direct challenge to Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak.

Retired Brigadier-General, Zakaria Dahalan, will take on Najib in the Pekan parliamentary constituency in central Pahang in the March 21st vote.

In the 1999 polls, Najib managed to beat his PAS opponent in the same constituency with only a slim majority of over 200 votes.

The contest in Pekan this year will, therefore, be closely-watched.

Zakaria is among several high-profile former civil servants to have joined PAS.

For more on this, Bharati Jagdish (BJ) spoke to Professor P Ramasamy (PR) from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

PR: "It has always been PAS's desire to field candidates of high calibre, especially former civil servants and people of notable significance in Malaysian society, especially when facing UMNO candidates. What PAS is doing is now is something that it's been taking seriously for a long time since 1999. Now, they're also trying to field women candidates, so I think this is in line with the party's thinking especially given their dominance of opposition politics. PAS is an Islamic party, but at the same time, PAS is also a party that campaigns on human rights, the eradication of corruption and wrongdoing, so people may look at PAS as just some Islamic party, merely interest in an Islamic state, but PAS is also talking about democracy, about human rights, about cleaning up society. One cannot reduce PAS to just the Islamic factor. It's a party that's more complex that what meets the ordinary eye."

BJ: The retired Brigadier-General, Zakaria Dahalan will be taking on Najib who is also the Deputy Prime Minister. This contest will be in the Pekan parliamentary constituency in Central Pahang state. In the 1999 polls, Najib beat the PAS candidate at that time only with a slim majority of over 200 votes. This time around, how do you see Najib standing up against a candidate like Zakaria Dahalan?

PR: "One important thing to remember is the context in which the elections are taking place now compared with the context in which elections took place in 1999. We must bear this in mind because I think in 1999, due to various factors, the opposition was riding very high. The opposition coalition was intact. But today, the environment has changed to some extent. The "Anwar factor", for example, may still play a small part, but not as significantly as it did in 1999. Now, we have the new leadership of Mr Abdullah Badawi. He seems to be taking certain actions that seem to be popular. The macro context has changed since 1999. Maybe Najib will win or face stiff competition. But what happened in 1999 certainly may not happen now because of this change in circumstances."

BJ: Is Dahalan considered stiff competition for Najib?

PR: "I think the candidates are important, but at the same time, they're not as important as the political party, especially in the Malaysian context. PAS would rely on its traditional supporters especially in the Malay Muslim areas of Pahang, Kedah and so on. The candidate is important, but I think the party is more important and I think we need to recognise this."

BJ: Now, PAS is aiming to capture another state in the Northern Malay heartland. How successful do you think they're going to be, considering the circumstances at the moment?

PR: "Well, PAS, like UMNO, is a very ambitious party. They have two states under their control and I think chances are that they might retain control of Kelantan and Trengganu. Of course, they also want to take over the state of Kedah, but I'm not sure whether they will be able to do this because, as I said, the circumstances are quite different compared with the circumstances in 1999."

BJ: Now, in terms of wooing the Malay voters per se, are circumstances markedly in favour of UMNO this year?

PR: "Well, UMNO has used a combination of measures this year. It's the dominant partner in the ruling coalition and it has administered the country for the last ten elections. But the party does have problems. It claims to represent the Malays, but that is difficult to sustain because PAS is also a party of the Malays although it focuses on Islam. So I think that the two parties will face a serious contest when it comes to the Malay vote in the heartlands."