Umno Ramps Up Election Hype As Annual Assembly Opens

Malaysia's ruling party opened its annual congress Monday to hammer out strategies for retaining power in upcoming national elections amid mounting public disquiet over soaring crime, corruption and prices.

The five-day assembly of the United Malays National Organization, the dominant component of the ruling National Front coalition, started with a closed-door briefing by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The main proceedings kick off with Abdullah's keynote speech Wednesday to some 2,500 delegates.

The National Front's current mandate lasts until mid-2009, but Abdullah is widely expected to call an early election within the first half of next year.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Abdullah expressed confidence that UMNO will "face and overcome challenges in the future based on our experience, leadership and unity."

"We will emphasize unity ... as the basis to enhance the achievements of the Malays and other races in the country," Najib said, without elaborating.

The coalition is in no danger of losing power, but observers say it is unlikely to replicate the 2004 election results, when it won 90 percent of the seats in Parliament.

Public anger against the government has been growing over a string of issues, but inflation and corruption rank high, especially after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim released a video clip recently, purportedly showing a prominent lawyer brokering the appointment of top judges.

Denying there is a judicial crisis, the government rejected demands to set up a royal commission to probe the lawyer and judges he allegedly helped appoint. Alleged corruption in the police force was also highlighted by the arrest last week of Malaysia's third-highest ranking police officer suspected of concealing massive wealth.

"For many people, the government has become so rotten that it is incapable of doing anything right," Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a human rights lawyer and political commentator, told The Associated Press.

People are also upset about spiraling consumer prices, which have been partially boosted by rising global oil prices. Officially, the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, has gone up by 2 percent this year. But market surveys by local newspapers show costs have gone up by as much as 6.7 percent for vegetables, 8 percent for rice, 15 percent for milk and 20 percent for bread.

Soaring crime in cities — including muggings in broad daylight — were emphasized by the rape and murder Thursday of a 9-year-old girl while she was alone at home. On Saturday, a woman and her 3-year-old daughter were burned alive in their car, and a 50-year-old Singaporean on vacation was raped and stabbed to death in an expensive condominium Sunday.

UMNO's leaders "are living in their insulated Rajah (royal) life and don't understand what ordinary people are going through," Malik, the lawyer, said.

The UMNO annual assembly is also being held against the backdrop of racial tensions in this multicultural and multi-religious country.

UMNO, which has been in power since independence in 1957, represents Malays who are all Muslim and form 60 percent of the country's 26 million people. Although the country prides itself on its racial harmony, critics of UMNO say Malays in general have become insensitive to the minority Chinese and Indians.

Last year, the UMNO meeting was tarnished by chauvinistic speakers who warned the minorities not to question Islam or Malay rights, a reference to an affirmative action program for Malays. (International Herald Tribune with input from Associated Press writers Vijay Joshi and Julia Zappei)
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