Prayer From Prison

                     Malaysia's fallen rebel writes from his jail cell about democracy,
                     despots and the sound of silence.

                     By Anwar Ibrahim

                     It is two past midnight as I begin to write this article in the privacy of my
                     cell. In solitary confinement, the sound of silence is quite deafening if not
                     altogether eerie. But after 90 days of incarceration, you get used to it. A
                     sentence from my book, "The Asian Renaissance," now comes back to
                     me: "Power personalized is power plundered from the people." When I
                     wrote it, I did have both Suharto and Mahathir in mind, but I did not
                     expect that statement to be so quickly and so starkly illustrated by events.

                     In the civil society that we envisage, it is incumbent upon the elected
                     leadership to inculcate certain fundamental principles and put them into
                     practice. Chief among these would be the rule of law, the clear separation
                     of powers among the various estates of government, freedom of belief,
                     freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

                     Citizens not only must be accorded these fundamental liberties; they must
                     also be made aware of them. Basic education, therefore, must do more
                     than merely equip students with marketable skills. It must nurture young
                     people so that they may become adequate participants in a democracy. A
                     free press plays a fundamental role. All the traditional cultures teach us that
                     truth will eventually destroy falsehood. But this can happen only in an
                     environment where debate is robust, where people are not only allowed
                     but encouraged to speak without fear. A controlled press is anathema to
                     this ideal.

                     In this regard, Malaysia is still a long way from being a civil society. The
                     people's constitutional rights are often violated by the executive. Valiant
                     efforts by nongovernmental organizations and other civic groups to redress
                     the problems are frustrated by a leadership intolerant of criticism. As often
                     happens under despotic and dictatorial regimes, Mahathir's government
                     tries to deflect attention from the real issues by creating foreign bogeys and
                     portraying its critics as traitors. Patriotism is given a new meaning; instead
                     of willingness to sacrifice for love of country, it is equated with
                     unquestioning loyalty to the ruling elite.

                     The true patriot is one who fights to unchain his people from the shackles
                     of colonial-style practices, in the form of suppressive laws, the denial of
                     basic human rights or even the squandering of public funds. Modern
                     dictators, when they are finally thrown out of office, are often found to
                     have accumulated enormous amounts of wealth. They are no different from
                     the old colonial masters who used to cart away the riches of the colonies
                     to the motherland.

                    In Malaysia, we do have — though only in theory — clear separation of
                     powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. Yet for the
                     greater part of the past 17 years, the organs of government have been
                     mere puppets, with Mahathir pulling all the strings. Legislators, regardless
                     of their party affiliation, should be committed to upholding the people's
                     constitutional rights and freedoms. Might is not always right. The actions of
                     key executive organs of government, such as the police and the office of
                     the attorney general, ought to be under constant parliamentary scrutiny.

                     There cannot be an Asian renaissance without social and economic justice.
                     Economic progress has meaning only when the majority of the people
                     enjoy its fruits. Under Mahathir's grandiose economic program, important
                     issues such as hard-core poverty, the safety of working conditions and the
                     availability of basic housing are dealt with only at the periphery.

                     Naturally, we would not see social and economic justice until we see the
                     end of cronyism and nepotism. In Malaysia, a select and selfish few have
                     appropriated the lion's share of the wealth generated by economic
                     development. What was meant to be affirmative action has turned into a
                     system of corruption and favoritism. Projects and contracts are won on the
                     basis of whom you know instead of what you know. The handful of
                     people who keep getting the largesse continue to get richer at the expense
                     of others. Cronyism breeds nepotism and corruption. It's a vicious circle.

                     Affirmative action in itself is not evil. It is in fact essential in redressing
                     economic imbalances that were the result of decades of social
                     mismanagement. However, in practice, the selfish exploitation of this
                     intrinsically noble effort at social engineering has been developed into a fine
                     art. It is used to further the interests of a handful of bumiputra, or
                     indigenous Malay, cronies, acting for themselves and, in some cases, for
                     non-bumiputra cronies, all at the expense of the majority.

                     For Malaysia to progress into a civil society, fundamental social, political
                     and economic reform is a sine qua non. Throughout Southeast Asia, we
                     see the political landscape changing, with an awareness of the need for
                     democracy and civil society growing, especially among the young. The
                     reform movement which I launched on Sept. 12 seeks to establish justice
                     for all and preserve the institutions and processes of law from graft and
                     abuse of power. It advocates fairness in economic distribution and seeks
                     to eradicate graft and manipulation of the economy. The movement cuts
                     across ethnic, cultural and religious divides. While we seek to reinforce a
                     dynamic Malaysian cultural identity, we must constantly guard against
                     jingoistic tendencies and encourage openness to the world, based on the
                     principles of truth and justice.

                     I am blessed to have known so many good people all over the world.
                     Their outpouring of sympathy, prayer and encouragement is a source of
                     great comfort, not unlike the cool morning breeze now blowing through my
                     small window. In a few minutes, it will be time for the dawn prayer. As the
                     plaintive sound of the azan, the call to prayer, pierces through the silence, I
                     see the breaking of dawn where "yon gray lines that fret the clouds are
                     messengers of day," and I tell myself that, God willing, a new day will soon
                     dawn for Malaysia.

                     Newsweek International, Dec. 28, 1998/Jan. 4, 1999