Malaysians take stock
By Anil Netto

Malaysia marked the 44th anniversary of its independence on Friday with a touch of bravado as daredevil parachutists leapt from the world's tallest buildings, the Petronas Twin Towers, and a small crowd of pro-reform (reformasi) supporters demonstrated in downtown Kuala Lumpur despite the presence of a phalanx of riot police nearby.

At least two of the original 51 competitors in the breathtaking First Malaysia-International Extreme Skydiving Championship from 16 countries have suffered injuries, including a broken leg, while others failed to make the mark as the field narrowed to 35 participants.

Elsewhere in the capital, some 200-300 daredevil reformasi supporters, outnumbered almost two to one by riot police, staged a brief demonstration near a large department store in the heart of the capital. The demonstrators had arrived at the shopping precinct from three nearby mosques - the National Mosque, the Jamek Mosque, and the Kampong Baru Mosque - in downtown Kuala Lumpur. They chanted "reformasi" and "undur Mahathir" (resign, Mahathir) briefly before cane-wielding riot police chased them away.

Some half a dozen riot police trucks and another dozen large police vehicles - a familiar sight in Kuala Lumpur since the ouster of ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim three years ago - were parked nearby waiting for the first signs of a demonstration.

The small crowd was a pale shadow of the last major demonstration near the capital last November, when tens of thousands of Malaysians converged on the Kesas Highway in an attempt to reach the site of a reformasi gathering.

A website, LeTour Reformasi, had earlier this week urged Malaysians to converge at Independence Square and to pass the word along using e-mail and other electronic means. But the gathering failed to capture attention and was handicapped by the absence of six key reformasi activists who have been held without trial for more than 140 days.

The lack of publicity and a specific theme or issue to rally a crowd also contributed to the small turnout. Many city dwellers had also headed for their home villages ahead of the long weekend.

Meanwhile, opposition parties continue to be severely handicapped by recent curbs on their usual public talks across the nation. This week, the Independent Media Activists Group (KAMI) claimed that several newsvendors selling critical publications, including those with valid publishing licenses, and opposition newspapers had been harassed. Two of them are to be charged in court for offenses under the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

These curbs on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, however, did not stop thousands of other Malaysians from flocking and revelling at the usual parades, cultural floats and concerts.

The mainstream media and government officials did their utmost to showcase Malaysia's achievements - the theme for this year's celebrations is Kerana Mu Malaysia (Because of you, Malaysia) - while warning against complacency. Lurking in the background, it was suggested, were sundry threats to national stability coming from "militant" Islamic groups, declining morals, Satanic black metal cults and ungrateful and "laid-back" ethnic Malays.

Much as the government is loathe to admit, each time Independence Day comes around it also brings back memories of Anwar Ibrahim, who was booted out of government on September 2, 1998. Two days earlier that year, a visibly glum-faced Anwar was seen on national television at his last major official event - an Independence Day march-past in Penang - alongside his one-time mentor, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Both men studiously avoided eye contact with each other, noted one observer, perhaps aware in some way of the acrimonious fallout that was to unfold.

Mahathir alluded to the controversy surrounding his one-time deputy in his address to the nation this year. "Many countries which criticized us in 1998 for not being democratic and unfair are now trying to mend fences with us," he said. "Certain issues are no longer brought up by them and most have acknowledged that we hold fast to the rule of law and that our laws do not discriminate against anyone."

We live in a land of opportunity, he added. Malaysians, he said, "can choose to work or to be unemployed, to live in proper homes or remain in squatter houses, to live in hardship or to prosper".

That does not really square up with reality. Thousands of urban squatters live in shabby wooden houses not out of choice but simply because of a lack of affordable housing.

But focusing too much on poor Malaysians could earn critics some official frowns. The premier lashed out at those who made a big issue about poor Malaysians and ignored the level of development achieved by the country thus far. He said they should instead ask themselves why 2 million foreigners would want to flock to Malaysia in search of a better life.

The Malaysian economy is facing a testing time after barely recording 0.5 percent GDP growth in the second quarter, in sharp contrast to the 8.3 percent growth last year, and no one knows for sure when the electronics industry - a key component of the economy - will recover.

A mood of pessimism is not helped by the Mahathir-Anwar political impasse, the split in the opposition front over the Islamic state issue, and the curbs on fundamental liberties. Malaysia may be an independent nation, but are its people free? These words from Rabindranath Tagore come to mind:

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake."