Malaysian opposition seeks unity to avoid "Broken Front" tagKUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 (AFP) - Malaysia's opposition Alternative Front, caught off guard by Wednesday's announcement of a snap election, on Thursday agreed moves to tighten unity to counter claims it is the "Alternative Broken Front."Parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said chiefs of the four parties in the Front would form a secretariat to coordinate the campaign. Chandra Muzaffar, deputy president of the National Justice Party, said the parties would meet again Saturday to try to develop common strategies. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, springing a surprise on virtually the whole country, announced Wednesday that parliament would be dissolved Thursday. The election date will be set Friday by the Election Commission. The premier derided the opposition as the "Alternative Broken Front" and predicted infighting among its disparate parties. "As the opposition we can only be as prepared as we can be," Lim, secretary general of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), told AFP. "The Barisan Nasional (ruling National Front coalition) controls the three Ms -- money, the mass media and the machinery of government." State radio and TV has announced it will not carry party messages, only what it terms information about the government's work. Lim said the DAP faced a "grave shortage" of funds but still saw an "unprecedented opportunity" to break the decades-long dominance of the National Front. The DAP, the National Justice Party headed by the wife of jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, the Parti Islam SeMalaysia and the Malaysian People's Party have united to form the Alternative Front. It admits it has no hope of unseating the National Front, which holds 166 of the 192 parliamentary seats. But it aims to end the two-thirds parliamentary majority which the ruling coalition has had for three decades. Mahathir has staked his political reputation on retaining that majority. But despite an improving economy, analysts say Mahathir, 73, faces his toughest poll challenge of recent years after the sacking and jailing of his charismatic deputy Anwar in September 1998. The move split the bedrock Malay constituency. A spokesman for the National Justice Party said the secretariat aimed to prevent policy contradictions among the four parties "which could be used by the ruling party as a weapon to attack the Alternative Front." Lim said the alliance had finalised parliamentary seat allocations for peninsular Malaysia and state assembly seat allocations should be finalised in a day or two. He said November 27 or 28 were possible polling dates but called for a longer campaign period of at least three weeks. In the past three elections campaigning has lasted just 10 days. Lim said another 10-day period would be a second blow to Malaysians after the exclusion from this election of 650,000 new voters. The electors were registered in April but the Election Commission says it will not be able to verify the entries and include them on the electoral roll until next January at the earliest. The Malaysian Election Watch, a private watchdog, said the commission had failed to address calls for measures to prevent poll fraud. It wants an end to postal voting for police and soldiers, fair opposition access to the media, safeguards against multiple voting and the inclusion of the 650,000 young voters in the upcoming election. Chandra said Thursday's meeting focused on common election concerns and the allocation of seats. "Among the concerns were how we could convince the Election Commission that they must ensure a clean election and that the National Front plays the role of a caretaker only," he said. |
