UMNO’s New Clothes

From Wall Street Journal

Malaysia’s ruling party, UMNO, made a bid to reinvent itself this week, as Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi announced his intention to resign in March. Party leaders apparently hope that removing their unpopular leader — who led UMNO to a dismal election performance earlier this year — will boost popularity and help unify the party.

UMNO’s problems are greater than Mr. Abdullah, however. After being in power for more than 50 years, the party hasn’t been able to deliver the reform voters want. Efforts to tackle corruption and reform the judiciary have stalled. The party too often relies on racial preferences and fear to maintain its grip on power.

Mr. Abdullah promised Wednesday that before he leaves office he will pass an anticorruption bill and establish an independent Judicial Appointments Commission. There’s a lot more he could do, starting with repeal of the Internal Security Act, which allows indefinite detentions without trial. A prominent antigovernment blogger, Raja Petra Kamarudin, was recently arrested under the ISA; he remains in jail.

But the biggest service Mr. Abdullah could perform for his country is to ensure that the democratic process works. On Monday, Parliament will reconvene for the first time since opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was elected as an MP. Mr. Anwar has said he will use his seat to unseat UMNO and push broad-based reform. UMNO needs to show that it welcomes this challenge and take the opportunity to engage the opposition in policy debate. What happens next week will say a lot about how much UMNO is really willing to change.

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