Word: mahathir
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that has put Terengganu on a collision course with Malaysia's central government. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has no intention of letting parts of his moderate, secularly governed nation go the way of Afghanistan. Until recently, it seemed a showdown would not be necessary. Nine years ago, PAS tried to enact similar laws in Kelantan, a neighboring state that it also governs, yet these were never implemented owing to the threat of legal challenges from Kuala Lumpur. But the party's hard-line leader, cleric Hadi Awang, personally runs Terengganu as Chief Minister and he is a determined adversary...
...Ahmad Badawi, who also serves as Malaysia's Home Minister, has vowed that the police force-which is controlled by the central government-will not enforce the hudud laws. And he declared that the country's federally run prisons won't house anyone convicted of breaking such laws. Publicly, Mahathir has been equally uncompromising. On a recent visit to Terengganu, he thundered that people who attempt to enforce such laws "have deviated from Islam and should be condemned to hell." The trouble is, the issue puts him in a tricky political bind. Mahathir and his party cannot afford to appear...
...Mahathir has to tread lightly. One key issue is whether the hudud laws violate the country's constitution. Kuala Lumpur insists that the Terengganu state assembly does not have the right to enact laws covering criminal offenses, which can only be passed by the country's national assembly. The central government's Law Minister recently promised that Terengganu's hudud laws would soon be challenged in court, though legal analysts say they expect the government to allow the suit to come from a private individual or group, not from the Attorney General. Says P. Ramasamy, a professor of political science...
...northern state of Kedah. The vote was seen as inconclusive on support for strict Islamic laws and punishments including flogging and amputation that Pas recently enacted in neighboring Terengganu state - ahead of a national election that could be next year. Pas narrowly beat a member of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's United Malays National Organization to win the state assembly seat. AUSTRALIA Runaways An Irish backpacker, Jonathan O'Shea, was charged with helping two boys flee the troubled Woomera detention center in South Australia. The boys - whose asylum bid was rejected by the British consulate in Melbourne - were handed over...
...Anwar, who is also serving a consecutive nine-year term for sodomy, repeated his assertion that the two trials were rigged on orders from his former mentor, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a charge the premier has consistently denied. With no avenue of appeal left barring a highly unlikely royal pardon, Anwar now seems fated to serve out his full sentence. With good behavior, his lawyer says, he could be released in 2009, by which time the political landscape should be transformed, Mahathir puttering happily in retirement, his successor firmly ensconced and Anwar himself simply irrelevant. But as his passionate court...