VOA标准英语2008年-Pressure Mounts on Malaysian Leader After Mahat

By Heda Bayron
Bangkok
22 May 2008

Malaysia's ruling party has been thrown into turmoil¹ after former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad abruptly² resigned from the United Malays National Organization. Political analysts³ say the move was aimed at weakening embattled Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. But Heda Bayron reports from VOA's Southeast Asia bureau in Bangkok, while factionalism exists, the party has, so far, remained intact.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has long publicly opposed his successor, Abdullah Badawi. Mr. Mahathir says he made a mistake in choosing Mr. Abdullah to take over in 2004, and calls on him to resign.

On Monday, Malaysia's longest serving leader shocked the country by resigning from UMNO, the party that has ruled Malaysia since independence more than half a century ago.

Mr. Abdullah has been under siege since UMNO lost its two-thirds majority in March elections, leaving it with about 63 percent of seats. That loss, the worst in UMNO's history, has been blamed on dissatisfaction with the government's failure to deliver on its promise of addressing poverty and eliminating corruption⁴.

Mr. Mahathir still commands a great deal of respect in Malaysia and wields⁵ considerable power in UMNO. Many political analysts expected other UMNO members to follow him out of the party, but so far, few have done so.

William Case is an expert on Malaysian politics at the Southeast Asia Research Center at the City University of Hong Kong. He says following Mr. Mahathir would lead UMNO members into a political wilderness⁶.

"UMNO is primarily a patronage⁷ machine," he said. "You go in there with the expectation that it is going to do something for your business prospects⁸ or bring rewards of other kinds…. What Dr. Mahathir is proposing is that people just go off and enter into a kind of limbo⁹ where they neither join the opposition¹⁰ nor members of the government. And that's not very attractive to most members of UMNO."

 

The lack of mass defections, however, does not lift the pressure on Prime Minister Abdullah to step down. Mr. Abdullah says he will not quit. But in December's UMNO general assembly, he will face internal challenges for the party leadership.

James Chin, a politics professor at Monash University in Malaysia, says Mr. Abdullah has to start delivering on his promises if he wants to remain in power.

 

"He needs to bring in the reforms that he promised the people of Malaysia in 2004," said Chin. "One of the reasons why he lost so badly in 2008 was because he didn't carry out any of the reforms. He need to clean up the party in terms of Mahathir supporters, he needs to isolate¹¹ them and either force them out of the party or force them to support him."

The promised reforms include reducing rural poverty and fighting corruption in government and in the party. But Case in Hong Kong says the anti-corruption campaign has been a dilemma¹² for the prime minister.

"When he tries to clean things up he becomes unpopular inside the party. But when he fails to do that, he becomes unpopular outside the party," said Case.

Outside the drama in UMNO stands a would-be prime minister: opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Some analysts such as Chin say that UMNO's problems only strengthen Anwar's bid to return to office.

"This is Anwar's best chance to be the next prime minister of Malaysia," said Chin.

Until 1998, Anwar was Malaysia's deputy prime minister and an UMNO star. But imprisonment¹³ for alleged¹⁴ corruption and sexual crimes derailed his political ambitions. His release from prison in 2004 paved the way for a comeback through his Keadilan party, with captured 82 seats in parliament in the last election.

Several political analysts expect that some UMNO members will defect to the opposition if it is clear that Anwar would end up as prime minister when parliament convenes¹⁵ in September.

In a year that has already brought rapid, unprecedented¹⁶ change in Malaysian politics, voters are confused about where the country is heading as its three best known leaders struggle for power.

For now, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak has signaled that UMNO moving on without its former leader.

On Wednesday, Razak announced somberly that the party has accepted Mr. Mahathir's resignation.

1 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

2 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

3 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

4 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

5 wields   

手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的第三人称单数 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响）

参考例句：

• She wields enormous power within the party. 她操纵着党内大权。
• He remains chairman, but wields little power at the company. 他还是主席，但在公司没有什么实权了。

6 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

7 patronage   

n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场

参考例句：

• Though it was not yet noon,there was considerable patronage.虽然时间未到中午，店中已有许多顾客惠顾。
• I am sorry to say that my patronage ends with this.很抱歉，我的赞助只能到此为止。

8 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

9 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

10 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

11 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

12 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

13 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

14 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

15 convenes   

召开( convene的第三人称单数 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合

参考例句：

• The Premier convenes and presides over the executive meetings and plenary meetings of the State Council. 总理召集和主持国务院常务会议和国务院全体会议。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法
• Chinese woman tenth the National People Congress convenes grandly today in Beijing. 中国妇女第十次全国代表大会今天在北京隆重召开。

16 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。