Pole position for Mahathir - Brief Article

Business Asia, Oct 25, 1999

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says he is confident his coalition will win Impending elections -- now likely to be held in November -- but the challenge will be to deny the Opposition its goal of taking one-third of the seals.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mahathir said the economy had recovered more quickly than he had expected from the worst recession in more than four decades, and he saw a return soon to the high growth path of the boom years of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"Yes, we have done better than we expected," he said.

The 73-year-old Prime Minister, who has been in power since 1981 and is Asia's longest-serving elected leader, dismissed calls by some foreigners to dismantle capital controls and float the ringgit currency, saying the year-old measures had worked.

Mahathir declined to confirm when he would call elections, which must be held by mid-2000, but he is widely expected to hold polls in November -- the first since 1995 when his 14-party Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition won a crushing four-fifths majority.

"We think that we have a very good chance. All the indications which we have received show that will win the election," he said.

The Opposition says it does not expect to beat the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has governed Malaysia since independence in 1957.

But the four main opposition parties together hope to deny Mahathir's coalition a two-thirds majority for the first time, setting the stage for an assault on power in the following elections, probably in 2004 or 2005.