From: jit@slic.cellbio.duke.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asean
Subject: Malaysia News , Nov 8th, 1992
Date: 8 Nov 92 17:08:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.6804
Originator: jit@slic.cellbio.duke.edu

The Strait Times, Nov 8th, 1992

Mahathir to leave question of his successor to party members
(By Kalimullah Hassan)

  PM Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday said that he would not name
a successor to his job as this could split the party.
  Instead, he would allow UMNO members to decide who would replace him
when he left office.
  Speaking at a news conference on the second day of the UMNO general
assembly, he said that it would be undemocratic for him to name a successor.
  He said: "In our system, members decide.  We will leave it to our members."
  Delegates had expressed fears that intense campaigning and infighting
leading to next year's party polls could split the party.
  Many UMNO members view the party elections as a crucial indicator of
who will succeed Dr Mahathir when he retires.
  Both Dr. Mahathir, 66, and his deputy, Mr Ghafar Baba, 67, have undergone
heart operations.
  Some feel that the fact no successor has been named has led to intense
jockeying for support, especially for the three party vice-president's posts.
  The UMNO president, by virtue of being head of the largest party in
the ruling National Front, becomes the prime minister of the country
while the deputy party president serves as deputy prime minister.
  By UMNO convention, the deupty president normally succedds the
president when he retires and one of the vice-presidents is chosen to
fill the deputy's post.
  In the absence of clear indications on succession from Dr Mahathir,
top UMNO leaders have stepped up campaigns to ensure that they are in a
strong vice-presidential position should there be a vacancy for the top
two posts.
  Asked whether there would be less infighting if he named a successor,
Dr Mahathir replied:
  "The mere fact of naming my successor will not help.  It will split
the party."
  However, he added that there was no serious problem of unity within
UMNO.  "There is unity; but it could be better."
  He was also asked to comment on claims on Friday by a Sabah delegate,
Mr.  Ghafur Salleh, that many peninsular UMNO leaders were canvassing
for votes for the party polls.
  He said: "I am not aware of that.  They are supposed to go there and
help the Sabah UMNO members, not canvass for support.  If it does
happen, it is regrettable."
  Dr Mahathir also said that he was dissappointed with the actions of
Federal Territory UMNO leader Senator Datuk Azman Attar who, at
yesterday's sitting, refused to take directives from assembly speaker
Tan Sri Sulaiman Ninam Shah.
  "Although we may not like certain rules made by the chair, we have to
respect them.  Otherwise, there will be no order in the meeting."
  Senator Azman has carved a reputation as an aggressive speker who uses
language deemed by other delegates to be crude.
 ============================================================
 Delegates endorse party's stand on bumi interests
 Many support Mahathir's call to avert split over race for posts.

  Kuala Lumpur - Delegates at the UMNO Annual General Assembly yesterday
displayed their unity by endorsing the moderate and pragmatic stand
adopted by the party in its efforts to advance the interests of the
bumiputras.
  [....]
 ============================================================
 Call to ensure bumiputra stake in privatisation.

 UMNO yesterday called on the government to ensure full bumiputra
participation in public projects carried out under the privatisation
scheme.
 A resolution on the economy which was adopted later by the assembly
said that bumiputra participation should cover all levels including
consultancy, construction and the use of local materials.
 A Johor delegate, Mr Zahar Bachik, in tabling the resolution, also
urged the government to implement immediately the resolutions passed by
the Third Bumiputra Economic Congress held earlier in the the year.
  Among the proposals endorsed by the congress were the development of a
bumiputra industrial and business community and the setting up of a
Bumiputra Investment Trust Scheme.
  Mr Zahar said that appopriate steps must also be taken to ensure
active bumiputra participation in joint ventures with other races.
  The government should also set up a task force to handle crises caused
by major power failures and other disasters.
  Wanita UMNO delegate Rosnah Haji Mohamed Salleh, in supporting the
resolution, suggested that a monitoring system be established to ensure
adequate bumiputra participation in the projects.
  She also wanted the government to set up more consortia to enable
bumiputras to participate in big business.  -- Bername.
============================================================
Govt doctors appeal for overtime payment

Kuala Lumpur-- The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) yesterday
appealed to the government to pay overtime to doctors in the government
service as an incentive to retain them in the medical service.
  The appeal was made on behalf of house officers, medical officers and
specialists by the association's spokesman, Dr Balaravi Pillai, at press
conference.
  He said a recent survey conducted on a group of 700 government doctors
nationwide revealed that most of them were overworked and underpaid.
  "Government doctors cannt claim overtime despite being on call 24
hours a day.  How can you expect quality service then ?" he said.
  He said the patience of government doctors, who had waited many years
for these problems to bt resolved, was wearing thin.
  "Calculations show the 2500 doctors in government service work an
extra 1.5 million man-hours a year, without any remuneration," he said.
-- Bernama.

============================================================
Johor to introduce 'river-based tourism' to add variety

Johor will introduce what it calls "river-based tourism" to add variety
to its tourims industry, according to a report in The Star newspaper.
  It yesterday quoted Johor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as
saying that a river-based tourism project had been planned in
preparation for Visit Malaysia Year 1994.
  "River-based tourism is among the many projects that the state will
undertake to further strengthen our position.
  "Our rivers have all the potential to be turned into intersting 'safaries'."
  He said it was vital to keep abreast of the changing trends in tourism
to maintain the state's competitive edge.
  On other tourism projects, he said that plans to develop Kota Tinggi
into a historical district were under way.
  The State Economic Development Corporation has set up a committee to
identify all historical sites and restore artifacts and assemble data.
  "These works and findings will facilitate the building of a museum to
attract more tourists."
  Meanwhile, Johor State Tourism and Environmen Committee chairman Datuk
Jimmy Low said that Johor would be promoted as the gateway to Malaysia
and other states would be asked to participate in a joint promotional
campaign next year.
  The Star quoted him as saying that such participation would benefit
all as Johor was the country's main gateway.
============================================================
Most of 24 held in US return home

Kuala Lumpur - Most of the 24 Malaysian tourists allegedly mistreated
while detained for about two weeks in Boston returned home yesterday,
tired and unwillingly to talk about their ordeal.
  "We were not treated well...  I will tell all later," said Mr Lee Pek
Hai, who was among 20 whisked away by relatives on arrival at KL
international Airport.
  Most of the Malaysians, detained on Oct 21 when they arrived on Oct 21
when they arrived in Boston on a flight from Paris, were held as
material witnesses for a US government prosecution of their tour leader,
Mr Choong Chee Keong, who was charged with trying to smuggle two
tourists into the country.
  But Judge Marianne Bowler on Thrusday dismissed the charges against
the tour leader, adding that she was disturbed by the way the
investigation had been handled.
  News reports had said the tourists were taken to court in plastic
handcuffs which prevented them from removing heavy autumn clothing
during a two-hour hearing in a sweltering courtroom in Boston.
  "If my client was a white European, this would never have happened.
These people were intimidated, they were harassed, they were
threatened," the reports quoted Mr Henry Owens, an attorney for one of
the Malaysians, as saying.
  Madam Lam May Fong, the mother of Mr Lee, 29, said: "I am so relieved
that my son is back." She said that he gone to the US for a honeymoon
with his wife, Nyun Foong, 27, who also returned home yesterday.
  Meanwhile, The Star newspaper reported yesterday that one of the
tourists, Miss Lau Geok Bee, might have gone missing shortly after being
released in Boston on Wednesday.
 Her brother, Koon Seong, told the newpaper that he last heard from her
when she phoned him from Boston airport on Wednesday morning to confirm
that she would be returning that night.
  But until Friday, she had still not turned up.
  Miss Lau, 31, was said to have been released with four others from the
custody of the US court five days ago.
  Mr Lau said his sister, who had been working in the US for the past
four years, returned to Malaysia months ago when she decided to go there
again.  -- AFP, Bernama.