Malaysia's democratic movement

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There is a titanic conflict within the Muslim world pitting modernity against reactionary radicalism.

Those who promote modernization and integration with the world economy will only succeed if their policies will lead to a better way of life for their people. The next president of the United States must determine how best to support the reformers, which will require new approaches, a combination of both hard and soft U.S. power, and most importantly, strong, reliable allies.

That's why it is so important for the United States to pay attention to the transformation now occurring in the key Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia, a Muslim nation of some 27 million people whose prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, has responded to electoral calls for change by introducing sweeping reforms designed to maintain a democratic open society for the long term.

Malaysian voters sent a strong message to the government in March 8 elections by giving opposition parties solid gains in Parliament, even as Mr. Badawi's party continued to hold more than 60 percent of the seats. Instead of heeding the calls of his adversaries to resign, Prime Minister Badawi embraced the call of voters who demanded reform. The results: Mr. Badawi's avalanche of proposals has begun positioning him as the 68-year-old comeback kid of Malaysia politics.

The reforms have addressed three central foundations for freedom too often not seen in developing nations, especially those in the Islamic world:

(1) Mr. Badawi has moved to strengthen the independence of the judiciary, via a process to create merit-based lists of judicial candidates, similar to the vetting systems used in the United States to rate potential new federal judges.

(2) Mr. Badawi is building on strategies adopted in the nearby city states of Hong Kong and Singapore to create independent bodies to combat corruption.

(3) Finally, he is opening up historically strict licensing processes to promote freedom of the press, making it possible for the newly empowered political opposition to publish its own newspaper.

These new reforms would fundamentally change the way business — and politics — are carried out in a nation whose political leadership had historically emphasized economic development rather than political freedom. By making the country's institutions more transparent and independent, the Badawi government is promoting a system also more likely to be resilient in turbulent economic times.

The stability of this majority Muslim nation through political and economic change has significant implications for the United States; Malaysia is America's 10th-largest trading partner.

Malaysia is an important producer for the United States of components for high-tech business and consumer goods, like computers and cell phones. It has also provided a steady example of a Muslim government serious about combating terrorism at home, and proved himself a leader of Islamic moderates in a concerted effort to challenge the life support systems that sustain the dark forces of al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and the terror network that stretches from the Magrheb across the Middle East into South East Asia. But Mr. Badawi is also now demonstrating the power of democracy in the fight against Islamic extremism.

Other Muslim leaders, including those of some of the opposition parties in Malaysia, have a different vision, one that would reverse Mr. Badawi's goal of converting Malaysia into a multicultural, Islamic-oriented state that is helping to modernize Islam in ways compatible with the globalizing challenges of the 21st century.

For example, Malaysia's Parti Islam se Malaysia (PAS) has called for imposing a criminal code of Islamic law (Shariah), including the Islamic punishment such as amputations, stonings, etc., reversal of women's rights and their resegregation, and an end to race-oriented affirmative action programs.

Malaysia and Mr. Badawi have sought to lead by example in the region. For example, during his recently concluded chairmanship of the Organization for Islamic Conference (OIC), an international organization of 57 Muslim states from the Middle East to Indonesia, Mr. Badawi led efforts to address the twin challenges of Muslim world poverty and illiteracy that fuel the spread of Islamic extremism.

He has challenged his fellow Muslim states, including members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States (OPEC), to commit themselves to a joint plan to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and unemployment in the Islamic world.

His persistence in helping to establish a new economic agenda for the Muslim world represents a critical initiative in the long term struggle to transform impoverished Muslim states into nations that find their place in a progressive, globalizing world.

In the end, whether Mr. Badawi's dexterity will keep him in power to serve a full term is yet to be determined, but what he has set in motion deserves the support of the United States. His reforms will place Malaysia firmly on the path to modernizing its Islamic society.

Stuart E. Eizenstat, heads the international practice at Covington & Burling, LLP. He is former chief domestic policy adviser to President Carter and held several senior positions in the Clinton administration, including undersecretary of state and deputy secretary of the Treasury. He was in Malaysia as undersecretary of state at an ASEAN conference in 1997, when the Thai Baht collapsed, beginning the Asian financial crisis.