It may not be far off. For years, Mahathir has sustained his 18-year rule in part by keeping alive the memory of 1969, when resentful members of the poor Malay majority rioted against the richer minorities. Since then a vote for Mahathir, and his aggressive affirmative-action program for Malays, has been sold as a vote for ethnic peace. Yet today, young Malays are turning against Mahathir. They are joining the Chinese and Indian minorities in support of his jailed rival and former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, the icon of a more democratic, less racially uptight Malaysia. Outrage over Anwar’s beating in prison has galvanized a multiracial opposition. “Justice,” says Tian Chua, a Chinese activist popular with Malays, “cuts across racial lines.”
That is surely worrying for Mahathir, who must call elections before June. His efforts to lift the fortunes of the Malay majority had once ensured their political loyalty, while dampening Chinese fears of poverty-fed Islamic extremism. Malaysia has prospered greatly since the 1950s, and young people are now more likely to date and marry other races than to fear them. “All the rules have changed,” says Amir Mohamad, a well-known columnist. “We are experiencing a coming of age.”
Yet the old taboos live. Tai Eng Teck, 29, the eldest son of a poor Chinese shopkeeper, defied the racial rules. He trained in India to become a doctor, and dated a Malay in violation of a sporadically enforced “proximity law” that forbids a foreign man from being alone with an unmarried Malay woman. One night last month, police found Tai in a car with a Malay girl–and when he tried to flee, he was fatally shot. The funeral last month turned into a protest led by normally reticent Chinese merchants, and the multiracial opposition has helped his family launch a lawsuit against the police. “I want an explanation from the government,” says Tai’s 75-year-old father, Tai See Beng. “I want justice for my dead son.” A police spokesman called the incident “unfortunate,” and one of the officers, who has pleaded not guilty, faces “culpable homicide” charges.
The opposition now goes into battle with a martyr. Though interracial marriages are increasing, conservatives are stepping up their efforts to foil them, too. Relatives often kidnap young men or women to prevent them from marrying outside their racial group. Some mixed couples, like Zain and Kaur, get married overseas and then return to face their parents, who are less likely to intervene after the fact. Says Leonard Teoh, a lawyer who helps couples emigrate: “More and more people are choosing not to suffer in silence.” Love–and politics–will never be the same.
