Saya terjemahan sebahagian sahaja - beberapa ayat dalam perenggan akhir sekali, itupun agak2 aje - sebab bahasa nya terlalu indah. Mungkin Pak MT boleh tolong??

"Terdapat spekulasi bahawa kes rompak kem tentera bulan Julai lalu yang melibatkan pertumpahan darah yang dengan resminya di sabitkan tuduhan itu kepada kumpulan kecil Islam bernama al Maunah, adalah satu sandiwara untuk menjatuhkan imej Menteri Pertahanan, Najib Razak, orang ketiga paling tinggi dalam parti umno.

Mengikut kebanyakan rakyat Malaysia, sasaran utama episod yang dahsyat ini ialah PAS, yang kini dapat merupakan saingan yang paling besar yang dapat menggugat kekebalan Umno yang dulunya kelihatan agak dominan di medan politik.

Tektik memecahkan kekuatan PAS dan serangan kritik lantang menjadi satu petanda bahawa ketetapan strategi yang sederhana pun sudah sukar untuk memutar balikkan hanyutnya sokongan oleh orang melayu dari umno kepada PAS."

Malaysia: Political divisions
1 Sep 2000

Political divisions in Malaysia have widened in the months since the November 1999 general elections, in which almost half of the ethnic Malay voters supported opposition parties but the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, nonetheless, retained its two-thirds majority in parliament. The prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is having little success in bolstering the moderate, progressive Islamic credentials of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the dominant party of the coalition. Dr Mahathir is painting the increasingly popular opposition Parti Islam sa-Malaysia (PAS) as a dangerously fundamentalist party, and may be planning a crackdown, which could prove counter-productive. The deepening split in the main ethnic community could result in political and racial polarisation and undermine Malaysia's stability.

Malaysia's much-vaunted stability will be increasingly strained if, as seems likely, Dr Mahathir continues to resist the forces of change threatening his political survival. These include now vocal reformists within his UNMNO party, disgruntled members of allied parties in the ruling BN coalition and the ever more popular opposition led by PAS, as well as a whole range of special-interest groups emboldened by the apparently irreversible transition to a more genuine democratic order.

Nonetheless, we believe Dr Mahathir will remain in office throughout the forecast period. He is still, at 74, the country's most astute politician, with a keen instinct for self-preservation. He may make some concessions to his many critics, but not enough-at least in the short-term-to irreparably undermine his position.

Abdullah Badawi, Dr Mahathir's deputy in UMNO and the government-and now the clear front-runner in the succession stakes-can be expected to assume a more prominent role in the running of the administration's day-to-day affairs. This would help deflect some adverse attention away from the prime minister, and enable the heir apparent to carve out the more distinct political personality needed to boost his support base in UMNO ahead of an eventual takeover. Yet other would-be prime ministers in the dominant party, perceiving the Mahathir era to be coming to a close and Mr Abdullah as a less than acceptable-or capable-successor, may also seek to assert themselves, amplifying its divisions. But they would do so discreetly, given the prime minister's reputation for ruthlessness towards anyone suspected of coveting his job. There is speculation that an early July arms seizure and bloody hostage-taking, officially attributed to an obscure Islamic sect called Al-Ma'unah, was contrived in part to discredit the ambitious defence minister, Najib Razak, the number three in the party hierarchy.

The main target of the bizarre episode, many Malaysians believe, is PAS, which now constitutes the biggest threat to UMNO's once seemingly invincible dominance of the political landscape. A possible crackdown on PAS and other critics would be an effective admission that a more moderate strategy stands little chance of reversing the drift in Malay support from UMNO to PAS. But large-scale repression, if it materialises, risks being wholly counter-productive, because the government is weaker than ever and the opposition correspondingly stronger. The August 8th conviction of the former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, to a further nine-year jail term on a charge of s###my could also aggravate simmering tensions, as many Malaysians are convinced he is the victim of a high-level conspiracy.