SHAH ALAM, Malaysia: Malaysia’s veteran ex-leader Mahathir Mohamad was named as the opposition’s prime ministerial candidate Sunday as a bruising election battle looms against scandal-plagued premier Najib Razak and his long-ruling coalition.
The decision means the 92-year-old, a hugely divisive figure criticized for ruling with an iron fist during his long reign, could return as premier 15 years after stepping down.
But he also agreed to make way for jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim — his former nemesis turned political ally — to become prime minister on his release from prison if Anwar is granted a royal pardon.
Mahathir’s ascent to opposition prime ministerial candidate is the latest sign of how dramatically Malaysia’s political landscape has been shaken up by a massive financial scandal that has rocked Najib’s government.
Mahathir came out of retirement to take on Najib as anger mounted at allegations billions of dollars were looted from a state investment fund, 1MDB, founded by the current premier.
Both Najib, whose United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has led the country in a coalition since independence in 1957, and the fund deny any wrongdoing.
The elections must be called by August but speculation is mounting they will be held in the next few months.
The decision to pick Mahathir as candidate for premier was endorsed by senior leaders of four-party coalition Pact of Hope at their convention in Shah Alam, just outside Kuala Lumpur, to rousing cheers by hundreds of supporters.
“Our great focus is to save our beloved country,” Mahathir, who ruled the country for 22 years at the head of the UMNO, said in a speech.
“It wasn’t easy for the parties that were my enemies before to accept me — but they are aware of the importance of bringing down the current government.”
People’s Justice Party president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar’s wife, was named as deputy prime minister candidate.
The coalition will be hoping that Mahathir, who has set up his own party to take on Najib, will be able to attract votes of from Muslim Malays, who make up about 60 percent of the population.
But most analysts think that the ruling coalition will win as the system is greatly stacked in their favor, the economy has performed well recently and the opposition has often appeared disunited.
Anwar, jailed after being convicted of sodomy, will be released on June 8, reports said Sunday, but he will be barred from politics for five years unless granted a royal pardon.
Malaysia’s Mahathir named opposition PM candidate
Malaysia’s Mahathir named opposition PM candidate
India, Jordan agree to twin UNESCO sites of Petra and Ellora
- Ellora Caves are a complex of temples carved directly out of natural rock
- Al-Masudi, historian from Baghdad, described Ellora site in 10th century
NEW DELHI: Jordan and India have signed an agreement to twin the iconic ancient city of Petra with the Ellora Caves, one of the world’s largest complexes of rock-cut Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples dating from the 6th to 11th centuries C.E.
One of the most famous archaeological sites, Petra is situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea in southwest Jordan. When the Nabataeans, an Arab tribe, made it the capital of their kingdom around 300 B.C.E., it flourished as a center of the spice trade that involved such disparate realms as China, Egypt, Greece, and India.
The Ellora Caves are 34 monasteries and temples, extending over more than 2 km, some 30 km from Aurangabad, in India’s Maharashtra state.
Their twinning agreement followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with King Abdullah in Amman on Tuesday and was among a series of cooperation memoranda — including in renewable energy, water resources management, and culture.
“These outcomes mark a meaningful expansion of the India-Jordan partnership,” Modi said on social media on Tuesday.
“The Twinning Agreement between Petra and Ellora opens new avenues for heritage conservation, tourism and academic exchanges.”
Petra and Ellora are both UNESCO World Heritage sites that were carved directly out of natural rock.
In Petra, city facades, tombs, temples, and theaters were carved into sandstone cliffs. In Ellora, temples and monasteries were carved into basalt rock.
While Petra is known around the world, the temples of Ellora have not yet gained such popularity, but foreigners are known to have visited the site centuries ago.
“There have been numerous written records to indicate that these caves were visited regularly by enthused travelers and royal personages as well,” according to the Archeological Survey of India, which manages Ellora.
“The earliest is that of an Arab geographer Al-Masudi of the 10th century A.D.”
A geographer and historian from Baghdad, Al-Masudi was in Ellora around the year 980.
“This temple has an entire city as a pious foundation,” he observes in his “Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems,” recording that Indians from distant regions travelled there on pilgrimage and stayed in “a thousand cells” within the complex.
