KUALA LUMPUR, 11 March 2004 — Malaysia’s constitution should be amended to ensure that only a Muslim can become prime minister of the multiracial country, the main opposition party said yesterday.

Islamic Party (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang, who is leading a challenge to the government in elections due on March 21, said that under the present secular constitution “the prime minister could be anyone”.

Muslims make up a little more than 60 percent of Malaysia’s population of 25 million, which includes Buddhists, Hindus and Christians among the large ethnic Chinese, Indian and indigenous minorities. Islam is the official religion, but all citizens are allowed to practice their faith. Asked whether a Chinese could become prime minister under his proposed constitutional amendment, Abdul Hadi told the official Bernama news agency: “We want a Chinese who is a Muslim.”

Most Muslims are ethnic Malays, and the prime minister has traditionally been appointed by the United Malays National Organization (UMN), which is the leading party in a ruling multiracial coalition. No one other than a Muslim Malay has held the post since independence from Britain in 1957.

The role of Islam in government has shaped up as the major issue in the elections, with PAS pressing for a theocratic state and UMNO defending its record as the Islamic torchbearer in a government, which accords equal rights to all races.

Meanwhile, hardliners presented a former army general as an election candidate, as religion dominated Malaysia’s polls campaign yesterday. Retired Brig. Gen. Zakaria Dahalan is standing for the hard-line opposition Islamic Party (PAS) in a direct challenge to Defense Minister Najib Razak in the March 21 election, the party announced.

He will take on Najib, who is also deputy prime minister, in the Pekan parliamentary constituency in central Pahang state, which includes an army base housing up to 5,000 troops. Zakaria, who retired 10 years ago, is among several high-profile former civil servants who have joined PAS, which rules two of Malaysia’s 13 states and wants to turn Malaysia into a theocratic state.

A PAS official said Zakaria was one of seven retired army generals who were members of PAS and the party would field several other former army officers.

In 1999 polls, Najib beat the PAS candidate with a slim majority of 241 votes and his performance this time will be closely watched because he is touted as a successor to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. Badawi’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the linchpin of the ruling National Front coalition, aims to redeem itself after losing 20 parliamentary seats and control of a second state to PAS in 1999, but is facing a tough campaign from the hard-liners.

PAS is aiming to capture at least another state in the northern Malay heartland, and analysts said the choice of candidates was an important factor in wooing fence sitters.

The campaign officially begins after nomination day on Saturday, leaving just over a week for the full-scale soliciting of votes before the election — the shortest period in the country’s history. Election Commission Chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman was quoted in the New Straits Times as saying that the short campaign period was designed to avoid the possibility of violence between supporters of competing parties.

He said the commission had noticed a trend towards aggressive behavior in the last few by-elections. In a country where the right to hold political meetings is subject to police approval, however, the brief period for legal campaigning provoked outrage among the opposition parties, which say it serves the ruling National Front.

Although more than 90 alleged militants, some of them members of PAS, are under detention without trial in Malaysia, election violence is rare.