Malaysia's king opens new Parliament

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysia's king urged lawmakers to preserve racial peace, as he formally opened the multiethnic country's new Parliament on Tuesday, packed with a record number of opposition members.

Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia's constitutional monarch, noted that "the key to this country's success is political stability and racial unity."

"With that, I urge all parties to bear the responsibility of ensuring that all races are united and to combat any efforts to split the people," he said in a speech to the joint sitting of the lower and upper chambers of Parliament.

A record number of 82 opposition legislators were elected to the 222-member lower house in the March 8 general elections, which dramatically changed the balance of power for the first time in history.

The ruling National Front coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957, lost its traditional two-thirds majority, winning only 140 seats. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has said he can bring down the government, saying at least 30 government lawmakers are willing to defect. But he says he wants to wait until more are ready to cross over.

The National Front's massive loss was attributed to a protest vote for the opposition by the minority ethnic Chinese and Indians, who together form 40 percent of Malaysia's 27 million population.

The minorities are bitter about the government's policies favoring the majority Malays and say they face racial discrimination in religion, jobs, education, and in dealing with the Malay-dominated bureaucracy.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government has said it has learnt its lesson from the election losses. Still, the minority anger has raised fears of racial instability in this country, which has largely been at peace since deadly Chinese-Malay riots in 1969.

Sultan Mizan also urged Parliament to be vigilant about fighting corruption, noting that Abdullah has recently announced a blueprint to restructure the government's Anti-Corruption Agency.

"I hope efforts will be made to raise the effectiveness, transparency and accountability in eliminating corruption in this country," he said. The economic achievements and development of the country "will be meaningless if bribery, abuse of power and corruption still occur," he said.

Parliament will begin its official business on Wednesday when the government will answer questions by lawmakers.

For the first time in Malaysia's history, the opposition leader in Parliament is a woman -- Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, head of the People's Justice Party.

Anwar is the brains behind the party as well as the chief strategist of the opposition alliance that includes his party as well as the left-leaning Democratic Action Party and the religion-based Pan Malaysian Islamic Party.

Anwar told reporters that it won't be long before he is elected a lawmaker.

Anwar could not stand in the last election because he was barred from holding public office because of a corruption and sodomy conviction. The ban expired on April 14. E-mail to a friend

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