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Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's first astronaut and other top celebrities have been sprinkling a touch of stardust on this weekend's elections, aiding the ruling coalition's campaign to convince voters that the opposition has little popular appeal.
More than 1,000 villagers cheered as Shaikh Muszaphar Shukor, who became Malaysia's first space traveler in last October, appeared at a campaign stop yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak in northeastern Terengganu state.
Najib said he brought Shaikh Muszaphar to illustrate the difference between the ruling National Front coalition and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, an opposition group that is challenging the government for the support of the ethnic Malay Muslim majority.
"PAS uses the moon as its party symbol, but we sent a Muslim man to space," Najib said, encouraging the crowd to pose for photographs with the 35-year-old astronaut.
Limelight
Wearing a blue space jumpsuit, Shaikh Muszaphar stole the limelight as people mobbed him on a red carpet and appeared to ignore Najib, who sat on a stage. Celebrities rarely get involved in politics in Malaysia, but the ruling coalition has recruited several big names to help it campaign - mainly in rural areas - as part of a publicity blitz to spark excitement among voters bored with politicians.
Malaysia's most popular female singer, Siti Nurhaliza, belted out her hits at a lunch for elderly citizens hosted by the prime minister's wife in a northern village earlier this week.
Siti urged her fans voting in Saturday's general elections to "make the best decision based on what the government has given, so that we can live comfortably and peacefully". The National Front has long relied on rural support to help maintain its majority.
Vote watch: Level field sought
An international human rights group said yesteray it fears Malaysians will not get a fair vote in this week's general elections because of an uneven playing field favouring the ruling National Front coalition.
New York-based Human Rights Watch urged Malaysia to eradicate bias from the electoral process. Opposition and activist groups say the process is rife with irregularities, including government control of the media, restraint on opposition rallies, and names of dead people on voting registration lists. Malaysian law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz denied the allegations, accusing Human Rights Watch of discrediting the elections because "they know the National Front will win". "To me, Human Rights Watch is biased. They are not important at all. It's only their opinion," he said.
He said the opposition's active participation - they are contesting almost all the 222 parliamentary and 505 state legislature seats - shows the elections "are free and fair".
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