Mahathir under fire at APEC<\/p>\n
In an earlier article, The Jakarta Post's Asia correspondent
\nHarvey Stockwin argued that the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
\nforum (APEC) leaders should quietly rebuke Malaysian Prime
\nMinister Mahathir Mohamad's authoritarianism by staying away from
\nthe Kuala Lumpur APEC summit. In the event, several APEC leaders
\npreferred to deliver their criticisms of Malaysia in person,
\nthereby making it more a political than an economic summit.<\/p>\n
HONG KONG (JP): The annual summit of APEC got underway in
\nKuala Lumpur on Nov. 17 amid Malaysian screams of protests at the
\ncriticism by foreign leaders of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's
\nauthoritarianism.<\/p>\n
As economic cooperation took a back seat to political discord,
\nMahathir had no one to blame but himself. All along he had sought
\nto use the summit (as he used the recent Commonwealth Games, and
\nas he now hopes to use the Olympic Games if Kuala Lumpur is
\nchosen to host them in 2008) to bolster his increasingly
\nrepressive regime.<\/p>\n
However Mahathir went a step too far when he suddenly
\ndismissed and arrested his longtime deputy Anwar Ibrahim,
\npronouncing him guilty of sexual deviancy in advance of any
\ntrial. The Prime Minister thereby aroused long dormant opposition
\nwithin Malaysia, as well as many foreign critics.<\/p>\n
Mahathir expected his 20 APEC partners to implicitly endorse
\nhis dictatorial rule, at a summit which was expected to boost the
\nMalaysian image.<\/p>\n
Instead, several member nations have chosen either to publicly
\nsympathize with Anwar Ibrahim or to endorse the Malaysian need
\nfor political reform. Predictably Mahathir's loyal followers have
\nprotested this \"interference\" in Malaysia's internal affairs,
\nsometimes in such strident terms that the critics have felt
\nfurther justified in being censorious.<\/p>\n
This unexpected APEC interaction got underway as Secretary of
\nState Madeleine Albright breezed into Kuala Lumpur for 24 hours
\nand spent a sympathetic hour at her hotel with Anwar's wife Wan
\nAzizah. Later she chose only to meet Malaysian Trade Minister
\nRafidah Aziz, who responded by asserting that anyone was free to
\nmeet whoever they wanted, and that when she was next in
\nWashington DC she would hurry to meet special prosecutor Kenneth
\nStarr as a tit-for-tat.<\/p>\n
Albright managed to point out that Starr was not in prison
\nbefore the long arm of Malaysian authoritarianism reached out to
\nturn off her microphone. However a high U.S. official was heard
\nmurmuring that Rafidah's irrelevant reference to Starr spoke
\nvolumes for what was wrong with Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the Canadian Foreign and Trade Ministers both also
\nmet Wan Azizah, and expressed a wider concern over Malaysia's
\nhuman rights record. Rafidah Aziz reportedly canceled a meeting
\nwith them in retaliation. In a somewhat lower key, the Australian
\nPrime Minister John Howard and New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny
\nShipley only mentioned concern over the Anwar case when they
\nseparately met with Mahathir.<\/p>\n
Earlier Howard had seemed to advance a new but dubious
\ndoctrine of Australian appeasement as he argued that, since
\nAustralia is a part of Asia, it is not in a position to adopt the
\nfirmer postures of other nations.<\/p>\n
This was a reference to U.S. President Bill Clinton's decision
\n-- itself scarcely a firm posture -- not to have a one-on-one
\nmeeting with Mahathir. Clearly American waffling takes on a more
\nrugged image down under in Australia.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, Clinton canceled his visit to Kuala Lumpur, and
\nAlbright shortened hers, not in protest, but because of the Iraqi
\ncrisis. Vice President Al Gore was sent in Clinton's place and
\nthe Malaysians sighed with relief -- but not for long.<\/p>\n
In fact, Gore trumped all other protests, and ended U.S.
\nwaffling, in a public speech Monday evening as he placed the
\nstress, not merely on Anwar Ibrahim, but on the need for
\npolitical reform within Malaysia -- and other authoritarian
\ncountries. He also praised the few courageous Malaysians who have
\nso far had the courage to call and demonstrate for such reform in
\nthe wake of Anwar's sacking.<\/p>\n
\"Among nations suffering economic crises,\" Gore said, in a
\nquote that went round the world, \"we continue to hear calls for
\ndemocracy, calls for reform in many languages --people's power,
\ndoi moi, reformasi. We hear them -- right here, right now --
\namong the brave people of Malaysia\".<\/p>\n
This was clearly too much for Trade Minister Rafidah who
\nobviously aims to be Mahathir's leading sycophant. She termed
\nGore's comments \"the most disgusting speech I have ever heard in
\nmy life.\" Even more abusive quotes were quickly produced by
\nMalaysia's controlled press.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi accused Gore of
\n\"sanctimonious sermonizing\" and of going beyond interference to
\n\"incitement\". Either because he was so angry, or because he was
\nreading a statement Mahathir had ordered, Badawi made the
\nsurprising mistake of referring to Malaysia as a \"multilateral
\ncountry\" instead of a multiracial one.<\/p>\n
The best comment was a photo of Mahathir listening to Gore, in
\nwhich he wore the identical expression of suppressed fury which
\nused to cross Ferdinand Marcos' face whenever visiting U.S.
\nSenators and Congressmen resisted Imelda's lavish hospitality and
\nstill lectured the Philippine dictator on his human rights
\nfailings.<\/p>\n
Two hours after the Gore lecture, and one hour after the
\nClinton White House had issued a statement strongly supporting
\nthe Vice President's comments, Mahathir had more to be furious
\nabout.<\/p>\n
Philippine President Joseph Estrada became the first APEC head
\nof government to make a point of meeting Anwar's wife, Wan
\nAzizah, in his hotel.<\/p>\n
While the summit did not exude the political approval which
\nMahathir yearned to acquire, he may still be able to turn the
\nforeign criticism to his short term advantage.<\/p>\n
For a start, the severely controlled Malaysian media is most
\nunlikely to let Malaysians know all that happened, or all that
\nGore said. Come to that, the uncontrolled foreign media has also
\nbeen at fault in this way, fastening on to one Gore quote (the
\none above) out of a 4,500 word speech which was a reasoned
\ncritique of the current Asian crisis and what need to be done to
\nmeet it.<\/p>\n
Both within and without Malaysia the Gore speech is being made
\nout to be merely a blazing critique of Malaysia when it was no
\nsuch thing. Gore directed more critical comments at Japan than at
\nMalaysia. The references to Malaysia were in the context of
\npolitical change being a necessary adjunct of economic and
\nfinancial reform -- and were only remarkable because even such
\nindirect criticisms of Mahathir are entirely missing from the
\nmainstream Malaysian media.<\/p>\n
The Gore speech in fact represented belated partial U.S.
\nrecognition that politics and economics are inseparably linked in
\nthe current Asian crisis.<\/p>\n
\"The future of free and robust global markets\" Gore said,
\n\"depends so strongly on a third challenge -- one that surpasses
\nall the others, even as it supports all the others. It is
\ndemocracy, and the growth of self-government around the world.<\/p>\n
\"History has taught us that freedom -- economic, political and
\nreligious freedom -- unlocks a higher fraction of the human
\npotential than any other way of organizing society.<\/p>\n
\"And that means it is the best guarantee of prosperity in the
\nfuture. As (South Korean) President Kim Dae-jung has said, \"Only
\na democratic society will be able to take full advantage of the
\nbenefits of the information age.\" If governments try to suppress
\nthe creative potential of their people by denying them access to
\ninformation, they will undercut their own efforts to build their
\neconomies. Any government that suppresses information, suppresses
\nthe economic potential of the Information Age.<\/p>\n
\"Some take another view. They cling to the belief that
\nauthoritarian rule makes it easier to impose the fiscal
\ndiscipline and financial sacrifice often necessary to weather
\neconomic storms and spark growth. The facts refute that view.<\/p>\n
\"People will accept sacrifice in a democracy, not only because
\nthey have a role in choosing it, but because they rightly believe
\nthey are likely to benefit from it.<\/p>\n
\"The message this year from Indonesia is unmistakable: people
\nare willing to take responsibility for their future -- if they
\nhave the power to determine that future. From Thailand to South
\nKorea, Eastern Europe to Mexico, democracies have done better in
\ncoping with economic crises than nations where freedom is
\nsuppressed. Democracy confers a stamp of legitimacy that reforms
\nmust have in order to be effective\".<\/p>\n
This may be correct analysis -- but was Gore right to say it?<\/p>\n
Almost certainly the Americans forgot two salient facts.
\nMahathir would interpret the argument as a personal attack.
\nMahathir can easily use his authoritarian control of what
\nMalaysians are allowed to think to turn this \"interference\" into
\nan anti-foreign campaign, branding the exponents of \"reformasi\"
\nas lackeys of outside powers, and stooges of the Americans.<\/p>\n
There are already hints of this latter outcome, as Badawi
\nblamed the U.S. in advance for any disturbance to the stability
\nof Malaysia's \"multilateral\" society. A steady compulsory diet of
\nMahathir's anti-Western and anti-foreign harangues has inevitably
\ngiven Malaysian nationalism, over the last 17 years, a brittle
\nedge which was previously lacking.<\/p>\n
So while Gore has effectively detached the U.S. from the
\nMalaysian dictatorship much earlier than the U.S. had detached
\nitself from Pinochet, Marcos or Soeharto, he may have
\ninadvertently handicapped those opponents of Mahathir whom he was
\nintending to encourage.<\/p>",
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