U.S. warns Malaysia's 'sharp-tongued' leaders<\/p>\n
Reuters, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
The U.S. envoy to Malaysia gave the Southeast Asian nation's
\nleaders a public warning on Wednesday that relations will go
\ndownhill unless they curb their sometimes "offensive" criticism
\nof Washington's foreign policy.<\/p>\n
While other friendly countries also disagreed with the war in
\nIraq, Malaysian leaders upset senior members of the U.S.
\nadministration with the tone of their rebukes, Ambassador Marie
\nHuhtala said in a speech released on the embassy's Web site.<\/p>\n
"These are not helpful statements by any standard, and I'm
\nhere to tell you that Washington does take note of them. They are
\nbound to have a harmful effect on the relationship," she said.<\/p>\n
"Some of the public statements by senior Malaysian officials
\nhave castigated the U.S. in antagonistic, occasionally offensive,
\nterms."<\/p>\n
The United States is mostly-Muslim Malaysia's largest single
\ntrading partner and the two governments have long standing,
\nstrong ties in the areas of defense and security.<\/p>\n
Huhtala gave the speech, in which she pleaded for relations to
\nbe restored to the warm levels of a year ago, at a business forum
\nlast Friday. The media was barred from covering the event.<\/p>\n
Malaysian officials say that earlier this year Washington
\nthreatened to withdraw its ambassador in reaction to Prime
\nMinister Mahathir Mohamad's address to the Non-Aligned Movement
\nsummit in Kuala Lumpur, when he trod on U.S. sensitivities over
\nthe victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.<\/p>\n
Malaysia is a loud critic of U.S. policy over Iraq and Israel.
\nEarlier this month the sharp tongued Mahathir mocked the United
\nStates for becoming "afraid of its own shadow" after issuing a
\ntravel advisory warning U.S. citizens against a possible
\nterrorist threat in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Huhtala did not single out Mahathir, who is due to retire in
\nOctober after 22 years in power, but alluded to his summit
\nspeech. Next week Mahathir attends the Group of Eight Summit in
\nFrance.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Huhtala said Washington appreciated Deputy Prime
\nMinister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's address to the nation at the
\noutset of the Iraq war, when he told Malaysians not to vent their
\nanger on U.S. businesses or citizens.<\/p>\n
Abdullah is Mahathir's designated successor and is expected to
\nbe less acerbic is his criticism of the United States.<\/p>",
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