War against terrorism: The Malaysian experience<\/p>\n
Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies
\n(ISIS) last week invited a group of senior journalists and CEOs
\nfrom all over the world including The Jakarta Post's Veeramalla
\nAnjaiah to visit Malaysia as part of the \"Malaysia International
\nVisitors' Programme\". The group met with Malaysian Prime Minister
\nMahathir Mohamad on Monday at his office in Putra Jaya. The
\nfollowing are some of the highlights of the meeting.<\/p>\n
Do you think the present level of bilateral relations between
\nMalaysia and Indonesia is good enough or is there any scope for
\nfurther improvement?<\/p>\n
There is always scope for improvement. We will work together
\n(at the macro level). We are neighbors and the people are of the
\nsame race, speak the same language.<\/p>\n
If anything happens to Indonesia, obviously we would have to
\nbear the burnt of it. The people would come to Malaysia to look
\nfor work etc. So, if we can work closely together with Indonesia
\nthen we might be able to help each other develop and grow, and
\nreduce our problems.<\/p>\n
In Manila recently, one American official has said Southeast
\nAsia is committed to fight against terrorism, but not competent
\nenough to fight against terrorism. What is your comment?<\/p>\n
Well, they (the Americans) feel that we are not competent. We
\nfeel we are competent. But we can always improve which is why we
\naccept the training program that they want to have in Malaysia
\nnot from the interest of Malaysia but the others. ... It is
\nworthwhile to have it and to try and exchange information.<\/p>\n
Malaysia has scrupulously kept its neutrality for many years.
\nNow we see that the regional center for coping with terrorism
\nwill be setup in Malaysia. And the U.S. presumably will play a
\nquite important role in that process. How would you assure that
\nthis doesn't in any way compromise the neutrality of Malaysia?<\/p>\n
Malaysia is always neutral. We support the fight against
\nterrorism. But we disagree on the way it is being fought. And we
\nsay loudly and clearly that we don't agree with the attack on
\nAfghanistan. We will not agree with the attack on Iraq. We think
\nthat the UN should be consulted. That is our view.<\/p>\n
We have seen the rise of Muslim extremism all over the world.
\nMost of the Muslim countries are finding it very difficult to
\ncope with this rise of extremist rage. People also look at you...
\nas a master of containing these elements within your country. How
\nhave you been able to do it? How can the Muslim world learn from
\nthe 'Malaysian experience'?<\/p>\n
To deal with any problem (on terrorism), we have to know the
\nroot of the cause. With terrorism today, we must know why is
\nthere terrorism (of a big scale) in this world.<\/p>\n
All these things happen when the state of Israel was adopted
\non Palestinian land. It is a territorial problem. Not a religious
\nproblem. The Western powers took the land belonging to the
\nPalestinians and gave it to the Israelis and expelled the
\nPalestinians. This led to the Palestinian militancy, which the
\nWest alleged as terrorist activity.<\/p>\n
In Malaysia, we had a problem with the disparity with the
\nMalaysian Chinese that caused the racial riots in 1969. So we
\nintroduced the new economic policy ... to overcome the disparity.<\/p>\n
In 1948, we had to deal with the violent communist movement.
\nBy addressing the grievances of the communist guerrillas, who
\nwere mostly Chinese without citizenship and land, we were able to
\ncrush the movement.<\/p>\n
And today, Malays and Chinese live, work and play together. No
\nproblem. If there is any lesson from this it is that we should
\ntry to understand the reasons ... and attend.<\/p>\n
There has been a rise of Muslim polity within the Muslim
\ndemocratic countries like the recent victory of the AKP in Turkey
\nand so on. You have also been able to contain the parties that
\nalways profess to an alleged extremist brand of Islam. How have
\nyou been able to contain those elements in Malaysia?<\/p>\n
Actually we look at the (Turkish) example. Turkey declared
\nitself a secular state. Because Mustafa Kamal felt that the
\nfailure or the defeat of Turkey was due to Islam and the Turks
\ncouldn't be modernized and ...they lost to the British and the
\nFrench (forces).<\/p>\n
Kamal thought the solution to the problem was to make Turkey a
\nsecular country. In other words, he rejected Islam. That was
\nwrong. It was not Islam. It was the Sultan who didn't practice
\nthe proper teachings of Islam.<\/p>\n
We believe that a Muslim state can be modern, progressive, and
\nliberal. We tell (the Malaysian )Islamic party, which tries to
\nmake use of Islam, that Islam is good but their version of Islam
\nis wrong.<\/p>\n
They want to be what you call very, very Islamic in an outward
\nform. But they don't really understand Islam. If you go to the
\nfundamentals of Islam, we call ourselves fundamentalists, we
\nshould become a very great nation in the first place. We're
\nsupposed to be brothers. They don't regard us as brothers. They
\ncondemn me as being an infidel, kafir. You see ... It is already
\ngoing against the Islam.<\/p>\n
So we argue with them on the basis of the religion. We tell
\nthem that their interpretation is wrong. They have a tendency to
\ncondemn us and others as unIslamic (when we disagree with their
\ninterpretation).<\/p>\n
Recently, the Malaysian high court released one of the more
\nthan 70 suspected militants on the grounds that the police didn't
\nhave enough evidence to detain him under the ISA (Internal
\nSecurity Act). The police rearrested the man last Saturday. Do
\nyou think the government is going to tighten the ISA after this
\ncase?<\/p>\n
Yes. I think we have a need to. You see the judiciary has got
\nits own ideas. And they feel that they don't like certain laws
\nthat are harsh. You would see that the judiciary is not happy
\nwith the law and wants to negate the law. And that is wrong.
\nBecause the law is very specific. The minister is empowered to
\ndetain and it should not be questioned in a court of law. These
\nare security matters. As you can see even in America now people
\nare being detained as a matter of prevention.<\/p>\n
What will be the most important decision that you would like
\nto take before you step down?<\/p>\n
As Malaysia is a multiracial country, one of the problems
\nis that there is always a tendency for the racists to clash
\nagainst Islam. So there is one thing, I would like to ask the
\nincoming government to attend to any signs of racial conflicts.<\/p>\n
Your contribution to modern Malaysia is enormous. So how do
\nyou visualize Malaysia without Mahathir?<\/p>\n
(Laughingly replied): I don't want to make myself a deity.
\nPeople who are going to continue are people I have worked with
\nand they know me. They have worked with me. So, I don't think
\nthere is a problem.<\/p>",
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