ASEAN leaders plan tribute to Mahathir at Bali summit
ASEAN leaders plan tribute to Mahathir at Bali summit
Agence France-Presse, Nusa Dua, Bali
Southeast Asian leaders are planning a special tribute to
veteran Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at his farewell
ASEAN summit here this week, officials said Sunday.
Asia's longest-serving elected leader arrives Monday on the
eve of a two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit,
keeping a tight schedule even during his swansong, scheduling
bilateral talks with leaders from China, South Korea, Myanmar,
Vietnam and Indonesia.
ASEAN secretary-general Ong Keng Yong said the region would
lose a "strong, colorful personality" when Mahathir, 77, steps
down as premier on October 31 after 22 years in power.
"The leaders want to acknowledge his contribution to ASEAN
cooperation and cohesion, and bid him bon voyage," Ong told AFP.
"His legacy is his forthright analysis of situations, calling
a spade a spade and always coming up with bold ideas. He speaks
his mind and he has been proven right on many occasions.
"The feeling in ASEAN is that a strong colorful personality
like Dr Mahathir and his style will be missed," Ong added.
Summit host, Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri, will
deliver a tribute and present a memento -- a photograph of ASEAN
leaders signed by all of them -- to Mahathir at the start of the
summit Tuesday, officials say.
With the exception of Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah who
succeeded his father in 1967, Mahathir is the longest serving
leader in the regional grouping founded in 1967.
He is the last of ASEAN's old guard, who included Ferdinand
Marcos of the Philippines, Indonesia's Soeharto and Singapore's
Lee Kuan Yew. Marcos was driven into exile in the US and died in
1989 and Soeharto stepped down under popular pressure in 1998.
Singapore's founding father Lee has become a senior minister
since handing over the premiership to Goh Chok Tong in 1990.
Mahathir will hand over to his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
after hosting the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit
in Kuala Lumpur and going on to Bangkok for his international
swansong at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The doctor-turned-politician has been a trenchant critic of
the West.
He ignored western pressure and let military-ruled Myanmar
into the ASEAN fold during Malaysia's chairmanship in 1997.
Mahathir has, however, made clear his unhappiness with the
generals' latest crackdown. He told AFP in July that Myanmar
might one day have to be expelled from ASEAN but only as a last
resort.