Britain attempts to mend trade rift through education
Britain attempts to mend trade rift through education
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Britain's education minister made a pitch yesterday to mend the Anglo-Malaysian trade rift by pledging London's full support for Malaysia's plan to become a regional center of education excellence.
"We shall continue to work vigorously to bring about a situation in which the Malaysian government feels able to lift its ban on public sector contracts and British companies," said John Patten, the British Secretary of State for Education.
Britain's extensive support towards elevating Malaysia's educational sector would continue despite the trade ban, Patten said on arrival for a three-day visit at the head of an 12-member educational mission.
He is the first British minister to visit Kuala Lumpur since Malaysia banned British firms from new government contracts on Feb. 25, following allegations in the British media of corruption in Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's administration.
London's Sunday Times has been singled out by Malaysia for its Feb. 20 article alleging links between Mahathir and a British construction group, Wimpey International.
Patten told a press conference that his visit here as a guest of the Malaysian government was arranged before the rift erupted, and said the British government had made very clear it wanted to see a resumption quickly of "wholly normal relations."
"As (British Foreign Secretary) Douglas Hurd said in the House of Commons last week, we cannot allow the press to come between us," Patten added.
Patten noted that Mahathir had also made his own views known in a very striking letter to London's Financial Times several weeks ago, "stating Malaysia's case very clearly".
Mahathir said on British television on Sunday that he would only review the ban if the British press stopped "telling lies about Malaysia and its leaders."
"We will see if there is a change in the attitude of the press in the United Kingdom," Mahathir said.
"Certainly the British press has been pretty quiet over the issue for the last two or three weeks," Patten added.
"I do hope it wouldn't be too long before the first footsteps are taken towards the warm waters of mutual relations and to wholly normal relations," Patten said.
Patten stressed that trade benefited both economies, while welcoming the fact that educational projects were unaffected by the ban.
"We will discuss how to develop further twinning programs between Malaysian and British institutions and explore efforts towards helping the government raise the standard of English language teaching here," Patten said.
At present, 13,000 Malaysians are studying in Britain and 50 British universities and colleges are linked with Malaysian institutions under some 100 educational twinning programs, he said.