Mahathir willing to meet Soros
Mahathir willing to meet Soros
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday he would consider meeting with U.S. financier George Soros, whom he has accused of being behind the recent attack on Southeast Asian currencies.
"Well, I will certainly consider it (meeting Soros). We'll find out what he wants to explain," the national Bernama news agency quoted Mahathir as telling reporters after a function at the Kuala Lumpur airport.
Mahathir's comments came after a report in the New Sunday Times newspaper that said Soros had requested a meeting with the premier to discuss the allegations.
Mahathir had also called currency speculators "rogues" and "robbers" who were out to destroy the region's economic progress.
"I would very much like to meet Dr Mahathir in a discussion in a public forum, where we can discuss our differences and he can present any evidence that he has of my nefarious activities," the newspaper quoted Soros as saying in an exclusive interview in New York.
The newspaper said Soros elicited the interview with its correspondent.
Soros was quoted as saying that a date for their meeting could be arranged in November, when he is scheduled to address the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meeting in Hong Kong.
Mahathir's criticism's were sparked by heavy losses in several Southeast Asian currencies when they came under speculative attack in mid-May.
Mahathir last month accused Soros of attacking the currencies of members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to punish the regional grouping for accepting military-ruled Burma into the organization.
The attacks led to the effective devaluations of the Thai baht and the Philippine peso and weakened sharply other regional units, with the ringgit falling to three-year lows.
A Soros spokesman said earlier this week that the Soros-funded Open Society Institute was against ASEAN accepting Burma as a member. But he said this activity was separate from Soros Fund Management, the financier's investment arm.
"I wouldn't dream of engaging in currency speculation for political purposes. It would be greatly resented by my shareholders," Soros was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times.
"The activities of my investment funds are commercial and are aimed at making profits. There are absolutely no connections between the two," he added.
Soros said that over the past two months, baring $10 million in sales of the Thai baht, his group did not sell any other regional currency.
He said he was not in the habit of commenting or talking about his investment activities, but he was making an exception to explain his position to Mahathir.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The United States lobbied hard against Myanmar's entry, formally completed last month.