PM Mahathir blames Soros for Asian currency crisis

PM Mahathir blames Soros for Asian currency crisis

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
yesterday openly accused U.S. financer George Soros of being
behind speculative attacks which have brought down Southeast
Asian currencies in recent weeks.

"I am confirming that it was George Soros I was talking
about," he said after the billionaire, known for his capacity to
move global markets, denied involvement in the assault on the
Malaysian ringgit and other currencies.

Mahathir earlier said a foreign financier was intervening in
currency markets to punish governments that backed Myanmar's
admission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
currently meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

The local ringgit has lost about five percent of its value
against the dollar in the past two weeks, closing at around
2.6500 to the greenback Friday after having sunk to 2.6545, the
lowest level since May 1994.

The Thai baht, the Philippine peso, the Indonesian rupiah and
even the mighty Singapore dollar have all been dragged down by
speculative attacks.

In a statement Thursday, Soros admitted he had indeed urged
both Malaysia and Thailand to oppose army-ruled Myanmar's
admission into ASEAN this week, but flatly disavowed any links to
the currency attacks.

But Mahathir rejected Soros' denial.

"It's very difficult to separate the left hand from the right
hand," he told journalists at a conference on Malaysia's computer
industry.

"I think it is very difficult to have a split personality
unless he is schizophrenic or something like that," added
Mahathir. "It's quite obvious that there is a connection.

"We have worked years to develop our countries to this level.
Along comes a man with a few billion dollars and in a period of
two weeks, he has undone most of the work we have done," he said.

A philanthropic organization started by Soros, the Open
Society Institute, promotes democracy overseas and denounces
Rangoon's widespread human rights abuses against political
opponents and minorities.

Soros called in January for an international tourist boycott
of Myanmar and an end to investment there by oil companies.
Mahathir likened Soros' alleged actions to those of a drug
dealer, saying, "as much as people who produced and distributed
drugs are criminals because they destroy nations, so do people
who undermine economies of weak countries."

Soros' intentions have backfired and caused suffering to poor
people in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, whose
currencies have fallen in value while the cost of living soared,
he said.

"If you want to devalue the pound and the dollar, go ahead,
but you do this against poor countries, you think you are doing a
charitable job? You must be somewhat distorted in your idea about
things," Mahathir said.

"People who, on their own, think they can put the world right,
I think they must be a little bit off their head," he added.