PM Mahathir snubs Australia's Howard again

PM Mahathir snubs Australia's Howard again

Reuters, Canberra

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has flatly refused to
attend a summit of Commonwealth leaders in Australia next month,
highlighting for the second time this week Canberra's testy
relations with its Asian neighbors.

A spokesman for the Malaysian High Commission in Canberra said
on Thursday Mahathir had declined an invitation to the
Commonwealth meeting in Queensland from March 2 to 5.

He said the prime minister, who has only visited Australia
once in his 20-year rule, gave no official reason for missing the
biennial meeting of leaders of the 54 Commonwealth nations.

But his refusal came as no surprise and was interpreted as
another snub for Australia whose relations with Malaysia have
been sour for almost two decades.

News of Mahathir's refusal came as Prime Minister John
Howard's two-day visit to Indonesia to repair ties was marred by
a war of words with influential politician Amien Rais.

Amien, head of the Indonesia's top legislative body, canceled
a meeting with Howard at the last minute, accusing Canberra of
supporting separatist groups in the troubled provinces of Papua
and Aceh and of blaming Jakarta for the people smuggling trade.

International relations expert Michael McKinley of Australian
National University said the country's image in Asia has yet to
recover from a low in 1999 when Canberra led an international
peace mission into the tiny territory of East Timor after a vote
to break from Indonesia turned violent.

At that time Mahathir told Howard he was not welcome in the
region, should stop acting as a regional bully and concentrate on
his own domestic racial problems before meddling elsewhere.

McKinley said Howard's moves to tighten ties with the United
States had also put a strain on its relations within Asia.

"Whenever Australia gives the sense of unconditionally
following the United States, it does so without consulting with
the region," McKinley told Reuters.

"Given the sensitivities of the region and Australia's
declared objective of becoming part of the region, this doesn't
wash and has been the greatest flaw in regional foreign policy."

Relations with Malaysia first chilled in 1986 when Australia's
Labor prime minister Bob Hawke labeled the hanging of two
convicted Australian drug traffickers as "barbaric".

In 1993 the two countries became embroiled in a diplomatic row
when former Labor prime minister Paul Keating called Mahathir
"recalcitrant" for not attending the first Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum summit in Seattle.

Nor did the relationship improve in 1996 when Keating was
ousted by conservative Howard, although Mahathir visited
Australia briefly that year.

Canberra's East Timor role was a further nail in the coffin.

A spokesman from the Commonwealth heads of government meeting
said so far more than 30 government heads had signaled their
attendance at next month's meeting, including British Prime
Minister Tony Blair and Indian leader Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Commonwealth summit was originally scheduled to be held in
Brisbane in October but was postponed after the Sept. 11 attacks
on the United States and moved to the isolated Hyatt Regency
resort at Coolum, 100 kms (62 miles) north of Brisbane.