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.