Soros denies role in SE Asia currency snag
Soros denies role in SE Asia currency snag
KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Billionaire George Soros, well known for his speculative plays in global currency markets, denies that he is to blame for Southeast Asia's recent currency problems.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused the U.S. financier of orchestrating currency attacks to punish the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for extending membership to Myanmar, where a military dictatorship has repressed civil liberties.
ASEAN is due to admit Myanmar on Wednesday.
Mahathir didn't identify Soros by name, but it was clear that he was the target of the comments.
Soros said Tuesday through a spokesman that his Soros Foundations and Open Society Institute, philanthropic groups that have sought to promote democratic government in Myanmar and elsewhere, are distinct from Soros Fund Management, his investment group.
"There is absolutely no connection," said Shawn Pattison, a Soros spokesman at his offices in New York.
The Open Society Institute finances the Burma Project, a 3- year-old operation that seeks to publicize human-rights abuses in Burma and support opposition groups.
"I can see how the misunderstanding may have arisen here as Mr. Soros has been quite vocal in his urging the governments of Thailand and Malaysia not to admit Myanmar into ASEAN," Pattison said. "He continues to consider totalitarian repressive regimes threats to the region's prosperity and stability."
Mahathir made the accusation to Malaysian journalists Tuesday after returning from a trip to Japan, where he also alluded to Soros as the culprit in the currency troubles.
The currencies of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore have fallen sharply in speculative waves of selling that have raised anxiety about the region's overall financial stability.
"Freedom of speculation had become a political weapon which has given power to a rich person who had forced independent nations to bow to him," the Bernama news agency quoted Mahathir as saying.
"We like free trade, but if freedom here is misused until the poor become poorer because this person wants to have a crusade for charity, this means that he robs from the poor to show that he is charitable," Mahathir said.
Mahathir isn't the first in Asia to blame Soros for the currency problem. The Thai press mentioned him as a force behind last month's speculative attack on the baht, which Soros also denied.
Myanmar's admission to ASEAN is opposed by the U.S. government, European nations and many private organizations who say the Burmese government should be ostracized.
Soros attained global renown for attacks that forced the British pound out of the European Monetary System in 1992. His purchases and sales of currencies are closely followed in the foreign-exchange market.