U.S. envoy in KL wants emotional rhetoric to end

U.S. envoy in KL wants emotional rhetoric to end

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): The U.S. ambassador to Malaysia, saying he felt personally targeted by a death threat, appealed yesterday to leaders in both countries to put an end to emotional rhetoric which he said threatened ties.

Ambassador John Malott, speaking four days after a member of an unknown group threatened in a phone call to the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur to kill four Americans in Malaysia, urged Malaysians to stop "America-bashing".

"I am concerned about the growing tendency to blame everything that is happening on foreigners, usually Americans, or on the foreign press, usually American-owned," the U.S. ambassador told a news conference.

The envoy also criticized a resolution in the U.S. Congress demanding that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad apologize for recent remarks about Jews or quit.

Mahathir last month was quoted as saying the government suspected Jewish groups had an agenda to block Moslems' progress. Malaysia's population is predominantly Moslem.

"I do believe it is inappropriate to call upon the leader of another country to resign," Malott said.

Mahathir's coalition has condemned the resolution and plans to introduce a parliamentary motion of confidence in support of the 71-year-old leader.

Malott said he called the news conference to try to help put bilateral relations, shaken by a financial crisis in Malaysia and mounting suspicions in Kuala Lumpur about U.S. intentions, back on track.

"My message today is 'Enough is enough'. My message today, in American slang is, 'Let's cool it,'" Malott said.

"My message today is that everyone on both sides of the ocean needs to treat our important relationship with all the care and respect it deserves."

The U.S. diplomat, who has served in Malaysia for two years, said he felt personally targeted by the death threat, made to the embassy last Thursday by an anonymous caller who claimed to be from the Malaysian Moslem Martyrs' Movement.

The caller spoke in English with what embassy officials thought was a Malaysian accent, the ambassador said.

Malott said neither the embassy nor Malaysian officials had heard of the group, but the embassy decided to take the calls seriously.

"Let's say I took it personally since in any country, the United States ambassador is always the first target of a terrorist," he said. "So I took it rather personally."

Malott said security had been tightened for U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy, Sanctions and Commodities William Ramsay, due in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. Ramsay's visit, to explain a U.S. law that threatens sanctions on certain firms doing business in Iran, has prompted outrage in Malaysia.

Washington has listed Malaysia's state oil and gas company, Petronas, among three firms that might be subject to the U.S. law for a $2 billion joint gas deal in Iran.

Malott said the mounting criticism of Americans in the Malaysian press had not yet affected official ties.

"All Americans in this country, private as well as official, feel a great amount of discomfort because the rhetoric, the anti- American rhetoric that seems to be very, very pervasive.

"It's almost like I dread waking up in the morning to see what the newspapers have to say about us that day because it almost seems like page two every morning is the America-bashing page."