Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain (fantasy novels to read .TXT) 📕

range of U.S. forces in the western Pacific, the Malaysian training grounds became even more important. For the Malaysian air force and navy, the major benefit was the opportunity to train with American forces. For example, Cope Taufan, an annual air force exercise, in 1996 provided the first chance for the Malaysian Air Force to use its Russian MiG-29s with American F-15s. Internally, both sides expressed "great satisfaction" with the war games.[54]

In 1994, Malaysia and the United States signed an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, which allowed American naval vessels and aircraft to transit Malaysia for re-supply and maintenance. This agreement, too, remained secret until 2005, when it was publicly renewed for another ten years. Even after some Malaysians heard about periodic American ship visits and exercises in Malaysia, the government was reluctant to identify BITAC and disclose details to Parliament.[55] Finally, in 2002, 18 years after Dr. Mahathir and the Reagan administration had sealed the original deal, Defence Minister Najib Razak partially lifted the curtain on what he called a "well-kept secret": More than 75 U.S. military ships had docked at Malaysian ports in the past two and-a-half years.[56] In addition, the two countries were holding joint exercises annually on land and sea, Malaysians were training in the United States and an extensive two-way student exchange programme was in place.

In retirement, Dr. Mahathir acknowledged and defended BITAC, which he said was suggested by Caspar Weinberger, Reagan's defence secretary, and involved no more than "normal arrangements that the United States has with many, many countries". Malaysia's military brass favoured the agreement for the benefits it brought, and "I think it is good for them. They should get to know new tactics, new strategies and things like that. That's why I agreed".[57] The U.S. perspective, however, was quite different, seeing BITAC as an original template for wider application. By 1996, it had become "the model for the establishment of military ties with other countries with which the United States is associated".[58] Dr. Mahathir acknowledged the secrecy surrounding the 1984 and 1994 agreements. "Maybe they were not broadcast widely, but I didn't see anything wrong with that," he said. And he continued to insist, contrary to the end result, that "I didn't like the idea of the Seventh Fleet hovering around here."[59]

Australia was another developed country with which Malaysia had long and friendly ties, including security links, which were periodically troubled after Dr. Mahathir appeared on the scene. Australia's closest regional ally in the 1950s and 1960s, Malaysia became the neighbour that Canberra found the most challenging in the following decades. Given its past as an aid donor, Australia was slow to jettison its paternal attitude and recognize the importance that the post-1970 Malaysian leadership attached to issues of national pride. For their part, Malaysian leaders sometimes used extravagant rhetoric in criticisms of Australia, and too often assumed that views expressed by the media represented those of the government.[60] The crucial element, however, was Dr. Mahathir's prickly personality. Where his predecessors might have overlooked an Australian barb or gaffe, Dr. Mahathir allowed nothing to pass that he found offensive. He had difficulties with Australian prime ministers on most of his watch, regardless of political affiliation: Bob Hawke (Labor), in 1986, for describing the execution of two Australian drug traffickers as "barbaric"; Paul Keating (Labor), in 1993, over calling Dr. Mahathir "recalcitrant" for not attending the first summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum; and John Howard (Liberal), in 1998-99, for expressing concern about former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's arrest and trials.

In the late 1970s, relations were buffeted by a series of bilateral trade disputes, but the issues that rocked the relationship in the Mahathir era were overwhelmingly about national self-esteem.[61] For a year from late 1990, Malaysia downgraded relations with Australia in protest over the showing of a drama series on Australian TV, Embassy, set in a fictitious Ragaan, which the Malaysians assumed was a caricature of Malaysia. In one scene a Ragaan leader prepared to "shoot" Vietnamese boat people, later to claim he had merely meant to "shoo" them, a dramatization of the incident in the early 1980s, when Home Minister Ghazali Shafie sought to defuse the furore over Dr. Mahathir's threat against refugees. Malaysia-Australia projects and visits were frozen, and officers at the Australian mission in Kuala Lumpur were excluded from routine diplomatic contacts. Things returned to normal after Hawke agreed to disassociate Australia from media reports that Malaysia found objectionable. After Keating called Dr. Mahathir recalcitrant in late 1993, the Malaysian Cabinet authorized individual ministries to take such measures against Australia as they saw fit. Australian-made television shows and commercials were banned from Malaysian TV, and the minister for posts and telecommunications said his department would review its dealings with Australian companies. After three weeks, during which the Australians let it be known they were contemplating serious retaliatory action, Malaysia accepted Keating's expression of regret for any unintended offence. Characteristically, Dr. Mahathir took Hawke's 1986 description of the act of hanging the two drug dealers — "barbaric" — as an insult that applied to the entire Malaysian population. Hawke "called Malaysians barbarians", Dr. Mahathir said.

Dr. Mahathir had acquired a jaundiced view of Australia early in his political career as a result of an Australian diplomatic faux pas. In the late 1960s, Canberra invited him, as a first-term parliamentarian and rising star, to visit the country on an all-expenses paid programme as a guest of the foreign ministry. After he lost his seat in the 1969 election and a few days before he was due to depart, the Australians asked him to postpone the trip, with officials reporting variously that the visitor programme was overloaded or short of funds. Suspecting he was dropped because of his political setback, which included expulsion from UMNO, Dr. Mahathir admitted to being "hurt".[62] Two years later he accepted an Australian government offer to visit Canberra after attending a seminar at his own expense at Monash University, only to find the official hospitality in the capital