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

of the world-versus-Islam", familiar to his Muslim audience, to open their minds for the unpalatable advice that inevitably followed.[77] The speech he gave to the opening of the OIC summit in Kuala Lumpur two weeks before he retired in 2003 was typical, if more acerbic than usual. His comment, that "the Jews rule this world by proxy" and "get others to fight and die for them", made headlines around the world and was widely condemned.[78] The 56 other Islamic leaders in Dr. Mahathir's audience also heard him urge Muslims to summon the political will to build stable and well administered countries, "economically and financially strong, industrially competent and technologically advanced".[79] His speech was nuanced enough for him to note that "not all non-Muslims are against us" and even many Jews "do not approve of what the Israelis are doing...We must win their hearts and minds".[80]

Throughout the 1980s, Dr. Mahathir caught international attention by denouncing the West for policies that furthered its prosperity at the expense of developing countries. Based on Malaysia's experience producing tin and rubber, he complained that commodity prices were manipulated by rich countries to make money for middlemen, while the prices of imported manufactured goods were set by the Western countries to ensure a hefty profit. He said speculators, including banks, could alter exchange rates as they wished, turning the trade in commodities into a trade in currencies. Taking up the cause of all small and developing countries, Dr. Mahathir said they were "victims of an unjust and inequitable economic system that seeks to deny us the legitimate rewards of our labour and natural resources".[81] He attacked the "free traders of convenience" in the West, who resorted to protectionism in the form of quotas, tariffs, high interest rates and exorbitant freight charges, once developing countries became competitive.[82] Observing that the big powers formed exclusive "economic clubs" to guard their own interests, such as the Group of Seven industrialized nations, he charged them with bullying, hypocrisy and deceit. The uncaring North, as he collectively called them, enforced a "cycle of low income, lack of capital and know-how and continuing low income" that entrapped most developing nations, the South.[83]

It was a withering critique, one Dr. Mahathir could deliver because Malaysia was less dependent on foreign aid and assistance than other potential critics and less susceptible to retribution by the major powers.[84] True, he sometimes went overboard and claimed to fear "a new form of colonialism".[85] He also indulged in his own deceit, not only ignoring Japan's protectionist policies but pretending Japan was not part of the industrialized world. He once told a business audience — disingenuously, as an analyst noted[86] — that "Japan may be classified as developed but it is still developing vigorously".[87]

Pronouncing the North-South dialogue dead, Dr. Mahathir unveiled a series of initiatives aimed at encouraging cooperation among poorer countries and making them less dependent on the industrialized world. Working through the Non-Aligned Movement and the once-shunned Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, he was instrumental in forming the South-South Commission, whose first secretary-general was a Malaysian. Dr. Mahathir also set up the Group of 15, a core of developing countries that first met in Kuala Lumpur in 1989 to explore closer economic ties. His other contributions included a bilateral payments arrangement enabling any two participants to settle their trade without using foreign currency, and a data exchange centre to provide advice to small and medium-sized industries in the South.

The end of the Cold War and its promise of a new world order opened the way for more assertive types of leaders from developing countries, such as Dr. Mahathir, to make their mark internationally. Having vanquished his political foes and seen the underground Communist Party abandon its 40-year insurgency, Dr. Mahathir carefully reoriented external relations towards developing countries without damaging ties to the developed world. With the Malaysian economy starting to catch fire again, delegations from developing countries dropped in to learn his secrets, and Dr. Mahathir was in demand as a speaker at global forums. Named chairman of a group to plot the long-term future of the Commonwealth, he also headed another outfit to find a solution to apartheid South Africa's political quagmire.[88] Reflecting his activism, Malaysia was elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 1998-99, the second term during Dr. Mahathir's premiership, and to the presidency of the U.N. General Assembly. "By the 1990s", wrote Joseph Liow, the political scientist, "Mahathir Mohamad had firmly established himself as a charismatic leader with a reputation for outspokenness and daring to challenge prevailing norms in international relations".[89]

Malaysia identified diplomatic niches where its limited resources might be stretched to play a leading role. For example, based on a peacekeeping tradition that began in 1962, Malaysia became one of the top ten troop contributors to U.N. operations in the early 1990s, when it simultaneously dispatched forces to Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.[90] During the decade, Malaysia also sent peacekeepers to the Iran-Iraq border, Namibia, Cambodia, Kuwait and East Timor. It opened a peacekeeping training centre in Malaysia, to which more than a dozen countries, among them the United States, Canada and France, sent trainees.[91]

Mindful of the worldwide Islamic resurgence and its impact on Muslim-majority Malaysia, where the opposition Islamic party was pushing for an Islamic state, Dr. Mahathir crafted a foreign policy to serve that specific need. By winning international recognition as a champion of Islamic causes, he made it almost impossible for the opposition to claim he was neglecting Islam. It is doubtful, though, that Dr. Mahathir's commitment went beyond posturing, as when the crunch came — for instance, over Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait — Malaysia ignored public opinion and voted with the United States in the U.N. to use force to evict the Iraqis.

Inheriting a concern for the liberation of Palestine, Dr. Mahathir pursued the issue with added fervour, excoriating Israel and its Western supporters, exposing what he called Zionist influence in international news organizations and straining relations with Singapore by objecting to Israeli President