Malaysia Fears Payback After Leader Endorsed Kerry

by Anil Netto

(IPS) PENANG -- In a strange twist of events, Malaysian opposition politicians claim that U.S. President George W Bush's re-election was made possible because of a blunder by Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Last month, Mahathir told a local daily that U.S. voters appeared "willing to accept a person who told blatant lies and elect a liar as their president." He then made a plea to U.S. Muslims to ditch Bush by voting him out of office.

It was a departure from Mahathir's position in the 2000 U.S. election, when he appeared relieved that Al Gore had lost to Bush.

But opposition politicians were not impressed.

"This interference by Dr. Mahathir has actually helped Bush (to win the election) because the (North) American people don't want external interference in their politics much less from Muslims," said Kamaruddin Jaffar, a central committee member of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, PAS.

"Who is Mahathir to tell U.S. people who to vote for?" demanded another PAS official, Mariah Mahmud. "Weren't his actions when he was prime minister similar to Bush's -- trying to champion the cause of justice in the world while being unjust to his own people?"

In 1998, Gore incurred Mahathir's wrath, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the capital Kuala Lumpur, for praising the courage of pro-reformation demonstrators who were protesting against the former Malaysian strongman's excesses during his 22-year tenure.

Mahathir later visited Bush in the White House in 2002 in a much-publicized meeting at a time when Bush was badly in need of Muslim nations' support for his "war on terror".

In an open letter dated Oct. 15 posted on an Islamic website, Mahathir, who opposed the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq, urged U.S. Muslims to back Bush's challenger John Kerry because the incumbent president, he said, was responsible for tragedies across the Muslim world.

But Mariah said whether it is Bush or Kerry, the result is the same for Muslims around the world as the United States will continue with its program of taking control of Islamic nations.

"As long as the U.S. takes the side of the Jews, the world will not be peaceful," said Mariah, who is also the information chief of PAS' women's wing.

"Mahathir's open campaign for Kerry has put Malaysia, especially his (Mahathir's) successor, Abdullah Badawi, in a difficult position," she revealed.

The concern over the Middle East and the 'war on terror' appears uppermost in the minds of many Malaysians.

Among them is Toh Kin Woon, a senior ruling coalition official in the Penang state government. "I am worried, because Bush will take this as a mandate for his hard-line policy towards Iraq and also Palestine," he told IPS.

Toh said that Bush would probably be even more aggressive and hawkish in terms of implementing the agenda of the neo-conservatives. "It will mean more war, more bloodshed not just in Iraq but also spilling over to neighboring countries in that region," he said. "Israel would also take comfort from the Bush victory to be even more aggressive in the way it goes about attacking and killing Palestinians."

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar expressed hope that Bush would continue to solve issues of world peace and security in a consultative manner, adding that the United States needed the views of the international community when making decisions that affected the world.

Syed Hamid noted that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who is the current chair of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), enjoys a "good relationship" with Bush.

"We hope the United Nations' system of making decisions will be given the highest priority," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying in the establishment daily, the 'New Straits Times'.

Even though the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world, solving terrorism requires co-operation from all quarters, he noted. "The important thing is that the Iraqi and Palestinian conflicts are resolved."

In an editorial in its web-based edition, the slightly more independent 'Sun' newspaper also expressed concern about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle-East. "To those outside the glow of the superpower's patronage, its policy in the Middle East is a crass display of self-interest that will rankle for years to come."

"It may be a sign of our unsettled times that so many U.S. voters, perhaps out of insecurity, have chosen to shut their minds to the false premises of the war on Iraq," the daily lamented.

It added the U.S. is not likely anytime soon to honor its moral obligations to the world, including voting for such sustainable development instruments as the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, due to the effect on its economy.

Meenakshi Raman, honorary secretary of Friends of the Earth (Malaysia) said Bush's re-election augured badly for environment.

"Bush has never been a friend of the environment. His win is a big boost for the oil and gas industry," she told IPS. "And this has implications for the world as a whole with the U.S. being the largest contributor of C02 emissions in the world and fossil fuels being one of the sources of carbon emissions which will contribute to climate change."

There are also fears that Bush's re-election could make Southeast Asia an unsafe place to be in.

The ruling coalition's Toh said he is concerned that the chasm between the major religions as a result of the "war on terror" may actually spread nearer to Malaysia, especially the aggression against Muslims.

He cited the example of the bloody incident in southern Thailand on Oct. 25 where over 80 Muslims were killed when 1,300 people were stuffed into vehicles for at least six hours, after police and troops had used water cannons, gunfire and tear gas to break up a demonstration outside a police station in Narathiwat province.

The province shares its southern border with the Malaysian northeast state of Kelantan, which is ruled by the opposition PAS.

"The good thing is that the people in Malaysia are still very tolerant and that's the strong point in Malaysia," he says. "But people here cannot help but be affected by developments in the world."