Malaysia's enigmatic leader to step down today

Mahathir credited and criticized

By Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - He has been described as an Islamic leader who fights Islamic fundamentalism, as a critic of the West who emulates Western
development, and as a strongman who espouses democracy.

For 22 years, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has confounded critics and delighted supporters with such contradictions. That duality frames the legacy he leaves as he hands over power to his deputy today, according to diplomats, politicians, and analysts here and in Bangkok.

Mahathir, 77, is known for speaking his mind, regardless of whom it might offend, but also for helping to modernize Malaysia.

"Mahathir is a visionary, no doubt about it," said Steven Gan, editor of an opposition-leaning Malaysian news Web page. "But he has a Machiavellian streak in him, and in the process of taking us from where we were to where we are economically, he has destroyed some of the institutions we cherish most like independent courts and police and a free press."

Even his detractors say that the economy under Mahathir's prodding is a success story, as this bustling capital attests. Kuala Lumpur boasts three modern rail systems and the soaring twin Petronas Towers, until recently the world's tallest buildings.

In 1981, when Mahathir took the reins, tin mines and rubber plantations operated a mile outside the city center. He aggressively pursued direct foreign investment, especially in information technology. The industrial component of the country's economic output doubled under Mahathir, from 19 percent to 38 percent.

While he has courted their investment, Mahathir also has alienated many Westerners with frequent anti-Western rants.

Outspoken to the last, he accused Western countries last week of "economic terrorism," saying their trading practices had hurt and killed people in the developing world in the same manner as terrorists had killed innocent people in the developed world.

Such rhetoric has elevated Dr. M, as the trained physician is affectionately known here, to hero status among many Malaysians and throughout much of the developing world.

"He is recognized as someone who speaks for the Third World, and is not afraid to take on the world powers in the West," said Ong Kian Ming, a policy analyst for the main ethnic Chinese party in Malaysia's governing coalition. "He has made a lot of people in this part of the world feel proud."

In the same way, speeches roundly condemned in the West as dangerously anti-Semitic have won him praise in the Muslim world. On Oct. 16, he received a standing ovation from delegates of the Organization of Islamic Countries when he said, "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy."

His speech to the organization also assailed Muslims who resort to violence, saying that 50 years of fighting Israel had only worsened conditions for Palestinians.

But he stirred further controversy yesterday, when he was asked at a news conference if he had a parting message for Jews.

"They must never claim they are the chosen people who cannot be criticized at all," Mahathir said.

"We sympathize with them. We were very sad to see how the Jews were so ill-treated by the Europeans," he said. "The Muslims have never ill-treated the Jews, but now they [Jews] are behaving exactly in the way the Europeans behaved toward them against the Muslims," referring to the way Israel treats Palestinians.

At home, Mahathir has come under criticism for overseeing curbs on free press and freedom of assembly. Journalists and opposition politicians have been jailed. Police raided Gan's offices in February after his website, Malaysiakini.com, published a letter criticizing government policies.

Sankara Nair, the lawyer for the deposed deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, accused Mahathir of "raping the judiciary" in favor of his own career. The leader is "a puppet master behind what are supposed to be independent courts," Nair said.

Anwar was arrested and convicted of sodomy and corruption in 1998 after he lost a power struggle with Mahathir, who had once picked Anwar as his successor. He remains incarcerated.

"The tragedy of Mahathir is the erosion of freedom of thought and democracy," said Wan Azizah, Anwar's wife and the head of an opposition party formed by her husband before his arrest. "You shouldn't just build physical structures, you should enhance civilization and human development."

Mahathir himself told reporters in Bangkok recently that "democracy is not a monopoly of certain countries. It is open for interpretation. . . . When you force democracy on some countries that have never known it, it can cause anarchy," he said, alluding to the current situation in Iraq.

Since Sep. 11, 2001, Mahathir's interpretation of democracy was largely accepted, if not condoned, by the White House. The Bush administration held up Malaysia as the kind of secular Islamic state it wants to see more of.

When Malaysia shared intelligence with the United States and arrested Al Qaeda suspects, the White House ceased its criticism of Malaysia's Internal Security Act, which Mahathir has used to indefinitely detain alleged militants and political opponents without charging them. The human rights group Amnesty International estimates 200 people are currently in detention under the act.

Still, "[Mahathir] has done what he needs to do for his country," said one Asian diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mahathir has been given credit for keeping the peace between Malaysia's many ethnic communities. Ethnic Malays account for about half of the population, with ethnic Chinese around 25 percent, Indians at 8 percent, and indigenous people the remainder.

©2003 Globe Newspaper Company