Matathir knows best
25 October 2003
Sholto Byrnes defends the Malaysian Prime Minister against his many enemies in the West
An outburst from Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad is, like the appearance of rainclouds over Kuala Lumpur, an unpredictable but regular event. Soon the sun comes out again and life goes on as normal. The Malaysian Prime Minister has a long history of disengaging the diplomatic filter before opening his mouth to pronounce on matters concerning relations with other countries. Some may remember his exchange with Bob Hawke in 1986, when the Australian leader condemned the hanging in Malaysia of two drug traffickers as ‘barbaric’ and ‘uncivilised’. ‘The Australians,’ replied Dr M, ‘are descendants of convicts’. More recently, needled over Western attacks on the jailing of his former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, on trumped-up charges of sodomy, Mahathir aimed a barb at Ben Bradshaw, then a junior Foreign Office minister. ‘The British people accept homosexual ministers,’ he said, ‘but if they ever come here bringing their boyfriends along, we will throw them out!’
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