Matathir knows best

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!’

Such comments made in the face of criticism from ex-colonial powers which, to Mahathir’s mind, have no business telling Malaysians how to conduct their affairs, should not be taken literally. It’s clear he relishes confrontation with those who act as though they were his superiors; proudly, he won’t take it, and good for him.

His most devoted admirers, however, had difficulty explaining away his remarks last week at the OIC, a conference of Islamic nations. ‘1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews,’ he said. ‘Today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.’ One may suggest that such sentiments are, unfortunately, commonplace in many Muslim countries where the pot of resentment over the Palestinian question constantly simmers. One may point out that the vast majority of his speech, hardly reported here, was a call for peaceful unity among Muslims and a condemnation of violence.