Goodbye Dr M
I have to say that political life in the Asia-Pacific is about to become a lot duller with the retirement of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia for the last 22 years. A long-time critic of the West and what it stands for, Dr Mahathir has not won himself many friends outside of Asia, but even within it, his abrasive style has not always been well received (relations with Singapore often quite strained). Personally, I find some of his views quite appealing, the refusal to take IMF 'advice' on the handling of the 1997 Asian economic crisis, for example. I also support his criticism of Australia as regional 'deputy sheriff' for the US. On the whole, though, many of his pronouncements have racist undertones (some would say they are explicitly racist), and the authoritarian regime he has presided over within Malaysia also makes me very uncomfortable -- the jailing of former deputy Anwar Ibrahim on extremely spurious charges being a case in point. So, while I'll miss his irreverent treatment of Western leaders, I won't miss his heavy-handedness when it comes to domestic politics. I sincerely hope that his departure will see the speedy release of Anwar, although I don't imagine this will be high on the agenda of his 'handpicked' successor, Abdullah Badawi.
