Dr. Mahathir's antics

Dr. Mahathir reportedly advised developing countries not to trade in US dollars (whatever that might exactly mean), since this only strengthens the capacity of the United States to supply arms to Israel to kill Muslims. He also suggested that oil-rich Arab countries should stop selling oil for dollars and do its trading in some other currency instead. That should teach the wretched US a lesson or two! "If we do not use US dollars, the currency will become useless," he pointed out. He also urged Muslim developing countries to unite for development.

Leave aside for a moment the simplemindedness of the proposition about US economic strength and the killing of Muslims by Israel. Are his prescriptions credible? How do we not use US dollars? There is no way developing countries could trade with the US except in exchange for US dollars. The alternative, of course, is that they forego trade with the country altogether. Can they afford not to trade with that country?

The US will indeed be in a sorry state if the value of the dollar evaporates, as Dr. Mahathir wishes. But I for one do not see any scenario where this will happen. The Malaysian leader appears to have forgotten how miserably the developing countries failed in their effort to make even the slightest change in the international economic order, back in the 1970s, when a huge surge in oil prices supposedly gave developing countries considerable power to twist western arms. The very idea of developing countries being able to punish the US is naive in the extreme. Dr. Mahathir's experience with developing countries coming together to form economic groups with countervailing power should also have told him how limited are the chances of that happening.

But then, among developing country leaders, Dr. Mahathir has always had the broadest chip on the shoulder. While in power, his stance in the international arena never did any good to the developing countries he thought he was championing. If decrying the west for all the ills of developing countries was all that they needed, these countries would long have developed to a level far higher than they are at now. His own experience as a leader of a highly successful country should have told him that these countries needed some other prescription.

Among the relatively recent instances of his blame game was his description of the 1997-1998 Asian economic crisis, particularly the one that hit Malaysia. He termed it as an international conspiracy, instigated by the likes of George Soros, and other powerful enemies of developing countries. The allegation, not incidentally, came only after capital began to flow out of his country, and never when it was flowing in, which it did over a great number of halcyon years. The inflow did happen within the framework of economic liberalisation in Malaysia and its vigorous participation in the international economy. The quick recovery of the country from the crisis of the late 1990s was also largely due to the fact that these features of the economy were left basically intact, and rightly so.

Dr. Mahathir's advice to Muslim developing countries to enter into a slugging match with the west, particularly the US, when these countries need all the help they can get to participate fully in the international economy, is an antic he should have dispensed with.

The writer is an economist and a former international civil servant.