An enigmatic leader's impressive visit

Simultaneously, he also earned the utter displeasure and even wrath of the West and some of the global institutions it represented for his scathing criticisms and ridicule of the traditional Western prescriptions and endeavours to develop the developing world. Such an internationally controversial personality also had to face opposition at home for his treatment of his political foe and successor to be, the deposed Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. But nothing daunted Mahathir from steam-rolling his path to reach the desired goal of putting his native land in its well- deserved place in the sun.

The Malaysian leader's brief visit to Dhaka was accounted for with minute to minute programmes which were heavily attended and brought out some of the best of what Mahathir stood for, with his visions, achievements, and varied commitments. The primary purpose of his visit to Dhaka was to attend the Bangladesh Malaysian Business Forum organised by the Bangladesh Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Dhaka University honoured him by awarding the degree of Doctor of Law during its convocation. Besides, he exchanged thoughts with a handful of Bangladeshi think-tanks at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute. The Foreign Minister provided him an opportunity of meeting a cross-section of Bangladeshi political leaders at a luncheon. The visiting dignitary also paid courtesy calls on the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition.

Let us take up what transpired at the Business Forum meeting. The Malaysian leader in his customarily eloquent manner described how the agrarian economy of Malaysia was transformed into an industrialised society within a reasonable span of time. He emphasised the need for attaining the objective of providing employment to the multitude of the unemployed youth in order to guide their energy along the right path. The strategy paid dividends so well that Malaysia now harbours 2 million guest workers from abroad. Optimum utilisation of its own abundant resources, congenial atmosphere for increased trade and investment, and prevalence of general peace and stability at home were recognised as the principal factors of success achieved through a sustained period of good governance. Mahathir demonstrated humility by acknowledging the valuable contributions made by his illustrious predecessors in making Malaysia what it is now. He attributed the willingness of the majority Malayans to share power and resources with the minority Chinese and the Indians as well as pre-election coalition of race- based political parties, in contrast to multi-ethnic parties, to the promotion of peace, stability, and progress of their society. He underlined the expanding scope of bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Malaysia in diverse fields.

Mahathir's answers to some of the questions asked were no less interesting.

In reply to the query as to how he had succeeded in evading the Asian currency debacle of the past decade and to peg the Malaysian Ringgit at a fixed rate, his answer was both educative and thought-provoking. He said his government had been advised by the IMF and the World Bank to devalue the currency, keep the budget in surplus, and sell the bankrupt state owned enterprises. He then realised what they wanted was, in fact, to bankrupt the country itself. The government then studied in detail the way in which the currency dealers were unfairly manipulating the currency market. The government then managed the currency, inter alia, by forbidding transfer of funds by unscrupulous dealers from one bank to another. He quipped at economists by saying he was not an economist and, therefore, did not subscribe to their text book methods of financial panacea. But his unorthodox method paid well and, he claimed, even the IMF agreed with that.

In reply to another question, he defined corruption as of two types. One was bribery under the table and the other one was over the table. The one under the table was manageable, since the underhand action suggested realisation of the feeling of guilt by its perpetrators and may be diminished through adoption of appropriate measures. The other oneover the tableon the other hand, Mahathir suggested, was difficult to control, since those who were expected to curb corruption were themselves corrupt. He obviously failed to suggest a ready remedy.

The convocation of Dhaka University witnessed the delivery of a sermon by the Malaysian leader worthy of emulation by students and citizens alike. He appreciated being awarded the honorific degree of Doctor of Law, in addition to his own earning of a professional doctorate, since he had been long associated with the making of legislation. He had no high opinion of judges, without specifying their country, who entered their profession for not being able to be good lawyers.

Contempt cases, in his opinion, constituted an infringement of the rights of citizens to criticise judges and their judgements. Also, the law-makers were not perfect, he asserted, since they not only framed laws and the constitution, but also had to amend them from time to time. While only the divine laws were perfect, man made them imperfect through different interpretations, he opined, thereby creating schism, orthodoxy, and fundamentalism. He was obviously referring to the Quranic dictates.

What he talked about at the breakfast meeting was, as opposed to his words in the other forums, against the backdrop of the alleged confrontation of civilisations and the way for the Islamic Ummah to get out of the vortex of deprivation, misery, and suffering. He underlined the root cause of the plight of the Muslim world as its inherent disunity, failure to manage judiciously its resources, and inability to counter clever media onslaughts from the West. He explained the need for reversing the brain drain to the West and providing research and development facilities to the indigenous scholars and experts of the Muslim world at appropriately established centres.

As for the oil-rich Arab nations, who have been putting most of their wealth in US dollar-based investments and in the US, Mahathir cautioned about the inherent and growing weakness of the greenbacks. He said by doing so, they were enriching those who were supplying arms to the Israelis and helping them kill Arabs. He suggested that these countries would do well by putting their funds in Euros and, even better, by investing in promising Muslim countries, both for purposes of security and better return. In fine, Mahathir's short visit to Dhaka will, no doubt, be talked about much by people for a long tome to come.

M.M.Rezaul Karim, a former Ambassador, is a member of BNP's Advisory Council.