Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times Page 37
What really bothered Dr. Mahathir was his perception that colonization had left Malaysia with a "psychological burden" that weighed heavily long after the colonialists had retreated: "the belief that only Europeans could govern our country effectively". What was needed, he said, was "decolonization of the mind". Dr. Mahathir said, "Most Asians felt inferior to the European colonisers...Asia was a region without pride and self-confidence...".[29] Changing that mindset — the nearest Dr. Mahathir came to explaining what he saw as a national inferiority complex — and restoring pride and confidence, infused much of his policy making.
This explained Dr. Mahathir's willingness, even eagerness, to forgive the Japanese for the suffering they inflicted on Malaya from 1941 to 1945. While they awakened national consciousness and expedited the struggle for independence, Japanese troops committed a number of massacres and atrocities during their occupation.[30] In addition to transferring the four northern Malay states to Thailand, leaving the Malays in a minority in both countries,[31] the Japanese exacerbated inter-ethnic tensions and conflicts.[32] Their use of Malay policemen against the guerrillas in the Chinese-dominated Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army set the stage for reprisals once the war was over. Indeed, some historians trace the starting point of racial cleavages in Malaysia to the Japanese period.[33] While acknowledging Japan's responsibility for immense hardship across Asia, however, Dr. Mahathir encouraged the official Malaysian view that emphasized remembering the positive rather than the negative aspects of the war.[34] To him, the Japanese invasion "convinced us that there is nothing inherently superior in the Europeans. They could be defeated, they could be reduced to grovelling before an Asian race...if we wanted to, we could be like the Japanese...and compete with the Europeans on an equal footing".[35] In 1994, Dr. Mahathir told visiting Prime Minister Tomiichi Muruyama there was no need for Japan to keep apologizing for its wartime conduct.[36]
Ever ready to make amends for Malaysians who had felt "the bitterness and pain of life as a colonized people",[37] Dr. Mahathir targeted a symbol that had long offended his nationalistic sensibilities: "Carcosa", a magnificent colonial house on a hill above Kuala Lumpur's Lake Gardens. Built in 1904, it was traditionally home to Britain's most senior representative. Tunku Abdul Rahman had presented the deeds to the mansion and surrounding acres to the British government in 1956, a goodwill gesture that was anathema to those who felt Malaysia was extending to Britain "the ultimate in privilege and status" that was denied to other governments.[38] They also believed that the gift of the highest point in the capital "had a negative psychological effect on the Malaysian people".[39]
As soon as he got the chance a quarter of a century later, Dr. Mahathir orchestrated a campaign from behind the scenes to evict Britain's high commissioner from "the house on the hill", as it was known. It sounded innocent enough when the matter was raised at the UMNO General Assembly in 1982 by a woman delegate. "It serves no purpose for the government to give too much to people who have colonized this country for so long while the people and the nation derive no benefits from them," she said. They were actually Dr. Mahathir's words, planted by him to get the ball rolling.[40] And Britain was expecting it: Dr. Mahathir had sent a private emissary, his businessman-politician friend and informal adviser Daim Zainuddin, to London to let the government know they would have to relinquish "Carcosa".[41] The British initially took the view that it would not be appropriate to return the property while the Tunku was still alive, but they acquiesced in 1984, years before his death. Although not paid compensation, they were granted land for a new residence in the fashionable Ampang area.
Downgrading the Commonwealth to the bottom of Malaysia's foreign policy agenda was another way of putting Britain in its place. Dr. Mahathir declined to attend the biennial Heads of Government Meeting in Melbourne in 1981 and again in New Delhi in 1983. His view was that he could achieve more by staying home than going abroad to just "talk with no tangible results". Staying home on special occasions became a Mahathir trait.
It was the tough-minded British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, herself a mold-breaking politician and outsider, who worked out how to repair relations with Malaysia. After her foreign secretary and defense minister returned empty handed from a trip to Kuala Lumpur early in 1982, Thatcher took it upon herself to end the estrangement. In hosting Dr. Mahathir in London in early 1983, she showed the deference that made the difference. Thatcher entertained Dr. Mahathir at a so-called "peace-meal" at No. 10 Downing Street, the grand occasion attended by an array of dignitaries whose presence underlined Dr. Mahathir's VIP treatment.[42] The British government subsequently agreed to allow Malaysia's national airline to carry more passengers on the Kuala Lumpur-London route. On his return to Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir announced the end of Buy British Last. He attended the 1985 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, and at the next gathering two years later offered to host the 1989 meeting and the Commonwealth Games in 1998. It was quite a turnaround for the man who had described the Commonwealth as a "creature of the past".
The limited boycott was to have lasted until Dr. Mahathir judged not only the British government but also business, the press and other institutions to be showing Malaysia more respect. By the time he lifted the restrictions, after 18 months, British companies were hurting and complaining about the loss of contracts estimated at between 20 million and 50 million pounds. Dr. Mahathir told the Malaysian Parliament that the British had shown "a comprehensive change in attitude and thinking towards Malaysia as a sovereign and independent country". One basic adjustment in London was the acceptance that Britain in future would have to compete with the field for commercial contracts, and perhaps sweeten major deals with government inducements.[43]
While Dr. Mahathir had made his point, his underlying pragmatism was undiminished, as indicated by the speed by which bilateral relations recovered and British investment in the Malaysian economy simultaneously spiked. Although the West might be rotting morally, it remained an essential market and source of capital for Malaysia's ambitious development. Thatcher's hand-crafted settlement was critical. It confirmed that the super-sensitive Dr. Mahathir sought consideration, appreciation and homage from the West, particularly from the country that had lorded over Malaysia for more than a century. It also reinforced Dr. Mahathir's belief that it did not necessarily pay to be nice to everyone. As it was, Thatcher found in Dr. Mahathir a kindred spirit, "almost a man to envy".[44] Her feelings were fully reciprocated, with Thatcher being awarded an honorary degree from a university in Dr. Mahathir's constituency.
While the bilateral relationship remained warm until Thatcher was deposed by her party in 1990, Dr. Mahathir was prepared to slap down the British again if they overstepped some invisible mark, or Malay confidence faltered before what one analyst called "the British aura of superiority".[45] London's Sunday Times obliged in 1994, when John Major was prime minister, by reporting "high-level corruption" around a tendering process in Malaysia. It came as the British Parliament and press probed possible illegal links between a 1.3 billion pounds arms sale to Malaysia, signed by Dr. Mahathir and Thatcher in 1988, and aid for the Pergau hydroelectric dam in Kelantan. Angered by the British government's failure to defend both the deal and his integrity, Dr. Mahathir launched another boycott of British commerce, including the cancellation of some major projects on the eve of closure. The decision was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who echoed Mahathir's "obsession with white racism" by trying to portray the Sunday Times report as a slight on all Malaysians.[46] In a lengthy letter to the Financial Times, Dr. Mahathir said, "Of course the natives are corrupt. They must be because they are not British and not white."[47]
While Dr. Mahathir's reaction seemed to expose his insecurities, Major's condescending comment, immediately after the prohibition was imposed, betrayed traces of the colonial mentality Dr. Mahathir detested. Major suggested that the reason Malaysia was prosperous was due to British trade and investment.[48] He had learned nothing from his
predecessor where Dr. Mahathir was concerned. Just the same, Dr. Mahathir moved quickly to limit the scope and shorten the duration of the boycott this time — seven months — mindful that London might retaliate with the backing of its European partners.
Although Dr. Mahathir initially deflected American overtures and spent the next couple of years criticizing the West, especially the United States, for failing to understand or support the economic aspirations of developing countries, he soon made amends. The United States was one of Malaysia's most important economic partners, and American capital and appetite for Malaysian goods were an essential part of Dr. Mahathir's plans to develop the country. On his first official visit to Washington in 1984, Dr. Mahathir travelled with some of Malaysia's most influential businessmen and bankers, their way smoothed by Daim Zainuddin, dispatched by Dr. Mahathir nine months earlier, again as a personal envoy. Daim had persuaded the Americans to limit sales of stockpiled tin in view of weak world demand for a key Malaysian export, and the success of his representations prompted Kuala Lumpur to intensify its lobbying efforts in Washington.[49] Dr. Mahathir got to meet what diplomats called the "first team": President Reagan, Vice President George Bush, Treasury Secretary Ronald Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.
The most far-reaching outcome of the visit, however, was a security — not an economic — agreement, what one analyst called, when details began to leak almost two decades later, "a secret defense treaty".[50] Without informing his countrymen and women, Dr. Mahathir threw in his lot with the Americans, agreeing to naval ship visits, ship and aircraft repairs, joint military exercises in Malaysia and close cooperation between the two militaries. Thereafter, Dr. Mahathir could launch regular rhetorical broadsides at the United States, winning a name in Malaysia and the rest of the developing world for his courage in standing up to Washington, knowing his relations with the Americans rested on a secure bedrock. When the United States lost the use of major military bases in the Philippines in 1991-92, the Malaysians criticized Singapore for offering to accept a small number of military personnel and provide facilities to enable the U.S. Seventh Fleet to retain a forward presence in Southeast Asia. Yet Malaysia covertly was providing similar facilities, which allowed the Americans to implement a "places not bases" strategy. Dr. Mahathir publicly disputed the need for the U.S. Navy to patrol the region, but privately helped make it possible. And while he noisily disagreed, from the early 1990s, with Western officials who worried that a powerful China might become a neighbourhood bully, in practice he indulged in classic hedging: He contributed to a balance of power arrangement and effectively paid insurance premiums to the United States in case anything went wrong.
The innocuous sounding Bilateral Training and Consultation (BITAC) agreement entered into by Malaysia and the United States in 1984 established a series of working groups for exercises, intelligence sharing, logistics support and general security issues.[51] Officially, it was not an agreement at all, according to a former American air attache in Kuala Lumpur, William E. Berry, Jr., "because that was too structured for that crafty old fox, Mahathir". The prime minister was being careful because of his public opposition to foreign military bases in the region, Berry explained.[52] The Americans played along, doing nothing to draw attention to the commitment and allowing Dr. Mahathir to flaunt his independence and claim, "We are aligned with no one."[53]
Nevertheless, BITAC was the basis for vastly expanded military cooperation between the two countries. The U.S. Air Force and navy made use of its provisions to establish air-to-air and air-to-ground training, while the U.S. army got access to the excellent jungle warfare training school at Pulada in Johore. With Malaysian assistance, the U.S. Navy developed a small-ship repair facility at Lumut on the West Coast, and the U.S. Air Force later established a facility in Kuala Lumpur to repair C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. As the Philippine bases closed, particularly Crow Valley, the main bombing range of U.S. forces in the western Pacific, the Malaysian training grounds became even more important. For the Malaysian air force and navy, the major benefit was the opportunity to train with American forces. For example, Cope Taufan, an annual air force exercise, in 1996 provided the first chance for the Malaysian Air Force to use its Russian MiG-29s with American F-15s. Internally, both sides expressed "great satisfaction" with the war games.[54]
In 1994, Malaysia and the United States signed an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, which allowed American naval vessels and aircraft to transit Malaysia for re-supply and maintenance. This agreement, too, remained secret until 2005, when it was publicly renewed for another ten years. Even after some Malaysians heard about periodic American ship visits and exercises in Malaysia, the government was reluctant to identify BITAC and disclose details to Parliament.[55] Finally, in 2002, 18 years after Dr. Mahathir and the Reagan administration had sealed the original deal, Defence Minister Najib Razak partially lifted the curtain on what he called a "well-kept secret": More than 75 U.S. military ships had docked at Malaysian ports in the past two and-a-half years.[56] In addition, the two countries were holding joint exercises annually on land and sea, Malaysians were training in the United States and an extensive two-way student exchange programme was in place.
In retirement, Dr. Mahathir acknowledged and defended BITAC, which he said was suggested by Caspar Weinberger, Reagan's defence secretary, and involved no more than "normal arrangements that the United States has with many, many countries". Malaysia's military brass favoured the agreement for the benefits it brought, and "I think it is good for them. They should get to know new tactics, new strategies and things like that. That's why I agreed".[57] The U.S. perspective, however, was quite different, seeing BITAC as an original template for wider application. By 1996, it had become "the model for the establishment of military ties with other countries with which the United States is associated".[58] Dr. Mahathir acknowledged the secrecy surrounding the 1984 and 1994 agreements. "Maybe they were not broadcast widely, but I didn't see anything wrong with that," he said. And he continued to insist, contrary to the end result, that "I didn't like the idea of the Seventh Fleet hovering around here."[59]
Australia was another developed country with which Malaysia had long and friendly ties, including security links, which were periodically troubled after Dr. Mahathir appeared on the scene. Australia's closest regional ally in the 1950s and 1960s, Malaysia became the neighbour that Canberra found the most challenging in the following decades. Given its past as an aid donor, Australia was slow to jettison its paternal attitude and recognize the importance that the post-1970 Malaysian leadership attached to issues of national pride. For their part, Malaysian leaders sometimes used extravagant rhetoric in criticisms of Australia, and too often assumed that views expressed by the media represented those of the government.[60] The crucial element, however, was Dr. Mahathir's prickly personality. Where his predecessors might have overlooked an Australian barb or gaffe, Dr. Mahathir allowed nothing to pass that he found offensive. He had difficulties with Australian prime ministers on most of his watch, regardless of political affiliation: Bob Hawke (Labor), in 1986, for describing the execution of two Australian drug traffickers as "barbaric"; Paul Keating (Labor), in 1993, over calling Dr. Mahathir "recalcitrant" for not attending the first summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum; and John Howard (Liberal), in 1998-99, for expressing concern about former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's arrest and trials.
In the late 1970s, relations were buffeted by a series of bilateral trade disputes, but the issues that rocked the relationship in the Mahathir era were overwhelmingly about national self-esteem.[61] For a year from late 1990, Malaysia downgraded relations with Australia in protest over the showing of a drama series on Australian TV, Embassy, set in a fictitious Ragaan, which the Malaysians assumed was a caricature of Malaysia. In one scene a Ragaan leader prepared to "shoot" Vietnamese boat people, later to claim he had merely meant to "shoo" them, a dramatization of the incident in the early 1980s, when Home Mi
nister Ghazali Shafie sought to defuse the furore over Dr. Mahathir's threat against refugees. Malaysia-Australia projects and visits were frozen, and officers at the Australian mission in Kuala Lumpur were excluded from routine diplomatic contacts. Things returned to normal after Hawke agreed to disassociate Australia from media reports that Malaysia found objectionable. After Keating called Dr. Mahathir recalcitrant in late 1993, the Malaysian Cabinet authorized individual ministries to take such measures against Australia as they saw fit. Australian-made television shows and commercials were banned from Malaysian TV, and the minister for posts and telecommunications said his department would review its dealings with Australian companies. After three weeks, during which the Australians let it be known they were contemplating serious retaliatory action, Malaysia accepted Keating's expression of regret for any unintended offence. Characteristically, Dr. Mahathir took Hawke's 1986 description of the act of hanging the two drug dealers — "barbaric" — as an insult that applied to the entire Malaysian population. Hawke "called Malaysians barbarians", Dr. Mahathir said.
Dr. Mahathir had acquired a jaundiced view of Australia early in his political career as a result of an Australian diplomatic faux pas. In the late 1960s, Canberra invited him, as a first-term parliamentarian and rising star, to visit the country on an all-expenses paid programme as a guest of the foreign ministry. After he lost his seat in the 1969 election and a few days before he was due to depart, the Australians asked him to postpone the trip, with officials reporting variously that the visitor programme was overloaded or short of funds. Suspecting he was dropped because of his political setback, which included expulsion from UMNO, Dr. Mahathir admitted to being "hurt".[62] Two years later he accepted an Australian government offer to visit Canberra after attending a seminar at his own expense at Monash University, only to find the official hospitality in the capital as bleak as the winter weather. An embarrassed junior official tried to save the occasion, on his own initiative, by hosting a dinner for Dr. Mahathir.[63] Nearly 40 years later, Dr. Mahathir had not forgotten how he was treated by the Australians when "out of the government". He said, "They invited me to visit, and then they cancelled it." Was it a calculated snub? "I don't know whether it was deliberate, but anyway they cancelled it."[64]