Salesman and Statesman, Mahathir Means Business
International Herald Tribune
November 4, 1997
Thomas Fuller 

At a gathering here Monday of leaders from 16 developing countries, Malaysia's outspoken prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad, unleashed another of his patented tongue-lashings on the evils of foreign currency traders and globalized financial markets.

But an hour later, Mr. Mahathir was selling cars, furniture and television sets.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was offered a seat behind the wheel of Malaysia's national car and President Alberto Fujimori of Peru was shown samples of machinery.

Malaysian companies displayed their projects in Africa and Asia — everything from their $38 million oil project in Algeria to the installation of telecommunications infrastructure in southern Africa.

Also on full display was Mr. Mahathir in his twin roles as spokesman for a certain view of the world and salesman for Malaysia. Both of these roles have been rewarding for the prime minister and his country in the global economy.

Mr. Mahathir's high profile has helped triple the country's exports to developing countries since 1990, when the prime minister invited the leaders of the developing world to Kuala Lumpur to discuss problems they had in common.

The leaders here Monday were holding the seventh annual summit meeting of the Group of 15 developing countries, their answer to the Group of Seven industrialized countries, or G-7. The G-15 groups Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Kenya was admitted as the 16th member on Monday.

At the opening of the meeting, which followed several months of turbulence in the world's financial markets, it was clear what problems were on the leaders' minds.

Amid a flurry of speeches, the group expressed "deep concern" over speculative activity and called for help from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to "study recent developments in currency markets with a view to appropriately regulating them in order to make them more open and transparent."

President Suharto of Indonesia, which on Friday received a $23 billion economic stabilization package from the IMF, said the United Nations should help regulate the global economic system.

And Mr. Fujimori said the turmoil was compromising development and "forcing us to strengthen the financial sector and create an international mechanism that allows us to face efficiently and adequately problems of monetary stability."

But it was Mr. Mahathir who offered the most stinging criticism of the world's financial markets. If rules were not drawn up for currency trading, he said, "the fight for independence will have to begin all over again, for the present market rules will surely result in a new imperialism more noxious and debilitating than the old."

He added: "Since the beginning of time, market forces by themselves have been exploitative. Thus a few bottles of whisky was the price paid for Manhattan Island and glass beads were traded for valuable goods and treasures belonging to indigenous people, the simple and trusting natives."

At home and during his many trips abroad, it has been this bluntness that has raised his profile — and Malaysia's — in the developing world.

"Time and time again, what I hear is that he's got guts to open his mouth," said Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center.

"The high profile has certainly led to people knowing where Malaysia is to begin with."

And it seems to be paying off, too. Malaysia's total trade with G-15 countries, although still small compared with the country's total external trade, was $6.6 billion last year, three times the level in 1990.

"That's a small drop in the bucket," said Mohamed Ariff, executive director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research. "But there's also been quite a lot of Malaysian investments in some of these countries which could generate more trade."

Raphael Auphan, general manager at Gemplus, a French company involved in a joint venture in Kuala Lumpur, added: "If you look at Malaysian companies, they are not investing in Europe or the U.S., they are investing in African countries, high-potential countries, where they can transfer their expertise."

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