Poor Nations Face Economic Enslavement, Mahathir Says
International Herald Tribune
October 13, 1997
Thomas Fuller

Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad warned over the weekend that developing countries could be enslaved economically by their former colonizers, and sought to clarify his remarks about the role of Jews in attacks on his country's currency.

Developed countries "try to colonize by using their economic wealth and power to enslave us again," the official Bernama news agency quoted the prime minister as saying Sunday.

"Already many countries have been forced to give in to this new form of colonization, but thank God we have not bowed to them yet," he said, touching on a theme he has repeated throughout the economic crisis shaking the region.

Also over the weekend, Mr. Mahathir said his comments on Jews had been misinterpreted by the press.

"I only made a statement, but the press went on to say that I was accusing the Jews," he said. "We cannot make wild accusations," Mr. Mahathir was quoted by Bernama as saying. "They will twist our arms," he said, apparently referring to Jews. "We are not making any accusations, and will never make any accusations."

"Please don't make things difficult for me," he told reporters. "If I am in difficulty, I don't mind; if they attack our currency, it will fall," Mr. Mahathir said. "The Jews are a very strong race. They are the strongest race in the world."

The prime minister said he had "merely stated" that the American financier George Soros was Jewish. Mr. Mahathir has repeatedly accused Mr. Soros of being instrumental in touching off the region's currency crisis.

In comments carried by Bernama on Friday — and published on the front pages of the country's two largest Malay-language newspapers — Mr. Mahathir was quoted as saying he suspected there might be a Jewish agenda behind the attacks on Malaysia's currency and stock market.

"We are Muslims, and the Jews are not happy to see Muslims progress," Mr. Mahathir was quoted by Bernama as saying. "We may suspect that they have an agenda, but we do not want to accuse them."

Bernama also quoted Mr. Mahathir as saying that Jews had robbed Palestinians of everything, but that in Malaysia they could not do so, and hence they depressed the ringgit, Malaysia's currency.

The comments were also carried by the country's English-language papers, with the exception of the broadsheet New Straits Times, which featured a front-page story titled: "Tackling Obesity Among Children."

Opposition leaders in the country criticized Mr. Mahathir's comments about Jews. "He is treading on dangerous ground," Abdul Razak Ahmad, deputy chairman of the Parti Rakyat Malaysia, an opposition party, told Reuters. "I didn't expect this, coming from him. He should be more careful about what he says as things may get out of hand."

Mr. Mahathir made the comments to a crowd of about 10,000 supporters in Trengganu, a Muslim-dominated state on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.

Mr. Mahathir's comments about speculators in general — and Mr. Soros in particular — started in July, after the de facto devaluation of the Thai baht, which sent currencies in the region tumbling and knocked the ringgit from its dollar peg.

In a bid to shore up the stock market, Mr. Mahathir imposed restrictions on trading, announced a $20 billion bail-out fund and, most recently, called for a ban on currency transactions not directly related to trade.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune