Move Stirs Speculation In Malaysia a Snap Election May Be Called : Mahathir Bows Out of APEC Summit
International Herald Tribune
September 4, 1999
Thomas Fuller

Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia has canceled plans to attend this month's meeting of Pacific Rim countries in New Zealand, a top Malaysian official announced Friday.

The official declined to give a reason for the decision, but the announcement stirred speculation in Malaysia that elections might soon be called.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar played down that possibility.

"I think Mr. Mahathir has a lot of things to do," the foreign minister said Friday. "I don't think it is related to elections at all."

The meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum is scheduled to take place Sept. 12 and 13 in Auckland and will include the leaders of 21 countries from both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

Mr. Mahathir has often criticized APEC, as it is known, for being ineffective. The organization deals with a range of issues mainly centered around trade.

"Frankly, I don't expect much from APEC," Mr. Mahathir said during a recent visit to China. "APEC has shown that it is unwilling to take decisive steps, particularly with regard to the financial crisis. I don't expect APEC to achieve much in New Zealand."

But Mr. Syed denied that Mr. Mahathir's cancellation was a protest move.

"I would not give any averse or negative meaning to it," he said.

Mr. Syed said that Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's deputy prime minister, would represent the country at the meeting, along with what he described as a high-level delegation.

Mr. Syed also denied that the cancellation had anything to do with Mr. Mahathir's health.

"There is nothing wrong with him," he said of the prime minister. "He's in super health."

Mr. Mahathir, 73, was hospitalized for more than a week early this year with a lung infection.

Mr. Mahathir has used APEC's last two meetings to promote his views on currency trading, which he believes should be banned, and proposals to increase regulation of financial markets and hedge funds.

It is not the first time that Mr. Mahathir will be absent from an APEC meeting. The prime minister skipped the first summit in Seattle in 1993 to protest the formation of the grouping, which led Paul Keating, then Australia's prime minister, to label him "recalcitrant."

"Mahathir has never had a very high opinion of APEC," said Michael Leifer, director of the Asia Research Center at the London School of Economics. "This announcement follows on logically from what he said in China."

Political analysts said the possibility of elections being called in Malaysia could not be ruled out.

Mr. Mahathir must decide before June when to call elections, and some Malaysians say he might take advantage of a recovering economy, as well as fading memories of the dismissal, detention and beating of his popular former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, to hold the vote sooner rather than later.

Heightening speculation about elections, Reuters reported Friday that a delegation led by Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., had been unable to meet Mr. Mahathir because of the prime minister's busy political schedule.

Malaysia's opposition politicians were left to read the tea leaves.

"I'm not very sure what it means," said Lim Kit Siang, the leader of Malaysia's parliamentary opposition. "Of course the first thing that everyone thinks of is elections. But we still don't know."

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune