What Lee Really Said : LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
International Herald Tribune
August 23, 2000

About "Lee Chides Mahathir for Anwar 'Errors"' (Aug. 18):

The report drew the wrong conclusions from what Lee Kuan Yew said at the press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Mr. Lee had asked Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad at Davos four months after Ibrahim Anwar's arrest: "Why did you arrest Anwar under the Internal Security Act? How could he be a national security threat when until four weeks ago he was your deputy?"

Mr. Mahathir said he did not know that Mr. Anwar was to be arrested under the security act. It was the legal prerogative of the inspector-general of police, Abdul Rahim Noor. Mr. Lee said: "It should have been a straightforward criminal charge for corruption and sodomy or whatever. Mr. Anwar should have been produced in court the day after the arrest."

The next disaster was Mr. Anwar's black eye. Mr. Mahathir told Mr. Lee that he had nothing to do with that as it was not in his interest. The police inspector-general committed these blunders. Mr. Mahathir carried the political fallout from Mr. Noor's acts and paid a heavy price.

The impression the world had was that Mr. Mahathir had personally ordered Mr. Anwar's arrest under the security act, and the black eye. And Mr. Anwar with his black eye on world television and in newspapers colored international perceptions of his trial. It also affected the subsequent elections.

Mr. Lee could not understand Mr. Mahathir's attitude, until he learned from Mr. Mahathir's close friends that he tended to be very loyal toward officers who worked for him. With the Anwar trial over, Mr. Lee wanted to put on record his belief that Mr. Mahathir was not responsible for Mr. Anwar's arrest under the security act, nor Mr. Anwar's black eye — two events that triggered off what followed.

YEONG YOON YING.

Singapore.

The writer is press secretary to Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune