Word: mahathir
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...wave of Western capital that sloshed through Malaysia at the height of the Asian miracle in 1993 had just begun to recede when Mahathir began using the example of China to connect his disdain for Western economics with his hatred of Western politics. "China may be authoritarian, but it is better than anarchy," Mahathir said in 1994. "Business needs order. It needs to have a predictable future." He continued: "The sanctimonious pronouncements on humanitarian, democratic and environmental issues are motivated by the same selfish interest -- the desire to put as many obstacles as possible in the way of anyone attempting...
...Absent from those and any other of Mahathir's proclamations over the past few years has been any sense of personal culpability for the tar pit that his country?s economy has abruptly become. The usual Asian suspects ?- crony capitalism, lack of financial disclosure and plain old-fashioned corruption ?- are as responsible for Malaysia's fall from grace as any of the wretched excesses of Western investment capitalists. But now, Mahathir has in mind for Malaysia a resurgence that not only restores to his people their achingly recent prosperity but forces a cataclysmic readjustment of the way the West would...
...Every revolution needs a purge, and when Mahathir decided on his desperate measure, the heads of those advisers who had pushed for IMF-style prescriptions immediately began to roll. Last week saw the resignations of the central bank governor, Ahmad Muhammed Don, and his deputy, FongWeng Phak. On Wednesday, Mahathir fired his IMF-friendly deputy prime minister and sometime political rival, Anwar Ibrahim, after Anwar refused to resign...
...After just a few days, it is far too soon to tell whether Dr. Mahathir's desperate gamble will succeed or fail. The details of the plan have yet to be laid out, and those details will likely determine whether the plan is panacea or poison. Malaysian stocks tumbled on the news Tuesday, then lurched upward Wednesday as investors scrambled for bargains; the next few weeks will likely be turbulent as investors and speculators learn the ropes of what will be a very different Malaysia as far as outsiders are concerned. Inside Malaysia, Mahathir?s plan has already caused chaos...
...Mahathir?s plan is easy to dismiss as the folly of an economically inept autocrat. But by going through with it, Mahathir has drawn a line in the sand: It?s him against the barbarians. And in this age where economic and political ideology have become inextricably entwined, the stakes are high. Mahathir evidently dreams of an Asia resurgent on its own terms, reborn in its own image, not that of the West. If his course succeeds, and Malaysia recovers, the rest of the region could follow his example and pull disastrously back from necessary economic reforms. At worst...