A US based think tank which took part in a United States Congressional Sub-Committee hearing on Malaysia in Washington DC yesterday had known ties with former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
During the 11/2 hour hearing themed "Malaysia: Assessing the Mahathir Agenda", Douglas Paal, president of the Asia Pacific Policy Centre, recommended to members of Congress that the US maintain a correct but cool relationship with the Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad Government.
The centre was established in 1993 and seeks closer ties between US business and their counterparts in the Asia Pacific region.
Since 1994, the Centre has held four Pacific dialogues in Malaysia. The Centre's web sites lists Anwar as the dialogues' patron.
The dialogues were co-sponsored by the Centre in conjunction with the Institute of Policy Research (IKD), a known Anwar think tank, and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS).
During the fourth dialogue, held from Jan 11 to 13, 1998, Anwar and the US DEfence Secretary William S. Cohen, a notable Jew cochaired the first session, while Anwar and former US State Secretary Dr Henry Kissinger, cochaired the second.
Paal is the former National Security Council's Asian Affairs senior director, and was a former NSC special assistant under the Bush and Reagan administrations.
Paal was one of three witnesses who answered questions on Malaysia from the members of the sub-committee. The others were Ralph Boyce, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific, and Dr Linda Lim, a Singaporean teaching at the University of Michigan Business School.
Bernama reported that Lim who holds degrees in economics from the University of Cambridge, Yale and Michigan, repeatedly downplayed the role that currency and capital control measures played in Malaysia's economic recovery.
Lim is also the founder and editor of the Journal of Asian Business, and has consulted for US companies, private think tanks, United Nation agencies, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Malaysia's Ambassador to the US Datuk Ghazzali Sheikh Khalid had called the experts "blatantly biased and ill informed."
As for Lim, Ghazzali said "She does not seem to appreciate the circumstances under which capital controls were put in place in Malaysia and the positive impact it had on our economic recovery."
In his presidential address at the opening of the Umno general assembly today, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad read out the report and regretted that Malaysia was not even given the opportunity to defend itself against overseas campaign to smear the country.
Comment
One might wonder the close relationship between Brother Anwar and William Cohen as well as Henry Kissinger. Both are prominent Jews and might lead to the possibility of International Jews influence in the Malaysian political arena. As what the Israeli did to help in the election campaign of Parti Demokratik Indonesia Pembaharuan (PDIP), one might not rule out the possibility of Israeli links in the Malaysian political scenario. As reported the Israeli had given out a token of US$ 100 million as advance payment to Megawati Sukarnoputri in her party's election campaign fund. In return, Israel government wanted to establish diplomatic relationship with Indonesia, should Megawati wins the election and becomes the President. If the plan succeeds, Israel will continue to give grant to Indonesia vis-a-vis its formal diplomatic relationship, to help the Indonesian economic recovery. One might wonder whether the Jews has had influence on the keADILan party led by Wan Azizah Ismail. If its true, given the scenario of the Israeli giving out funds to help Wan Azizah to win the election and subsequently she becomes the Prime Minister, naturally she would be willing to establish ties with the Israeli government. It could lead towards an unheard precedence of an Islamic government co-operating with Israel. At the end of the day, Malaysians would face a possible bleak future.