- Mahathir Mohamad, modern Malaysia's founding father and
moderate Islam's self-styled champion, denounced the Bush administration
yesterday as a "rogue regime" bent on terrorising innocent civilians.
He also said he was disappointed that Tony Blair, who he called a "proven
liar", had won re-election after joining the US invasion of Iraq.
-
- Reflecting the rage felt across the Muslim world over
abuse scandals in Afghanistan and Guant·namo Bay, and continuing
violence in Palestine and Iraq, Mr Mahathir said President George Bush
and other US politicians were "ignorant" people who believed
might made right - a return to colonial-era "old thinking".
-
- Speaking to the Guardian at his offices in Putrajaya,
near Kuala Lumpur, Mr Mahathir also claimed that the Israeli government
had been given a free hand by Washington to continue to expropriate Palestinian
land and entrench its control over Jerusalem. The war on terror would not
end until the Middle East conflict was justly resolved, he said.
-
- Asked whether he regretted his statement that "Jews
rule the world by proxy", which caused an international furore in
2003, Mr Mahathir said he took nothing back.
-
- "US politicians are scared stiff of the Jews because
anybody who votes against the Jews will lose elections. The Jews in America
are supporting the Jews in Israel. Israel and other Jews control the most
powerful nation in the world. And that is what I mean [about Jews controlling
the world]. I stand by that view."
-
- On his balcony overlooking the tower blocks, mosques,
bridges and artificial lakes of Putrajaya, Malaysia's new administrative
capital which he created in the 1990s, Mr Mahathir, 79, cuts a slight,
almost self-effacing figure. His personal manner is reserved and courteous
to a fault.
-
- Earlier in the day, he had lectured students at his Perdana
Leadership Foundation on the importance of education and development in
the Muslim world to defend the Islamic faith. The problem was not Islam
itself, he said, but the many incorrect interpreta tions of the Qur'an
that were exploited by extremists.
-
- "Islam is a positive, not a negative force. Today
most Muslim countries seem incapable of developing good governments, they
are always fighting each other, assassinating each other and doing all
the wrong things." Distortions of the Prophet's teachings had held
back the peoples of many Muslim countries, he said.
-
- But Mr Mahathir's strongest criticism was directed outwards.
Even though he retired as Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister in
2003, many in the region still regard him as the country's leader and one
of Asia's most influential voices.
-
- His anger is undimmed; his rhetoric flows unstaunched.
-
- "The US is the most powerful nation," he said.
"It can ignore the world if it wants to do anything. It breaks international
law. It arrests people outside their countries; it charges them under American
law. It kills them.
-
- "The US war on terror is a way of terrorising people.
If you are an Iraqi and you are expecting to be bombed, aren't you terrified?
If you have done nothing, if you are an innocent Iraqi citizen and you
are expecting any time a rocket to fly in and blow you to pieces, aren't
you terrified?
-
- "That is terror [and] the US is as guilty of terrorism
as the people who crashed their planes into the buildings ... Bush doesn't
understand the rest of the world. He thinks everybody should be a neocon
like him."
-
- Mr Mahathir was equally scathing about Israeli policies
in Palestine. He said his visit to the West Bank last month had been deliberately
disrupted by the Israeli government. Specifically, he said he was blocked
from travelling to Jerusalem and Jenin, scene of some of the worst Israeli
violence in 2002, where he was to open a school funded by Malaysia. Israel
has denied impeding his visit.
-
- "I suppose I was mistaken in thinking that there
are parts of Palestine that are under the control of the Palestinians.
But apparently the Israelis have occupied the whole of Palestine. They
do anything they like there," he said.
-
- Mr Blair had discredited himself and Britain in Muslim
eyes by backing the Iraq war, Mr Mahathir said. "He was wrong and
he was more wrong because he tells lies. You know, Jack Straw came to see
me [on the eve of the war in January 2003] and I asked him, 'Why are you
with the Americans?' He said we're trying to influence the Americans not
to take that kind of action. But it seems it was the other way round.
-
- "They [Britain] were influenced in supporting America
to do something that they knew was wrong ... They knew they were being
lied to, and yet they supported the Americans and today 300,000 Iraqis
are dead because of these lies.
-
- "I think a person like Blair would feel very guilty
and I am disappointed that the British people would re-elect a person who
obviously told lies ... We're beginning to lose faith in the present leadership
of Britain." One eventual consequence, he suggested, could be Malaysia's
withdrawal from the Commonwealth.
-
- Malaysia, which is encircled by conflicts in western
Indonesia, the Philippines and southern Thailand, fully supported the fight
against religious and political fanaticism, he said. But the west was going
about it the wrong way.
-
- "Even if you get Bin Laden, you can't be sure there
won't be another Bin Laden. You cannot get terrorists to sign a peace treaty.
The only way to beat terror is to go for the basic causes.
-
- "They don't blow themselves up for no reason, they're
angry, they're frustrated. And why are they angry? Look at the Palestinian
situation. Fifty years after you created the state of Israel, things are
going from bad to worse.
-
- "If you don't settle that, there will be no end
to the war on terror. For how long are you going to go on examining people's
shoes?"
-
- >From GP to PM
-
- Mahathir Mohamad, 79. GP turned politician. Malaysian
prime minister, 1981-2003.
-
- Premiership precis
-
- Developed Malaysia into tightly-controlled democracy
with moderate Islamic bent and open market economy. Achieved through emasculating
the judiciary, restricting media freedoms and stifling virtually all political
dissent, including jailing his deputy in 1998.
-
- Now
-
- Most high-profile of many roles is adviser to national
car company, Proton, one of the nation's flagship industrial enterprises.
Formally eschews limelight, but still regarded as influential political
heavyweight.
-
- Most famous for
-
- Slagging off western nations at every opportunity. Ignoring
the International Monetary Fund during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
After ridiculing his policies at the time, the IMF has admitted Mr Mahathir's
action proved extremely effective.
-
- Bringing Formula One motor racing to Malaysia.
-
- Most infamous for
-
- Grand, often wasteful, infrastructure projects. These
include the Petronas towers - until 2003 the world's tallest buildings
- and Putrajaya, a, purpose-built capital city.
-
- - John Aglionby
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1493443,00.html
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