MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-10-20 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir Secretary NYLXS
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] In other events this week
|
October 20, 2003 Bush Tells Malaysian Leader That Comments on Jews Were
Wrong By DAVID E. SANGER
BANGKOK, Oct. 20 President Bush ran into Malaysia's pugnacious prime
minister, Mahathir Mohamad, at the opening of the Asian summit meeting
here today and told him out of the earshot of the other 19 leaders that
Mr. Mahathir had been "wrong and divisive" when he declared last week
that Jews run the world by proxy, the White House said.
Then Mr. Bush, who usually jealously guards his private conversations
with other world leaders, sent a spokesman out to recount the encounter
for reporters, replete with Mr. Bush's declaration to the nearly retired
Malaysian leader that the theme of Mr. Mahathir's remarks "stands squarely
against what I believe in."
It was a strange, if highly choreographed, encounter with one of Asia's
longest-serving leaders. For four days after Mr. Mahathir spun out his
strange theory of why Jews had survived extinction and then gone on to
succeed at the expense of Muslims, Mr. Bush was silent on the matter,
even as other countries condemned the prime minister's speech as offensive
and anti-Semitic.
Mr. Mahathir is retiring in a few months, and it seemed that the White
House had decided not to pick an open fight with a prickly leader whom
Mr. Bush praised in the Oval Office last year as a strong ally in the
campaign against terror.
In fact, last year Mr. Bush allowed Mr. Mahathir to use his cooperation in
tracking down terrorists to rehabilitate his image in the United States.
A year ago, Malaysia was often cited by administration officials as an
exemplary moderate Islam nation, even if it was run by a man who once
blamed the 1997 Asian financial crisis on the Jews and often claimed
that Western-style democracy would be a disaster in the developing
world. Mr. Bush began to sour on him earlier this year, though, when he
declared that invading Iraq would be a racist attack on a Muslim state.
By the time the time Mr. Bush landed in this jammed capital of Thailand
for a state visit and the two-day annual summit meeting, it became
clear, White House officials said, that the president could no longer
stay silent on Mr. Mahathir's remarks. So the national security adviser,
Condoleezza Rice, told reporters today that "everyone thinks the comments
were hateful; they are outrageous," and that Mr. Bush regarded them as
"reprehensible."
"I don't think they are emblematic of the Muslim world," she said.
As Mr. Bush prepares to drop in on Wednesday, for three hours, on
the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, some White House
officials are clearly concerned that Mr. Mahathir's speech has had
considerable resonance. Mr. Mahathir's speech on Thursday received a
standing ovation from Muslim leaders of many nations, including Saudi
Arabia, who were attending the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic
Conference, the world's largest Muslim group.
"Clearly, we had to respond," a White House official said today. "But
the president wanted to do it in a quiet way, without further public
embarrassment for Mahathir."
In the past, Mr. Bush has bit his tongue when asked about
Dr. Mahathir. When the two men took questions from reporters in the Oval
Office in May 2002, the president was asked whether the United States
had changed its view that Mr. Mahathir's former deputy prime minister,
Anwar Ibrahim, was a political prisoner.
Mr. Ibrahim had been the finance minister and a potential rival to
Mr. Mahathir, and he has been in jail since 1998. But the president,
intent that day on emphasizing the cooperation he was getting
from Mr. Mahathir on counterterrorism, made no public reference to
Mr. Ibrahim's fate, and simply said, quietly, "Our position has not
changed." Mr. Ibrahim remains in jail.
Mr. Mahathir clearly knew that his comments last week would gain
considerable circulation: there were cameras in the room, recording his
farewell speech to the group. It included these words: "The Europeans
killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule the
world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."
He seemed at points to be saying that Muslims should learn from the
success of the Jewish people. But later he added that "1.3 billion
Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews."
Mr. Mahathir told Mr. Bush that he had been quoted out of context. His
foreign minister, Syed Hamid, later told Secretary of State Colin
L. Powell that the speech was more critical of Muslims than Jews, and that
only "one or two portions" had been problematic. He also reportedly said
that Malaysia, perhaps the greatest high-technology success story in the
Muslim world, would not contribute significantly to Iraqi reconstruction.
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