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US aid threat fails to faze
Malaysia
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The Malaysian government has
dismissed a US threat to cut off military aid to Kuala
Lumpur as inconsequential.
Malaysian Foreign
Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters on Tuesday that
US military aid to Malaysia is small - "and any
restrictions should not affect us in any way".
The US Senate on Monday placed restrictions on
military grants to Kuala Lumpur to show its displeasure
over Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's recent
criticism of the powerful Jewish lobby in the United
States.
"The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out
of 12 million, but today the Jews rule by proxy: they
get others to fight and die for them," Mahathir told a
summit meeting of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic
Conference (OIC) in Kuala Lumpur last week.
Responding to the remarks, the Senate
unanimously agreed to place new conditions on a proposed
US$1.2 million grant to Malaysia under the International
Military Education and Training (IMET) program.
Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from
Kentucky, said on Tuesday, "What could be more
outrageous in 2003 for the prime minister of any country
to make such unbelievably erroneous statements?
"They are dangerously wrong and they play
directly into the hands of radical Islamic extremists
throughout the region. This is not an issue of free
speech," McConnell added.
The money will now be
disbursed only after a determination by US Secretary of
State Colin Powell that Malaysia supports and promotes
religious freedom, including for Jews.
The
Malaysian foreign minister said the Senate vote was an
example of the United States "trying to discipline the
world in their own mold".
"So now it is another
Muslim country that is being zeroed in [on] for their
so-called disciplining," he told reporters in Kuala
Lumpur.
The United States provided about
$830,000 in IMET grants to Malaysia in 2002 and about
$800,000 in 2003. The projected figure for 2004
increases the amount to $1.2 million. Currently,
Malaysia is also eligible to receive surplus US weapons
on a cost-free basis under a program called Excess
Defense Articles (EDA), which is also expected to be
suspended.
"The United States is probably
threatening the wrong country," a Southeast Asian
diplomat said on Tuesday. "Malaysia is not a banana
republic that depends on US economic or military grants
for its survival. No degree of arm-twisting or economic
threats will intimidate either Mahathir or Malaysia. In
fact, they both need each other because they have strong
economic and military ties."
In July, the
administration of President George W Bush cut off
military aid to 35 "friendly countries" for their
refusal to exempt US soldiers from the jurisdiction of
the International Criminal Court (ICC). They were mostly
poorer nations in Latin America, the Caribbean, East and
Central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the
war on Iraq, the Bush administration lobbied hard to
prevent an emergency session of the UN General Assembly
to discuss the US-led invasion. Diplomatic pressure in
world capitals was said to be so intense that no nation
proposed the sitting.
Malaysia is an important
arms market for the United States, a military analyst
told Inter Press Service. In December 1993, he said,
Malaysia contracted with Washington to purchase eight
F/A-18 fighter planes at a cost of about $700 million.
The contract, which involved a 10-year $250 million
offset program, also included the purchase of 110
Sidewinder, 51 Sparrow, 50 Harpoon and 50 Maverick
missiles. Under the offset program, US companies are
also expected to invest in Malaysia.
The State
Department said early this year that although the global
financial crisis slowed Malaysia's military procurement
plans in the late 1990s, "we expect Malaysia to look to
the United States for future purchases as economic
recovery continues". In its 2004 "Congressional Budget
Justification for Foreign Operations", the department
says that "Malaysia has been a cooperative and proactive
partner in the global campaign against terrorism".
"A supporter of the US forward presence in Asia,
Malaysia borders one of the world's most important
maritime waterways," it adds.
According to
figures released by the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, the
United States is the largest foreign investor in
Malaysia, with direct investments totaling about $6
billion. The United States is Malaysia's No 1 export
market, accounting for more than 20 percent of
Malaysia's exports totaling about $22 billion. Likewise,
Malaysia is a key market for the United States, with US
merchandise exports to Malaysia worth about $9.4 billion
annually.
Mahathir made his controversial
statement at the world's biggest single gathering of
Muslim leaders. Among the Islamic leaders who gave him a
standing ovation last week was the US-installed
president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.
Although
Mahathir was equally critical of Islamic ideologues and
fundamentalists, the mainstream media in the United
States highlighted only his criticism of Jews and
Israel. Asia Times Online's report (Mahathir on Jews: What he said,
October 23) includes links to his OIC speech in full and
to a wide-ranging interview with the Malaysian premier
by the Bangkok Post.
(Inter Press
Service)
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