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2 Malaysia's axis mysteriously
shifting By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - When Abdullah Badawi became
Malaysia's prime minister in 2003, many thought
the mild-mannered leader would take a more
moderate approach to international relations than
his prickly predecessor Mahathir Mohamad, who
often locked diplomatic horns with the United
States and other Western countries.
But a
string of scandals and crimes with international
dimensions, some even linked to Abdullah's family
members, have put his
government's relations with
Washington on an uncomfortable footing.
US
authorities last month arrested and charged
Pakistani national Jilani Humayun for his alleged
role in shipping contraband military goods to
Malaysia, from where they were re-exported to
Iran. He was also charged with conspiracy to
commit money-laundering and mail fraud. The
sensitive dual-use hardware, which was funneled
through an as yet unnamed Malaysian company,
included parts for F-5 and F-14 fighter jets and
Chinook helicopters.
In April the US
imposed sanctions on 14 companies, individuals and
government agencies it accused of dealing in
advanced weapon technology with Iran or Syria. Two
of the companies listed were Malaysian, the
Challenger Corp and Target Airfreight.
Moreover, a federal jury in New York last
year convicted Singaporean businessman Ernest Koh
Chong Tek of smuggling dual-use US military parts
to Malaysia for transshipment to Iran's military -
a violation of the 1995 embargo the US placed on
all exports and re-exports of commodities to Iran
without approval by the US Office of Foreign Asset
Control. He was also charged with laundering
millions of dollars through his Singapore bank
accounts in the smuggling scheme.
The US
and Iran are currently at diplomatic loggerheads
over Tehran's nuclear program, and Washington has
frequently accused Iran's military of arming
radical Muslim militias in the Middle East,
including the Lebanon-based Hezbollah as well as
Iraqi insurgents who have targeted US troops.
However, at least on the surface, bilateral
relations with Malaysia remain cordial.
US
officials who spoke with Asia Times Online would
not comment on the investigations involving
Malaysia on the grounds that they involve
sensitive intelligence information. And so far
there is no evidence to link recent violations of
the US embargo directly to Abdullah. Yet security
analysts say the recent incidents have put the
crucial bilateral relationship on edge.
"I
am absolutely sure that the US is watching these
developments closely and pressing hard on Malaysia
behind the scenes," said Tim Huxley of the
Singapore-based International Institute of
Strategic Studies.
The US is Malaysia's
largest foreign investor, and the two sides are
negotiating a wide-ranging free-trade agreement.
Kuala Lumpur relies heavily on the United States'
military presence to maintain the region's balance
of power, particularly vis-a-vis its heavily armed
neighbor Singapore. At the same time, Malaysia has
been a key ally to the US administration's "global
war on terror" in the region.
"Malaysia
needs the US and doesn't want to do anything that
will tilt the US toward Singapore, Thailand and
Indonesia," said Richard Bitzinger, a security
specialist at the S Rajaratnam School of
International Studies in Singapore. "Both sides
will be willing to accept some [security]
deficiencies, if they remain at low levels."
Family matters Yet the recent
security lapses have been traced to the highest
echelons of Malaysia's business and political
elite, raising questions about Abdullah's
underlying foreign-policy objectives. There are
still huge question marks surrounding the 2004
proliferation case involving Scomi, a company
owned by Abdullah's son Kamaluddin, which was
allegedly involved in supplying dual-use
technology to Libya's clandestine nuclear-weapons
program.
Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri
Lankan national with Malaysian permanent
residency, sat with Kamaluddin on the board of
Scomi-linked company Kaspadu. Buhary negotiated
the controversial contract, which had Scomi
Precision Engineering build components for
centrifuges that were destined for use in Libya's
nuclear program. Scomi Group had since
acknowledged that its subsidiary Scomi Precision
filled a contract negotiated by Buhary to supply
machine parts to Libya.
Documents obtained
by the Associated Press reveal that Buhary was the
chief financial officer of Pakistani nuclear
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's underground
nuclear-proliferation network. How he was able to
forge such high-powered alliances with Malaysia's
political elite is a question that remains
unanswered. When the scandal broke, Abdullah said
Tahir would remain free because there was no
evidence of wrongdoing.
Months later, in
May 2004, Buhary was arrested under Malaysia's
Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows
indefinite detention without trial. Opposition
leaders at the time accused Abdullah of detaining
Tahir under the ISA rather than pursuing standard
criminal procedures lest Kamaluddin be implicated.
Now, Buhary's whereabouts are unclear.
Amir Izyanias, assistant secretary of the
government-sanctioned Human Rights Commission,
says his staff made contact with Buhary on July 23
at Malaysia's Kemunting Prison, where many ISA
detainees are held. However, an official with the
Department of Islamic Development said Buhary is
not on his list of detainees. This all comes
on top of the 2005 independent inquiry into the
United Nations oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, which
cleared Abdullah of involvement but implicated two
of his relatives. Abdullah's sister-in-law Noor
Asia Mahmood and her ex-husband Faek Amad Sareef
were found to have paid US$10 million through
their Mastek company, one of the largest payments
among the the more than 2,200 companies implicated
in the scandal.
The Iraq Survey Group,
which the US set up to investigate weapons in
Iraq, listed "Abdullah Badawi" on its names of
recipients of the oil-for-food scam though did not
clarify whether this was Malaysia's prime
minister. Abdullah has admitted to helping
Malaysian business people to take part in the UN
oil-for-food program, but said at the time the
accusations surfaced that he was not personally
involved. He has said he merely wrote letters
supporting their bid in the program, but
thereafter didn't follow up what happened to their
bids.
Diversified diplomacy None of these scandals, of course, were
necessarily state-sanctioned. Yet they have
notably come at a time when
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