Former Malaysian Prime Minister Seeks to Try Bush, Blair for 'War Crimes'
Graham Lees | Bio | 01 Mar 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- In the coffee shops and tea houses of this modernized, stylish city, the hushed talk is of a faltering economy, rising racial tensions, and the man Malaysians either love or loathe.
Old political warhorse Mahathir Mohamad, now 81 and recovering from a recent heart attack, has yet again demonstrated his refusal to retire gracefully with the mantle of respected elder statesman.
After antagonizing his anointed successor as prime minister on a range of issues -- even accusing the Abdullah Badawi government of presiding over a police state -- and recently wading in on the side of Thailand in its political row with his old enemy Singapore, Mahathir now plans to conduct a "war crimes" tribunal.
The former prime minister of 22 years, who handed over the reins of power to Abdullah nearly four years ago, will re-stamp Kuala Lumpur on the global map by holding to account U.S. President George W. Bush, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and "the pocket Bush of the bushlands" -- Australia's Prime Minister John Howard -- for perceived atrocities in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.
In his self-styled indictment, Mahathir is particularly distressed about the execution of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad: "If we support human rights and justice, we must condemn this barbaric lynching of President Saddam Hussein. There can be no excuse whatsoever for this injustice under any circumstances. War criminal Bush and the puppet regime in Iraq have made a mockery of the rule of law."
Human rights advocates in Malaysia have been swift to allege that Mahathir was a serial abuser of rights at home, routinely using the country's draconian Internal Security Act to indefinitely lock up troublesome critics without trial.
"If the government permits this group headed by Mahathir to proceed in the setting of this tribunal a dangerous precedent will be set," said Param Cumaraswamy, a Malaysian former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, in a strongly worded statement against the tribunal.
Cumaraswamy said the tribunal plan is a farce that would not only make Malaysia an international laughing stock but "could deter respectable and credible foreign investors from investing in this country."
Mahathir says the tribunal is a necessary alternative to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which he accuses of bias in its selection of cases.
Curiously pre-judging the outcome of his own tribunal, the former prime minister says of the "accused": "We cannot arrest them, we cannot detain them, and we cannot hang them the way they hanged Saddam Hussein, but we can label them as war criminals."
Cumaraswamy points out that the Mahathir government never signed the Rome Statute convening the International Criminal Court in 1998.
His castigation of Mahathir concludes: "What if tomorrow an NGO in Malaysia decides to set up a similar tribunal to try Mahathir for human rights violations, assault of the independent judiciary in 1988, corruption, abuse of power, nepotism and cronyism during his 22 years as Prime Minister?"
The Kuala Lumpur government has quietly distanced itself from Mahathir's plans but is unlikely to intervene, say political observers. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Mahathir is acting independently -- "a reflection of democracy in the country" -- and it would not hurt Malaysia's ties with the United States and other countries whose leaders seem likely to be pilloried by the tribunal.
Mahathir's plans are being actively supported by the Perdana Leadership Foundation, a Malaysian non-government organization whose objectives include advocating "greater understanding and cooperation between the world's cultures, religions and ways of life." Its honorary president just happens to be Mahathir.
The tribunal's panel is to include a former Malaysian chief judge, Siti Norma Yaakob, and ex-U.S. attorney-general Ramsay Clark, a civil rights activist who was for a time part of Saddam Hussein's defense team.
Ironically, during the final period of his long premiership, Mahathir enthusiastically supported the U.S.-led war on terror. His government arrested and detained without trial under the internal security act at least 40 people alleged to have links with a Malaysian pro-al-Qaida group, the KMM. In 2002, Mahathir made his first visit to the United States in eight years -- after a long cool period between the two countries -- when he spent three days in Washington meeting Bush and other senior White House officials.
Some anti-Mahathir wags claimed he paid large sums of money to a U.S. lobbying group to ensure a meeting with Bush.
Malaysia's fettered press has had little to say on the tribunal issue, but on blogger Web sites, where Malaysians feel free to vent their feelings, there is unconcealed anger -- as well as support for Mahathir.
One of the domestic news Web sites that have sprung up in recent years, and which provides a bloggers' platform, is Malaysia Today, founded by Raja Petra Kamarudin, who was detained under the security act for 50 days in 2001, allegedly for plotting to overthrow Mahathir. No evidence was ever presented. Some of the ten others who were arrested with Kamarudin were held for over two years without charge or trial.
Kamarudin had led a campaign to secure the release from prison of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who fell foul of Mahathir and suddenly found himself facing a variety of charges, subsequently overturned, and years in prison.
One NGO campaigning for an end to the security act, Suara Rakyat Malaysia, publishes an annual human rights report on Malaysia.
"In 2006, the government continued to deprive individuals a right to justice with laws allowing for detention without trial, including the Internal Security Act, the Emergency Ordinance and the Dangerous Drugs Act," says the current report.
Using the latest available government statistics, Suara Rakyat Malaysia calculates there are 1,960 people held indefinitely in the country without charge or prospect of trial. Somewhat tongue in cheek, the NGO's 2006 report adds: "The Prime Minister, upon receiving news that there were allegedly two Malaysians held at Guantanamo Bay, called for fair trials for them."
Mahathir, once accused by Malaysia's first post-independence prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, of running a police state, has meanwhile been nominated by several Muslim groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
A Malaysian broadcast commentator who is also a lawyer told World Politics Watch the consensus view is that the tribunal would have no legal standing. "Suffice to say that the tribunal is perceived to be more of a political or social initiative," said Imran Imtiaz Shah Yacob.
But he thinks the majority of Malaysians "grudgingly prefer the perceived sense of security that the ISA [Internal Security Act] ensures" in the face of what he calls brittle race relations and "the undercurrent of discontent in Malaysia."
The security act was introduced by the British during the colonial period, when they were fighting a communist insurgency in the 1950s, but was never rescinded after independence.
"Chauvinism and entrenched prejudices are part of the Malaysian socio-political landscape," says Imran Imtiaz.
Around 53 percent of Malaysia's 24 million people are Muslim Malays, but ethnic Chinese make up 30 percent and people of Indian origin 8 percent.
No dates have been set for the tribunal, which is expected to invite "victims" to give evidence against the accused, but when it does get under way it promises to provide entertainment and irritation in equal measures within Malaysia and abroad.
Graham Lees is a Bangkok-based British journalist who has worked in several countries in East Asia over the last ten years covering regional business and political affairs.
World Politics Watch | Former Malaysian Prime Minister Seeks to Try Bush, Blair for 'War Crimes'
Graham Lees | Bio | 01 Mar 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- In the coffee shops and tea houses of this modernized, stylish city, the hushed talk is of a faltering economy, rising racial tensions, and the man Malaysians either love or loathe.
Old political warhorse Mahathir Mohamad, now 81 and recovering from a recent heart attack, has yet again demonstrated his refusal to retire gracefully with the mantle of respected elder statesman.
After antagonizing his anointed successor as prime minister on a range of issues -- even accusing the Abdullah Badawi government of presiding over a police state -- and recently wading in on the side of Thailand in its political row with his old enemy Singapore, Mahathir now plans to conduct a "war crimes" tribunal.
The former prime minister of 22 years, who handed over the reins of power to Abdullah nearly four years ago, will re-stamp Kuala Lumpur on the global map by holding to account U.S. President George W. Bush, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and "the pocket Bush of the bushlands" -- Australia's Prime Minister John Howard -- for perceived atrocities in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.
In his self-styled indictment, Mahathir is particularly distressed about the execution of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad: "If we support human rights and justice, we must condemn this barbaric lynching of President Saddam Hussein. There can be no excuse whatsoever for this injustice under any circumstances. War criminal Bush and the puppet regime in Iraq have made a mockery of the rule of law."
Human rights advocates in Malaysia have been swift to allege that Mahathir was a serial abuser of rights at home, routinely using the country's draconian Internal Security Act to indefinitely lock up troublesome critics without trial.
"If the government permits this group headed by Mahathir to proceed in the setting of this tribunal a dangerous precedent will be set," said Param Cumaraswamy, a Malaysian former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, in a strongly worded statement against the tribunal.
Cumaraswamy said the tribunal plan is a farce that would not only make Malaysia an international laughing stock but "could deter respectable and credible foreign investors from investing in this country."
Mahathir says the tribunal is a necessary alternative to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which he accuses of bias in its selection of cases.
Curiously pre-judging the outcome of his own tribunal, the former prime minister says of the "accused": "We cannot arrest them, we cannot detain them, and we cannot hang them the way they hanged Saddam Hussein, but we can label them as war criminals."
Cumaraswamy points out that the Mahathir government never signed the Rome Statute convening the International Criminal Court in 1998.
His castigation of Mahathir concludes: "What if tomorrow an NGO in Malaysia decides to set up a similar tribunal to try Mahathir for human rights violations, assault of the independent judiciary in 1988, corruption, abuse of power, nepotism and cronyism during his 22 years as Prime Minister?"
The Kuala Lumpur government has quietly distanced itself from Mahathir's plans but is unlikely to intervene, say political observers. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Mahathir is acting independently -- "a reflection of democracy in the country" -- and it would not hurt Malaysia's ties with the United States and other countries whose leaders seem likely to be pilloried by the tribunal.
Mahathir's plans are being actively supported by the Perdana Leadership Foundation, a Malaysian non-government organization whose objectives include advocating "greater understanding and cooperation between the world's cultures, religions and ways of life." Its honorary president just happens to be Mahathir.
The tribunal's panel is to include a former Malaysian chief judge, Siti Norma Yaakob, and ex-U.S. attorney-general Ramsay Clark, a civil rights activist who was for a time part of Saddam Hussein's defense team.
Ironically, during the final period of his long premiership, Mahathir enthusiastically supported the U.S.-led war on terror. His government arrested and detained without trial under the internal security act at least 40 people alleged to have links with a Malaysian pro-al-Qaida group, the KMM. In 2002, Mahathir made his first visit to the United States in eight years -- after a long cool period between the two countries -- when he spent three days in Washington meeting Bush and other senior White House officials.
Some anti-Mahathir wags claimed he paid large sums of money to a U.S. lobbying group to ensure a meeting with Bush.
Malaysia's fettered press has had little to say on the tribunal issue, but on blogger Web sites, where Malaysians feel free to vent their feelings, there is unconcealed anger -- as well as support for Mahathir.
One of the domestic news Web sites that have sprung up in recent years, and which provides a bloggers' platform, is Malaysia Today, founded by Raja Petra Kamarudin, who was detained under the security act for 50 days in 2001, allegedly for plotting to overthrow Mahathir. No evidence was ever presented. Some of the ten others who were arrested with Kamarudin were held for over two years without charge or trial.
Kamarudin had led a campaign to secure the release from prison of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who fell foul of Mahathir and suddenly found himself facing a variety of charges, subsequently overturned, and years in prison.
One NGO campaigning for an end to the security act, Suara Rakyat Malaysia, publishes an annual human rights report on Malaysia.
"In 2006, the government continued to deprive individuals a right to justice with laws allowing for detention without trial, including the Internal Security Act, the Emergency Ordinance and the Dangerous Drugs Act," says the current report.
Using the latest available government statistics, Suara Rakyat Malaysia calculates there are 1,960 people held indefinitely in the country without charge or prospect of trial. Somewhat tongue in cheek, the NGO's 2006 report adds: "The Prime Minister, upon receiving news that there were allegedly two Malaysians held at Guantanamo Bay, called for fair trials for them."
Mahathir, once accused by Malaysia's first post-independence prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, of running a police state, has meanwhile been nominated by several Muslim groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
A Malaysian broadcast commentator who is also a lawyer told World Politics Watch the consensus view is that the tribunal would have no legal standing. "Suffice to say that the tribunal is perceived to be more of a political or social initiative," said Imran Imtiaz Shah Yacob.
But he thinks the majority of Malaysians "grudgingly prefer the perceived sense of security that the ISA [Internal Security Act] ensures" in the face of what he calls brittle race relations and "the undercurrent of discontent in Malaysia."
The security act was introduced by the British during the colonial period, when they were fighting a communist insurgency in the 1950s, but was never rescinded after independence.
"Chauvinism and entrenched prejudices are part of the Malaysian socio-political landscape," says Imran Imtiaz.
Around 53 percent of Malaysia's 24 million people are Muslim Malays, but ethnic Chinese make up 30 percent and people of Indian origin 8 percent.
No dates have been set for the tribunal, which is expected to invite "victims" to give evidence against the accused, but when it does get under way it promises to provide entertainment and irritation in equal measures within Malaysia and abroad.
Graham Lees is a Bangkok-based British journalist who has worked in several countries in East Asia over the last ten years covering regional business and political affairs.
World Politics Watch | Former Malaysian Prime Minister Seeks to Try Bush, Blair for 'War Crimes'
He is the architect of turning a placid Malaysia into a Islamic hotbed which was thwarted by the Chinese since they control the Malaysian economy.
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