I was right ; Dr. M and his supporters , wrong
I am absolutely fine and my conscience is perfectly clear as I had always been skeptical - on both Chinese and English public records, especially my columns in the Sin Chew Jit Poh from late 1997 to mid-2000 - about the claim repeatedly asserted without proof by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in Malaysia and elsewhere that George Soros was the currency speculator whose market operations caused the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. So, I was right and Dr. Mahathir and his blind followers as well as propagandists were wrong on this point from 1997 to 2006. But, Tun is still to be commended for willing to admit the mistake and reconcile with the Jew he once reviled so much as an ethnic stereotype for scapegoating in crises as external enemy.
posted by James Wong Wing-On at 2:49 PM
2 Comments:
Hi James,
I remember very well one of Mahathir's speeches on the so-called "Jewish conspiracy".
On the day it got reported in the Los Angeles Times, I was in the US, part of a team from our Malaysian factory, making a hard sell to a Silicon Valley company why their product should be built in Malaysia, not China or Thailand. Times were hard then, this multi-million dollar project meant a lot to the company, and also would have helped the Malaysian economy in some way.
The news frankly didn't get much attention in the US (I believe the average American hardly reads the world news section of their newspaper). But to the management of that company, in the middle of a major manufacturing location decision, any news, good or bad, about Malaysia made an impression. At dinner, I was asked about Mahathir's speech by a member of their Senior management, who had a very Jewish name and looked the part - hooked nose and all. I had told him frankly, I thought it was just meant for domestic consumption, creating an outside enemy to take attention away from internal Umno strife. I believed at a practical level, relations with the US were excellent.
We got the contract in the end. Our multi-racial team, working closely together, can still provide a superior solution to what China can offer. I belief that can be true for the nation as a whole - PROVIDED we work together and harness the contributions of all our people, regardless of their ancestry.
But I can't help thinking - on that day, Mahathir's demagoguery nearly derailed the whole deal, and we would all have been losers, the Malaysian economy included.
derailment for 9 years. count the opportunity cost and the waste of intagible mental energy of socially responsible patriots like me to combat the propagandists like Zam. But I love people who admit mistakes and make amends as I expect other to love me when I do the same one day. So, it's over for me. I don't hate Mahathir or Zam now.
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