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Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine

Of the major Asian news magazines, Newsweek has maintained the most deliberate pro-Anwar policy in the last six months, focussing on the need for reform in Malaysia, and on Anwar as its most visible leader. Some of the more controversial quotes from the article and interview which accompanied the announcement of the award.

Ugly as the trial is, Malaysian's know the real fight is in the political arena. It is about the wrath of a conservative old man and the liberal protégé who dared to challenge him. It is about the clash between a rebel fighting the colonial demons of yesteryear and his would-be successor, a man of the world who espouses univeral values and the global village. Anwar is no Mahatma Ghandi. He is a wily, determined politician fighting not just for survival but for power. It is the larger battle that he personifies - between old and new politics in East Asia, authoritarian and democratic governments, protected and open economies - that makes him NEWSWEEK's Asian of the year.

Anwar has helped changed his country - and perhaps lead Asia into a more open era in the process. "We are witnessing the transformation of our political culture" says ABIM's Ahmad Azam.

(ABIM is an Islamic educational institution once headed by Anwar..(Eds.))

Mahathir goes into 1999 with his local credibility recovered. Anwar is still in the joint. The "reformasi" movement, (another term which many Malaysian's object to as suggesting an association with Indonesia and not being an actual Bahasa Malaysian word itself), is taking a rest for Ramadam, and all we hear from the trial is about stained mattresses.

Just for now, the "conservative old man" is firmly entrenched and the Malaysian elite have withstood their first major challenge. It has been acheived in many ways, formally and informally, estranging Malaysia from the outside world.. plus a good measure of good old fashioned traditional Asian influence peddling, which the Malaysian elite have proven to be the masters of.

So where does that leave the ordinary Malaysian, and those who do business in or with Malaysia? Isolationist currency controls and other economic policies have inevitably led to a recovery of the Malaysian stock market with the inflow of Ringgit, restricted outflows, and an economy which can be directed more by the nation state than the global economy. The leadership have shown they can resist the political effects of a major crash and recession by time worn methods. The encumbent élite has got a repreive. In the time-limited vacuum provided, will the necessary changes be made to build a stronger Malaysia for the global future, or is it just business as usual while the hard answers are only delayed for the future?

Maybe Newsweek could have followed Time's approach who named two gents Men of the Year.. both Clinton and Starr.

For who has been the better teacher? Anwar who taught Malaysian's to ask the hard questions, or Mahathir who taught us what happens to those who do?