That Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was invited to the White House and thanked by the President of the United States of America, George W Bush, for the cooperation of Malaysia in the war against terrorism, is undoubtedly a success.

That the US extended the invitation to Mahathir has thus proven that, contrary to the claims and assertions made by some external quarters and many domestic propagandists, Malaysia has been relatively safe and secure from the threat of terrorism, domestic as well as international.

Before Mahathir left for the US, he attended a public meeting in Kuala Lumpur with the president of PAS and the leader of parliamentary opposition, Fadzil Noor, on the issue of Palestine. Both gave speeches of more or less equal length, as in the best of parliamentary conventions, to a crowd of about 3,000.

The fact that Mahathir conceded to jointly attend a function with top PAS leaders implies that PAS has never been a party of terrorists or one with links to terrorism. Since its inception in 1951, PAS has always been operating within, and committed to, the modern framework of parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy.

In fact, the Singapore

Straits Times and the London-based Jane's Intelligence Review in January had to offer a public apology to PAS for linking it to terrorism and Osama bin Laden.

It is time the many over-zealous supporters of Mahathir or self-styled propagandists halted their neurotic flights of fancy and return to reality.

Another notable success of Mahathir's visit to the United States is the public reaffirmation that Malaysia and the US are, as they have always been, close partners not only in trade, higher education and investment, but also defence cooperation.

However, there are also evident failures in Mahathir's trip to the White House.

Anwar and human rights

First, there were those rather undignified columns and articles in the English mainstream media penned by some over-zealous scribes that have given the people and world the impression that Mahathir now ignominiously 'begs' for US support for the survival of his regime;

Second, there was also an 'anti-imperialist' cheap-talk on the eve of the World Press Freedom Day 2002 by another over-zealous but politically and intellectually unqualified propagandist, that could backfire on Mahathir;

Third, the official reaffirmation of Bush in a joint press conference with Mahathir in the White House, that Malaysia's ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim is still being regarded by the US as a political prisoner; and the reiteration of the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur that the US administration stands by its critical evaluation of the human rights condition in Malaysia for the year 2001, clearly show that these issues are still very much alive as well as of bipartisan concern in the US;

Fourth, the fact that all the US media which interviewed Mahathir, with the exception of the right-wing and Moonie-controlled Washington Times , focused on the issues of human rights in Malaysia, has demonstrated again the vast dichotomy between Mahathir's antiquated views on the subject, and the mainstream opinion and modern sentiment in the international community; and

Fifth, that all the real concerns expressed by the government and people in US on the issues of Anwar and human rights during Mahathir's visit have been blacked out in the Malaysian mainstream and official media, has again exposed Malaysia to ridicule and contempt, both private as well as public.

Again, the mainstream and official media in Malaysia which consciously report half-truths, have shown to the world that they still have no decent sense of fairplay and honesty, even in the age of information and communication technology where they can be easily found out.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia . Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.