Umno president and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has again made the country globally well-known by his flight-of-fancy attack on "the European race" that include all the peoples of European origins in the US, Australia and New Zealand.

New Zealand did not express support for the US-led war against the Saddam regime in Iraq, although it is reportedly considering now to join forces with Australia to restore peace and order in the Soloman Islands where civil and political disorders are in tatters.

New Zealand is also a member of the 1971 Five Power Defence Arrangments (FPDA) that include Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Britain. The armed forces of Malaysia and New Zealand regularly hold joint exercises under FPDA, such as the "Flying Fish" which is now being conducted in the South China Sea.

Canada, which also opposed to the US-led war against the Saddam regime, was later included by Mahathir.

In any case, "the European race" was not the only target of his sweeping and venomous attack in his farewell speech in the Umno assembly last week. In a less shrill tone, Mahathir also attempted to pit China on one hand against Japan and South Korea on the other.

Desperate attempt

It is rather evident that it is a desperate attempt to use China as a countervailing power against the West and allies, or to unilaterally project it as his powerful backer.

According to him, the economic successes of China "has frightened China's close neighbours and old enemies of China, i.e. Japan and South Korea".

He also said: "In a very short space of time, this poor Communist country has become a rich nation with the possibility of having a powerful military force".

Japan and South Korea, two close military allies of the US since 1950s, were once the publicly recommended objects of admiration and emulation in Mahathir's Look East Policy. The two countries as well as China were once envisioned by Mahathir in his "Asean + 3" scheme to be a countervailing bloc to what he perceives to be Anglo-American Australian "economic imperialism" in the Asia-Pacific region.

China, despite its occasional and manageable differences with the United States in human rights issues, have joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and continued to reform and liberalise its economic structure by down-sizing the state or state-sponsored sectors as well as cutting down unproductive use of resources.

After the 9/11 terrorist attack in Washington DC and New York, China has also been cooperating closely with the United States in counter-terrorism, especially in its western and north-western regions where some militant Muslims fight for secession.

Report

For example, according to a report in the Asian Defence & Diplomacy (Vol 9, No. 12, Dec 2002), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had already opened an office in Beijing in February 2002.

China now also shares with Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US the position of a "nuclear-free Korean Peninsula". In 1950-1953, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) was sent by

Chairman Mao to North Korea as legitimate forward defence against the US-led United Nations forces from crossing the Yalu River, its border with North Korea.

In 1950, North Korea unilaterally launched an aggression against South Korea, and US-led UN multinational forces were authorised by the Security Council (with the accidental Russian abstention) to assist the South Koreans to repel the aggression.

On their parts, the US and all the European countries, like Malaysia, now support the One-China policy and peaceful relations between China on one hand, and Taiwan and China's other neighbours on the other.

Although China did not vote, in the UN Security Council, for the humanitarian intervention into the Kosovo crisis in 1998-1999, and its embassy in Belgrade was accidentally bombed by Nato forces, it sent polcing personnel later to East Timor to assist the Australia-led UN peace-keeping forces to protect innocent people against massacre and genocide by some ethno-nationlist elements of the then Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI).

In May 1998, China also joined the US and other countries, as well as the then Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and opposition party PAS, to condemn the anti-Chinese riots in Jakarta.

The multi-faceted, multi-level and pragmatic relationships between China on one hand and Europe, the US and its allies as well as other countries in the world on the other, are more complex, mature and responsible than Mahathir's attempts to project in simplistic - and self-interested- terms.

Anti-Semitic book distributed

In a less direct manner, "international Jewry" was also attacked in the Umno assembly last week. According to reports in the Voice of America (VOA) and New York Times , an infamous 1920 anti-Semitic book by American industrialist, Henry Ford was distributed by Umno's party workers to some of the delegates free of charge.

The book, The International Jews , which was distributed for free is reportedly an abridged version translated into Bahasa Malaysia, and published in Johannesburg in South Africa.

However, Mahathir, when asked, reportedly disclaimed any personal responsibility for the free distribution of the book in the "historic" assembly of the party he still leads. He also reportedly claimed that he has not been influenced by the book.

In the immediate aftermath of the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis, Mahathir once publicly, in Malaysia as well as Hong Kong, attributed the economic meltdown of Malaysia to an "international Jewish conspiracy" and particularly an American financial market speculator, George Soros.

The organised and free distribution of the anti-Semitic book may or may not be Mahathir's personal responsibility, but the facts that it is translated into Bahasa Malaysia, published in South Africa and distributed for free in an organised manner are certainly a cause for serious concern.

What is of even more serious concern is the fact that no other top Umno leaders have attempted to immediately and publicly repudiate, or distance themselves from, the distorted, deformed, dangerous and irresponsible opinions on international relations of Mahathir as expressed in his farewell speech, and those in Ford's anti-Semitic book of 1920.

Institute of Mahathir

On the contrary, according to a 20 June Reuter report, a "Dr Mahathir Mohamad Institute of Strategic Thinking" is going to be set up by some Umno leaders, "once he retires at the end of

October". It is certainly an attempt to institutionalise and organise Mahathirism in the post-Mahathir Malaysia.

Meanwhile, in a 22 June report, the Umno-controlled New Straits Times quoted Mahathir as saying that he has no plan to become the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Conference after his retirement in October.

Does it therefore mean that Mahathir would, after his formal and official retirement in October, remain in the country to actively promote his worldviews, ideology, 'grand' strategy and opinions on international relations and world affairs through the "Dr Mahathir Mohamad Institute of Strategic Thinking"?

If yes, then how influential will his "strategic thinking" be among the decision-makers in Umno, the National Front, government, civil services, security forces, business community, institutes of higher learning and mass media?

Seen in the light of this seemingly insignificant set of information, there is serious cause for concern for whether Mahathirism will, or will not, outlive the retirement of Mahathir the person in October.

His farewell speech may not be "personal" or "final". It may be organisational and ongoing in some years to come.