French President Jacques Chirac has joined in the worldwide condemnation of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's ( photo ) controversial remarks on the Jewish people made at the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Kuala Lumpur last week.

On Oct 18, France also endorsed a joint statement of the European Union (EU) attacking what it considered to be "anti-Semitic" remarks by Mahathir. The United States, Australia and Canada also responded negatively.

In separate initiatives, Britain and Germany reportedly summoned Malaysian diplomats in London and Berlin to "express concern" and "register protest" respectively.

During the height of the global debate on the Iraq war, Malaysia was in the anti-war camp which included France Germany and Canada. Seen in this light, Malaysia now has alienated its powerful anti-war friends.

In a larger context, Mahathir's controversial remarks have re-united the West which had been fragmented over the Iraq issue.

Certainly, the 77-year-old premier, who will step down at the end of this month, has lost the crucial Franco-German goodwill cemented earlier this year.

Regional setback

As Mahathir and the domestic media continue to defend his controversial remarks, Malaysia seems to have suffered from a major diplomatic setback on the regional front.

The high-profile visits of US President George W Bush to Japan, the Phillippines, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and Indonesia appear to have isolated Malaysia politically. Bush is attending the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Bangkok.

Japan, Philippines, Thailand and Australia are official allies of the US in defence and security, Singapore also hosts operational and logistical facilities for the Pacific Command, the largest unified command of the US armed forces in the world.

These four 'non-Nato allies' of the US, together with South Korea, supported the war against the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq while Malaysia opposed it vehemently.

Indonesia, although nominally non-aligned and also opposed to the US-led war on Iraq, has been adopting a more pragmatic approach to the conduct of diplomatic and security relations with the US, Australia and their allies in the region since1966, following the end of the Sukarno regime.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world.

Besides Britain, which maintains security relations with Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand under the 1971 Five Power Defence Arrangements, the military presence of other European countries in the Asia-Pacific region is negligible.

'Security forum'

So, it comes as no surprise that Mahathir has 'warned' that Apec should guard against being turned into 'a security forum'.

Formed in 1989 at Australia's initiative, Apec has been perceived by Mahathir to be dominated by American values and interests.

It was created after the premier failed in advocating the formation of an East Asian Economic Caucus comprising Asean member states, Japan, South Korea and China.

Japan and South Korea are official allies of the US, while Sino-American relations have also improved significantly after September 2001.

This leaves Mahathir with little room to play off one power against another on the critical issue of global balance of power and international security.

Like it or not, having lost Franco-German goodwill and now surrounded by American allies and friends, the diplomacy of Mahathir's government is indeed in shambles.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM). Wong is a former member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily (now Sin Chew 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.