Malaysia’s Finest Hour?

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Will the New York Philharmonic finally be able to play Kuala Lumpur? That’s our question after the astonishing triumph of democracy that has just brought back Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister of Malaysia. He ran an anti-corruption campaign against a one-time ally who became a successor. Dr. Mahathir vowed to bring back to power a former deputy premier, whom Dr. Mahathir himself had cast into prison. President Trump sent America’s congratulations.

It’s hard, though, to see a truly triumphant ending absent a reckoning with the anti-Semitism that has been such a part of Dr. Mahathir’s worldview. That is not the only strand of this story, or even the dominant one. The democratic transfer of power, Dr. Mahathir’s pro-business sentiments, and the prospect of Malaysia emerging as an American ally in the face of Communist China’s grab for the South China Sea, these are all full of promise.

Their promise, though, can only be dimmed by Malaysia’s hostility toward the Jews and Israel. The world gained a glimpse of that in 2003, when Dr. Mahathir gave a speech to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Premier at the time, Dr. Mahathir acknowledged that the Europeans killed six million of the world’s 12 million Jews but complained that “today the Jews rule this world by proxy” and “get others to fight and die for them.”

A sharp rebuke was promptly issued by President George W. Bush. The New York Times, though, issued a column by Paul Krugman that called Dr. Mahathir’s remarks “inexcusable” but then sought to excuse them “as part of Dr. Mahathir’s domestic balancing act.” Professor Krugman noted that Dr. Mahathir had directed most of his speech at “other Muslims, clerics in particular” for discouraging the study of science and medicine.

Mr. Krugman went on to blame a “rising tide” of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism among Muslims in Southeast Asia, on — wait for it — America and Israel. “Thanks to its war in Iraq and its unconditional support for Ariel Sharon,” Mr. Krugman wrote, “Washington has squandered post-9/11 sympathy and brought relations with the Muslim world to a new low.” Never mind that Dr. Mahathir’s record of hostility went as far back as the Nixon administration.

It happens that we share the admiration voiced by the Times and President Trump for the democratic uprising that ousted a corrupt regime. It could be called Malaysia’s finest hour. Many, however, are wondering this: If Dr. Mahathir can manage to extend a hand up to, in Anwar Ibrahim, a one-time deputy he once cast into prison, can he find it within himself to extend a hand to the Jews and their state? Can he invite back to Malaysia the New York Philharmonic for a concert including Bloch’s “Hebrew Rhapsody”?


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