In a week's time, one of Asia's longest-ruling and most effective leaders is due to step down. Dr Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister of Malaysia in July 1981 and on October 31 will hand over to his chosen successor and deputy, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
During his 22 years in power, per capita income has tripled (to $3,915 in 2002), propelled by the opening of the economy to foreign investment and widespread privatisation. In 1998, when the currency was tumbling in the wake of the Asian financial and economic crisis, Dr Mahathir pegged the ringgit to the dollar and imposed capital controls. Malaysia emerged from the trough more rapidly than its neighbours.
Under the New Vision Policy, Malays have gradually increased their share of the economic cake; it was their resentment of Chinese wealth that caused serious intercommunal rioting in 1970, an event that seared the generation of politicians from which the 78-year-old prime minister comes. At the same time, the newer force of militant Islam has been kept at bay. In short, Malaysia under Dr Mahathir can fairly claim to be the second most successful Southeast Asian country after Singapore.
There is, however, a dark side to this success, intimately connected to his domineering, chippy personality. In a week's time, he will be fêted as an elder statesman. But only a week ago, Dr Mahathir reverted to the anti-Semitism for which he was already notorious. Addressing the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur, he lamented the weakness and divisiveness of the Islamic world when faced with issues such as Palestine.
"1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews," he said. "We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them. They invented and successfully promoted socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful and they, this tiny community, have become a world power."
Several commentators have attempted to explain the reason for this poisonous outburst. In the New York Times, Paul Krugman suggested he was throwing "rhetorical red meat" to the Malays to cover his domestic flank, and went on to criticise Washington for squandering postSeptember 11 sympathy by invading Iraq and giving unconditional support to Ariel Sharon. In this week's Spectator, Sholto Byrnes sought a wholescale exoneration of Dr Mahathir's views, saying he "ought to be acclaimed by the West as the very model of a moderate leader".
Yet anti-Semitism is more intrinsic to the prime minister's outlook than these apologists would have us believe. In 1986 he said that oppression of the Jews had taught them nothing. "If anything at all, it has transformed the Jews into the very monsters that they condemn so roundly in their propaganda material." In 1997, he blamed the Asian financial and economic crisis on the Jewish financier George Soros. "We do not want to say that this is a plot by the Jews," he said, "but in reality it is a Jew who triggered the currency plunge, and coincidentally Soros is a Jew. It is also a coincidence that the Malaysians are mostly Muslim. Indeed, the Jews are not happy to see Muslims progress."
A record of economic success and political stability has been marred in its dying days by the re-eruption of a deep-seated obsessive hatred. Anti-Semitism and the shameful treatment of Anwar Ibrahim, a one-time minister of finance who has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for corruption and sodomy, are indelible stains on Dr Mahathir's career. Pragmatic in his stewardship of the economy, he has been ruthless in crushing dissent. Malaysia may have prospered under his long rule, but its liberties have been severely restricted.