Malaysia´s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad should be feeling on top of the world. His mantras have worked wonders. Less than three years after the Asian currency crisis destabilised the economies of Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines, it is only Malaysia that has bounced back with revived vigour.
The mood in the country is upbeat. It does not take the visitor long, after landing in Kuala Lumpur, to figure out that the dazzle is not only because of the tropical sunlight in which Malaysia is basking. It is also the brightness of the halo that Mahathir has acquired for pulling his country back from the brink, as it were, to remake the economic miracle. Asiaweek´s casting of its Dream Team—listing Mahathir as the ideal interior minister for an Asian cabinet headed by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee—and Malaysia leading the Commonwealth team to resolve the crisis in Fiji, could not have come at a more opportune time to focus attention on the combative Malaysian leader.
Mahathir´s strong points are economic and ethnic management. But where is Malaysia, under Mahathir, headed? Will he succeed in carving out for the country a larger role in the region and Asia? That certainly seems to be his ambition, to create a new economic community and a different financial climate. Mahathir is ready, but can Malaysia be the springboard that he sees it to be? The answers are not easy, but there are many pointers. The most stunning being the country´s remarkable economic recovery and how this was accomplished. And this economic recovery is pregnant with im¬plications for Asia and the international financial community. These, in turn, have relevance for South Asia and its dominant power, India.
While Mahathir´s success in ´ethnic management´ is no less celebrated than Malaysia´s economic prowess, of late the former is facing challenges. There is an Islamic surge that Mahathir´s United Malays National Organisation is hard put to cope with, and which in the long run may force changes and radically alter the balance of power in Malaysian politics and society.