DR
MAHATHIR: WHAT HAS MALAYSIA TO DO WITH CUBA?
On
first reckoning, you would think that these two countries have nothing in
common. One is in South East Asia, predominantly Muslim, upper end on the
development scale; the other a small island the other side of the world,
communist, with very high standards of Education and Medical Care. Both have a
modicum of Democracy, but Malaysia is not a one party state.
Dr.
Mahathir is known as a Fox among even the most cunning of politicians.
Recently
at the age of 92 he was reelected as PM of Malaysia defeating a well oiled
machinery of the long governing Muslim dominated party, where the former PM and
his cronies stole about a billion dollars worth of Government money. Dr.
Mahathir promises to rectify these mistakes
But
he had not forgotten his old ally, Cuba
In
2003, when the Non Aligned Government heads of state met in KL, Fidel Castro
was healthy and present and I remember a photo of them together at the
Malaysian Embassy (resulted from that meeting). The wily Dr. M, as he is known,
used his good offices with Fidel; to prod the Americans, gain some respect in
the process.
Fidel
in return promised 45 medical scholarships to deserving Malaysian students and opening
of an Embassy in KL. I had met two of the last four Malaysian Ambassadors to
Cuba, Joji Samuel who is now his country's ambassador to Thailand and Omar Khairy who became a good friend and the last three out of four Cuban ambassadors to Malaysia have been my
friends: Pedro Monzon, Carlos Amores and Ibete Fernandez.
Whenever
I am in KL, I try to stop by the Embassy for a chat or we share a coffee or a
meal. Each of these ambassadors is extraordinary , as Cuba is very selective on
who represents the country abroad and I have learned a lot from them.
This
morning, a good friend of mine from KL, sent me this link to an article in the
New York Times about Dr. Mahathir Mohammed and what he is trying to accomplish
in that debt ridden, corruption wrapped country.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/world/asia/malaysia-mahathir-mohamad.html
In
the article, there are four photographs, I am sure carefully chosen,
symbolically the three of them are representing the Islamic values of the
country, where you see Mahathir or his assistants dressed in traditional
Islamic way of the Malay people (which by the way is quite recent that is
another story) and the only other picture shows Dr. Mahathir receiving the
Cuban Ambassador to Malaysia, Mrs. Ibete Fernandez.
I
looked at the symbolism of this photo and its context.
NYT
is a widely read and the most respected newspaper in the USA. Dr. Mahathir is
no friend of Trump and is aware of his anti-Cuban policies. By showing the only
political photo in this article in the most prestigious daily newspaper in USA,
where people would see him receiving the Cuban Ambassador to his country is a
manoeuvre by the clever Dr. Mahathir. An Average Malaysian who may not see this
article (even though it came to me from a Malaysian friend of mine), lots of
Americans would see it and read it and would see the photo of my friend Ibete,
who is the Cuban Ambassador with Dr. Mahathir, thus emphasizing the symbolism
of friendship over distance from Cuba and how we value friendships when the
country closest to Cuba maintains such a hostile attitude towards Cuba.
I
enjoyed reading the article and seeing the photo of Cuban Ambassador with Dr.
Mahathir
