On the global stage: Dr M’s letters to Israel a ventilation of appalling ignorance

If former premier Mahathir Mohamad’s letter dated 8 June 1999 to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and two other letters to Tel Aviv are anything to go by, we can guess that other ignoramus letters he wrote to world leaders on these and other issues must have been in similar vein.

The three letters (scroll below) to Israel are the same in content and tone i.e. patronizing and condescending and portray a nation punching above its puny weight in international affairs. Those who stay in glass houses should not throw stones.

If Mahathir’s three letters to the then Israeli Prime Ministers show Malaysia’s consistent stand on the Palestinian cause, then we are still at a loss to understand them as the gibberish is difficult to fathom. The letters don’t mean what they say and don’t say what they mean”. If anything they are a bundle of contradictions and have a flawed take on history. Mahathir also left himself open to criticism of being a hypocrite, offering advice at a faraway place when racial injustice just as evil or worse was happening right in his own country.

Playing to the gallery in the kampungs

Mahathir must have been very free at the office to write such dead-end letters.

He took the opportunity in the letters to repeat his propaganda on the New Economic Policy, about “Malay lands” in South Thailand and everybody in Malaysia being very happy, obviously with him. It was the British who wrested the Orang Asli’s southern half of the Kra Peninsular -- peopled by squatter colonies of illegal immigrants, refugees and criminal runaways from the neighbouring islands -- from the Thai kingdom after two wars. The British aim was to plant rubber and mine the tin.

More pertinently in the letters, Mahathir certainly wanted to capitalize on the Palestinian plight and play to the gallery in the kampungs. If possible, politicians like Mahathir in the Muslim world would want the suffering of the Palestinians to continue indefinitely so that they can play politics with the issue.

Ignorance on law, history and religion

In any case, to reiterate, the letters are a ventilation of appalling ignorance especially on law, history and religion.

The Holy Lands around Jerusalem belong to Judaism and Christianity, notwithstanding Muslim military victories during the Crusades, while Islam’s Holy Lands are in Mecca and Medina. The Roman expulsion of the majority of the Jews into the diaspora is an aberration in history. The expelled Jews promised to come back and they did, albeit their descendents. Now, the world has to live with that fait accompli. No one in his right mind would give up even a part of his Holy Land, based on God and Adat, to Muslim squatters but the Jews are willing to do that in exchange for peace and security.

It would be interesting to know whether the Israeli leaders replied to Mahathir’s letters considering the fact that Malaysia does not recognise the State of Israel. It’s unlikely that Mahathir received any reply since his letters are a calculated insult meant to provoke and irritate the citizens of Israel, Arab – Christian and Muslim – and Jewish alike.

With due respect to the Palestinian people, Mahathir is suggesting that beggars – the corrupt Palestinian leaders – can be choosers. The Tel Aviv Government has touched on this aspect before when it declared that they as the givers will not be questioned on what they were willing to give. This is a tragedy since corrupt leaders, being unrepresentative, can be easily bought through material considerations. They can betray the Palestinian cause for their self-serving reasons.

Charity begins at home

Mahathir speaks of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). The PLO is not a state, or a party to talks, but has blood on its hands as a terrorist organisation. There cannot be any agreements with the PLO. But there have been Israeli agreements with the Palestinian Authority which have been honoured by both sides more often than not in the breach.

Charity begins at home. If Mahathir is so concerned about honouring agreements, he could have done something about complying with the 1963 Malaysian Agreement under which Sabah and Sarawak agreed to help form the Federation of Malaysia as equal partners with Singapore and Malaya.

Malaysia needs to re-think its so-called principled and consistent stand on Palestine. It should not be based on politicizing the issue, on blatant falsehoods and a misreading of law, history and religion. The Christians in Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak will not agree with it.

The crux of the problem in the Palestine part of the former British Trans-Jordan Mandate was not Jews taking Arab land as Mahathir put it. The world body had created two states, Israel and Palestine, as recommended by the 24-Nation UN Decolonization Committee. So, the question of anyone taking someone else’s land does not arise.

In that case, the Orang Asli in the peninsular south and the native communities in the nearby islands in Indonesia should jointly claim the entire land area occupied by the Republic of Singapore.

Settlements in occupied territory, another issue, hardly comprise one per cent of the occupied land. They form part of Israel’s continuing search for security and can be exchanged for alternative tracts, as acknowledged by the Palestinians themselves, during the peace process. Israel wouldn’t build settlements on occupied land if Hamas stops lobbying rockets at it.

If land theft is an issue with Mahathir, the Malaysian Government should look at its own backyard and examine its record on Orang Asli land, the Penan in Sarawak being chased out from their ancestral forests, and other Dayaks and the Dusuns losing their NCR land to Peninsular Malaysia-based plantation companies. In Sabah, Felda has even occupied 306,000 acres of NCR land which it refuses to give back to the Natives from whom they were stolen.

Refusal to hold elections

The crux of the problem in the Middle East is Palestine and neighbouring Arab states not accepting, honouring and respecting international law. They went to war against Israel, attacking the new state, and as a result they continue to pay a heavy price to this day. The Arab states did not attack Israel just once in 1948 but also in 1967 and continue to attack the state until today.

Emanating from the continued state of war between Israel and Palestine is the fact that there can be no statehood for the latter as long as there’s no security for the former.

The bottomline on the Palestinians is that there can also be no movement towards a state for them as Israel does not have a partner for peace on their side. The Palestinians need to appoint a partner for peace with Israel and they can only do this through the ballot box.

However, both the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip have declined so far to hold elections to allow the people to choose their own leaders. It seems that they are afraid of being defeated and new leaders emerging. They insist on representing the Palestinians in peace talks with Israel without getting a mandate from them to be representative of them. There’s no locus standi!

Waiting for a peace partner

Israel, under the circumstances, can only watch and wait for a partner for peace to emerge on the Palestinian side. It’s unlikely to happen in the near future as the people of Palestinian have lost their sovereignty, under international law, to a small clique in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas which has usurped it.

Like in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the only way that the people of Palestine are going to regain their sovereignty is if an external military force composed of an international coalition deposes the small clique holding the people to ransom through the Palestinian Authority and Hamas and hang them from the nearest lamp posts as an object lesson to other would-be tyrants.

The UN should step in at this juncture, as in Iraq, and set up an interim administration to pave the way towards a National Transitional Authority which can then prepare for free and fair elections as its first order of the day.

Elections in the occupied territories which will make up Palestine is the first step towards engaging with Israel and move towards a two-state solution.

On the Israeli side, elections are held every four or five years and the government changes hands. The Palestinians, if they can likewise elect their own leaders, will be able to deal with the government of the day in Israel. Both Israel and the UN are not likely to accept anything less than the people of Palestine being lawfully represented at peace talks.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians in the occupied territories find Israel a blessing in disguise as it provides them with employment and economic opportunities which don’t exist on their thoroughly corrupt side of the border which has still to be demarcated.

The Tel Aviv Government also collects taxes in the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and hands them over. It should be noted that the Israelis no longer collect the taxes in the Gaza Strip which Tel Aviv considers the original and historical homeland of the Palestinians following their migration centuries ago out of Phoenicia (now Lebanon).

Malaysia Chronicle

First letter was to Yitzhak Rabin

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 29 (Bernama) -- The following is the letter written by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel in 1993, as released by the Foreign Ministry here today.

PRIME MINISTER MALAYSIA

21 December 1993

His Excellency

Mr Yitzhak Rabin

Prime Minister of Israel

JERUSALEM

I would like to thank you for your letter of 17 October informing me about the Agreement of Principles and Mutual Recognition between Israel and the PLO.

My government supports this positive development and views it as a first step towards the realization of a comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem. As a demonstration of Malaysia's support to this development my country was represented at the Donor's Conference to support The Middle East Peace held in Washington and subsequently pledged a modest financial contribution to the Palestinians to assist in their new tasks. My government has also offered the Palestinians technical assistance under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme.

Malaysia as a matter of general principle is prepared to develop relations with Israel at the appropriate time. In the meantime, we would like to see tangible progress in the implementation of the peace agreement.

The Middle East problem particularly the Palestinian issue has been a cause of instability to the region and I hope the recent agreement between Israel and PLO would contribute to lasting peace to the area.

I look forward to normal relations with Israel. (this last sentence is hand written)

DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD

-- BERNAMA

Second letter was to Benjamin Netanyahu

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 29 (Bernama) -- The following is the letter written by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel in 1997, as released by the Foreign Ministry here today.

PRIME MINISTER MALAYSIA

14 March 1997

His Excellency

Mr Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister of Israel

JERUSALEM

Your Excellency,

Your letter dated January 23rd only reached me yesterday. I appreciate very much your taking the trouble to inform me on the situation in Palestine and the region. Unfortunately much of what you have written has been overtaken by events.

Malaysia believes in peace and in settlement of problems between neighbours through negotiations. As a last resort, we turn to third parties. In disputes over territories between Malaysia and Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia we have agreed to get the World Court to decide. Dispute between Malaysia and Thailand over territorial waters was resolved by agreeing to share the non-marine resources equally.

Within the country, disparities in wealth distribution between the indigenous people and those of immigrant origins were resolved through affirmative action in which the have knots would have a bigger share of a growing economic cake but there would be no expropriation and redistribution of what already belonged to the descendants of immigrants. Everyone has very nearly a fair share now and everyone is fairly satisfied. Relations between the different races in Malaysia are good and not disruptive.

The important point I would like to stress is not to take what already belongs to others even though historically they may be yours. Lately, Israel has been pulling down Arab dwellings in order to erect houses for Israelis. The whole world, including your ally, the United States condemns this. But Israel has gone ahead.

You condemn Syria for making threats. But their threats are the response to your own action. If you forcibly take over land and property belonging to the Palestinians, the only response if they are not to violently act against you, is to threaten to act against you. If they cannot retaliate and they cannot voice their intended retaliation, than they would have to submit to all your action no matter how wrong. What you are doing now is against the spirit and the letter of the peace process agreed to by your predecessor. How can we trust Israel if a change in the government negates solemnly given undertakings by a Government of Israel. Please reconsider your decision to build new Jewish settlements on Arab land.

The Israeli youths are here. Our intention is to show them that Muslims are normal rational people who want to live in peace and freedom. We hope that they will have a new impression of Muslims and Islam. There will be aberrations among Muslims but there are also aberrations among Jews and Christians and people of every religion. No religion should be judged by these aberrations. We hope that the youths will understand Muslims better and will want to be at peace with them. To have peace you have to make sacrifices. The Palestinians no longer demand the elimination of Israel. They are even prepared to share Jerusalem with you. They have made sacrifices.

We should remember that when Jews were persecuted in Europe, they had always found sanctuary among Muslims in Muslim countries. We don't regard Israelis as eternal enemies. But we cannot help but sympathise with the Palestinians because their land is being taken away from them now. It may have belonged to Jews three thousand years ago. A lot of traditional Malay land have been made part of Thailand. But we are not claiming Southern Thailand as part of Malaysia. If we go too far into the past we cannot live with our neighbours.

We are ready to have economic and technological cooperation with Israel but we cannot do so yet because you have not honoured commitments made by a legitimate Government of Israel. We would like to think that once we have established relations with you, it would be permanent.

DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD

--BERNAMA

Third letter was to Ehud Barak

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 29 (Bernama) -- The following is the letter written by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Elect of Israel, in 1999, as released by the Foreign Ministry here today.

PRIME MINISTER MALAYSIA

8 June 1999

His Excellency

Mr Ehud Barak Prime Minister Elect of Israel

TEL AVIV

Your Excellency,

May I extend my congratulations on your victory in the recent elections. With this impressive mandate, I hope that you and your coalition partners will be able to guide the destiny of the people of Israel at the threshold of a new Century.

I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that Malaysia has always sought peace and the settlement of problems between neighbours through negotiations. It is therefore our hope to see the mutual implementation of the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel. We also believe that if the peace process is to be salvaged, sincere and effective steps must be taken to honour commitments.

As an important partner in the peace process it is crucial for Israel to be more accommodating. The Palestinians have made major sacrifices. They no longer demand the elimination of Israel. They are even prepared to share Jerusalem with you. It is therefore timely that Israel respond positively so as to sustain the hopes of the people in both Palestine and Israel. Solemn commitments made by a previous Government must be honoured. The alternative I am afraid, would be a permanent state of conflict and regional instability extending into the next Century. This is certainly a prospect that must be avoided.

The crux of the problem is that no party should revert to the old ways of taking what belongs to others, on the one hand and instigating hatred and violence, on the other. Malaysia cannot countenance aggression by anyone, whether friend or foe. Any country that forcibly takes over land and properties of others, or demolishes dwellings belonging to others in order to set up its own settlements cannot be said to be sincere in wanting peace.

Malaysia is of the firm conviction that the security of all countries in West Asia can only be assured with the establishment of a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the region. This must be based on the principle of "exchange of land for peace" and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The world looks forward to Israel under your leadership, to push forward the peace process with true determination. It is my sincere hope that the attainment of a comprehensive settlement in the region would allow Malaysia to realistically envisage a positive move towards the establishment of normal relations with Israel.

Yours sincerely,

DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD

-- BERNAMA