Is Malaysiakini in mischief mode?

SPIN AND DEFLECTION: The core issues of Soros' involvement in regime change and puppet governments ignored

Shamsul Akmar, NST

IT is quite telling that Malaysiakini, whose credibility is being questioned following accusations of being foreign-funded and a foreign tool to cause mischief to the nation, is turning to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to "absolve" itself.

Having vilified Dr Mahathir throughout almost its entire existence, Malaysiakini is using a letter written by Dr Mahathir to billionaire financier George Soros, to indirectly justify its acceptance of the latter's funding.

Malaysiakini used the letter written by Dr Mahathir to Soros in early 2006 as the basis of the article, which can be basically summed up into five main thrusts:

IT was Dr Mahathir who offered Soros the olive branch after the former had, during the 1997/98 financial crises, accused the latter of wreaking havoc on Asian nations as a rogue currency speculator;

DR Mahathir asked Soros to join him in a Global Peace Forum "criminalising war" campaign;

DR Mahathir assured Soros that his participation in the Forum would not affect his other concerns;

DR Mahathir met Soros in Kuala Lumpur 11 months later and they buried the hatchet when the former said he accepted that Soros was not involved in the devaluation of Malaysia's currency; and,

DR Mahathir dug up the hatchet when he recently said Soros was seeking regime change in Malaysia.

Peace offering

From the very start, it was clear that Malaysiakini was working on a spin -- this is obvious in its contention "the 2006 letter which Malaysiakini has a copy, indicates that it was Dr Mahathir who first approached Soros with an olive branch in hand".

How can it be construed that Dr Mahathir was the first to offer the olive branch when Soros, in a Jan 7, 2006 interview with a mainstream Malaysian publication, the New Straits Times, reportedly said he agreed with the measures Dr Mahathir had taken to deal with the regional financial crisis of 1997/98?

In retrospect, in 1997/98, Dr Mahathir had blamed Soros and other rogue currency speculators for causing the regional crisis, and having ascertained how they had committed their malfeasance, Dr Mahathir came up with a remedy that defied conventional monetary policies, especially those propagated by the International Monetary Fund.

In other words, Dr Mahathir would only have been able to come up with the remedy after determining the cause and the remedy could only work if the cause or illness had been diagnosed correctly.

If Soros said that he agreed with the measures Dr Mahathir had taken, then it meant Dr Mahathir's diagnosis that the crisis was caused by currency speculators had to be correct.

As such, none other than Soros, a well-known speculator himself, vindicated Dr Mahathir, who was described as a heretic when he blamed the speculators for the currency crisis.

And such a concession, by any standard, is a giant olive branch offered by Soros to Dr Mahathir and this prompted Dr Mahathir to write the Jan 11, 2006 letter.

The next point is about Dr Mahathir asking Soros to join him in the Global Peace Forum which is a platform that seeks to criminalise war.

Again, it is obvious that the invitation was made on the premise that Dr Mahathir believed Soros shared his views about war and his campaign against George W. Bush, one of the leading perpetrators of the Iraq invasion and war crimes.

As Dr Mahathir pointed out in his letter that "whatever may be the differences between us, we seem to have identical views on war i.e. on killing people in the pursuit of a national agenda", he obviously believed that Soros was against war as an option in settling international conflicts.

In other words, Dr Mahathir was very aware of other things that Soros does which he may disagree with but they held a common view about war and believed they should work together on it.

The invitation to Soros via the letter did not come with a request for funding or any financial assistance.

Malaysiakini also picked on the part of Dr Mahathir's letter where he said: "I am aware of your other concerns -- about democracy etc. But this anti-war campaign for the ultimate human right will not be in conflict with any other rights that you may espouse. So I hope you will join".

Malaysiakini's description of the remarks as Dr Mahathir taking great pains to reassure Soros is an exaggeration, as what Dr Mahathir had done was merely to say that if Soros were to join the Forum, the objectives would be consistent with whatever other human rights activities Soros was involved.

Beyond the letter, Malaysiakini highlighted the meeting between the two in Kuala Lumpur 11 months after the letter was written, describing it as an event "where the two foes buried the hatchet" following which Dr Mahathir said he accepted that Soros was not involved in the devaluation of Malaysia's currency.

It should have ended at that, regardless of whether Dr Mahathir truly believed that Soros was involved in the currency speculation or not or he was merely being polite. Furthermore, what Dr Mahathir said was that he accepted that Soros was not involved based on what Soros had told him during the meeting.

However, the currency speculation issue and Dr Mahathir's recent accusations of Soros' involvement in wanting to see regime change in Malaysia are two separate things.

Why spin Dr Mahathir's letter?

But why did Malaysiakini go to great lengths to reproduce much of Dr Mahathir's letter to Soros and attempt the spin?

It was obvious the whole article was written to fulfil three aspects:

SOROS is not a rogue or a villain as portrayed because Dr Mahathir himself had asked the former to join the Global Peace Forum;

THAT being the case, if it is alright for Dr Mahathir to want Soros to work with his Malaysia-based Global Peace Forum surely there is nothing wrong with Malaysiakini receiving funds from Soros or his organisations; and

IF the above two aspects are insufficient to vindicate Malaysiakini and exonerate Soros, the third approach is to expose Dr Mahathir as being contradictory and inconsistent when it comes to Soros. As such any of Dr Mahathir's contentions, including the recent accusations that Soros was pushing for regime change in Malaysia, should be ignored.

But underpinning all these is one particular objective -- Malaysiakini is trying to tell its readers and supporters that there is nothing wrong with receiving funds from Soros because Dr Mahathir too had asked for his help.

So instead of coming out to defend Soros, Malaysiakini used Dr Mahathir to absolve itself and to a large degree Soros, too.

The issues of whether Soros is truly pushing for regime change and whether Malaysiakini should explain itself for receiving funds from Soros are conveniently ignored. And Malaysiakini has also conveniently ignored reports of Soros' sinister involvements in setting up numerous puppet governments and regimes.