KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The behavior of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad seems contradictory at best, hypocritical at worst.
At the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, the youthful 71-year-old implores a group of European executives to join him in building an economic partnership that will "rise above the narrow loyalties of color and creed, of history and geography."
A day later, in the same luxury hotel, he rails to a group of journalists that greedy Western investors and currency speculators are to blame for the economic crisis that is threatening two decades of spectacular growth in Southeast Asia.
From Mahathir's vantage point, serving dual duty as Asia's most aggressive salesman and the West's most strident critic is a political necessity and point of personal pride, allowing him to oversee the transformation of Malaysia from a plantation economy to a high-tech export platform while still serving as a champion for Asia's downtrodden.
Mahathir's blunt self-confidence and shoot-from-the-hip approach--highly unusual among Asian leaders--assure him headliner status this week in the Canadian city of Vancouver when he meets President Clinton and top Asian leaders to discuss the region's financial crisis and trade liberalization at a summit meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders.
With South Korea having rushed to the international community for a huge bailout last week, it is clear that Asia's ride on an economic roller coaster is far from over.
But after a tumultuous several months in which he lambasted the very global capitalism that has benefited his nation, Mahathir appears to have emerged relatively unscathed, having carved out a new role as Asia's defender in an era of downsized dreams and global belt-tightening.
"Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and other regions of Asia will become much stronger, much more influential, much richer in the 21st century," he told the Europeans at the Hilton. "Asian inventiveness and science will return. Asia must remain a great learner, but others would be wise to learn a thing or two from this vast continent."
Perhaps, but this year the high-wire act that has kept the outspoken prime minister in power for 16 years in a region beset by ethnic and religious tensions nearly collapsed.
Mahathir's tirade against Wall Street financier George Soros and other speculators spooked investors, causing Malaysia's stock and currency markets, which had already been rocked by the July devaluation of the Thai baht, to plummet further.
