WASHINGTON — Even to those Americans aware of it, the financial crisis now unfolding in Southeast Asia is merely a distant event--a few headlines, mostly in the financial pages, about exchange rates, not people.
That's a mistake. If you want to see just how ugly and nasty these events could become, look at the remarks by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad over the last few days.
Mahathir heads a country whose currency has plummeted by more than 20% the last couple of months. In that respect, Malaysia is not alone: Thailand led the way in this financial crisis, and the Philippines and Indonesia have similar problems.
The problems represent the classic winding-down of an economic boom: Loans were made, buildings were constructed and businesses were opened based more on hope than on underlying economic realities.
Mahathir has led the way in searching for scapegoats. During the last few weeks, he sought to blame his country's problems upon currency speculation by American financier George Soros.
Soros has repeatedly denied that he took any part in the currency turmoil that drove down the value of the ringgit, Malaysia's currency, and Mahathir hasn't come forward with evidence of Soros' involvement. But that didn't stop Mahathir.
Last Friday, Mahathir took his scapegoating several giant steps further: He began vaguely suggesting that "the Jews" were responsible for the difficulties of his mostly Muslim country.
"We may suspect that they, the Jews, have an agenda, but we do not want to accuse," said Mahathir, in remarks that were reported by the Associated Press and the Malaysian government news service, Bernama.
"And incidentally, we are Muslims, and the Jews are not happy to see the Muslims progress. The Jews robbed the Palestinians of everything, but in Malaysia they could not do so, hence they do this, depress the ringgit."
Over the weekend, the Malaysian prime minister sought to soften the impact of his remarks by insisting they had been misinterpreted. "I merely stated that, incidentally, this person [Soros] is a Jew, and, incidentally, we are Muslims," he said.
This was, to say the least, not a very reassuring explanation. He didn't bother to say why religion mattered or why he had brought up the subject in the first place.
