Ex-Malaysian Premier Mahathir puts down East Asia Summit

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, Dec. 7 Kyodo

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Wednesday that Australia, New Zealand and Japan, which he says tilt toward the United States in their policies, will render the upcoming East Asia Summit ''quite useless'' in championing East Asian views in a global arena such as the World Trade Organization.

''I don't recognize (the summit). I don't think we have achieved the objectives that were set out way back in 1991,'' he told reporters.

The inaugural East Asian Summit, which will be hosted by Malaysia on Dec. 14, has been much touted as Mahathir's brainchild first proposed in 1991.

Mahathir, who was in power from 1981 to 2003 and is known for his anti-Western rhetoric, reiterated that Australia and New Zealand should not have been invited to the summit.

''The operative word is 'East' and 'Asia'...For that reason I have always opposed the idea of Australia and New Zealand being in the grouping, simply because Australia and New Zealand are not really East nor are they Asians,'' he said.

The East Asia Summit encompasses 16 countries -- the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

In Mahathir's vision, the summit includes the 10 ASEAN countries and its three dialogue partners -- China, Japan and South Korea, which annually meet under the ''ASEAN-plus-three'' framework.

He came up with what was known then as the East Asia Economic Grouping to counter the trade blocs of Europe and North America. The idea, however, did not take off because the crucial participant, Japan, backed down on pressure from the United States, which was to be excluded from the grouping.

ASEAN agreed to an East Asia Summit in 2002 and the ASEAN-plus-three membership of Mahathir's vision has since grown to include Australia, New Zealand and India. India, Mahathir said, is acceptable since the country fulfils the 'East' and 'Asian' criteria.

Russia lobbied heavily to be included but failed.

Mahathir agreed to ASEAN's rejection of Russia.

''For the time being, in order to ensure that East Asians' views are heard, it's better if Russia is not yet involved because its view may be colored by its affiliation to Europe,'' he said.

Mahathir also rejected the notion that the absence of the United States will lend the summit less impact.

''The U.S. has economic interest in every part of the world including in Europe. Are you proposing that the U.S. be a member of the EU? The U.S. wants to be everywhere...When the U.S. is in, other people's voices are drowned,'' he said.

The present East Asia Summit, he noted, should now be called the ''East Asia-Australasia Summit.''

He warned that Australia, which he called ''the deputy sheriff of America,'' would dominate the grouping with views reflecting the United States.

''I am afraid that knowing Asians who are always very polite and do not like to appear to be recalcitrant, that the views of Australia are likely to dominate this East Asia-Australasia grouping,'' he said.

Japan also cannot be counted on to champion East Asian views, he said.

''In discussion with East Asia, we cannot take Japan's stand as being East Asia. It is likely to reflect Japan's very strong relation with the United States,'' Mahathir said.

The East Asia Economic Grouping of his vision is supposed to be a consultative body that is not like the European Union or the North America Free Trade Area.

It is ''where people of East Asia can sit around a table and discuss common issues in order to take a common stand, for example in the WTO and on matters related to globalization,'' he said.

He voiced pessimism over the East Asia Summit's ability to champion East Asian views.

''I am not very optimistic because East Asian countries tend to yield to strong pressure which makes the whole grouping quite useless...It will all be watered down in order not to displease powerful countries,'' Mahathir said.

But even if the East Asia Summit fulfils Mahathir's vision of only incorporating the ASEAN-plus-three members, the current row between Japan and its two neighbors -- China and South Korea -- threatens to derail the significance of the process.

Mahathir said one of the achievements of ASEAN-plus-three was that it enables Japan, China and South Korea to get closer together, but now, he said, ''outside influence'' has ''broken up and subverted'' the process.

Mahathir blamed this on Japan's current foreign policy, which he says is orientated more toward the United States rather than fellow East Asian countries.

For the first time, leaders of Japan, China and South Korea may not hold a summit on the sidelines of meetings with their ASEAN counterparts.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has incurred the ire of his neighbors with his visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine that honors Japanese war criminals along with Japan's war dead.

Mahathir said Koizumi should stop the shrine visits.