When Madeline Albright Visited Malaysia

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After 30-plus years serving in the US Foreign Service under 11 secretaries of state, I have strong views about all of them – who was effective and who was not.
I have mixed feelings about Madeline Albright's time as secretary of state. But here is a personal story, about when she came to Malaysia in 1997. I never could have been prouder of her at that moment.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad took a long vacation in mid-1997. And while he was gone, the Asian financial crisis hit. When he returned to Malaysia, he was mad.
A day or two later, he addressed the Asean meeting, which was being held in Malaysia that year. He stood up and made one of the most God-awful speeches he had ever made, where he went on and on about the cruelty of a world that is ruled by one superpower. Guess who that one superpower was? America, of course.
He said that it is worse living in a world with one superpower than it was living in a world with two. He went on to talk about how even the world’s most powerful military force was defeated by little men in black pajamas. So who are they to give advice to others?
The most interesting thing was that you could see the Vietnamese foreign minister squirming in his chair. That’s because at that point, years later, Vietnam wanted nothing more than to have a good relationship with the United States.
And today I’m happy to say that we have achieved that good relationship across the board – politically, economically, and militarily. As someone who spent two years in Vietnam during the war, nothing can make me happier.
But Mahathir kept going on, blasting the United States. And he would continue his attack for months after that, blaming the Asian economic crisis on America, the Jews, Wall Street, George Soros, the World Bank, and so on.
During official speeches, all of the ambassadors are seated together. So when Mahathir’s speech was over, a couple of them said to me, “John, I can’t believe you sat all the way through that. I would have walked out in protest.”
I said, “Well, what good would it do for me to get up and walk out?” It would have caused more problems in the relationship. It might have even had an impact on our companies, given the way Mahathir was. He would cut off all their contracts. So, I just sat there and looked unhappy about it.
Meanwhile, Madeline Albright was flying across the Pacific to attend the US-Asean dialogue that was going to take place the next day. On the airplane, somebody handed her the text of Mahathir’s speech, and she read it.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir MohamadSomeone on the plane told me that she became so angry that she almost went through the roof of the airplane. She didn’t even want to meet Mahathir after that. She thought it was one of the most outrageous, over the top things she had ever seen.
‘He didn't do this just for you’
When I met her the next morning, she threw the morning New Straits Times newspaper across the table at me and said, "Tell me why should I meet with this son of a b***h!"
I said, “Because he's the prime minister, and if you refuse, it will only make the situation worse.”
She took it personally, and said, “He did this just because I am coming.”
I said, “No, that is just the way he is. Trust me, I have to listen to this kind of stuff every day. He didn't do this just for you.”
Then I suggested, “When you have your private meeting with him, tell him what you think.”
So later, she spoke to him in private and expressed her concerns about the speech.
I will always remember that conversation -- because I thought she was so great.
She said, “Prime Minister, I read your speech, and I have to let you know I disagreed with it.”
He said, “Well fine, but I have my freedom of speech.”
She said, “I know you have your freedom of speech, but I would like to let you know that I think my country is a good country.”
She went on. “I have been a refugee twice. Once from the Nazis, and once from the communists. America has not only given me a home, it has given me the great honour - as a refugee - of representing it to the world. I think America is a wonderful country. I don’t think America is the kind of country that you described in your speech.”
Mahathir just sat there and squirmed. So once again he said, “Well, I have my freedom of speech.”
After the meeting was over, the senior foreign ministry official who was there in the room said to me, “Well, John, we will just have to see how that plays out. The old man is not to having people disagree with him.”
I said back, “First of all, she did it privately. She did not do it in public, in contrast to what the prime minister had to say. Point two, you can’t have it both ways. The prime minister cannot stand up and say whatever he wants about the United States in public, and then expect that we are not going to say something in reply. That is a double standard. We cannot have the kind of a relationship where only one side is allowed to say what it thinks. When Secretary Albright replied, she did it privately.”
He said, “OK, well, we will see what happens.” - Mkini
JOHN R MALOTT was US ambassador to Malaysia from 1995 to 1998.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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