Open Letter to Barack Hussein Obama, President-elect of the United States of America from Dr Mahathir

Dear Mr. President,

I did not vote for you in the Presidential Election because I am Malaysian.

But I consider myself one of your constituents because what you do or say will affect me and my country as well.

I welcome your promise for change. Certainly your country, the United States of America needs a lot of changes.

That is because America and Americans have become the best hated people in the world. Even Europeans dislike your arrogance. Yet you were once admired and liked because you freed a lot of countries from conquest and subjugation.

It is the custom on New Year's day for people to make resolutions. You must have listed your good resolutions already. But may I politely suggest that you also resolve to do the following in pursuit of Change.

Barack Obama is presented with a t-shirt by Sderot mayor Eli Moyal as Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (left) looks on after inspecting homemade Palestinian rockets during his visit to the southern Israeli town last year. (David Silverman/Getty Images)

1. Stop killing people. The United States is too fond of killing people in order to achieve its objectives. You call it war, but today's wars are not about professional soldiers fighting and killing each other. It is about killing people, ordinary innocent people by the hundreds of thousands. Whole countries will be devastated. War is primitive, the cavemen's way of dealing with a problem. Stop your arms build up and your planning for future wars.
2. Stop indiscriminate support of Israeli killers with your money and your weapons. The planes and the bombs killing the people of Gaza are from you.
3. Stop applying sanctions against countries which cannot do the same against you. In Iraq your sanctions killed 500,000 children through depriving them of medicine and food. Others were born deformed. What have you achieved with this cruelty? Nothing except the hatred of the victims and right-thinking people.
4. Stop your scientists and researchers from inventing new and more diabolical weapons to kill more people more efficiently.
5. Stop your arms manufacturers from producing them. Stop your sales of arms to the world. It is blood money that you earn. It is un-Christian.
6. Stop trying to democratize all the countries of the world. Democracy may work for the United States but it does not always work for other countries. Don't kill people because they are not democratic. Your crusade to democratize countries has killed more people than the authoritarian Governments which you overthrew. And you have not succeeded anyway.
7. Stop the casinos which you call financial institutions. Stop hedge funds, derivatives and currency trading. Stop banks from lending non-existent money by the billions.Regulate and supervise your banks. Jail the miscreants who made profits from abusing the system.
8. Sign the Kyoto Protocol and other international agreements.
9. Show respect for the United Nations.

I have many other resolutions for change which I think you should consider and undertake.

But I think you have enough on your plate for this 2009th year of the Christian Era.

If you can do only a few of what I suggest, you will be remembered by the world as a great leader. Then the United States will again be the most admired nation. Your embassies will be able to take down the high fences and razor-wire coils that surround them.

May I wish you a Happy New Year and a great Presidency.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad
(Former Prime Minister of Malaysia)

What clue do you have on Malaysian economy after the election.

The government, a coalition of Malay and Chinese parties, won only 139 of 222 seats, its worst result in the 51 years since Malaysian independence. The opposition coalition, which won 82 seats, contained both moderate Islamist and secular parties. The National Front ruling coalition’s election result was the worst in five decades, with the opposition increasing its control from one to five states out of a total of 13. However, the opposition is itself a coalition between the Justice party, led by former National Front minister Anwar Ibrahim, which appealed to the secular and ethnically non-Malay populations in the big cities, and the Islamist Pan-Malaysian Islamic party (PAS).

Political worries added to the gloom with trading in Kuala Lumpur suspended for an hour as shares plunged 10% after Malaysia’s ruling coalition suffered its worst-ever result in weekend elections.

Economically, Malaysia’s performance has been sound but unspectacular, given the high world prices for its energy, lumber and palm oil exports. Growth of 5.7% in the boom year of 2007 pales beside the records of China, India and Russia and was lower than Indonesia’s. Should commodity prices fall, weakening Malaysia’s currently formidable current account position, its rapid population growth could impose an intolerable economic and possibly political burden.

While Malaysia runs its current large payments surplus, 15% of its 2007 gross domestic product, it can spend money financing the schools, housing, health care and infrastructure that its 1.8% population growth rate demands (the country has a population of more than 25 million).

If prices for Malaysia’s export commodities decline and resources become scarce, educating such large numbers of young people and finding them jobs and housing will become a real challenge.

Worthy to note also that, opportunistic investors are pulling back from Asian property because they see more scope for picking up distressed assets in the US and Europe, and loans are harder to get in Japan, one of their favourite markets.

“Six months ago it was quite straight forward, we didn’t have to answer questions about why to invest in Asia,” Guy Cawthra, Asia fund strategist at Morley Fund Managers, told a recent conference here. “Now investors say ‘we might not want to invest in Asia, we want to invest in Europe, the UK and the US.’”

The Federal Reserve announced a plan to inject up to $200 billion into the financial system but the move did little to calm investors’ nerves. Read more here.

“It seems that nothing is working right in the US. The economy is going from bad to worse,” said Francis Lun at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong.

There is growing speculation that the Fed will slash its federal funds rate by 75 basis points at its 18 March meeting to 2.25%. Some analysts are even expecting an emergency cut before the scheduled meeting.

“The US economy is in a terrible state and there is a chance the Fed will cut rates before the meeting next week,” said Mark Wan, chief analyst at Hang Seng Investment Services Ltd.