From: "Salil Tripathi" <salil61-AT-hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Replies Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 05:33:53 +0000 Dear Piers, I agree; "Islam" itself can't be held responsible for some of the cruel punishments inflicted by the Taliban. But I wouldn't go to the other extent, that Taliban is not really Islamic, that it distorts the faith. (Just as I don't think one can separate Jerry Falwell from Christianity, Meir Kahane from Judaism, and L.K. Advani and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad from Hinduism -- they derive their legitimacy from their respective faiths, claiming to be upholders of the faith -- at the risk of promoting something I wrote, I compared the BJP with Taliban in a piece after the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, which was hardly different from the destruction of the Babri Masjid; hence the BJP's criticism of the Bamiyan Buddha destruction was amusing). As regards Anwar Ibrahim: it is a different case, I agree, for several reasons, not least of which is that the case against him was never proven convincingly, for one; and two, even if Anwar Ibrahim were a practising "homosexual", the laws of Malaysia against sexual orientation are wrong. Anwar faced the barrage of Mahathir's onslaught because, in June 1998 in Johor, he gave indication that Malaysia was ready for change. The UMNO elections were in the offing, and the ringgit was sliding, and there was widespread dissatisfaction with corruption and nepotism in Malaysia, people feared that Mahathir's cronies would get bailed out at tax-payers' expense, and Indonesia (and Korea) had shown the way; Suharto was out in Jakarta, Kim Dae Jung was in in Seoul, and Thailand had had a transfer of power. For those seeking change in Malaysia, there was hope in the air. And then Al Gore came along, praising reformasi, at the APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur, and the IMF told all economists who were listening to pay attention to Anwar. Of course, for Mahathir, Anwar had to go! And what better way to humiliated a former Abim activist, except to paint him in lurid colors, as though he had committed some haraam acts, which would undermine any support he might expect from PAS in Kelantan? So all guns were trained at him. (Sorry to elaborate so much on all this, but I thought readers of this list may be interested in Malaysia's fascinating politics, which I was privileged to observe and report as a journalist during much of the 1990s). You said you found it odd that progressive folks would back Mahathir over Anwar. Many did, those of leftist economic persuasion. I have participated at conferences where anti-globalization NGOs have wanted to pass resolutions "supporting" Mahathir's struggle against the World Bank and the IMF and the Washington Consensus and so on, and his "able leadership" of Malaysia during this critical juncture, ignoring Mahathir's the repression against Anwar/keAdilan (and many others, including Hishamuddin Rais, Karpal Singh..... the list is long!). That's because the intense hatred some groups within the Left have for the United States, the Bretton Woods institutions, multinational corporations, and sadly-misunderstood globalization, clouds *all* other thinking. Salil _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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