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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bosco who wrote (6299)	9/9/1998 8:20:00 PM
From: Stitch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Bosco, <<is it fair to assume that it is a toss up between MM and Anwar. >> It is a good question that I can only answer with my surface impressions born of observing each man's public image and statements. I do not think it is a toss up at all. While Anwar appears to be deeply religous, he is also a modern thinker, an intellectual, with as much familiarity with Shakespeare and Hegel as with the Koran. He is comfortable with the press, both Western and local and is articulate and cool under fire. Mahatir is not nearly so comfortable in English, refuses to meet with the Western press preferring to lambast them, and chooses to address people with simple minded allegories and metaphors that come off sounding extremely sophomoric. While Mahatir seems to preach the tenets of Islam he seems to some to have not embraced it truly. Anwar, while seeming to have strong Islamic principals, is also seen to believe in a moderate version of Islam that would take a position of reconciliation and cooperation with the west. Mahatir, while leading a coalition government of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, has increasingly been vitriolic towards the west. Anwar is part of the new breed of movers and shakers in Southeast Asia whose make up has not been influenced by first hand experience with the cruelties and injustices of colonialism and Japanese occupation which may by itself be quite telling. Again, all the above is subjectively slanted by yours truly based on my own observations. To be sure, I believe the vast majority of Malaysians are moderate. Best, Stitch