Greg Sheridan (heart) Pak Lah

Fellow comrades,

I haven't blogged for a loooonggg while. But here goes.

The opinion page in The Australian a few days ago had Greg Sheridan, " the most influential foreign affairs analyst in Australian journalism", writing about his latest interview with Pak Lah. As before, he praised Pak Lah's calm, pragmatic and dignified demeanour. It seems typical of Western analysts to praise those they deem to be "moderate" or, more correctly, "quite". They despise of loud and tough leaders like Tun M and Robert Mugabe.

Rightly so. It is clear that those gung-ho leaders speak as they do just for their respective domestic audience. Sure, they'll get the respect and fear they crave, but this also risks scampering away foreign investors. Nevertheless, their ideas and words should not be disregarded completely eventhough its primary purpose is as rhetoric.

The injustices that the First World has imposed on the Third World should not be taken lightly and seen as an argument for a bygone era. In fact, it is now more pertinent than ever that we question the underlying purpose of First World exports. And I don't mean Big Mac or IPOD. I mean liberal democracy and free trade. Not to say that the imposition of these ideas as part of Third World government policy has not been beneficial. But it is necessary to consider the impact that it has had when imposed fully and freely. Indonesia's racial riots in 1998 serves as a good example of what can happen. Probably Mohammed Ayoob's idea of subaltern realism or Amy Chua's thesis in her book "World on Fire" can serve as thinking points for those Western analysts and Malaysians espousing the goodness of having full-fledged democracy in Third World countries.

That's all for now folks.

Godspeed,
Fadli