[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 3, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4959-S4960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                MALAYSIA

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I would like to share with my colleagues an 
important development in Asia with implications for regional security.
  Malaysia, a moderate country of 27 million people with an Islamic 
majority, has long been a major high-tech manufacturing center, 
producing components of goods that are in personal computers and 
household items throughout our country, as well as throughout the 
world. It is encouraging to see economic reforms now complemented by 
political ones.
  In response to a call for change voiced by the people in the March 8 
Malaysian elections, in which opposition candidates made gains in 
Parliament, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has proposed a 
series of significant reforms to promote a more independent and 
effective judiciary and to increase anticorruption efforts across 
Malaysia.
  In the area of judicial reform, Prime Minister Badawi has proposed a 
new Judicial Appointments Commission to identify, recommend and 
evaluate candidates for the judiciary based on clearly defined 
criteria. He has also offered a proposal to improve the quality of 
judges by reviewing the compensation and terms of service for judges to 
attract and retain the most qualified judges.
  Recognizing the major public concern about corruption in Malaysia, 
Mr. Badawi has taken steps to make Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Agency, 
ACA,

[[Page S4960]]

become a fully supported and independent commission with an independent 
corruption prevention advisory board. He has also undertaken action 
intended to triple the number of anticorruption officers, and to 
establish a parliamentary committee on corruption prevention that would 
review annual reports by the ACA.
  Mr. Badawi's reform proposals also include greater support and 
protections for freedom of the press, including issuing one-time--
rather than annual--licenses for media organizations and approving a 
permit for the party of main opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's People's 
Justice Party to publish its own newspaper.
  Malaysia's pursuit of democracy and its struggle against Islamic 
extremism are critical for establishing lasting peace, prosperity, and 
security both for the Malaysian people and for the entire Southeast 
Asian region. The future direction of countries such as Malaysia is of 
significant importance to the United States as we work with others to 
fight extremists.
  The relationship between these types of reforms and security in 
Malaysia and the surrounding region is the subject of a recent op-ed in 
the Providence Journal by Stuart Eizenstat, who served as 
Undersecretary of State and Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Clinton 
administration. This editorial, which I am submitting for the Record, 
also notes Mr. Badawi's initiative to have Muslim states which are 
members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, 
commit themselves to a joint plan to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and 
unemployment in the Islamic world. Attention to that kind of investment 
in basic social needs in the Islamic world is an essential element of 
combating extremism. Human security requires protection not only of law 
and freedom, but of economic security, and I commend Mr. Eizenstat's 
article for its recognition of how these issues intersect in the 
current reform efforts being undertaken in Malaysia.
  I ask unanimous consent that the editorial to which I referred be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Providence Journal, May 29, 2008]

               Malaysian Democracy's Role in Terror Fight

                        (By Stuart E. Eizenstat)

       There is a titanic conflict within the Muslim world pitting 
     modernity against reactionary radicalism.
       Muslim leaders who promote modernization and integration 
     with the world economy will only succeed if their policies 
     will lead to a better way of life for their people.
       The next U.S. president must determine how best to support 
     the reformers, which will require new approaches, a 
     combination of both hard and soft U.S. power, and most 
     importantly, strong, reliable allies.
       That's why it is so important for the U.S. to pay attention 
     to the transformation now occurring in Malaysia, a Muslim 
     nation of some 27 million people whose prime minister, 
     Abdullah Badawi, has responded to electoral calls for change 
     by introducing sweeping reforms designed to maintain a 
     democratic open society for the long term.
       On March 8, Malaysian voters sent a strong message to the 
     government by giving opposition parties solid gains in 
     parliament--even as Badawi's party continued to hold more 
     than 60 percent of the seats.
       Instead of heeding the calls of his adversaries to resign, 
     Prime Minister Badawi embraced the call of voters who 
     demanded reform. The results: Badawi's avalanche of proposals 
     has begun positioning him as the 68-year-old ``comeback kid'' 
     of Malaysia politics.
       The reforms have addressed three central foundations for 
     freedom too often not seen in developing nations--and 
     especially those in the Islamic world.
       First, Badawi has moved to strengthen the independence of 
     Malaysia's judiciary, by creating a process to create merit-
     based lists of judicial candidates, similar to the kinds of 
     vetting systems used in the U.S. to rate potential new 
     federal judges.
       Second, Badawi is building on strategies adopted in Hong 
     Kong and Singapore to create independent bodies to combat 
     corruption.
       Finally, Badawi is opening up historically strict licensing 
     processes to promote freedom of the press, making it possible 
     for the newly empowered political opposition to publish its 
     own newspaper.
       These new reforms would fundamentally change the way 
     business--and politics--are carried out in a nation whose 
     political leadership had historically emphasized economic 
     development rather than political freedom. By making the 
     country's institutions more transparent and independent, the 
     Badawi government is promoting a system that is also more 
     likely to be resilient in turbulent economic times.
       The stability of this majority Muslim nation through 
     political and economic change has significant implications 
     for the U.S., for whom Malaysia is the 10th largest trading 
     partner.
       Malaysia is an important producer for the U.S. of 
     components for high-tech business and consumer goods, like 
     computers and cell phones. It also has provided a steady 
     example of a Muslim government that has been serious about 
     combating terrorism at home. And it has burnished Badawi's 
     reputation as a leader of Islamic moderates against the life-
     support systems that sustain the dark forces of Al Qaeda, 
     Hamas, Hezbollah and the terror network that stretches from 
     Northern Africa across the Middle East into Southeast Asia.
       Other Muslim leaders, including those of some of the 
     opposition parties in Malaysia, have a different vision, one 
     that would reverse Badawi's goal of converting Malaysia into 
     a multi-cultural Islamic-oriented state that is helping to 
     modernize Islam in ways that are compatible with the 
     globalizing challenges of the 21st Century.
       For example, Malaysia's Parti Islam se Malaysia (PAS) has 
     called for the imposition of a criminal code of Islamic law, 
     or Shariah, including such cruel punishments as amputation 
     and death by stoning, reversing hard-won women's rights and 
     an end to race-oriented affirmative-action programs aimed at 
     helping improve the lives of Malaysia's minorities.
       Malaysia and Badawi have sought to lead by example in the 
     region. During his recently concluded chairmanship of the 
     Organization of the Islamic Conference--an international 
     organization of 57 Muslim states from the Middle East to 
     Indonesia--he led efforts to address the twin challenges of 
     poverty and illiteracy that fuel the spread of Islamic 
     extremism in the Muslim world.
       Badawi has challenged his fellow Muslim states, including 
     those which are members of the Organization of Petroleum 
     Exporting Countries (OPEC), to commit themselves to a joint 
     plan to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and unemployment in the 
     Islamic world.
       His persistence in helping to establish a new economic 
     agenda for the Muslim world represents a critical initiative 
     in the long-term struggle to transform impoverished Muslim 
     states into nations that find their place in a progressive, 
     globalizing world.
       In the end, whether Badawi's dexterity will keep him in 
     power to serve a full term is yet to be determined, but what 
     he has set in motion deserves the support of the United 
     States, since his reforms will place Malaysia firmly on the 
     path to modernizing its Islamic society.
       Stuart E. Eizenstat was chief domestic-policy adviser to 
     President Jimmy Carter, and held several senior positions in 
     the Clinton administration.

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