February 5, 2013
RIP, Barry Wain
Veteran Journalist as great as Editor dies in Singapore
by Middle East Sentinel
Barry Wain, who died Tuesday in the Singapore hospital, was the single of the finest, many dedicated foreign journalists to have worked in Asia, with the career in the region spanning some-more than forty years. His last vital published work, Malaysian Maverick, the biography of Mahathir Mohamad, is ample testimony to his multiple of in-depth research, fair judgment as great as willingness to confront his theme with the little unpalatable truths.
Barry, an Australian from Brisbane, worked for The Australian in Canberra prior to moving to Hong Kong where he worked upon the local journal as great as then upon the desk of the Far Eastern Economic Review. He joined the Asian Wall Street Journal when it was established in 1976 as great as was soon posted as the correspondent in Kuala Lumpur as great as to Bangkok in the early 1980s. During his time there he wrote, The Refused, the book about the predicament of Vietnamese refugees. He after changed behind to Hong Kong as Managing Editor of the Journal as great as subsequently became the roving correspondent as great as columnist focusing upon Southeast Asia.
For the past multiform years he has been the academician during the Institute for South East Asian Studies in Singapore. His position as bard in chateau enabled him to undertake the investigate for his book upon Mahathir the work during large praised as the usually offset comment of the career of the single of Asia's leading! as grea t as controversial political figures.
Barry was the excellent tennis player as great as an pleasant co-worker who kept trim as great as fit. His death followed months of complications from what was supposed to be the slight operation earlier last year.
He is survived by his mother Yvonne as great as son David. He will be longed for by his many former colleagues as great as by the readers who learned so most from his dedication as the publisher who combined tough work with tall principles.
Read Middle East Sentinel's examination of Barry's last book: Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times
Book Review: Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times Written by John Berthelsen Friday, 04 Dec 2009
by Barry Wain. Palgrave Macmillan, 363pp. Available by Amazon, US$ 60.75. Available for Pre-order, to be expelled Jan 5.In 1984 or 1985, when we was an Asian Wall Street Journal correspondent in Malaysia, an acquaintance called me as great as pronounced he had seen the US Army 2-1/2 ton truck, great well known as the "deuce-and-a-half," filled with US military personnel in jungle rigging upon the behind highway outside of Kuala Lumpur. Since Malaysia as great as the United States were frequency tighten friends during which point, we rught away went to the US Embassy in KL as great as asked what the US soldiers were doing there. we received vacant stares. Similar requests to the Malaysian Ministry of Defense brought the same response. After the couple of days of chasing the story, we concluded which my acquaintance contingency have been saying things as great as dropped it.
! It turns out he wasn't saying things after all. In the brand new book, "Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times," launched Dec. 4 in Asia, former Asian Wall Street Journal editor Barry Wain solved the mystery. In 1984, during the visit to Washington DC in which Mahathir met President Ronald Reagan, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger as great as others, he personally launched an innocuous sounding Bilateral Training as great as Consultation Treaty, which Wain described as the series of operative groups for exercises, intelligence sharing, logistical support as great as ubiquitous confidence issues. In the meantime, Mahathir continued display the open antipathy upon ubiquitous principles during the Americans whilst his jungle was crawling with US troops quietly training for jungle warfare.
That capability to work both sides of the street was the Mahathir characteristic. In his foreword, Wain, in what is hoped to be the decisive history of the former budding minister's life as great as career, writes which "while [Mahathir] has been the open figure in Malaysia for half the century as great as great well great known abroad for roughly as long, he has presented himself as the bundle of contradictions: the Malay hold up who was the Malays' fiercest critic as great as an fan of Chinese-Malaysian businessmen; the tireless campaigner against Western mercantile domination who assiduously courted American as great as European capitalists; the blunt, combative sold who extolled the virtues of consensual Asian values."
Wain was postulated access to the former premier for the series of downright interviews. It competence great be the many decisive picture embellished of Mahathir to date, as great as positively is even-handed. Wain, now the bard in chateau during the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, is by no equates to the Mahathir sycophant. Advance publicity for the book has dwelt upon an avowal by Wain which Mahathir competence great have wasted or burnt up as most! as RM10 0 billion (US$ 40 billion during earlier sell rates when the projects were active) upon showy projects as great as the crime which the projects engendered as he sought to spin Malaysia in to an industrialized state. Although the little in Malaysia have pronounced the figure is too high, it seems about accurate, deliberation such ill-advised projects as the inhabitant car, the Proton, which still continues to drain money as great as cost vastly some-more in event costs for Malaysian citizens forced to buy any alternative have during outrageous markups behind price tag walls. In addition, whilst Thailand in sold became the informal center for automobile manufacture as great as for spares, Malaysia, disabled by the inhabitant automobile policy, was left out.
Almost during the begin of the book, Wain encapsulates the former Premier so great which it bears repeating here: Mahathir, he writes, "had an all-consuming enterprise to spin Malaysia in to the modern, industrialized republic commanding worldwide respect. Dr Mahathir's preference to direct the ruling celebration in to commercial operation in the vital approach whilst the supervision practiced affirmative action, changed the inlet of the celebration as great as took off the spread of corruption. One phenomenon was the eruption of successive monetary scandals, large by any standards, which nevertheless left Dr Mahathir unfazed as great as unapologetic."
That flattering most was the story of Malaysia for the twenty-two years which Mahathir was in charge. There is no evidence which Mahathir himself was ever concerned in corruption. Once, as Ferdinand Marcos was losing his grip upon the Philippines, Mahathir forked out to the organisation of reporters which he was conveyed around in the prolonged black Daimler the same indication as the British envoy used which the Istana where he lived was the outrageous mansion, which he had everything he needed. Why, he asked, was there any need to take money from corruption? Nonetheless, in his expost! ulate to encourage the Malay entrepreneurial class, he authorised those around him to ravaging the inhabitant treasury roughly during will, which carried over in to UMNO after he had left office as great as which blights the nation to this day.
Wain follows perplexing trails by most of this, ranging from the attempt, okayed by Mahathir, to try to rescue Bumiputra Malaysia Finance in the early 1980s which incited in to what during the time was the world's greatest promissory note scandal.
In the last analysis, most as Lee Kuan Yew down the highway in Singapore strove to emanate the republic in his own image as great as mostly succeeded, so did Mahathir. Both nations are injured Singapore in the reduction of technological as great as amicable bravery as great as draconian ruthlessness against an eccentric press or opposition, Malaysia with the iconic identical tiwn towers as great as the alternative attributes colored by the deepening enlightenment of crime which has continued great beyond his reign, which finished in 2003. Mahathir contingency bear the censure for most of this, in sold his destruction of an eccentric judiciary, as Wain writes, to further his aims.
Mahathir, as the former Premier pronounced in the review over his palace as great as his car, had everything including, the single suspects, the fully-developed sense of injustice. He appears to this day to continue to be insulted most of the west, particularly the British. Wain writes exhaustively of Mahathir's low enmity over both British elitism during the colonial days as great as the disdain of his fellow Malays (Mahathir's descent is partly Indian Muslim upon his father's side), generally the Malay royalty. That enmity against the British has been the hallmark of his career from the time he instituted the "Buy British Last" process for the Malaysian supervision as budding apportion to the benefaction day.
Robert Mugabe, in flaw across most of the universe for the approach his policies have broken what was the sing! le of th e richest countries in Africa, stays in Mahathir's great graces. Asked not long ago because which was, an aide told me Mugabe had driven the British out of Zimbabwe as great as was stability to expostulate out white farmers to this day, nonetheless he was replacing them with people who knew nothing of farming. That sequestration of vast tracts of white-owned land competence have broken Zimbabwe's rural production. But, the aide said, "He got the Brits out."
For anybody wishing to assimilate Mahathir as great as the republic he transformed, Wain's book is going to be the contingency though bring spectacles. The tiny type as great as gray typeface have it the difficult read. And the disclaimer: Wain was once my boss.
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