In other words the US could have behaved as it did with the old Soviet Union, a regime far more objectionable than the current government of Malaysia. But Mr Gore has chosen to go public. Lamely, US officials say that Bill Clinton would have said exactly the same thing had he been there Maybe. One may only note that the President has been nowhere near so blunt in China, compared to which Malaysia is almost a model democracy. Alas Malaysia, unlike China, is a of a size to be safely picked upon.So what now? One can but hope that the reformers are energised, and that a humiliated Mr Mahathir sees the folly of his ways, pulls his riot police off the streets and lets democracy work its course. There are many other ways a President or Vice President could have signalled his disapproval, for example Washington could have declined to attend the summit. Alternatively, as President Clinton planned until the Iraqi crisis prevented him from travelling to Kuala Lumpur, he could have attended but refused to hold bilateral talks with Mr Mahathir. Instead Mr Gore has disrupted a regional summit about economic co-operation among countries of the Pacific rim, of which Malaysia was the host.
No one would quarrel with Mr Gore's praise for "the brave people of Malaysia" and his goal of strengthening the country's reform movement The question is how to go about it. First and least important, the Vice President's remarks were discourteous in the extreme It is one thing to speak out during a bilateral visit. Only those who remain besotted by "Asian values", despite the economic crisis that has devastated the region, can find much to admire in the high-handed, xenophobic fashion in which Mr Mahathir runs his country - least of all in the disgraceful treatment of Anwar Ibrahim, his rival and former deputy prime minister who is now on trial on charges of corruption and sodomy. Perhaps now we will also witness a more sensible debate about the wider issues of drug use in this country.. WITH ONE ill-judged speech, blatantly tailored to presidential politics at home, Al Gore may have achieved a seemingly impossible feat: that of strengthening the position of Mahathir Mohammed, Malaysia's autocratic and repressive Prime Minister. For one thing, realistic drugs education, which did not pretend that all illegal drugs were deadly when children know that they are not, would be welcome.It is not often that ministers speak in a way that shows they live in the real world; but Ms Morris has shown her courage is in suggesting remedies that might be tried, rather than pandering to the ignorance of headline- writers.
ESTELLE MORRIS, the School Standards Minister, will be pilloried for her view that not all pupils who are found with drugs should be expelled The deluge has already begun in the tabloid press But the Minister is talking manifest sense. As numbers of expulsions and exclusions rise in the scramble by schools to get to the top of exam tables, someone in authority has to show the mettle to resist excluding children. The Minister's refusal to close off all options means she has spoken to the electorate about real issues, and real choices, whatever the rights and wrongs of each particular case. Given the condemnatory attitude adopted by the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, the Minister's frankness is a breath of fresh air. It gives farmers little hope for the future to realise that hot on the heels of the present crisis, another deeper and more structural crisis must be faced.The writer is senior lecturer in rural economics at Aberdeen University.