10.00.10

stunning skyscrapers, music

(Pause) In the 1990's Asia came of age. Economic growth came so fast that the world talked of Tiger Economies, of an Asian Renaissance. But Asia's economic miracle has been built on a shaky foundation...... Behind the massive expansion lurked political values from the Middle Ages: corruption, cronyism and nepotism... until the Asian bubble burst.

00.36

The crash began last year.

00.40

Stock market crash

After a day of...

00.44

In a rash of bankruptcies and currency devaluations, Asia's  economic miracle was over.

3% in Malaysia, 4% in Thailand, 5% in Indonesia

00.58

IV James Wolfensohn, President World Bank

It was built on something which clearly had some inadequate base.  It had some over-lending, it had corruption, cronyism, it had banks lending to its shareholders, it had groups forming that were not consolidating the lending ... there were all sorts of things going on. But it was all being swept away.  Now, there's a comeuppance.

01.21

Peregrine Bank staff moving boxes

Super:  CNBC News - Jan 1998

CNBC:  Peregrine staff arriving at company headquarters on Monday morning were met by a media barrage.

01.27

In January Hong Kong's massive Peregrine Bank got its comeuppance. At the height of its trading frenzy, the boastfully Asian bank gambled with billions of dollars across 16 countries.

01.40

CNBC:  Company sources say most employees are packing up their belongings before the liquidators move in.

01.45

liquidators move in

Peregrine's downfall revealed that something was rotten in the Asian investment community. The bank dealt in equity, bonds, property, luxury cars, electronics... But the liquidators moved in as over-lending took its toll. Shareholders discovered to their horror that the bank had leant a staggering quarter of its net worth, $270 million U.S., to a company which couldn't repay a cent. That company was a taxi firm in Indonesia.

02.12

taxi driver

Jerry earns 30,000 rupiah, $3 a day.  He drives for Steady Safe Taxis, which borrowed from Peregrine to fund a massive expansion. When Indonesia's currency crashed, Steady Safe went bankrupt taking Peregrine with it. The World Bank says the Tiger economies had lacked vital safeguards...

02.34

IV James Wolfensohn, President World Bank

Adequacy of information about the private sector and about the banking system. The banks were borrowing heavily in dollars... we didn't know what was going on.

02.45

IV Dr. Mark Faber Hong Kong Investment Broker

There was a recession in 1990 in Europe and the U.S.  It was bypassed in Asia.  We had the Mexican crisis, it didn't touch Asia.  Each time the Asians got more and more confidence and said "Nothing can go wrong, there is no more business cycle in Asia, we will dominate by the year 2000, the whole world."  And now you have a huge setback.

03.09

IV James Wolfensohn, President World Bank

This is not something like a heart attack which kills the patient, this is something which is a damaging blow.  But you don't wipe out East Asia.

03.28

singing, Suharto ceremony

Until now, you didn't wipe out East Asian rulers either. (PAUSE) 03.39 Indonesia's President Suharto has just stepped down after over three decades in power. The country's financial ruin was the catalyst. He stands accused of plundering the nation's wealth, crushing those who protested.  He ignored the extent of his country's economic crisis, frustrated the IMF and continued to reward his children and swarms of sycophants with unjust riches.

04.16

Student riots

But recent weeks have seen unrest on an almost unprecedented scale. Indonesians sang in one voice for Suharto to go. When six students were killed by the army a wave of riots and looting left hundreds dead. Students occupied the parliament and the country's absolute ruler was blamed for all its woes. Almost with lightening speed, on May 21^st1998, Suharto stood down.

There had long been protest against his repression.

04.54

Budiman Sudjatmiko goes to jail

The young activist Budiman Sudjatmiko offered some of the loudest.

04.58

NATSOT Budiman Sudjatmiko

Suharto will reap his just reward. The world is watching.

05.04

He belongs to the left-wing People's Democratic Party, who argued that too many people have been marginalised under Suharto's rule and called for political reform.

05.14

factory floor

Here in Indonesia's factories, Budiman's party found willing converts. The Tiger economies gouged themselves on cheap labour, often foreign, with few rights for workers. This mainly female workforce toils for long hours, many are not even paid the low minimum wage.

05.31

secret union meeting

In a safehouse in a Jakarta suburb Budiman meets up with one of his worker's networks. Delegates from several of the city's biggest factories complain about the government controlled unions. Until now, this kind of criticism has been crushed.

05.47

Factory activist

Inside the factory we have no protection. No one protects us - we really have to fight by ourselves.

06.00

These factory organisers often distribute leaflets about poor conditions on the shop floor - it's a risky task.

06.06

Factory activist

Accidentally I was caught by one of the managers in the factory and I have already been interrogated twice by the Security Forces. I might be interrogated again by the police at any time.

06.25

Budiman Sudjatmiko was sentenced to thirteen years in prison for his acts of ‘subversion'. He was lucky, he could have got the death penalty.

06.37

Mukhtar Pakpahan was also charged with subversion, for organising his own trade union.

06.43

Legal representative

Be very clear, this trial is about trade union rights, it's not about subversion.

06.48

Despite ill-health, Pakpahan continued to run his  Union from his hospital bed.

06.55

IV Mukhtar Pakpahan

All the members of my union are suffering and all the labourers in Indonesia are suffering too because of the crisis, because of the situation.

07.17

Music, people, forest fires

But another man-made disaster was yet to strike Indonesia. The forest fires that raged through  Indonesian Borneo symbolised the economic disaster. Kalimantan's tropical rainforests are the largest in Asia. Over the past 4 decades the forest has been depleted by 2.4 million hectares a year. Forestry experts blamed the fires on the full scale assault by timber and plantation companies.

07.47

smog, sawmills

As land burnt out of control, a thick poisonous smog descended over the region. Over-logging had sparked the fires, yet despite the extreme conditions, saw mills continued to burn off waste and pump pollution into the air. Thousands of logs a day continued to be processed in an industrial free for all. (PAUSE) The Indonesian government simply blamed  the fires on the Dyaks, traditional farmers who have slashed and burnt their land for centuries.

08.21

IV Mr. Soemarsono,

Forestry Ministry

How to stop land clearing by burning because this is the source of our fires. We can't stop the activities of logging, plantations otherwise the development may stop.

08.36

trees, masks

The biggest logging companies in Kalimantan are protected by high level backers in the Indonesian government and the military. So whilst activists handed out face masks on the streets, the government did nothing. Indonesians were literally being choked by reckless  development..

08.55

Train, poor people

As the rupiah continued to plummet, many workers couldn't afford to go home for Christmas this year. Food prices continued to soar, people went without.

09.08

VOX POP Mariani

The only cheap thing now are chilies.  Rice has gone up; cooking oil has gone up, eggs have gone up.

09.22

With the construction industry at a standstill Mariani's husband Sukian now has no job, one of more than a million unemployed in Greater Jakarta.

09.34

VOX POP Sukian

It's very difficult to get any money.  We can't go home this year because we have no money.  What I have is barely enough to make ends meet here for my family.

09.50

With no such thing as social welfare in Indonesia, poor families were on their own.

10.01

Music, Suharto's children

Meanwhile Suharto's family was faring rather better. Their fortune put at $6 billion US before the crash, they continued to behave much like the royalty that once ruled over Java.

10.13

Suharto's youngest son Tommy benefited most from Indonesia's economic boom. When the crash came, critics demanded an end to both corruption and nepotism.

10.22

IV Amien Rais,

Muhammadiya Chairman

..if I can say bluntly a kind of quote unquote organised crime conducted by the children of those people who are in power in this country.

10.38

Golkar ralley

Suharto's eldest daughter Tut Tut  was the ruling Golkar Party's star campaigner during the last pre-determined elections. During the crisis Suharto promoted her to his cabinet. She's also fabulously wealthy. Her toll company somehow picked up a $140 million out of Peregrine's ill-fated loan of 270.

11.12

Music, faces

In Indonesia, the excess of Asian values devalued as fast as the rupiah. Other countries in the region are still suffering the same economic turmoil, but have not yet seen such momentous political change.

11.26

IV James Wolfensohn, President World Bank

You've had a change in exchange rates that have been as high as 80 percent.  You've had an impact on stock markets of up to 60 percent. When you have a crisis like that, there is no way of saying that's a minor event.  That is a major event.  And it is causing people to lose their jobs and it is destabilising society.

11.49

The mood was captured in Thailand ...

Thai pop video

My pay's been cut, my tears now fill the car I took years to buy as it's being repossessed... Bye Bye my friend, one day I will buy you back again. Even the cats and dogs are leaving me because the economy's so bad.

12.16

Hong Kong skyscrapers

Some of Asia's most rampant expansion happened in Hong Kong. Towering skyscrapers symbolised success as one of the world's largest financial hubs. The government here encouraged free trade with no strict controls. But the gap between the haves and the have-nots is one of the most prominent anywhere.

12.45

sweatshop

Hong Kong's success as a manufacturing centre was built with on cheap labour. There's no minimum wage here, no social security.

Three million people - half of Hong Kong's population - live in cheap government housing.

13.04

govt. housing

The huge estates began in the 1950s, not as some philanthropic social experiment but as a means to attract labour to Hong Kong while keeping wages right down. Spurred on by economic hardship, immigrant workers flock here from China. Many eke out their meagre lives housed in cages.

13.32

VOX POP cage dweller

I've picked the best spot in the place because it's not so crowded here and I can spread my things around. I don't like the upper deck, I prefer the lower one. It's all right here, but in summer it's very hot and the electric fan isn't very strong. It's all right, I've grown used to it but the air isn't very good.

14.13

building site

Across Asia, its cheap foreign workers who have sustained the massive boom.  They're driving the bulldozers, the cranes, the trucks. In Malaysia there are up to 3 million foreign  workers - about a million are illegal. The working day begins at this building site in Kuala Lumpur.  This is a kongsi, it's what the workers call home.

In this case, containers stacked on top of each other - they live 8 or 10 to a room and most are illegal workers.  Bribes are common and official raids are

rare. Employers or agents keep the workers as virtual prisoners - telling them that if they leave the site, they risk arrest and deportation.

15,.02

Almost all the construction projects in the country would grind to a halt without the foreign labour.

15.10

Skyscrapers

These gleaming towers are a testament to Malaysia's success. But many of the unscrupulous Indonesia's values are shared by Malaysia's ruling UMNO party.

15.26

Mahatir kisses hand

Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad has been in power for nearly two decades, but the economic crisis has ruffled his feathers too. Like Suharto, Mahatir is accused of cronyism, nepotism, and curbing free speech.

15.43

Prayers

This meeting of the party's Supreme Council was also Mahatir's 72 birthday. A time to celebrate his success in transforming Malaysia from rural poverty to one of the world's fastest growing economies.

15.58

But Mahatir was battling not only with the financial woes affecting all of Asia, but the most critical test of his leadership.

16.08

currency

When Asian markets went into free fall last year Malaysia's joined the plunge. And DR Mahatir's response to the crisis drove them down further. First he blamed the currency traders.

16.17

Mahatir - ABC News September 1997

It is the operation of the currency traders which cost the devaluation of the currencies of the countries of South East Asia.

16.25

Then he attacked international financier George Soros.

16.28

Mahatir - ABC News October 1997

People must be protected from people like George Soros who has so much money and so much power and is totally thoughtless.

16.37

In a speech secretly aimed at his Malaysian and mostly Moslem constituency he hinted the whole crisis was a Jewish conspiracy to keep Malaysia down.

16.47

ABC News October 1997

Jewish communities in the United States and Australia have slammed DR Mahatir's comments that Jews are behind his country's problems.

16.56

Police

Then he threatened to use the Internal Security Act to detain financial analysts who reported negatively on the economy.

17.12

Mahatir & businessmen

Malaysia's high growth rate ground to a halt. Mahatir's clumsy attempts to pass the buck were attracting the world's scorn.

17.21

IV Musa Hitam, Deputy Prime Minister Malaysia, 1981-1986

I approached his close confidants, very close confidants whom I knew and literally told them off and said: ‘What are you doing? Why don't you tell him?' And these confidants said ‘No,no,no,no! Under present mood I cannot say, or I cannot talk to him, he might not be happy'.

17.39

Forced to give ground - he did so reluctantly.

17.43

Mahatir's

apology -

13^th December, 1997

I am not allowed to blame anybody except ourselves so I will confine this to blaming ourselves. Because if I say I blame other people this is not acceptable, so I will not say spectators or manipulators or whatever they are totally innocent, and we are the ones who are in the wrong and they admit it.

18.05

The world is not used to seeing Mahatir back down. But his words highlighted the trouble he was in politically.

18.22

Mahatir advert

Malaysia has been obsessed with becoming a first world country and Mahatir has always staked his reputation on his development vision. As the economic revolution swept through Asia, he extolled the supremacy of so-called ‘Asian values' - sacrificing individual rights for the common good: and tough political leadership in exchange for greater wealth. Mahatir called it ‘Vision 20/20' the year he targeted for a fully developed Malaysia to catch up with the west.

18.56

IV Musa Hitam

Deputy Prime Minister Malaysia, 1981-1986

Because of this very high growth, we literally lost our heads by thinking that this was in for keeps, that it is going to be here forever and then we became more and more ambitious and we thought that we could really literally have jumped from a country that is under-developing or developing to a country which is literally developed overnight.

19.334

But development went hand in hand with political repression.

19.39

newspapers

Freedom of expression in Malaysia is severely curtailed. The media largely toes the UMNO party line.

20.04

market, music

When Malaysians enjoyed the boom years there seemed little cause for complaint. But a trip to the market in Kuala Lumpur will now bring back only half the food it did a year ago: the Malaysian ringgit is down 45 percent against the US dollar.

20.21

market traders/ food

DR Mahatir once encouraged investment abroad to enhance the country's image. In the rush for modernisation, producing enough food for the domestic market was a low priority. Basic items are imported. The government is now urging Malaysians to survive the crisis by planting their own veggies.

20.39

IV Ravi Nadarajah, Shopkeeper

A sack of onions which I used to buy for $16 I now have to buy for $120.

20.47

Ravi's shop

Price rises have hit small businesses as well as their customers. In Kuala Lumpur's outer suburbs Ravi Nadarajah wants to sell what's been until now a successful business.

21.05

IV Ravi Nadarajah, Shopkeeper

The effect on my sales is on the high price of the vegetables, the chicken and you know, all that I buy for my shop to cook - the oil, the sugar, things like that.

And you can't put your prices up?

I can't because this is food and if I increase this set banana leaf meal, if I increase the food, I might lose my customers.

21.28

For now, Malaysia has coped better than Indonesia with the food price hikes.

21.36

Malacca Street Scenes, temple music

But the economic crunch could have a more far-reaching social cost.

21.41

Chinese temple

Although part of the Malaysian community for hundreds of years, ethnic Chinese have in the past been scapegoats in times of crisis.

22.10

IV Lim Guan Eng, Malaysian Democratic Action Party

I don't think the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that we can expect ethnic clashes in the near future - that is of course still very far away. But if the situation deteriorates anything can happen. And when that time comes, the non-Malay community will be the natural scapegoats we always have been.

22.36

Burning Chinese temples in Indonesia

A wave of violent ethnic rioting against the Chinese has recently swept Indonesia. Poverty and political repression caused a backlash against those seen to have money and power. Temples were set alight and Chinese businesses looted.

22.57

Chinese Christians pray

These Chinese Christians pray together at a makeshift service after their church was destroyed. Many Chinese are neither wealthy nor powerful, just convenient targets for the animosity of the poor ...

23.21

Unspontaneous anti-Chinese demo

Regular anti-Chinese demonstrations were staged in Indonesia which were far from spontaneous. This protest outside a Chinese think tank was highly orchestrated. Many Chinese suspect Suharto's government had a hand in these rallies, evading blame, like Mahatir, for the economic collapse.

23.47

Mahatir's sons

Again, as in Indonesia, many of the most successful businesses  work hand in glove with Malaysia's first family. Between them, Mahatir's three sons are directors of at least 200 companies. At times they used the Prime Minster's official  residence as their home address.

24.04

IV DR Syed Husin Ali, President Parti Rakyat Malaysia

They're all very young people between 33 to 36. How is it that these young people are able to become directors and to become owners of so many companies. How are they able to borrow so much from banks in order to buy big companies?

24.24

Petronas towers

Many of the smartest cronies have tapped in to Mahatir's love of the big statement. Those grand schemes designed to deliver self-esteem to Malaysia by their very size.

24,35

Petronas Towers

Megaprojects come in all shapes and sizes from Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers - described by one politician as Malaysia's two fingers to the world.

24.47

World's tallest flagpole

And then there's the world's tallest flagpole, proudly flying Malaysia's national colours.

24.55

Sunway City, music

Or you can stay at Sunway City on Kuala Lumpur's outskirts - built on 80-thousand acres of old tin mine. It's a housing, hotel and entertainment complex you never need to leave. 25,12 And of course, it has the biggest wave making machine in the world...

sea, beach

‘Top of the World' plays on the radio.

25.18

A typical case study of Malaysian business in practice starts here  - on the sunny beaches of Langkawi in the north. (PAUSE)

25.36

The favoured tycoon who built a resort here was rewarded with the contract for one of the country's most controversial megaprojects. (PAUSE) He  had impressed Mahatir by building this resort in a record 53 days.

25.55

Bakun Dam

Ting Pek Khing's company Ekran got the lucrative $6 billion contract to build the Bakun dam in the very heartland of Borneo. This is a world away from the dealmakers and security forces downstream. The natives here have lived on the land for centuries, but Mahatir was convinced that Malaysia's progress depended on building the biggest hydro-electric plant in South East Asia - one of the most powerful in the world. Natives would be re-located in their thousands, forced to work on plantations as labourers.

26.32

Young Man

They say that we just waste the land up here, that we just sit on it and don't progress.  What do they mean by progress.  For us life means living with our community.  What they call progress is really murder - killing of the community.

26.54

Rainforest

The Dam would flood a section of Sarawok rainforest the size of Singapore.The Kenyah, the Kayan, and the Penan tribes would be obliterated.

27.07

setup Gurdial in barrister's robes

Lawyer Gurdial Nijar acted for the Sarawak natives, who challenged the Bakun project - on the grounds that the building was started hastily and without due process.

27.19

IV Gurdial Singh Nijar, Lawyer

You know, when companies are given such huge, massive, incredulous, incredulously big projects and other businessmen are by-passed, then some people worry whether at some point in time, judgments may be clouded by you know, this whole crony capitalism.

27.39

Child fishing with net, VOX POP woman

We don't want to let this valley go.  It's our fish, our pond from which we eat.  We don't want them to block our river.  When the river is flooded our houses will be submerged and we don't want it.

28.03

If the local people were mentioned at all in the media's rapturous coverage of the Bakun Dam it was as grateful recipients of the government's generosity. Mahatir put Ting's Bakun Dam on ‘fast track' - dismissing any opposition.

28.18

IV Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad of Malaysia

If they have shown that they can do certain things and they find some difficulty perhaps dealing with the bureaucracy, then we help him overcome some of his difficulties. And I think that is the duty of government.

28.33

Bakun Dam boat trip

There is not much patience in Mahatir's Vision 20/20 for accountability or rule of law. But Malaysia's high court disagreed - suspending all work on the dam until federal laws had been adhered to - a decision that infuriated the Prime Minster.

28.49

IV Gurdial Nijar, Lawyer

He was livid and on TV he said that this was not a small project, it's not a football to be kicked around. He seemed to be giving clear signals that the court decision was unacceptable to him, which sent some disquiet, especially to some members of the legal profession, and those who are very concerned about adherence to the rule of law.

29.18

Bakun Dam

The Court of Appeal then threw out the High Court's decision.

29.23

Bakun Dam

But in October 1997 the Bakun Dam - and several other megaprojects were suspended in a bid to regain investor confidence. But it was no rough ride for tycoon Ting. His political patronage continued, with the taxpayer set to pay back everything he has invested so far. Open criticism of such patronage was once unheard of. Now even the former deputy Prime Minster publicly condemns it.

29.52

IV Musa Hitam

Now what happens is that the business community becomes pally with the government leaders, where the government thinks that it is essential that they become pals together. But I think something has gone wrong there - that instead of the government really directing business, business might in many cases take over government. Literally determining and suggesting policies which are adopted and decisions are made on that basis.

30.22

Renong Corporate video

The sudden downfall of Malaysia's giant Renong corporation shocked the stock markets and battered Malaysia's image even further. Renong is the nation's building partner - the investment arm of Mahatir's UMNO party.

30.35

UMNO

It is no longer officially linked to UMNO, but the good relationship remains. Late last year Renong was about to go bankrupt when it was bailed out to the tune of $700million by United Engineers Malaysia. UEM was granted special exemption from normal takeover procedure.

30.56

brokers

In a selling frenzy, investors dumped other Malaysian shares, fearing more cash-rich companies would have to bail out struggling politically connected firms. Mahatir denied foul play.

31.07

Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad of Malaysia

We have never protected people who have done anything wrong, but we have given encouragement to people who have shown the capability to achieve success. We have always believed it is the duty of government to help the private sector. We believe in what we call the Malaysia Incorporated concept and there is no one single person who's singled out.

31.42

singing - Anwar Ibrahim setup

But a new value system is emerging in Malaysian politics. (PAUSE) Anwar Ibrahim is Finance Minster and Deputy Prime Minister. He ‘clarifies' DR Mahatir's policy pronouncements - a sort of minesweeper for market confidence. Despite having risen in the party of money politics, Ibrahim is approachable rather than dictatorial, and sensitive to international norms.

32.11

IV Anwar Ibrahim, Deputy Prime Minister

I agree totally with the concern that there should be greater transparency. We should combat corruption, there shouldn't be cronyism and nepotism. Transparency would help them ease some of the excesses - issues of connections or nepotism, cronyism, or corruption that one talked about.

32.35

Mahatir at Press Conference

I am told that it is my brashness which has caused all these problems about the currency, so I am trying to be nice, especially to the press...

32.49

Anwar Ibrahim hugs Camdessus

While Mahatir's aggressive rhetoric leaves him at odds with much of the world, Anwar is the consummate modern statesman. His impressive performance as Finance Minister during the crisis heightening speculation on when he'll take over. He‘ll have to convince the fund managers to reinvest, after Mahatir scared away.

33.11

Thais donate gold

The economic crisis has wreaked social havoc across South East Asia. In Thailand public support was drummed up by the army to get ordinary Thais to donate their gold.

33.21

tourists, sandwich seller

Foreign travelers are the only ones to profit from the currency crisis. Siriwat earnt millions as one of Thailand's top stock brokers before the crash. Now he plies the streets selling sandwiches - seeking valuable dollars from tourists.

33.46

Thai ad

Once celebrated, conspicuous consumption has now become a state enemy. This advert urges the label obsessed Thai to:

Wake Up Thai people! Don't be obsessed, be more aware: spend less!

‘Our nation's prosperity depends on us.'

34.06

demo

Chanting:  Give me back my shares.  Give me back my shares.

34.11

In Hong Kong another trading house, CA Pacific Investments, went down a week after Peregrine collapsed in January. Those who invested and lost their life savings demanded more regulation of banks.

34.32

Chinese New Year & praying for good economic luck

Over the lunar New Year, hundreds of thousands flocked to pray for protection against the economic down-turn. Many came here to the Wong Tai Sin Temple in the middle of residential high-rise Hong Kong. (PAUSE) They also come here to have their fortunes told.  Not surprisingly, in the current climate, they want to know whether to buy or sell their stock and property. Many see the panic only spreading....

35.10

Dr. MARK FABER

Hong Kong Investment Broker

I'll tell you I've been in Asia since 73.  I have never seen a wealth destruction on such a massive scale happen.  You tell me where it will end.

I tell you it will end all in disaster.  But will it end in disaster tomorrow, in three months, six months, nine months.  That I don't know but I tell you, the whole system is a threat because of the leverage the world is living on.

35.40

burial

The burial of six martyred students in Indonesia was the straw that broke Suharto's back. But the economic crisis was the impetus for thousands of Indonesians to cry out for reform and change. The old Asian values of the ruling Indonesian elite were suddenly out of date. The excesses of money politics unanimously and historically rejected.

36.09

Habibie

Indonesia now has a new President Jusuf Habibie. He was also obsessed with reckless development as Finance Minister, but for now at least he's preaching new Asian values, releasing political prisoners and promising an end to corruption. Huge contracts with links to Suharto's children are being canceled and renegotiated. His daughter Titiek's $multi-billion plan to build the world's longest bridge was on the IMF's hit list even before her father stood down. But Indonesia's future is still bleak.

36.42

IV James Wolfensohn, President World Bank

Yes, they've had a problem. But trust me, Asia's going to be there. It's going to be a major force... it's going to get through this. It'll have a more stable system, it may confront societal issues from corruption to openness, and it will emerge.

37.01

prayers

Amid cries, prayers and tears victorious students gave thanks for an end to Suharto's rule. DR Mahatir may reflect that he too has some lessons to learn, before his people rise up against him. For now, it seems only his younger Deputy has heeded the message.

37.29

IV Anwar Ibrahim, Deputy Prime Minister Malaysia

Malaysia will naturally have to mature. The country has to move on. We've got to be more democratic and the younger generation would like to see greater transparency, tolerance and I think personally I share those aspirations.

ENDS