A seat in the front row

This article was published earlier in another social networking site.

The Bank Negara Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur

AS a journalist, I usually have a front row seat in many important events. Not that I'm an important fellow, but just because it is my job to chronicle them as they happen.
 When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak PM told a group of us in Vladivostoc, Russia, recently that Malaysia will once again host the Apec Leaders Summit in 2020, my thoughts flew back to the tumultous period when we last hosted the event in 1998, during height of the Asian financial crisis.

 I remember the crisis well. 

At the time I was a specialist writer with the Business Times newspaper, writing a lot on corporate and economic subjects.
 I remember staring into the stock price information screen in the newsroom, seeing nothing but red colour. Stock prices were falling like rocks and across on the foreign exchange market, our ringgit was in danger of becoming worthless pieces of papers. We were being pushed closer to the edge, where international debt agency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was waiting with open arms.

 Perhaps because of my knowledge of what's going on on the ground, officials of the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, at times sought me for certain information. I had meetings with the current Bank Negara Governor, Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz (she was one of the assistant governors then) outside of office hours.
 Zeti, however, never revealed to me what the central bank had planned. I guess it was government secret then. I never asked her much therefore although I knew something was being planned. The things I told her were largely those concerning business, market and consumer sentiments.
 Making the matter worse were talks of Bank Negara itself being split right down the middle in the country's political turmoil at the time. The then Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was making his final push for the top post in Malaysia's political scene after assembling a team of loyalists, including at the central bank, who at the time were willing to give their all to support the charismatic leader.
 Anwar was becoming bolder, after dispensing off easily the late Tun Ghaffar, and that too against Prime Minister Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir's advise and liking. But Mahathir is no minnow as far as politics was concerned then. He was one tough and cunning foe and himself had many tricks up his sleeves.
 Anwar saw the financial crisis as his opportunity to wipe Mahathir out and it wasn't difficult for him to garner international support too as Mahathir's outspokeness against the West had by then made him a leader many in the western world wanted to be rid off.
 Anwar who was also Finance Minister then, travelled far more frequently to the US than Mahathir. He was somewhat revered within the Bretton Woods institutions of the World Bank and the IMF. A charismatic fellow that he was (he still is to many) and his seemingly liberal views made him someone the west, particularly the Americans, want to be in charge of Malaysia.
 Anwar continued to strengthen his position, including by putting his people to be in vital positions in the newspapers and television stations.  

 At the height of the crisis I was assigned to cover Anwar at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers' meeting in Mauritius. I wasn't really interested in covering the assignment but since I was already in Paris at the time, the office figured that it would be faster to send me out from there than to send someone from KL to Port Louis, Mauritius, for the event.
 When we met the next morning, Anwar was talking to some people, loudly and proudly proclaiming how he had stopped Petronas from pumping money to save a company belonging to one of Mahathir's sons. He said all companies not worthy of surviving in the tough economic condition then, must be allowed to fail. That was the complete opposite of what Mahathir was trying to do.
 I never dwelled into the politics between the two personalities at the time. But at times I felt I was caught in the crossfire. Malaysia was on the brink of being a bankrupt nation at the time and Mahathir was staring into the possibility of collapse, of both his government and of his grand plans for the nation.

 When the situation became precarious, others tried to take advantage of Malaysia's weak position. It was during the Apec Summit of 1998 that Singapore made a RM10 billion offer to assist Malaysia strengthen its financial position. In return, our neighbour wanted equity stakes in several strategic companies in Malaysia.
 I knew in advance that the then Singapore premier, Goh Chock Tong, would be making the offer in a small meeting with Mahathir during the Apec Summit. No other newspaper knew about it but I had a very reliable source who told me about the impending offer by Singapore.
 Of course Mahathir declined the offer. He would rather that Malaysia went bankrupt than seek assistance from Singapore as that would have been a major embarassment for him, given his long-standing rivalry with Lee Kuan Yew.
 Anwar was sacked eventually and soon Mahathir started to put the economy back on its feet. From then onwards both him and Anwar fought a bruising fight in the political arena. Anwar went to jail but was released when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became prime minister. He still has ambitions to become the country's leader.
 I was sent to New York to serve as correspondent for the New Straits Times in 1999. I returned to Kuala Lumpur in 2002.

ENDS