KUALA LUMPUR: Outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad can claim many feathers for his economic cap, but one that must give him great pleasure comes from his humbling of critics in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

At the time of the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98 Mahathir refused to buckle to the IMF’s demands and did the opposite of what they recommended by imposing capital controls and pegging the local currency to the US dollar.

Last month, IMF chief Horst Koehler conceded during a visit to Kuala Lumpur that Mahathir had been right.

The July 1997 devaluation of the Thai baht sparked the crisis as other currencies also came under speculative attack, and Mahathir’s actions were seen as so dangerous that billionaire financier and currency trader George Soros described him as “a menace to his own country”.

In turn, Mahathir famously called Soros a “moron”, accusing him of igniting the crisis by taking up massive positions against regional currencies in the foreign exchange market — a charge Soros denied.

The savage verbal exchanges were classic Mahathir, but he can point to his success in hoisting this small country of 23 million people from being an exporter of rubber and tin into 17th position among the world’s trading nations. Unemployment is negligible and the country is on track for 4.5 per cent GDP growth this year.—AFP