Has been a Cabinet Minister for 40 years (31+9 years as senior minister) - no rumour of him stepping down although he has been reportedly not in very good health. Mahathir is in good health. Despite his age, Dr Mahathir is fit as a fiddle.
3. It is still not certain whether Dr Mahathir will stand in the election. There are unsubstantiated rumours before Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was arrested in September that he would step down to give Anwar an opportunity to lead the country. The situation has changed. Anwar has been arrested and now undergoing trial. The economic contagion that first hit Thailand in July 1998 has spread to other countries in the region. Indonesia, South Korea had joined the Philippines to accept an IMF policy prescription. Since you are all very familiar with the issue, I do not need to go through with you the economic slowdown in Asia which could have negative implications for the economy of the world.
4. Almost everyone in the Far East has been affected - including the strongest economy in Asia - Japan. Following the devaluation of real in Brazil, Latin America may undergo another bad economic cycle that could spread to North America and this could dampen further any effort to resolve the economic stagnation in Europe.
5. Since 1 September 1998, Malaysia introduced selective currency or foreign exchange controls as a way out to contain the contagion and to lay the ground for economic recovery. Mahathir chose not to take up the IMF route; he refused to borrow money from the IMF with stringent conditionalities. In essence Dr Mahathir's policy in introducing the exchange controls is to regulate the international trade in its local currency - the ringgit - and regulate the movements of foreign exchange aimed at reducing the country's exposure to financial speculators-hedge funds- and the global financial turmoil.
