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Asia Crisis Brings Political Change



JUNE 27, 12:31 EDT

Asia Crisis Brings Political Change 

By PAULINE JELINEK
Associated Press Writer 


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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? The economic tempest roiling Asia has blown up a
tidal wave of political change ? sweeping out old leaders, discrediting
outdated policies and emboldening advocates of reform. 

``It has had some benefits,'' said Pasuk Pongpaichit, an economics
professor at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. 

Government accountability and abuse of power are now political topics of
the day following the currency collapses that devastated economies and
shattered an Asian consensus for development at the cost of democracy. 

Disgust over money politics and economic mismanagement led to the ouster of
leaders in Thailand and South Korea late last year. 

Rising inflation, unemployment and other economic hardship inflamed
long-smoldering political discontent in Indonesia, bringing a chaotic end
to the 32-year rule of President Suharto. 

His successor and longtime ally, B.J. Habibie, has allowed a more critical
press, freed political prisoners and purged Suharto cronies from the
Cabinet. Habibie said he welcomes dissent and protests against him. 

``It's O.K.,'' he said. ``It is part of living in a democracy.'' 

The man who took Suharto's title as longest-serving Asian leader ?
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ? is not as easygoing amid calls
for his resignation. 

Political analysts question how well Mahathir will weather the storm amid
rising criticism of corruption coming from inside as well as outside his
ruling camp. 

``One lesson to be drawn from the Indonesian crisis is that there can be no
effective economic reforms without political reforms,'' said Lim Kit Siang,
the opposition leader in Malaysia's parliament. 

Malaysia and other governments in Asia need to enlist popular support ``to
wipe out the 3 C's: cronyism, corruption and collusion,'' Lim said. 

The government's answer so far to growing unrest over Malaysia's economy
has been to crack down on critics. It has suppressed negative economic news
stories and broken up meetings of opposition leaders and consumer rights
advocates. 

Meanwhile, the fall of Suharto was likely a rude awakening for the
repressive military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma. 

There, generals have been struggling unsuccessfully for eight years to
duplicate Suharto's economic achievements while clinging stubbornly to
power by crushing dissent. 

But if the political message from Asia's crisis eludes Myanmar, Malaysia
and the communist states of Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, leaders in China
appear to get the point. 

China has entered a period of political openness rarely seen since the
Communist Party ordered the military to quell the Tiananmen Square
pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989. 

Academics and dissidents have been inspired by China's new premier, Zhu
Rongji, a no-nonsense, pragmatic reformer, to call for political changes
they say are necessary to maintain successful economic reforms. 

Although no Chinese leader has embraced political change, Zhu has pushed an
activist, market-oriented agenda in the face of slowing growth, slackening
foreign investment and rising unemployment. 

``The current leadership team is the one that is driving change,'' said
Philip Carmichael, vice chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in
Beijing. 

``They're not waiting to get thrown out of office like some other folks in
Southeast Asia recently did,'' he said. ``They're making the changes
themselves.''