In a classic display of the 'West versus the Rest', sycophants from both sides faced off over Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's speech to the Islamic summit, held at his US$8 billion fairyland, Putrajaya.

On one side were Mahathir's toadies, including mainstream media writers, who had tried to explain and defend their master for being grossly misunderstood. On the other side were Western leaders and 'liberal' media writers who quickly labelled Mahathir a "dangerous" anti-Semite.

Amidst the hubbub, it's hard to fathom what the fuss is all about, and who's right and who's not.

For starters, knowing Mahathir's penchant for populism, grandstanding and distortion, what's the big deal about what he said?

Islamic delegates - only 33 of the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference turned up - applauded Mahathir's speech, defended him as merely stating facts.

Mahathir said: "To tell me that I cannot mention facts of history is to deny me my right to free speech. I hope, please do not distort and misinterpret me."

His foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar, offered this: "(Mahathir's) intention (was) to show that if you ponder and sit down to think, you can be very powerful."

Don't take Syed Hamid literally though; no one becomes powerful by simply sitting around. What he meant was his boss summoned Muslims to use brains rather than brawn to counter Islam's enemies. What's wrong with that?

It is not this which raised the ire of Western leaders and media writers. It' s what Mahathir said: "We (Muslims) are actually very strong: 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

To which Hamid, in Mahathir's defence, offered: "Don't get emotional, over-reacting to something and trying to create a storm when there is no storm at all."

Western bias

Here's what else Mahathir said: "The fact is that they (the West) are biased, most of them are biased. They think while it is proper to criticise Muslims and Arabs, it is not proper to criticise Europeans and Jews."

Mahathir is right. The West just can't see its own hypocrisy. Recall Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi two weeks after the Sept 11 attacks in America, which was at great pains to explain that its declared war on terror was not a war on Muslims and Islam.

The daft Berlusconi, standing next to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, smilingly said: "We should be conscious of the superiority of our civilisation, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights and religion. This respect certainly does not exist in the Islamic countries."

And, he hoped "the West will continue to conquer peoples, like it conquered communism".

You didn't then hear the Australian Labor Party's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd condemn Berlusconi. He didn't then ask Prime Minister John Howard (photo) to do to the asinine Berlusconi what he now wants Howard to do about Mahathir's foul mouth.

In fact, the Western media gave little space to Berlusconi's pathetic intelligence in contrast to Mahathir every time he mouths off. Conversely, Bahrain, a loyal supporter of the US and home base to its navy's 5th Fleet, cut loose.

Bahrain Tribune editorialised Berlusconi 's comments to "prove that the man is shallow and racist and does not merit the post he is holding. The world is on the brink of a crucial war against terrorism, with countries supporting one another and old foes ironing out their differences to accomplish the task. But Berlusconi chose to launch a grotesque war against Islam and Muslims."

Two faces of bigotry

So, has sycophancy between Muslims and Christians, liberals and illiberals, now returned to equilibrium? Hardly.

At least not by Mahathir's reckoning: "If the Muslims can be accused of being terrorists, of course others can accuse the Jews of being terrorists also."

He has a point. And before Westerners start whining about that, they might want to reflect about the way their liberal media, with their virtuous pillars of accuracy and objectivity, have rather disingenuously portrayed Muslims and Islam in the war against global terrorism.

Another problem about which there's been less honesty is the charge against Mahathir being anti-Semitic. Media writers and Western leaders, including Howard and Rudd, have expended so much energy on this allegation alone without anyone once thinking it through truthfully.

Israel's foreign ministry said Mahathir's reference to the Holocaust was a "desecration of
the memory of six million innocent victims of anti-Semitism. It is a shame that in the course of a speech ostensibly dedicated to solving problems in the Muslim world ... (Mahathir) could not restrain himself from resurrecting vile invectives, innuendos and outright lies taken straight from classic anti-Semitic propaganda."

Bunkum. Here's what Mahathir said, and he's got his critics where it hurts. He did call for an end to all the violence and killings including suicide bombings and massive retaliation, and said Muslims should pause to think before taking further action.

Later, at a press conference, he said: "In other words, I am against violence, against terrorism and yet apparently this part of my speech was not noted. Instead I am accused of being anti-Semitic.

"You will appreciate of course the Arabs are also Semitic people, so being anti-Semitic means I'm against Arabs and Jews as well. That is very even-handed because I am against both, not just one."

It seems so darn easy for the West to flip out, and too darn easy for the West and its sycophants to shove aside its own hypocrisy.

All that said though, reading Mahathir's speech carefully, even in context, and a better-informed writer in the West - and the more truthful ones in the Rest - would have cleaved Mahathir apart for his humbug and contradictions.

There's enough vile racism and distortion of history and of facts in his speech that the pathetic Malaysian media, which Mahathir controls with an iron grip, doesn't dare criticise, thus supporting his despicable bigotry while holding him aloft as a statesman.

MANJIT BHATIA is managing director of AsiaRisk - a political and economic research and risk analysis consultancy in Australia. The writer specialises in international economics and politics and the Asia-Pacific region.