Mahathir and the markets: Globalisation and the pursuit of economic autonomy in Malaysia

No country has attracted more comment and attention in the wake of the recent East Asian economic crisis than Malaysia. Malaysian policy-makers chose to reject the conventional economic wisdom articulated by influential organisations like the IMF, and endeavoured to control a number of processes conveniently subsumed under the rubric of "globalization." This paper examines this experiment and explores the factors that underpinned this course of action in the face of almost universal condemnation. I suggest that the response to the financial crisis was in keeping with a broader tradition of "interventionist" economic management which has been driven by highly contingent considerations that are as much political as they are economic. The Malaysian case suggests that, whatever the motivations of policymakers may be, there are alternative strategies open to them, even in an era characterised by highly integrated transnational economic and political processes.