It was symbolic that the culminating moment of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Malaysia should be a non-event. As its final declaration was being announced on live television by the summit host, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the sound transmission broke down.
This was doubly embarrassing as the venue was the Multimedia Super Corridor in Cyberjaya, a high-tech zone promoted as an Asian Silicon Valley. The declaration from the two-day summit committed the Asia Pacific nations to a co-operative growth strategy, the restoration of capital flows, curbs on hedge fund powers and the provision of social safety nets for the poor, but it contained no specific plan to lift Asia out of its deep recession. Dr Mahathir and the 20 other world leaders appeared for their final get-together clad in the batik shirts which are de rigueur for such summits. The gaiety of the apparel was in marked contrast to the demeanour of the wearers.
Russia's Yevgeni Primakov looked glum in sickly green, China's President Jiang Zemin, wearing shocking red, gazed impassively skywards, and US Vice-President Al Gore, also in blazing red, remained grim-faced throughout. As the group broke up, Mr Gore gratefully threw an arm around Philippines President, Joseph Estrada, the former film star and only leader to approve publicly of his electrifying speech on Monday cheering on supporters of Dr Mahathir's imprisoned rival, Mr Anwar Ibrahim.
Other leaders said he might have made a temporary martyr of the Malaysian Prime Minister, whose only known contact with Mr Gore yesterday was a brief side-by-side stroll in frosty silence during a break in the summit. "Wrong place, wrong time, wrong tone," said Singapore's Straits Times, summing up summit opinion. The pro-government Malaysian press carried apoplectic anti-Gore coverage, accompanied by photographs of the assembled world leaders in which the US Vice-President was somehow always obscured.
Mr Gore, American sources said yesterday, has no regrets. He reworked President Clinton's original speech line by line before shocking his hosts with his endorsement of reformasi. "Remember Al Gore is running for president, his target is unpopular with Americans and he is still trying to live down the time he had to clink glasses with China's Li Peng," said one US observer. His speech got him headlines at home for an otherwise thankless task standing in for President Clinton, the observer said. White House distaste for Dr Mahathir is not new. His ministers have said that Mr Clinton is not fit to govern because of the Lewinsky scandal, he boycotted APEC when it was held in the United States, and he has - the cardinal sin - blamed the Jews for the economic crisis.
Mr Anwar, despite his imprisonment on corruption and sodomy charges, managed to make his presence felt yesterday with an op-ed Asia Wall Street Journal article written in his jail cell. In a obvious swipe at Dr Mahathir, he declared: "For decades some Asian leaders have tried to convince their people that soft authoritarianism is necessary for prosperity. But a new generation has emerged for whom such arguments have lost their persuasion."
Mr Gore flies to Washington today. For legal reasons his plane has to be in US air space before President Clinton's Air Force One departs for Tokyo, where he is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister, Mr Keizo Obuchi, tomorrow. This is likely to be another fraught US-Asia encounter. The US Trade Minister, Ms Charlene Barshevsky, has been sharply critical of the Japanese since APEC failed to agree a $1.5 trillion deal to fast-track trade liberalisation in nine key industries because Japan blocked tariff reductions on fish and forestry products. Japan was "completely isolated" at the APEC forum as the sole holdout against lifting tariffs fast, she said last night. "Are relations strained with Japan over the issue?" she snorted. "You bet!" The APEC summit took place against a background of a dismal report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which said Asia was slipping deeper into crisis. Indonesia 's economy would shrink by 15.5 per cent this year, Thailand's by 7.0 per cent, Malaysia's by 4.7 per cent, Hong Kong's by 4.5 per cent, the Philippines by 0.5 per cent, and Singapore would record zero growth, it forecast.
The APEC leaders promised to work together to support an early and sustained recovery. Their declaration pledged relief for debt-laden corporations and banks, and support for growth by encouraging investment inflows. For the first time the nine-year-old Pacific-rim organisation recognised the need for stronger safety nets for populations plunged into poverty and unemployment after decades of growth and recommended a task force to improve regulation and hedge fund disclosure. The forum, comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam also called for a review of the practices of credit rating agencies. Amnesty International said APEC leaders must recognise that economic reforms should be twinned with human rights.