Malaysia coalition can be model for Iraq - US envoy
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-24 17:21

Malaysia's concept of power-sharing among various ethnic groups could offer a model for Iraq's new government, U.S. goodwill envoy Karen Hughes said on Monday.

"Malaysia has such an outstanding model of power-sharing ... throughout your history the majority has shared power with others," Hughes said at the end of an Asian tour that also took her to Indonesia.

"We think that's a particularly important example for places like Iraq right now as Iraq seeks to establish its own government and seeks to have different factions within its own country work together in a unanimous way."

Hughes was speaking to reporters after meeting Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak. On Sunday, she had joined a Muslim family for a meal to break the fast observed by devout Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.

Malaysia has been ruled by the multi-racial, multi-religious Barisan Nasional coalition since independence from Britain in 1957. Iraq was free to adopt the Malaysian model, Najib said.

"They can learn from our experience ... certainly they can use Malaysia as a basis for them to work out a new constitution for Iraq," he said.

Since race riots in 1969 that killed around 200 people, Malaysia has tried to keep the peace between its different cultures and religions.

Hughes has visited five Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey last month, after U.S. President George W. Bush hired her at the end of July to polish America's image overseas as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy.

She has come face to face with Muslim anger over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in a series of public forums during her travels. In the most recent, in the Indonesian capital, she came under fire from a group of Indonesian Muslim students.