(Disclaimer: While I won't obviously disagree much with the verdict that Bush is a war criminal, I am an opposition supporter in Malaysia)
Now, obviously all of us have beef to pcik with Bush. But I would relegate this idiotic "war tribunal" as nothing more than the megalomaniac masturbation of ex-Prime Minister
Mahathir. The guy has a long-standing bone to pick with the Americans and the Jews, always trying to punch above his own weight by picking fights with Western politicians and media (its of no surprise that lead opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim is fawned by Al Gore and the WSJ). He is also partially responsible for the disastrous Flotilla incident a few years back; he was one of the funders.
Not that his Malaysian record is spotless either. He has used indefinite detention laws
multiple times during his 22-year reign, and got his deputy PM sacked and convicted of sodomy (that man is the above mentioned
Anwar). He created quite a mark for Malaysia and himself over 3 decades but at a dire cost to our freedoms and security. His continued strategy of using rural conservatives and ultra-racists against the rest of us minorities resulted, when he left, in a nation still divided by racial and religious lines. These lines exist today, and continue to hold Malaysia back.
Mahathir stepped down in 2003, one of the few dictators to probably do so without jail or death. His cronies continue to run the nation, but without his admitted political genius, the country staggers along slowly. He still indulges in grandiose gestures like this, but its telling that the above tribunal was barely covered here in Malaysia (election season is upon us, and we hope to further clean up the mess he left us 10 years ago).
Tl;dr: The trial is an empty gesture by a known megalomaniac with a bone to pick with the western world.
P.S. And just to be very very clear, if Bush or any of the characters were to visit Malaysia I doubt Malaysian authorities have any grounds to arrest them.
