Malaysia

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FEW PEOPLE in Malaysia believe that Anwar Ibrahim committed the crime for which he was sentenced to nine years in prison. Few people outside the country believe it, either. More folks credit Mr. Anwar's accusation that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had him framed and ordered a sentence that, with additional ineligibility for office, takes Mr. Anwar out of politics for life. Unless, of course, the verdict is overturned, presumably after the quirky and autocratic Mr. Mahathir, 74 and in unchallenged power for 19 years, has departed.

PRIME Minister Mahathir Mohamad has ruled Malaysia so idiosyncratically for 18 years that it is easy to forget he is democratically elected. He remembers.Dr. Mahathir called a snap election for next month to capitalize on the apparent economic recovery brought by his policy of internal debt in defiance of the International Monetary Fund.It also comes when his popular opponent and former heir apparent, Anwar Ibrahim, remains a defendant in the longest-running sodomy trial in the history of scandal, and has been sentenced to six years for corruption based on efforts to beat the first rap. Few people in or out of Malaysia believe the proceedings honest.

YOU PARENTS out there should be aware that the young people have invented yet another alarming trend. I frankly wonder why we, as a society, even allow young people, inasmuch as all they ever seem to do is think up trends that we do not approve of, such as sarcasm, tattoos, and referring to pioneering rock- music geniuses of the '60s as "old" just because they are dead or in comas.I found out about the latest alarming youth trend thanks to several alert readers who sent me an article from the Straits Times of Singapore.

Day traders, who have tilted the bourses this year by darting in and out of Internet stocks like bumblebees on a lily, are a new form of an old financial problem: hot money.Day traders try to make a living by buying and selling stocks in a very short period. Minutes, sometimes seconds. A couple hours is a long-term investment. They're as patient as piranhas, faithful as Delilah.Internet bookseller Amazon.com has been prime day-trade prey. Its stock price tells the tale. It was $41 in November, $199 in January, $89 in February and $180 last week.

THE ASIAN disease did not hit the healthy United States when it reached Brazil, which devalued its currency Wednesday. But spread of the ailment to the world's eighth-largest economy means the sickness has infected the Western Hemisphere.U.S. trade with Brazil is small but growing, while U.S. private investment in Brazil is huge. So the threat of inflation and devaluation in Brazil is more to U.S. portfolios than to U.S. exporters.The $41.5 billion credit pledged to Brazil by the International Monetary Fund and Group of Seven nations in November, in return for deficit reduction, was in the U.S. national interest.

SINGAPORE -- There has always been an element of fear -- some would say paranoia -- in Singapore's 30-year effort to become one of the world's most prosperous nations.Few expected the predominantly Chinese island state to survive after it was cut loose from Malaysia in 1965. With few resources and occasionally hostile neighbors, the fear of failure became a major motivator for Singapore's hard-working population.That fear also helps explain why the tiny country of 3.2 million people maintains a 300,000-strong military, including 250,000 reservists, and a paternalistic government that discourages political opposition and public criticism.

THE UNITED Nations' climate summit that opened this week in Kyoto, Japan, will probably not end in a flaming row. Countries must not lose face, and so they are more likely to cobble together some shoddy compromise that is worth nothing. But a spectacular failure would be much better, for at least it might get the donkey's attention.Or more precisely, the frog's attention. Environmentalists often compare human behavior to that of frogs -- who, if you drop them into a pot of boiling water, will jump right out again and survive.

In a cavernous room on the 12th floor of First National Bank of Maryland, John Michael Rusnak and Matthew F. Kozak sit side by side with their eyes trained on a bank of computers.Rusnak slides his chair behind a computer called the Electronic Brokering System and swings into action. Second by second, the computer shows the prices currency traders at money-center banks and large investment houses around the world are willing to pay to exchange their dollars for marks, francs, pounds and other major currencies.