The idea was immediately knocked back by the US and the European Union. Indonesia's and Malaysia's situations are different from Thailand's, but their abilities to defend their currencies are equally weak. Malaysian banks are overextended, lending 1.6 times GDP on collateral the worth of which was seriously inflated. While Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was tirelessly attacking currency speculator George Soros in Hong Kong last month in an attempt to unite the country against a common external enemy, depositors all over Malaysia were withdrawing their deposits from MBf, the country's biggest finance company. But there is a limit to the extent that Third World countries can boost their export income and thus bring the current account into balance.
Tin is by far Malaysia's biggest export, and coffee and timber Indonesia's.
With no shortage of competition from the rest of the Third World, the price of these commodities, and of labour-intensive manufacturing products, hinges on the buyers, decisively the developed countries. This product structure is largely a legacy of these countries' colonial past, which they can't turn around easily. But whether an investment or a loan is made hinges on the investors and lenders. They begged, bribed or blackmailed their way into Asia. Capitalists from the imperialist countries have too much capital on their hands, hunting for higher returns.