Rais Hussin’s recently published piece in the Malay Mail, titled “Choose Malaysia”, reflects a sad geopolitical naiveté that threatens the fragile peace upon which Malaysia is built.
The author spends countless paragraphs laying bare the violent imperialism of the United States – through its military industrial complex and unilateral (read: dictatorial) control of the geopolitical, financial, and media/information institutions of the world.
He proposes however, to retain China as a “commercial” ally, and the US as a “values” ally – because according to Mr. Rais, it is the “progressive” US that can guarantee democracy, freedom of speech, rule of law, right to property etc, in Malaysia.
Does this mean that, like our neighbor Australia, that we have to march in lockstep with America’s imperial foreign policy?
Do we follow the US by banning Huawei, supporting Israelite aggression in Palestine, and sanctioning Iran and Russia?
Does Malaysia have the luxury of foreign entanglement by signing up as a foot soldier in the US “values” agenda army?
Do we accept Rohingya refugees by the boatload and offer them a pathway to citizenship?
And how does one go from listing the atrocities of America in one breath, and then proceed to praise them as beacons and upholders of “progressive” values in another?
Malaysia must remain strong, sovereign, and independent. That much we can agree on.
Thus, we must objectively assess what is best for the Malaysian people – through facts, logic, and truth.
Firstly, we have to examine how the US has treated Muslim-majority countries like Malaysia around the world.
The most obvious examples are of course Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prior to invasion, Vice President Dick Cheney’s proudly proclaimed that the US “will, in fact, be greeted as liberators”.
To this day, no WMD or Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found in Iraq. The US has not had to answer for its war crimes despite hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths since the invasion in 2003.
When America last encountered a rival on the Eurasian continent – South East Asians suffered greatly as their homelands became battlefields by Americans seeking to check Soviet influence.
True WMD – Weapons of Mass Destruction, such as Agent Orange and napalm, were used to indiscriminately kill innocent villagers throughout the region.
South East Asia is also home to the most bombed country in the world. The ordinary people of Laos continue to suffer as mildly-named “UXO’s” or unexploded bombs, litter the Lao landscape to this day.
And what about Malaysia?
The US and its Western media allies continue to to paint Malaysia as a victim of China’s growth.
In reality, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, Malaysia’s longest serving Prime Minister and a known anti-colonial Malay nationalist, has said before:
”I have been asked everywhere I go, ‘What do you think of China? Aren’t you afraid of China?’ There’s nothing to be afraid of. We have had relations with China for almost 2,000 years. China never conquered us. But the Europeans came, two years after they came here, they conquered us. So we are more afraid of the Europeans than we are of China,”
Mahathir was clearly unimpressed with propaganda efforts depicting Malaysia as a victim, when the reality does not match the preferred American media narrative.
Geely, a Chinese company, purchased a 49.9% stake in faltering national car company Proton in 2017, and under new management, announced a return to profitability at the end of 2019.
Proton had been shopping around for partnerships in Japan and Europe for years, but failed. In the end it was China who stepped in to save the national carmaker.
When the East Coast Rail Link project, a railway infrastructure project connecting the country’s peninsular east and west coasts, became the subject of intense political debate following the 2018 political contest between Mahathir and former Prime Minister Najib Razak, the contractor, a Chinese state-linked company, was forced back to the table to renegotiate the project’s cost.
There were no demands of austerity such as when French and German financial bureaucrats insisted on their pound of flesh from poorer southern European nations such as Greece.
There was no plutocrat interference a la American financier George Soros’ – profiteering from Malaysia’s misery during the 1998 Financial crisis.
What did China do?
Did it invade?
Sponsor terrorist groups or a Venezuela-style “alternative” pro-China government to get its way?
Did they criticize Malaysia’s human rights record or pressure us to accept Rohingya refugees?
No. It sat down, listened to Malaysia’s concerns, and agreed to reduce the cost of the project by $5 billion dollars.
There are many like Mr. Rais who claim that the “building blocks” of modern societies are democracy, freedom of speech etc.
I beg to differ. Malaysians care more about their ability to earn a living and take care of their families. They want good infrastructure, public safety, and affordable healthcare. Stability is the building block of Malaysia.
On freedom of speech – are we ready for the toxicity that has torn the Western world apart?
Malaysians want freedom of speech of course – but most do not support freedom of consequence. There are topics such as race, religion, etc, that we are not allowed to freely speak on – because once again, stability is paramount to our existence as Malaysians.
China knows all too well about the cost of instability. It has gone through centuries of political turmoil and has only seen peace and development of its middle class in the last 70 years, even though it is an old civilization-state.
Today, the global community bears witness to the stark difference in China’s response compared to the horrifying failure of the West to protect its people from the coronavirus pandemic.
While China builds two hospitals for its patients in less than two weeks, the US cannot contain its death toll, doctors and nurses suffer and die from lack of PPE, and corpses are loaded onto refrigerated trucks and thrown into ditches even in New York City, America’s largest and wealthiest city.
Homeless men and women sleep in concrete parking lots outside of unoccupied hotels on the Las Vegas strip.
Long lines form at food banks throughout the country even as Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ is on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.
After reviewing the facts, the choice is clear. The American experiment in anarchy and free-market fetishism has failed.
Human beings are not economic units or “human capital stock” – as Donald Trump’s economic adviser calls American workers.
The real choice that Malaysia has – is not the outdated Communist vs Capitalist model from the Cold War.
Malaysia must instead choose between development and stability or chaotic and brutal individualism.
Do we cooperate and fight a collective threat to humanity together, or do we “open up”, hope for “herd immunity” and put the interests of business tycoons over human lives?
Is the two hundred year old American-style experiment in anarchy and violent militarism suitable for Malaysia’s communities of Malays, Indians, Chinese, and Orang Asli, who have thousands of years of tradition based upon cooperation and cultural affinity?
Rais Hussin and I both agree that we need to Choose Malaysia.
We can start by rejecting the failed ideology that has caused the toxic decline of our former colonizers. I for one, enjoy my RM1 hospitals and gun safety laws. We want a healthy, safe, and racially harmonious society.
Malaysia cannot afford to be dragged into ideological food fights and thus must reject the toxic, individualist, market-fetishism of the US’ “values” agenda.
-Free Asia Media Malaysia Bureau
