It can take much bruising, much ridicule, and much castigation to eventually reach the plateau of wisdom.\u00a0 Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who took office in November 2022, is one such character.\u00a0 Like a hero anointed by the gods for grand deeds and fine achievements, he was duly attacked and maligned, accused of virtually every heinous crime in the criminal code.\u00a0 Sodomy and corruption featured.\u00a0 Two prison spells were endured.<\/p>\n
His whole fall from grace as deputy-prime minister was all the more revealing for being instigated by his politically insatiable mentor, Mahathir bin Mohammed, Southeast Asia\u2019s wiliest, and most ruthless politician.\u00a0 Eventually, that old, vengeful fox had to relent: his former prot\u00e9g\u00e9 would have his day.<\/p>\n
Anwar is in no mood to take sides on spats between the grumbly titans who seek their place in posterity\u2019s sun.\u00a0 And why should a country like Malaysia do so?\u00a0 During last year\u2019s visit to Beijing and the Boao Forum in Hainan, he secured a commitment<\/a> from Chinese President Xi Jinping on foreign investment amounting to RM170.1 billion ($US35.6 billion) spanning 19 memoranda of understanding (MOU).\u00a0 Greater participation in Malaysia\u2019s 5G network plan by Chinese telecommunications behemoth Huawei was assured some weeks later.<\/p>\n In the Financial Times<\/em>, the Malaysian PM levelled the charge<\/a> against the United States that Sinophobia had become a problem, a fogging fixation.\u00a0 Why should Malaysia, he asked, \u201cpick a quarrel\u201d with China, a country that had become its foremost trading partner?\u00a0 \u201cWhy must I be tied to one interest?\u00a0 I don\u2019t buy into this strong prejudice against China, this China-phobia.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of this middle-of-the-road daring was prompted by comments made by US Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been saddled with the task of padding out ties between Washington and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).\u00a0 Rather than being diplomatic, the Veep has been irritatingly teacherly.<\/p>\n Last September, during her visit to the US-ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Harris beat the drum<\/a> on the issue of promoting \u201ca region that is open, interconnected, prosperous, secure, and resilient.\u201d\u00a0 Such openness was always going to be subordinate to Washington\u2019s own interests.\u00a0 \u201cWe have a shared commitment to international rules and norms and our partnership on pressing national and regional issues\u201d.\u00a0 An international campaign against \u201cirresponsible behaviour in the disputed waters\u201d would be commenced.<\/p>\n During her trip to the Philippines last November, Harris made the focus of concern<\/a> clear to countries in the region.\u00a0 \u201cWe must stand up for principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, unimpeded lawful commerce, the peaceful resolution of disputes, and the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and throughout the Indo-Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n The subtext for those listening was so obvious as to be scripted in bold font: Our values first; China\u2019s a necessarily distant second.\u00a0 This coarse directness did not fall on deaf ears, and Anwar was particularly attentive.\u00a0 He had already found the views<\/a> voiced by Harris at Jakarta about Malaysia\u2019s leanings towards Beijing as \u201cnot right and grossly unfair\u201d.<\/p>\n In remarks<\/a> made during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held at the current ASEAN summit, being hosted in Melbourne, Anwar expressed much irritation in being badgered by the United States and its allies on the subject of taking sides.\u00a0 The virus of Sinophobia had been doing the rounds, causing sniffles and rumbles.\u00a0 \u201c[M]y reference to China-phobia is because the criticism levied against us for giving additional focus on China; my response is, trade investments is open and right now, China seems to be the leading investor and trade into Malaysia,\u201d Anwar observed.\u00a0 Malaysians, for the most part, \u201cdo not have a problem with China.\u201d<\/p>\n Labouring, even flogging the \u201cfiercely independent\u201d standing of Malaysia, Anwar went on to state that his country remained \u201can important friend of the United States and Europe and here in Australia, they should not preclude us from being friendly to one of our important neighbours, precisely China.\u201d<\/p>\n Nothing typifies this better than Malaysia\u2019s policy towards the supply and manufacturing of semiconductors.\u00a0 The emergence of a China Plus One Strategy<\/a>, notably in the electronic supply chain, has seen companies diversify their risk through investing in alternative markets to mitigate risks.\u00a0 Keep China on side but do so securely.\u00a0 Anwar has established a task force dedicated to the subject, while also courting such entities as US chipmaker Micron Technology.\u00a0 Last October, the company promised an investment<\/a> of US$1 billion to expand its Penang operations, in addition to the previous allocation of $US1 billion to construct and fully equip its new facility.\u00a0 In business, such promiscuity should be lauded.<\/p>\n Anwar\u2019s concerns were solid statements of calculated principle, and inconceivable coming out of the mouth of an Australian politician.\u00a0 Albanese, for his part, has tried to walk the middle road when it comes to security in the Indo-Pacific, even as China remains Australia\u2019s largest trading partner.\u00a0 He does so in wolf\u2019s clothing supplied by Washington, with various garish labels such as \u201cAUKUS\u201d and \u201cnuclear-powered submarines\u201d.\u00a0 For decades, Australia\u2019s association with ASEAN has been ventriloquised, the voice emanating from the White House, Pentagon or US State Department.<\/p>\n Canberra\u2019s middle road remains cluttered by one big power, replete with US road signs and tolls, accompanied by hearty welcomes from the US military industrial complex and its determination to turn Australia into a forward defensive position, a garrison playing war\u2019s waiting game.\u00a0 To his credit, Anwar has avoided the trap, exposing the inauthentic position of his Australian hosts with skill and undeniable charm.<\/p>The post Wary of Sinophobia: Anwar Ibrahim at the ASEAN Summit<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It can take much bruising, much ridicule, and much castigation to eventually reach the plateau of wisdom.\u00a0 Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who took office in November 2022, is one such character.\u00a0 Like a hero anointed by the gods for grand deeds and fine achievements, he was duly attacked and maligned, accused of virtually every [\u2026]<\/p>\n The post Wary of Sinophobia: Anwar Ibrahim at the ASEAN Summit<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1757,75490,175,190,2804,2094,75491,34466,36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1534442"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1535056,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1534442\/revisions\/1535056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1534442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1534442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1534442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}