Malaysia against unipolarity

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak declared that the Muslim world should reject foreign intervention, as it clearly led to devastating results as seen in many countries. I clearly support this statement against foreign involvement in the Muslim world. This is a very important call, because we have seen a lot of crises in past few years caused by interventions in Syria and Libya. Perhaps in future there will be an escalation of the situation in the South China Sea.

Recently, Najib Razak faced accusation in a financial scandal. US prosecutors have linked the prime minister of Malaysia to hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly siphoned from one of the country’s economic development funds. The scandal provoked discontent and protest from citizens. Then, an interesting law was passed. The National Security Council act gives sweeping security power to the government in order to prepare for any geopolitical threats, including hybrid warfare, conventional warfare etc. I personally in favor on this act for the purpose of strengthening the defense of Malaysia as a Muslim nation but the act must not be abused and misused as a political tool to suppress the civil liberty of Malaysians at large who are constructively critical against the government for the right reason.

The corruption scandal is real. It is a cross-border and an international investigation involving various countries especially international financial centres like Singapore, Hong Kong and the US. This scandal is connected with money laundering. There was abuse in monetary transactions through 1MDB fund. The Prime Minister is directly involved in this, because he has the final say in approving all major investment decisions and financial transactions of 1MDB as clearly stipulated in the company's Memorandum and Articles of Association

I believe Malaysia has an important role in creating a multipolar world. Malaysia is a very well governed country. We developed good relations with other Islamic states and Muslim nations. Our country is quite respected. By itself, it cannot become the balancing factor in the multipolar world. We need Indonesia to be our “Big brother”. Malaysia and Indonesia together could play more significant role in the world theater. A very eminent role, as we see.

On the issue of the South China Sea dispute, we have not shown our stronger response regarding the Tribunal decision. Our government has been avoiding accepting any parties. We still highlight the need to add to the code of conduct of ASEAN. On the last meeting of ASEAN in Cambodia, we failed to make a proper stand on the issue of the South China Sea, because Cambodia rejected the motion. We have not shown our support or any opposition towards China. We do have some territorial claims on the South China Sea, which we regard as Malaysian.