Pakatan’s China priorities
Given their attitude towards China as of late, one can’t help but notice that the sabre rattling has given way to shameless pandering.
Mohd Hafizan Amran
With how the recent Wuhan coronavirus has played in the public sphere in Malaysia, pushback against China has flared on both sides of the political divide.
Many Pakatan leaders have spoken out against this saying that we should not be “xenophobic” against Chinese nationals. It is ironic because Pakatan played the same cards during the last election.
Anti-Chinese sentiments arguably played a large part in Pakatan’s stratagem to shift votes during GE14. One should remember the rhetoric by Mahathir towards Johor’s Forest City and his now infamous selfie picture during the campaign.
In the months following his return to power, it appeared that Mahathir would have come through on his hawkish stance towards China. From the outset, Mahathir cancelled or suspended various projects including the ECRL, Bandar Malaysian and the Sabah pipeline project.
He publicly warned recipients of the Belt and Road Initiative to not fall into the Chinese “debt trap” and stay alert against “a new version of colonialism”. This quickly gave way to a more accommodating stance, especially after Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali suggested that the ECRL would be cancelled outright.
Given their attitude towards China as of late, one can’t help but notice that the sabre rattling has given way to shameless pandering.
On the sidelines of the Smart Cities Asia 2019 conference back in September, Housing and Local Government Minister, Zuraida Kamaruddin enthusiastically expressed intent to promote nearly RM 100 billion worth of Malaysian property to the Chinese market. In addition, the same type of high-end property Forest City style projects are still mushrooming in the country – with some launches being attended by key members of the PH state government.
GE14 talking points such as the East-Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and Bandar Malaysia have put on a new coat of paint and promoted as a successful example of bilateral relations. How can this be when these same projects were attacked by Pakatan Harapan as fundamentally nonviable and an example of Najib selling the country to China?
This is undeniably disappointing to many Malaysians who voted for Mahathir. After all, Pakatan’s victory against Najib was won, in large part, due to concern over the growth of Chinese influence through 1MDB and ECRL.
A long point of contention in the relationship with China remains our overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea. There, despite repeated Chinese provocations — from large-scale fishing off Malaysia-claimed Luconia Shoals to harassing Malaysian energy exploration ships — Malaysia’s response to China has been muted as compared to our neighbors.
This continues under Pakatan Harapan, and embarrassingly, has taken a defeatist tone, as seen with Mat Sabu’s “China’s coast guard vessels are bigger than Malaysian warships” comment during 18th Asia Security Summit’s Shangri-La Dialogue mid-last year.
In this government, China can do no wrong – and under no circumstances should Malaysia offend our Chinese partners.
There is no clearer example of this than the deafening silence by Mahathir on the Uighur topic. It took consistent prodding by foreign media before Mahathir even acknowledged the issue, insisting that other ways must be found to deal with Beijing so as not to suffer repercussions.
In his words, “You don’t just try and do something which would fail anyway, so it is better to find some other less violent ways not to antagonize China too much because China is beneficial for us.”
Of course, this did not stop Mahathir in jeopardizing our relations with India due to the latter’s treatment of Kashmir and Modi’s recent citizenship bill. Both India and China are committing deplorable actions, but it seems only one government is accountable for its actions.
Pakatan is in an unenviable position, although one that was surely of their own making.
It is understandable that bilateral relations should remain of utmost importance for our economic growth, given that China represents one of our largest trading partners and is a vital source of FDI in the country today.
However, we have to ensure that the interests and welfare of Malaysians are put first – regardless of how it may affect our relationship with China.
Given their recent attitude to bilateral ties, they have much to prove.
