Has Malaysia been frightened into silence?
The
global criticism that Malaysia and particularly Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak
and Defense Minister Hishamuddin Hussein received four months ago for their
handling of the disappearance of MH 370 appears to have frightened them into near
silence.
It
would have been expected that, like the Dutch, Australians and others, they
would have been boiling over with anger at the shooting down of MH 17 over
eastern Ukraine. But instead of outrage, instead of joining the global chorus
of condemnation of what the Dutch, like the whole of Europe, know to have been
the responsibility at least indirectly, of Russia through its arming of the
Ukraine rebels with sophisticated weapons, there has been almost complete
silence from Malaysia’s leaders.
In a
July 21 statement, Najib appeared to try to defend himself from allegations of
inaction by saying that the silence was necessary to try to secure a deal with
the rebels for the return of the bodies before the end of Ramadan and of the
“black box” flight recorders, and the entry of independent international
inspectors who could establish more precisely the causes of the disaster and
hence assign blame more precisely.
In
fact, Malaysia’s involvement in behind-the-scenes bargaining with the rebels
was very much second fiddle to the Dutch, who not only suffered the most deaths
in the crash but were also better equipped to examine the evidence. Yet the
Dutch showed no signs of letting their desire to negotiate the return of bodies
get in the way of strong backing for European Union sanctions against Russia,
predicated on the belief by all the EU members that Russia was ultimately
responsible via its surrogates in eastern Ukraine, and perhaps more directly.
The
failure of Najib to criticize Russia demands explanation. He has hidden behind
the fiction that only independent international experts can assign
responsibility. In doing so the Malaysian leader has given some credence to the
Russian claim that Ukraine itself was responsible. That almost no one else, other
than the usual gang of anti-western conspiracy theorists, believes that makes
Najib seem at best a weak leader fearful of causing offense to Russia despite
the huge blow to the nation as well as to the families of the Malaysian
bereaved caused by the destruction of MH 17. It is a weakness that since the
2013 general elections has telegraphed through a wide range of Malaysian
domestic politics including his refusal to take on the Sultan of Johor, who is
busy taking over the state despite constitutional limitations that
theoretically render him a ceremonial leader.
It is
not as though Malaysia has strong links either of trade, investment, history or
ideology with Russia. Indeed, the oppression suffered by Muslims in Russian
states in the Caucasus (notably Chechnya) and central Asia should be of some
concern. But even so the ministers who took so much abuse for their handling of
what remains a mystery remain silent in the face of a Russia-inspired outrage,
the mass murder of nearly 300 people including many Malaysians.
Lurking
in the background of all this is Najib’s fear of the Mahathir faction within
UMNO which would like to unseat him. Following the old man, these believe, or
purport to believe, all kinds of theories. Thus the fact that President Obama has
condemned the Russians and the US produced strong evidence of the missile
attack becomes a reason to disbelieve this story.
The
Americans are always wrong so the Russians must be right. The current brutality
being visited by a US-backed racist Israel on the people of Gaza, becomes an
excuse for not criticizing Russia. Najib would be justified in condemning
Israel in the strongest terms if he also took on the Russians.
Najib
certainly has reason to fear a Mahathir who has long fed Malay paranoia. Just as
some supposedly educated Malays – including Mahathir, writing on his blog Che
Det, believe that the disappearance of MH370 was some kind of a CIA plot, so
the destruction of MH 17 was a western-backed effort by Ukraine to denigrate
Moscow.
But
while Najib is no believer in such theories, he lacks the guts to speak up, to
lead Malaysia into the real world, not the make-believe world inhabited by many
Malays long protected from reality by racial preferences.
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