New Mandala guest writer, Gregore Lopez, has an interesting piece in Eureka Street on “Malaysia’s threat to Rudd’s Asia Pacific Community.” Here is a short extract:
This week’s visit to Malaysia of Kevin Rudd and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith reminds us of stormy bilateral relations under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Following Mahathir’s retirement in 2003, Australia-Malaysia relations returned to stability under the Badawi Administration. But with current Prime Minister Tun Haji Abdul Razak appointing Mahatir’s son Mukhriz Mahathir (pictured) as Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, some now fear a return of ‘Mahathirism’.
The full article is available here.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Chris Beale // Oct 31, 2009 at 6:07 am
Malaysia is going to be too pre-occupied with mounting anti-Thai hatred, resulting from the ongoing insurgency in Pattani, to worry much about Oz this time.
2 Greg Lopez // Nov 21, 2009 at 9:49 am
Hi Chris,
In fact, domestic problems are Malaysia’s biggest pre-occupation followed of course by regional issues such as terrorism, Southern Thailand, Indonesia – Malaysia relations, illegal immigrants in Sabah, Moro Liberation Front in Southern Philippines.
Frankly, Southeast Asia is a tinderbox – ASEAN can be credited for keeping this problems within borders – but the problems are increasingly becoming transnational.
Hence Malaysia welcomes support from Australia but it will try to keep the big powers (US, China, India, etc) out.
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