Malaysia’s UNSC win a sign of troubled times

It appears that no one wanted the Security Council seat.

COMMENT

That a small nation like Malaysia could secure one of the non-permanent seats in the UN Security Council for two years is a sign of the troubled times we live in rather than an indication of Putrajaya’s international influence.

The voting was by a significant 187 ayes against a token five nays. It appears that no one wanted the UNSC seat. In October last year, Saudi Arabia refused to accept a UNSC seat, accusing the UN of “double standards”.

Stranger things have happened, like when both Ghadafi’s Libya and Iran, where human rights violations are rampant and routine, were elected as committee members by the UN Human Rights Commission.

Malaysia joins a failed institution given the state of the world today in the face of Putrajaya’s violation of the UN Charter on numerous fronts.

We will come to the second point in a moment.

On the global front, the UNSC includes permanent members who, the world would agree, shouldn’t be there given current geopolitical realities. These are Britain and France, who have lost their empires and, as pointed out by Beijing recently with specific reference to London punching above its weight, still pretend that they are great world powers. Russia, shorn of the USSR, just about barely stakes a claim to remain a permanent UNSC member.

Even if Britain were to give up its seat in favour of India and France in favour of either Germany or the European Union, it would not change the tripolar world that has emerged i.e. India, China and the rest of the world and the United States.

India is a world of its own and does not see her interests as coinciding with policing the world. The same can be said of China although it’s more integrated into the global economy.

The United States was pushed into its present global policeman role by Britain after the loss of its empire.

Crises and failures

This is a role that Washington has been playing horribly, stumbling from one crisis to another, from one failure to another. Having not learnt any lesson from its defeat in Vietnam, Washington goes on to commit the same blunders elsewhere, believing in Henry Ford’s theory that “history is bunk”.

The result is another Vietnam in the making in Iraq, one which the late president Saddam Hussein warned against. As the west sinks into another quagmire of its own making, will India be any worse off if it looks the other way and China plays deaf, dumb and blind, secretly taking great delight in Washington being humiliated by small nations?

Delusions of grandeur

On the second point, Putrajaya is no angel when it comes to the UN Charter, which calls on member nations to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other member nations. The delusions of grandeur that Britain suffers from are no examples for us.

In that sense, the situation in southern Philippines and south Thailand remain blots on our record, although some would argue that the jury is still out on the issue.

Peace can only come to the southern Philippines and south Thailand if we make it clear in no uncertain terms that we are committed to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Philippines and Thailand and any rebel caught fleeing the two conflict zones will be handed to Manila and Bangkok to be dealt with under their laws. It’s not the done thing to push for the creation of independent Islamic states in the southern Philippines and south Thailand. The Muslims must learn to integrate with their fellow Filipinos and Thais.

We have two maritime border issues with Indonesia in the Straits of Malacca, and again with Jakarta, one each in the Straits of Singapore, South China Sea and the Sulawesi Sea, particularly in South Sulawesi or Ambalat.

Putrajaya has also been suspected in the past of shipping arms to Muslim rebels in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

This would not sit well for a member of the UNSC.

Malaysia’s human rights record, fortunately for Putrajaya and to the dismay of Sabahans for one, would not come within the purview of the UNSC.

Having said all that, how Malaysia can make a difference in the UNSC remains to be seen. One yardstick is Pakistan, which not so long ago held the same seat that Malaysia has since taken. Islamabad tried to do a number on New Delhi in the UNSC and failed on all counts. Malaysia would no doubt attempt the same experiment with Israel, which has a newly-found friend in India. Putrajaya risks reaping the whirlwind.