A lopsided meeting between Trump and Najib

The public statements made by both US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak are somewhat lopsided.

It reminds me of the bunga mas (translated as golden flowers) which was paid as a tribute to the King of Siam by its vassal states in the Malay Peninsula once every three years in return for its protection.

Although this illustration may be slightly overstretched, the visit by Najib to the US White House should have yielded in a better deal with Malaysia.

Instead, we see Najib offering three proposals without getting anything in return, except some words of praise from the American president. This is nothing but a simple formality to thank Najib for contributing towards the US economy.

Let’s look at the three economic proposals made by the Malaysian side and how the US responded in return.

Najib’s economic proposals

The first proposal was for MAS to purchase 33 Boeing jets, and to convince AirAsia to purchase General Electric engines.

What I am reading here is that the government can order MAS to purchase the Boeing jets without a doubt, but it is still unable to convince AirAsia to purchase the General Electric engines at the time of the purchase.

This is because Tony Fernandes being an entrepreneur would have to evaluate various proposals from different suppliers before making a good decision to purchase any engine.

We have not heard from Najib where the money is going to come from and over how many years the Boeing jets would be purchased. I believe the devil is in the details, and I leave this to people like Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli to comb through. I am only an ordinary man in the street with a degree in Science but more of a marketing man and a writer.

Secondly, Najib said the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) would double its investments in the US. Without going into the details again, Najib should realise that many viable Malaysian businesses also need a lot of investments.

On what grounds does Najib make the decision, especially at a time when the ringgit is so low? Should it not be the other way round that the US should take advantage of our weak ringgit to pour their US dollars into investments in Malaysia, the way the Chinese government is doing?

Lastly, Khazanah Nasional will increase its presence in the US. Here again, Malaysian money is flowing out which is not always very healthy in reviving the Malaysian economy.

I trust on this, Ong Kian Meng and other economics professors will jump on the bandwagon to argue their hearts out, but the returns are yet to be seen.

Trump’s response

Naturally, when Trump wants to use Malaysia as its Southeast Asian base to fight terrorism, he would heap lots of praise for Malaysia; thereafter, he gets to work in the usual American business style.

What I believe most Malaysians wish to see is that the Malaysian prime minister is able to attract more inflow of precious investments into Malaysia.

However, Trump gave no sweeteners in return for what Najib has to offer to Trump. We do not know what else was discussed, but at least in Trump’s case, he seems to have listened to the advice of his men not to allow the visit to be used for any political mileage or spark a bigger controversy when the international media has its focus on the handshake photo-op.

Pardon me for bursting the bubble, but what we see in the screenshot of video footage (photo) from Trump and Najib’s meeting is Trump’s folded arms and his deep thoughts as a businessman as a sign of the US president’s cynicism. I hope I am wrong!

An observation that I can make from the video screenshot is that in the Trump-Najib meet, the formality has been kept to the minimum. 

There is nothing elaborate including the folded papers that showed the various designations.

For Trump, his style is: “Let’s get down to business now!”

But, do we ever learn? How can anyone be convinced that Najib was media shy when it came to meeting with the US president? As an observer, this speaks volumes about Najib’s own predicament at the moment.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. - Mkini