Use Asean to show fangs against Chinese aggression, says KJ

 

Ships of the China and Philippines coast guards in a collision in the South China Sea in September. The Philippines said the Chinese ship rammed one of its vessels. (Philippine coast guard pic)

PETALING JAYA: 

Malaysia’s chairmanship of Asean next year will be a platform for Malaysia to exert its diplomatic power against Chinese aggression, says former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

In the latest episode of his 

Keluar Sekejap

 podcast with co-host Shahril Hamdan, he said Asean will be important for Malaysia to state its diplomatic stance in stronger terms, claiming that the nation has generally been soft on China’s claims in the region.

“We are very careful in public on matters related to China. When the diplomatic letter from China leaked…we said we would investigate the leak, and handle it diplomatically.

Sometimes, we need to show that we have fangs, and not just try to settle matters in meeting rooms. If we do that too often, I worry that we will be bullied later on. We need to make a stand, which is why Asean is important for us to get a final consensus from the other nations,

 said Khairy, who is also a former Umno Youth chief.

Wisma Putra was reported on Sept 5 as saying it is investigating the leak of a classified document China sent to its embassy in Beijing in February.

A Philippine newspaper, the Daily Inquirer, reported on Aug 29 that China had sent the Malaysian embassy in Beijing a diplomatic note to stop all oil exploration and drilling activities at Luconia Shoals, about 100km off the coast of Sarawak.

Quoting the note, the paper reported China as claiming Malaysia’s activities infringed on its sovereignty.

Khairy said Malaysia needs to state more vigorously that China’s claim on the nine-dash line is not valid in the eyes of international law, and 

speak out strongly whenever there is an encroachment of our economic zone and waters

.

Shahril spoke of a diplomatic stir in 2010 when China’s foreign minister bluntly told an Asean summit that 

China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact

, to which Shahril said: 

Sometimes China lets slip how they really feel, which is: ‘I’m the big boss in this neighbourhood’. - FMT