“Malaysia has more to gain by not agitating sensitive China, dragging it into our own racial squabbles”

 

I DON’T go to malls often but unlike Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I have never felt that any of the malls I go to had a “Are we in China” vibe that the twice former premier claimed the mall he visited had.

In a recent post on the X platform, Dr Mahathir said he felt like he was in China after he visited one of the new shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur over the past weekend, alluding to the fact that ”all the signboards are in Chinese with English translations”.

As far as I am aware, malls in KL today give pretty the same vibe that they have been giving for the last 20-30 years.

Malls all over the world, including the ones in China tend give you a cosmopolitan vibe that makes you feel like you are a person who is accustomed to living in the great cities of the world like London or Tokyo or Paris or New York.

Unlike the 1980s and 1990s when it was still an underdeveloped country, China has emerged as the world’s second largest economy today. There are today numerous Chinese global brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, Ali Baba or BYD that would not be out of place having an outlet in an upscale mall in KL.

If the mall that Dr Mahathir visited last weekend gave him a feel like he is in China, it is most probably because the world’s cosmopolitan vibe is increasingly getting influenced by China – not that the malls in the country are trying to become “more Chinese”.

Also, as Dr Mahathir himself recognises, the more you become a superpower, the more will signboards all over the world, including in KL, start to increase their display of your language.

‘Don’t irate China further’

Just because Dr Mahathir is accustomed to the British and American influences during his time, he cannot expect things to forever stay the way he is accustomed to them.

The world is always changing. We have to stay in tune with the changes lest we find ourselves living in a world that no longer exists or in a time that has long passed.

Our perception of reality depends not only on the state of our surroundings but also on the state of our perspective.

If Dr Mahathir’s perception of the world has changed so drastically to the point that he suddenly is feeling that a trip to a mall in KL is making him feel like he is in China, it might not necessarily be the malls that is the cause of him perceiving his reality in such a way.

Maybe it is just him that is overly sensitive to everything Chinese to the point that even something small is perceived as something big by him.

Dr Mahathir is currently suing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for statements that Anwar made at a PKR congress on March 18, 2023 which allegedly referred to him as a racist. According to Dr Mahathir, Anwar’s statement has eroded his status as a statesman and a former PM.

When Dr Mahathir is perceiving that the malls in KL make him feel like he is China when nobody else feels that way, perhaps Dr Mahathir should ask himself whether there is merit in what Anwar has expressed about him.

As a former PM, one would expect Dr Mahathir to be more circumspect with his words, especially when speaking about a rising superpower like China.

At a time when some of us are making a fuss over Chinese citizens waving their flags in Malaysia when no issue was raised about other nationalities doing so or even accusing China of flooding Malaysia with millions of its citizens, a statesmanlike thing for Dr Mahathir to do is to urge them to show restrain with their allegations against China.

But instead, Dr Mahathir is himself adding fuel to the fire. China today is likely in a sensitive and irritable state on account of its troubles with the West.

In the state that China is in today, it might easily take umbrage to us saying disparaging things about it by looking upon us unfavourably as being anti-China or overly pro-West.

Why present ourselves to China in this light? It is no secret that we have racial issues among us but we really have to do more to keep our racial issues within our own borders rather than dragging China into our quarrels.

As a mouse deer nation, we stand to gain a lot by cultivating a healthy relationship with China. Conversely, we also stand to lose a lot if we were to get ourselves on the wrong side of China.

As a former PM and a statesman, it is impossible that Dr Mahathir is not aware of this.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

- Focus Malaysia.