IT is a usual yearly event at the UN General Assembly where heads of states address the assembly. There have been various speeches related to unfair trade, human rights and climate change. From this speech, one could comprehend that while the assembly is addressed, the real target audience are domestic voters of individual nation states, while ensuring there is no pitfalls that would antagonise powerful states. This is true for smaller nations.

For example, United States President Donald Trump spoke about unfair trade with China in the assembly. He faces a presidential election next year, where China-bashing was successful strategy in becoming president. He had his domestic voters in mind. Dr Mahathir as usual opposed Western Hegemony and double standards. His real target audience was the Malay-Muslim voters in Malaysia, where he projected himself as a consistent critic against Western injustice towards the Muslims. This comes at a time when his party Bersatu is in direct competition with the new ethno-religious PAS -Umno alliance for Malay-Muslim hegemony in Malaysia. In this context, there was an interesting contradiction in his speech at the UN.

He criticised Israel and its backers for continued Israeli occupation of Palestine, and also criticised Myanmar for the treatment of the Rohingya and to a lesser extent the Indian occupation of Kashmir. The glaring part of his speech was leaving China out of the equation. It is well-known that China is the strongest supporter of the Myanmar regime in its treatment of Rohingyas due to its concern about investment and stability in the region. India has also supported the Myanmar regime, but Prime Minister Dr Mahathir has chosen to chastise India only in relation to the Kashmiri issue. It is a well-known fact that India and China have heavily invested in the Rakhine State. Why was such a connection not exposed?

The Uighur Muslim oppression by the Chinese regime was also not highlighted by Dr Mahathir. He claimed that Muslim nations are reluctant to speak out on the Uighur issue due to powerful China. The fact is the Uighur Muslims as well as religious people in China are going through overt and subtle oppression and persecution due to the Chinese regime’s obsession with its national ideology of development, where it will not tolerate any form of religious and secular freedom that could challenge its ideological power and sovereignty that is much to do with staying in power and in control.

From his speech at the UN, it is obvious that Dr Mahathir seems to be more interested in how the Muslim audience in Malaysia perceived things and how China should be out of the equation on the question of oppression, rather than addressing global justice in a truthful manner without a political and economic agenda. Dr Mahathir is clearly aware that for the mainstream conservative Muslims in Malaysia the atrocities of Israel is far more concerning than China’s oppression of the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

The question is how could one speak about global injustice, when there is a selective approach to issues? It is obvious today that human rights have been manipulated with a political audience and influential nations in mind. Malaysia cannot claim to champion justice if elements of hypocrisy are present. One cannot separate national and global justice and place trade above human dignity.

It’s obvious that the UN has become a platform where hypocrisy is projected rather than justice articulated in a real sense. Malaysia and Asean as a whole should not be dominated by China or the United States. This principle should be the way forward, in global justice and at the same time internal oppression of citizens of states cannot be isolated from global justice due to so-called advantages of trade, or if the enemy on the other side seems to be more dangerous. Has China eclipsed Malaysia at the UN? – September 30, 2019.

* Ronald Benjamin is Association for Community and Dialogue executive secretary.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.