MALAYSIA wasted a good opportunity to showcase the Ismail Sabri Yaakob administration’s political maturity by giving a miss to the US-organised Summit for Democracy last week, Ong Kian Ming said today. 

The Bangi MP said by not participating in the summit, Malaysia had also sent a poor signal on the future direction of its foreign policy.

“This is a short-sighted and unstrategic move that points to a larger lack of coherence and independent thinking in our foreign policy direction moving forward.

“Malaysia should have grasped this opportunity to reiterate our firm commitment to the principles of democracy that have been tried and tested since the 14th general election in May 2018,” he said in a statement.

Malaysia was one of three Southeast Asian countries – Indonesia and the Philippines the other two – to be invited to the Summit for Democracy, organised by the office of the president of the United States.

However, Putrajaya decided not to participate in the summit that took place on Thursday and Friday. 

Ong said Ismail could have used the summit to showcase a new phase of political maturity under his leadership with the historic signing of the memorandum of understanding between his government and the main opposition coalition, Pakatan Harapan. 

However, the DAP leader said the prime minister was too caught up with the celebration of his 100-day Keluarga Malaysia government, where standard operating procedure was not followed.

“Even if he could not attend the event in person, he could have recorded his official interventions, together with more than 90 heads of government,” said Ong.

He also said some may interpret Malaysia’s lack of participation in this summit as Putrajaya tipping over to one side in the tricky balancing act, where the world’s superpowers want to influence the geopolitics of southeast Asia. 

“Or is this a sign of a directionless government with regard to the complicated area of foreign policy, which requires proper coordination and strategic thinking on the part of the decision makers in the Prime Minister’s Office and Wisma Putra? 

“Either way, the signs are very worrying for those concerned with the foreign policy direction of the country under the current leadership,” he added. – December 13, 2021.