Regional focus
Since Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar, on the one hand, it has to spend a lot of energy on social and economic problems such as corruption, inefficient efficiency, high -end government bonds, incompetence, etc.The upcoming six states elections are the aggressive offensives of the opposition party.In terms of diplomacy, the Anwar government may have the impression of "more positive", especially he has greater international visibility than the previous two prime ministers.Whether he can cleverly builds a more effective international status for Malaysia and promote the development of Malaysia and even the region, it is a bit anticipated.
But the most important consideration of Anhua is to keep the regime, so as not to be pulled down due to failure in the state.Therefore, at least before the state was elected, his diplomatic philosophy and practice were still restrained by Malaysian politics.For example, many supporters of the opposition party have a strong sense of religious consciousness and focus on the soul sustenance. Although they do not pay attention to economic development, they still give priority to the construction of faith. Therefore, Anhua must also be good in diplomacy.He chose to follow the practice of the new Prime Minister in the past. First of all, he visited Indonesia with the largest Muslim population in the world. Later, he also visited Turkey with a special earthquake and religious colors.Conversely, although some major economic powers, although promoting cooperative relations is critical to the economic development of Malaysia, at least in the short term, Anwar has no schedule.
But when Anwar recently visited the Philippines and entered the campus of the University of the Philippines, his mood should be honored and excited.He awarded his doctorate degree in honor law, which should be quite appropriate for a national leader from the Philippines and international reputation.For him, this is also a sense of honor in a sense, because more than half a century ago, when he was still an active student leader, he often visited the campus to communicate with local scholars and experts.
That is the age of a student movement sweeping Southeast Asia and other regions.Anwar and many young people from all over Asia participated in social activities and political struggles. They later invested in the political and social movements of their respective countries and became part of history.Some of these active elements such as Anwar in the political and social fields, but they also experienced severe tests like him.
Anwar's trip to Philippines is also to update the concept of Asian rejuvenation he proposed nearly 30 years ago.In the early 1990s, Southeast Asia was prosperous, and economic growth was even more like.Therefore, as a leader with vision and international perspective, Anhua, who was the Vice Prime Minister of Malaysia, proposed the trend of thinking about the revival of Asia, it was natural.
But about one year after this concept was put forward, the situation in Asia turned sharply.The Asian financial crisis is coming, and the corporate soldiers of the debt strokes are defeated.Individual difficult Asian countries, such as South Korea and Indonesia, turned to the Western Economic Currency Fund (IMF) for help; the latter's aid is conditional, that is, the country of asking for help countries must carry out strict domestic structural reforms to cope withIt is considered to be a problem of crisis guidance.
Anhua, who was then the Minister of Finance of Malaysia, advocated the concept of Asian rejuvenation and enlightened IMF assistance to save the Endangered economy of Malaysia.But his boss at the time, another famous and even more famous Prime Minister Mahathir internationally internationally, had a very different view.Mahathir believes that the crisis is a conspiracy planned as the main borrowing of western countries, and it is to destroy or the Eastern country in the rise under economic and politics.At that time, Mahathir, who had been the Prime Minister for nearly 20 years, was more interested in the so -called Asian plan, that is, to promote economic growth with authoritarian rule.
Mahathir rejected the IMF assistance facilities in favor of Anhua at the time, and launched a series of controversial practices, such as vigorously saving some corporate companies that are crumbling and being considered collusion with officials and business.Anwar was also fired, and he was jailed for generally considered unnecessary crimes.In the following 20 years, Anwar has also many times in prison for similar crimes, and has also become the most remarkable opposition leader in Malaysia.
Malaysian politics has changed. After Anwar, Anwar cooperated with Mahathir to overthrow UMNO, which has been in power for many years, and let Mahathir come to power again.However, the political contradictions between the two of them are always difficult to eliminate.Their confrontation of their brightness has made other political forces organic, which has caused frequent replacement of the Malaysian government in the past few years.Until the end of last year, An Hua finally became a league to govern in a more fragmented political territory.
Anhua has suffered many sufferings in the past quarter of the past century. Now he is more stable. It seems that he is not in a hurry to start political retaliation. Instead, he focuses on the reconstruction of the cooperative relationship with the leaders of Southeast Asian countries.
In the Philippines's speech, Anwar re -referred to Asia's revival, and also emphasized the regional concept centered on Asia.But for him, this concept is limited.Although the country's countries do not interfere with other domestic politics, Anwar specifically proposed to suspend the right to participate in the participation of Myanmar.Anwar believes that the Military Government of Myanmar's military rights is outrageous that the sub -security, which respects basic human rights, should not ignore it on the pretext of national sovereignty.As a leader of a member of the Asianianan, it takes courage to express this view, and his views are also recognized by some leaders.
Anhua admired the father of the Philippine National Father Li Sha, and quoted the famous sentence of Li Mo in the speech of the Philippines.He believes that defending human dignity should be the center of social and economic development.He regards some obvious but often ignored social and economic issues, such as the gap between the disparity between the rich and the poor, the stable supply and reasonable price of the daily necessities, etc., which is as important as the development of the overall economy.Anhua believes that developing countries must improve into developed countries. One of the important elements is that most social classes must be shared to the fruit of development.Perhaps he believes that this is the practical direction of Like's national development concept with social justice.
After meeting the Philippine President President Macos, Anwar told the media that the two sides had agreed to deal with the dispute over the territory of the South China Sea from a multilateral perspective.This position is in line with the principles of good -neighborly friendship between the members of the Aya'an and the members of the Aya'an. It may also be a positive response from the other vocal countries of the Asianianan, although there are some countries who want to handle these disputes through bilateral models.Whether the multilateral mode will eventually be the mainstream model to deal with the South China Sea dispute, it remains to be observed.
In any case, Anhua began to explain some of his diplomatic philosophy, but it was closely related to his concept of governing the country in Malaysia in Malaysia.After the selection of Malaysia, if Anwar has a good grade and the government does not have to worry about being overthrown, Anwar may be more focused on diplomacy. This is an important part of helping Malaysia's socio -economic recovery, and it can also help promote Yajian to cooperate more closely.
The author is a senior researcher at the Singapore International Affairs Society (Research Institute)
Chief Counselor of the Malaysian Pacific Research Center
