By Prashanth Parameswaran
Before asking what the country should do, we should look at what it is doing and why.
As Malaysia chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, there is no shortage of commentary urging the country to ‘do more’ on the South China Sea. Malaysia, it is said, is after all not only a founding member of ASEAN but a claimant state in the South China Sea disputes that also has a good relationship with China. But as I’ve said and written both publicly and privately, it is wise to consider what Malaysia’s current policy on the South China Sea is before asking it to change its stance or questioning whether and why it is or is not doing so.
So what is the current Malaysian government’s South China Sea policy? Of course, there is no official public documentation of exactly what the country’s stance is. One term often heard is ‘quiet diplomacy,’ which was praised by Chinese president Xi Jinping last year. But as I have argued elsewhere, most recently in a report (PDF) for the Center for New American Security, Malaysia’s position might be better summed up as ‘playing it safe,’ particularly under the current administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak. That is, Malaysia is pursuing a combination of diplomatic, economic, legal, and security initiatives to secure its interests as a claimant state while also being careful not to disrupt its bilateral relationship with China.
An analysis of this ‘playing it safe’ approach should begin with an appreciation of what Malaysia’s interests are on the South China Sea issue. The first and most obvious one is preserving Malaysia’s claims, which is not just essential to securing Malaysia’s territorial integrity, but its prosperity as well because of some of the fields and platforms it uses to exploit hydrocarbons are within China’s nine-dashed line.
Read the full story at The Diplomat