SOURCE: INDIA TODAY
Former Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad, in an exclusive conversation from Kuala Lumpur with India Today’s Foreign Affairs Editor Geeta Mohan, made a clear distinction while raising the voice for Kashmir and its cause. While he emphatically defended his position on Kashmir, to questions on treatment meted out to Kashmiris in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, the former PM said the issue was not a “controversial” issue.
While he spoke of presence of the armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir, to a question on cross border terrorism emanating from Pakistan the reason for such security detail in the valley, he said, “That is for you (India) to resolve the problem with Pakistan.”
Further, Dr. Mohamad denied having supported Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) when he was the prime minister. He said, “We never said anything about that. Generally, we are against terrorism. It has affected us too.”
While waxing eloquent on minority rights, the former premier shied away from condemning the human rights violations against Uighur Muslims in China. In fact, he asserted that there was too much at stake for Malaysia to risk ties with Beijing, but it was acceptable to condemn New Delhi since the latter is much more “open” than China.
“We are not in a position to apply any pressure on China. We cannot do that. They are our economic partner. We need to maintain good relations,” he said.
Criticising presence of the US in South China Sea waters, he said, “Generally, we don’t like to have lots of warships in the area because if there are so many warships belonging to different nations then there is bound to be accidents (incidents) leading to conflicts.”
Although when it came to Chinese presence and their aggression against smaller nations, Dr. Mohamad said, “At this moment, the Chinese claim that some of the islands and atolls in the South China Sea belong to them. What is not occupied, of course they can occupy, but we have claim on a few islands. So far, they have not tried to claim those islands. So, we have no real, direct conflict with them.”
On the India-China border standoff, he said, “Now, regarding this incident which occurred, the best solution is to talk to each other and find out a solution through discussion, through negotiation. That is what Malaysia does when there is overlapping claims in the region.”
Clearly maintaining different standard of morals and ethics to deal with different countries and their rights and issues. While Chinese aggression is acceptable, presence of the US is not; while treatment of Kashmiris in Jammu and Kashmir is a problem, it is not in PoK; while alleged oppression of Muslims in India is cause for concern, there is no resistance to Beijing’s actions against Uighur Muslims.
