Southeast Asia has always watched the development in Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia closely. Needless to say, instability in Korean peninsula will gravely affect our peace and prosperity. Malaysia experienced first hand being used as an illicit transit destination to bypass sanctions, discovered in the aftermath of the gruesome assassination of Kim Jong Nam at KLIA 2.
Here in Malaysia, in Bahasa Melayu, we refer to our homeland as “tanah air”, a compound word in which tanah refers to land, and air refers to the sea. It is an inherently maritime conceptualisation of our nationhood, speaking to our inseparable connection to the sea.
We need to “resurrect” the notion of Asia. ASEAN Centrality is great, and as long as ASEAN gets its acts together, it is a great power house. But Asia the label is something that we shouldn’t lose either.
The change of government in May 2018 provides a rare opportunity for Malaysia to revisit some old assumptions and make new ones to move forward. One of the earliest major decisions that will have huge long-term impact by Defence Minister Mat Sabu was to commit the new government to present a Defence White Paper to chart the future.
We need to realise that the military is the last resort, not the first responders. A military man in uniform is of course a very impressive persona and this certainly has a deterrence effect on all sorts of criminals or in any disaster relief effort.
We should therefore think of building decent public and private housing in the inner city for young people to rent. Seriously, not everyone needs to own a house. But everyone does need shelter.
To get the policy mix right at all time, just as Malaysia needs to study China more, China needs to study Southeast Asians more too.
Speech by Deputy Defence Minister, Liew Chin Tong at The Defence White Paper Workshop on 8th March 2019 This is the first in a series of several workshops to be conducted by MIDAS – the Malaysian Institute of Defence and Security, and the Policy Division…
COMMENCEMENT SPEECH BY DEPUTY DEFENCE MINISTER LIEW CHIN TONG AT THE ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE GRADUATION CEREMONY ON 22ND DECEMBER 2018 Selamat sejahtera. I am thankful to be given this unique opportunity to address the youthful future leaders of Malaysia. Today, rather than speaking to you…
Adapted from a speech by Deputy Defence Minister Liew Chin Tong at The Graduation Ceremony of the Malaysian Command and Staff Course (Kursus Memerintah dan Staf) in Wisma Perwira on 12 December 2018. The role of a professional officer corps gives greater impetus to democracy.…