Lessons Malaysia must learn from the gulf war
BY DATUK RAJA KAMARUL BAHRIN SHAH
The Iran versus US and Israel Gulf war offer valuable lessons for Malaysia and ASEAN to learn from.
The Arab Gulf nations are suffering enormously from the US and Israel’s irresponsible actions and they are partly to be blamed for their short sightedness and subserviant attitudes towards the US and the west.
The Arab Gulf Monarchy nations, with very few exceptions, have not grown out of heavy dependencies on old colonial mentalities towards the west.
Their vast oil richness have made them not mentally strong and resilient enough to be master of their own destiny and independent militarily as well as economically.
Always subjected to the western nations hegemonic power and political inclinations they have badly compromised their own national interests and are nowing paying a very heavy price for their folly.
The US and the west so called guarantee for military protection in exchange for military bases in the Arab nations counts for nothing as the US and Israel’s blatant disregard for international law blew up the gulf area in a fireball of senseless war.
Clearly the sole interest of the US favourite son, Israel, have over ridden the combined interests of all of their Gulf states ally and Saudi Arabia.
The US can’t even save their own army personnels and citizens as they scurry out to abandon the Gulf states after irresponsibly attacking Iran without consulting the gulf Nations.
As the battle rages in the gulf area, the US had virtually abandoned their gulf nation hosts for their military bases and are more concerned with serving Israel’s interests and survival.
The consequences are far reaching as the whole world is now suffering tremendously economically.
The more the US and Israel irresponsibly escalate and strike at Iran, the more severe the global economic fall out for us all to pay the heavy price.
Malaysia and ASEAN must not repeat the same catastrophic fatal mistake of bowing to US hegemonic pressure as Vietnam exemplified a classic disasater inflicted upon us to suffer with the waves of refugee boat people arriving on our shores.
Malaysia’s tiny Bidong Island was the so called temporary transit camp destiny to huge refugee influx which the US refused to accept for a long period of time.
They eventually accepted the professional doctors, engineers and rich merchants to the US leaving the ‘undesirable’ troublesome elements to be absorbed within ASEAN.
The economic and social impacts were tremendous.
After Vietnam was left in a mess, next was the Afghanistan failed invasion project.
Malaysia and ASEAN must be the master of our own destiny and the US must never be allowed to divide and rule us as they had done in the middle east.
The US large military presence in the Philipphines is a cause for concern with the US interfering and provoking local maritime conflicts with China.
We should deal with our regional territorial water dispute with China the ASEAN way through diplomacy and not the US gunboat diplomacy.
We have seen enough of the US irresponsible high handed gung ho attitude creating havoc all around the world including instigating NATO expansionist agenda resulting in the Ukraine- Russia war and eventually abandoning Ukraine to fend for themselves.
Malaysia with ASEAN should stick to its highly succesful concept of zone of neutrality through ZOPFAN, Zone of Peace and Neutrality.
The US and the West today have not much to offer economically and millitarily and they are resorting to chaotic policies plunging the world into a state of anarchy.
Economically China is now leading the world and in millitary technology matters even Iran have now out manouvered the US and the west with its high technology drones and hypersonic missiles penetrating the so called invincible Iron Domes.
Malaysia should shed the old subservient colonial mentality and stand up as a truly independent proud sovereign nation where the sun is rising brightly in the east.
We amongst ASEAN nations should resolve our localised issues amongst ourselves as shown by Malaysia’s recent success, through PMX initiatives, in amicably resolving the Vietnam- Thailand conflict.
Malaysia should stride forward confidently as a non alligned nation in a multi polar world free from the US and the west’s hegemonic shadow of influence.
Raja Kamarul is the International Bureau for AMANAH