Let’s talk sense, not nonsense

By TK Chua

We have Russia in Syria. We have China in the South China Sea. And now we have the US recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

If we want to get upset, I think every country in the world today has a reason to be upset.

If we want to count on the United Nations for justice, I suggest we think again.

The United Nations is neither a democracy nor for democracy. The United Nations is made up of fair-minded nations as well as rogue nations.

I think it is better not to count on Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries (OICs), either. Sometimes I think they can’t even take care of themselves.

Superpowers will behave like superpowers. What else is new? They will make unilateral decisions, and they will exercise their sphere of influence to the hilt.

That is why for a long time, we have had the Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (Zopfan) in Southeast Asia and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) around the world. But in recent years, they have gradually lost their eminence.

Frankly, I think China, the US and Russia only act in reverence and recognition of each other. The rest, they don’t give two hoots about.

For a country like Malaysia, we can at most only “talk” or “comment” on unsettling events in the world. So, let’s not be gung-ho. I suggest we talk sense rather than nonsense.

Why threaten to cut economic and business ties with the US after its recognition of Jerusalem? Why even threaten to send Malaysian troops to the Middle East? So far, has any country in the Middle East threatened to start a war?

Talking nonsense could be due to various reasons. Sometimes we are lightweight; we know no one will take us seriously, so we talk nonsense just to satisfy ourselves. If we knew who we really were, we would not threaten the US with economic or trade sanctions.

Sometimes we don’t mean what we say. We say it for fun, knowing that we are not going to implement it anyway. This is how we quickly lose our credibility.

Sometimes we think we are far away from the “epicentre”, so we talk nonsense thinking that it will not boomerang on us. If Malaysia shared a common border with Israel, I think we would ponder harder and deeper before opening our loud mouth.

When MH17 went down, many countries, including those bigger and stronger than we are, could only talk. Even until today, they can only talk. But at least they have tried to talk sense to hopefully bring closure to those affected. Did we hear of anyone wanting to send troops to Ukraine?

I think the US’ recognition of Jerusalem will soon pass. If we want to talk, we have to start talking sense, and not nonsense.

TK Chua is an FMT reader.