TheJakartaPost
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Brotherly ties
Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri is leading a razor-thin majority in government, and we hope he can endure until the next general election. But we can rest assured that Malaysia is stable in terms of politics, economics and security. The fundamental direction of the country does not depend too much on the charisma or character of one politician.
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Then-incoming Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob waves as he leaves his house in Kuala Lumpur on Aug. 21 to take the oath of office to become the country's leader. (AFP/Handout)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s meeting with recently appointed Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob this week will be his fourth encounter with a new Malaysian prime minister during his presidency. Since 2018, Malaysia has had leaders Najib Razak, Mahathir Mohamad, Muhyiddin Yassin and now the visiting prime minister. The three previous leaders were ousted from their premiership mainly because of party infighting.
Ismail Sabri himself is leading a razor-thin majority in government, and we hope he can endure until the next general election. But we can rest assured that Malaysia is stable in terms of politics, economics and security. The fundamental direction of the country does not depend too much on the charisma or character of one politician.
The prime minister is on a three-day bilateral visit to Indonesia at the invitation of President Jokowi. This is an introductory visit, a long-standing tradition of ASEAN, where new government leaders are expected to visit neighbors to introduce themselves. Only the ousted leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, has defied the tradition. She had yet to visit Jakarta when she was deposed by the military on Feb. 1 of this year.
Bilateral meetings between Indonesia and Malaysia will be dominated by traditional issues, such as joint efforts to protect the palm oil industry from boycotts and negative campaigns by Western countries. The two countries produce more than 80 percent of the world’s palm oil. Another key issue is the protection of millions of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia, working legally or illegally.
But the two countries are facing at least two more urgent issues to manage, first on the issue of COVID-19 and second on their joint stance on Myanmar’s junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who launched the Feb. 1 coup.
The military general has belittled ASEAN by ignoring the five-point commitment crafted during the ASEAN Summit in April. With strong support from Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Ismail Sabri, President Jokowi succeeded in having ASEAN bar Gen. Hlaing from the group’s summit in October.
We hope that in the bilateral summit this week, the two leaders focus on at least two other pressing issues.
The first is the ASEAN regional travel corridor. At the last ASEAN Summit in November 2020, President Jokowi urged the group to hasten the establishment of a travel corridor for the group’s 10 member states as the COVID-19 situation appeared, at the time, to be improving. The President has raised the issue a few times since.
"ASEAN's economic recovery must be accelerated by reactivating safe travel, including safe tourism," the President said last month.
Malaysia and Indonesia should take concrete action to allow for business activity to return while considering the possibility that COVID-19 could once again peak.
Second, we call on the two leaders to step up their efforts to ensure that the Myanmar junta implements its commitment to ASEAN, especially in ending the systematic violence launched against those who protest against the illegal military takeover of the government. ASEAN should not allow gross human rights violations to take place under its watch, and the non-interference principle should not be a cover for that.
Selamat datang, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri.
