ada apa dengan China?

Thirty years ago, this very month, the then Malaysia's Premier Tun Abdul Razak made a historic, if not a gigantic leap, to Beijing to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.

The act was formalised in Beijing, on 30th May 1974, between Tun Abdul Razak and his Chinese counterpart Zhou En Lai.

With a stroke of pen, Malaysia officially became the first and sole nation in ASEAN to officially recognised the sovereignty of the communist regime.

It was a far-sighted move, reflective of the intellectual depth and political instincts of Tun Razak, and it put into place the shift in Malaysia's policy from pro-West to one that was more equi-distanced.

Tun Razak’s act then was a brave one.

The region was still recovering from the turmoil arising from the Vietnam War.

Back at home, the communist insurgents, under the leadership of Chin Peng, was still waging a war against the democratically elected Government of Malaysia.

The radio transmission of Suara Revolusi Malaya was beaming out from southern China, and Beijing had insisted that government-to-government ties with Malaysia exist alongside party-to-party ties between her own Communist Party and the CPM.

Those in Washington were deeply unhappy on Malaysia’s action.

Given the general black-and-white impression laid down by the Cold War as well as the war of national liberation in Vietnam, the Malaysian move has been popularly seen as a radical, fundamental and even defiant shift from the Western alliance.

Never mind, if Nixon’s ‘ping-pong diplomacy’ which culminated with the Shanghai Communique normalised relations between these two giants, one rule doesn’t fit all - even if was widely known that Britain has established relations with China since 1950s.

Years from then and upon the demise of Tun Razak, his close aides were persecuted and detained under the infamous Internal Security Act (ISA) for allowing Razak in making this historic move.

The CIA with the assistance of the security apparatus of the Government of Singapore fed some intelligence which eventually saw the arrest of two of Razak’s closest aides - Abdullah Ahmad and Abdullah Majid.

There were accused to be pro-communist, a stance that Abdullah Ahmad has denied vehemently.

In an interview with The Edge in January 2002, Abdullah Ahmad confessed to his role in advising Tun Razak to shift away from the pro Western stand taken by Malaysia since independence.

He admitted that he pleaded to Tun Razak to endorse China’s admission into the United Nations in 1972.

The 'courtship' with the communist countries did not end there.

Tun Razak even visited Soviet Union the year before his historic visit to China.

To the Americans and their Cold War allies, Malaysia was moving into the other side - without realising that its newly found neutral foreign policy was not anti western or pro communism.

For his role in this episode, Abdullah Ahmad was incarcerated under the ISA for six years.

Another key player in this episode was Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

As early as in 1971, Razaleigh, in his capacity as the Chairman of PERNAS (a Malaysian Sogosasha), was dispatched by Tun Razak as his personal envoy to the Middle Kingdom.

Although the main agenda on Razaleigh’s visit was trade - China was having a big trade surplus and Tun Razak was not very pleased with the situation, Razaleigh was also tasked with the responsibility to explore the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with China.

Razaleigh had an unofficial, but fruitful, meeting with Zhou En Lai in Beijing which paved the way for Tun Razak’s historic visit in 1974.

The rest as they is history.

Two month after returning from China, Tun Razak called for a general election - the first to be held after the May 13, 1969 incident.

He romped home in a landslide victory, winning 135 out of 154 seats in Parliament, obviously with a strong backing from the Chinese communities.

Relationship between Malaysia and China continues to greater heights.

Even Razak’s untimely demise in 1976 did not hampered the close relations. None of the successive Prime Ministers have failed to visit Beijing.

The fruit of Tun Razak’s "One China" policy is all here to see today.

Since 1974, trade between Malaysian and China has grown over 200 times. Bilateral trade between the two countries was worth RM68.5bil by 2003.

China is Malaysia’s fourth largest trading partner while Malaysia is China’s seventh trading partner.

Malaysia accounted for 25% of China’s trade with the entire Asean.

It is the largest buyer of Malaysian rubber and the biggest importer of Malaysian palm oil.

Tourism and education sectors have also flourished on both sides.

There are now some 10,000 Chinese studying here while Chinese nationals comprise the fourth largest group of tourists to Malaysia.

Tun Razak’s journey of a thousand miles on 28 May 1974 was indeed a triumph of good policy and good sense.

As they say, a midget on the giant’s back can see father than both.

ada apa dengan marriage?

There are many similarities between a good marriage and a good listing exercise. For both, a good track record is important, and both require approval from the authorities, the parents in one case, and the Securities Commission in the other case."

"Both require the avoidance of conflict of interest situations. And in both cases, we need to take care of minority interest (in the case of marriage this refers particularly to the mother-in-law)."

"A marriage and a listed company must avoid speculative investments, adding in the case of marriage, well you know what it means."

"While dual listings are possible and sometimes legal, the normal and safe thing to do is to have a single listing."

"You must avoid undertaking a delisting exercise, unless you meet the conditions of the Securities Commission, namely you are a PN4 case (referring to a financially-distressed company) or you are a PN10 case (a company that has no more activitities)".

- Tan Sri Nor Yakcop, Bernama, February 14, 2005

ada apa dengan pembaca suratkhabar?

New Straits Times is read by people who think they run the country;

Malaysiakini is read by people who think they ought to run the country;

Utusan Malaysia is read by people who actually do run the country;

The Malay Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;

The Star is read by people who own the country;

Harakah is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;

And The Rocket is read by people who think it is.