By Danny Liew Shan Lee
On the early hours of 8th March 2014, Malaysian
Airlines flight MH370 to Beijing, carrying 239 souls (of which 153 are Chinese
nationals) took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Not even 2 hours later, the flight turned
missing. Her transponders and
communication systems were all shut off.
Who or why and how it happened, as at writing time are
beyond our comprehension. Theories upon
theories, many of them conspiracy in nature were shared. Many if not all were easily debunked.
But what we know today is that in the effort to search for
the missing plane has certainly resulted in tectonic shift in the regional
geopolitics.
Geopolitical Shift?
To search for the missing plane, no efforts were spared. The SAR mission which now has entered its
third week, are now participated by no less than 25 countries, encompassing an
area that covers almost one third of the earth.
To begin with, no SAR had ever reached the proportion of the
SAR mission that we are seeing today.
While early days of the SAR had met many hiccups, but the fact that the
mission is still ongoing without any mishaps is a testament of the organizational
skills of the command centre here in Kuala Lumpur.
But with so many nations being involved in the SAR mission,
how did this resulted in geopolitical shift in Malaysia?
Enemies or Allies?
With the plane was initially thought to be missing somewhere
between Malaysian and Vietnamese maritime border, earlier SAR missions were
focused in this area. While Malaysia and Vietnam has little to argue
about except for Spratly, the fact that Chinese nationals were the majority on
the missing plane, resulted in China also knocking on Vietnamese doors.
While they were once allies during the Vietnam War, the 2
nations fought 2 skirmishes, one of them involving a naval battle. The Chinese request to enter into Vietnamese
territorial waters to assist in the SAR mission were seen with suspicion. In fact, the SAR mission in Vietnamese
territory, both land and waters were exclusively done by Vietnamese military
and civilian support.
But the geopolitical tectonic plate shook hardest when it
was revealed that Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) radar installation had
actually captured the plane turned into Thailand airspace and was last detected
somewhere near Pulau Perak, a Malaysian Armed Forces Forward Operations Base
(FOB).
Incensed, the Chinese government had via her official
mouthpieces reprimanded the Malaysian Government for delays in releasing the
details.
While the delay in releasing the details were also noted by
the Western media, the surprising praises received from the Obama
administration and US military had certainly been seen as more acceptable than
harsh reprimanding by the Chinese government.
Cornered by two giants, Malaysian government did what no
other nations had done before, by releasing critical raw military data to both
nations.
While this action had assuage the negativity in the previous
communications, the fact remains is that Malaysian government officials were
not comfortable with the strongly worded commentary from the Chinese
government.
In addition to their
increasingly belligerent actions in South China Seas, Obama’s administration
softer approach, with kinder words and offers of assistance were certainly a
pull factor. Soon after, Malaysian
government gave the American teams (FBI, NTSB and CIA) more access to the
investigations that is currently being run from KL.
Further push factors from the Chinese government happened
when they recently announced that they are pushing for their claims on Natuna
islands, currently recognized as Indonesian territory[i].
Chinese Government
Reaction
The Chinese Government had probably realized belatedly that
their actions do not bode well to their international standing. When they offered to India to allow their
navy to send several PLA – Navy ships into Indian territorial waters to assist
the SAR mission, they were politely rebuffed by the Indian Navy.
Nevertheless, the recent China’s CCTV interview with Madam Liu
Guiqui[ii]
where she had categorically denied that she was being manhandled by Malaysian
police officers after she and several other next-of-kin barged into the press
conference has the echo of the Chinese government using the media to soften
their blows on Malaysian government’s image, and perhaps to contrast the way
the Western media had been attacking Malaysia.
However, it remain to be seen how these softer approach
would work on the Malaysian government.
After all, Malaysians are also part of Asia where the culture of shaming
another is highly frowned upon.
Reconciliation?
Maybe it is too early to talk about reconciliation.
While being closer to Uncle Sam may be good for Malaysia on short term,
Malaysia’s future lie in this region. Whatever current spat between
Malaysia and China, while it had rocked the boat so hard that both are now wet,
both countries must be in cognizant that we need each other more, than say
needing Uncle Sam. The trust may have been broken, but like any siblings,
the blood runs thicker than water.
The question is, who should start the reconciliation?
NOTE: as at press time, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Najib Tun Razak had announced that the plane is believed to have crashed in the
middle of South Indian Ocean, with virtually no chance of survivors. With sadness, we at DSGC would like our
readers to offer prayers to the departed souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment