The decision by a Beijing-backed forum, World Chinese Economic Forum in 2021, to feature a senior Malaysian politician as its keynote speaker was the subject of much controversy.
One prominent former cabinet minister objected, angrily raising the point that the organisers were clearly not thinking straight. Especially when a research fellow from a local think thank was participating in the forum as a panel speaker.
Nothing unusual about this participation, except that the researcher was citizen of the People's Republic of China (PRC). As it turns to be on the very day the researcher was due to speak, the organisers cancelled their invitation.
All of these intense drama took place when the think tank had a retired government servant as its chairman. But the erstwhile public employee is believed to havefriends in high places to help secure important positions in strategic organisations.
Well and good, except that some of the organisations do not seem to be performing. Could could this be the case of barking up the wrong tree?
It is a long and chequered history that include telco and plantation companies. To illustrate, earlier on, a group of environmentalists were pointing to the fact that the river supplying the Selangor dam had to pass through many industrial and farm areas, and this certainly made it easier for mishaps to happen. The response of the person chairing the meeting of state and federal agencies with the environmentalists was completely laughable.
Regardless, local think tanks are known to hire foreign nationals in various positions for reasons best known to them. Our think tanks are also known to receive foreign funding, for example from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), German foundations (Stiftung), Canadian International Development
Agency (CIDA) and the Japanese Sasakawa peace foundation to name few.
Sadly, there have been not much public debate on whether our National Interests are affected as a result. It is undeniable that both National Interests and Private Interests do matter in Policy Making.
Think tanks and academic institutions play a crucial role in any country that aims to improve itself by bringing together academics, experts and others who analyse,develop and promote policy solutions.
Considering the huge geopolitical shifts currently unfolding worldwide and great power competition over Southeast Asia, Taiwan and the South China Sea, these think tanks have an ever more crucial role in creating actionable plans and strategies for our policymakers.
There is no denying that China is seeking to use all its tools to establish a dominance on several countries in the region with Cambodia and Laos already being firmly on its side with the accompanying problems this comes with: economic dependency, dubious infrastructure projects, high debts and financial impropriety.
Malaysia is already facing some of the problems above but for the time being it is still able to chart an independent course but remains highly vulnerable to foreign
influence.
The China Index, a database released by DoubleThink Labs, a Taiwan-based research organisation ranks the country as 10 out of 82 most influenced by China.
While mutual understanding can be enhanced through academic exchanges and joint research can help countries better understand each other, these also offer openings for undue foreign influence, in fact we can see this as just another extension of China's attempts to bend countries in the region.
Even now it seems almost taboo for any serious discussion or criticism over China's influence or the negative impact of various mega-projects in the country.
There are valid concerns ranging from a lack of transparency, environmental degradation or even food security as little if any study is being done on large scale illegal fishing by China's fishing fleets in our exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
It would seem that there is an understanding that engaging in such discussions, studies or preparing reports will draw negative attention or even persecution, but many of our academics engage heavily in China pandering without any shame.
Is there something more to this?
What the government must do is ensure that such influence, especially in publicly funded think tanks and publicly funded educational institutions are curtailed.
We can take a leaf from similar efforts by other countries in dealing with these challenges - in 2020 the US Department of Education initiated a broad investigation to determine whether academic institutions had properly reported foreign contracts and gifts.
This was followed by the Department of Justice announcing criminal indictments involving a Harvard department chairman who reportedly lied to authorities about ties to Chinese government entities and his acceptance of Chinese grant funding.
Since then other academics have faced prosecution over unreported ties to Beijing.
Just in the same way, allowing the unregulated and widespread use of TikTok poses a national security issue, allowing our academics to come under undue influence and to promote policies and ideas inappropriate for Malaysia will be detrimental to national sovereignty.
Instead of focusing on building economic ties solely with China, our economic experts and policy makers must look towards strengthening and diversifying our economic links with the West and other Asian economic powerhouses like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, with these countries having a proven track record of technology transfer and the creation of high tech jobs for locals against the resource extraction focus of Malaysia-China trade.
It is not too late to turn things around but we have to take decisive steps as academics, just as the government must make sure its own think tanks and educational institutes are not being recruited and repurposed against Malaysian interests.
And at the same time, the practice of rewarding retired senior government servants with important positions, should be subject of closer scrutiny.
In the final analysis, vigilance, scrutiny and transparency will help shine a light on these shadowy links which must be cut, if we are going to free our minds and make
that great leap forward, no pun intended here!
Samirul Ariff Othman is a Senior Consultant with Global Asia Consulting (GAC). The views expressed are his own.