UNITED States ambassador to Malaysia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir spoke at length on ties between Malaysia and the US during a visit to the New Straits Times Press (NSTP) office here on Wednesday.
In the interview, Lakhdir deliberated on regional politics, the global move in curbing extremism, Rohingya and Palestine conflicts, as well as developments on visa-free travel.
She was accompanied by the embassy’s press attaché, Morgan O’Brien, and senior information specialists Leni Abd Latif and Hisham Selamat.
She was hosted by NSTP chief executive officer Datuk Seri Abdul Jalil Hamid, NSTP editor-in-chief Datuk Yushaimi Yahaya, senior executive editor (convergence) Saidon Idris and executive editor (convergence) Thillinadan Muniandy.
Present were NSTP chairman Tan Sri Ismail Omar, New Straits Times executive editor Muzli
Mohd Zin and NSTP (convergence) foreign desk news editor V. Ashok.
The following are excerpts of the interview:
CHANGES IN MALAYSIA
Question: What is your opinion on Malaysia’s politics, its people and the country’s direction through many changes that are being done at the moment?
Answer: I’ve had the opportunity to witness developments in Malaysian politics since 2008. I’ve seen how the region is changing and how Malaysians are engaging in and travelling in the region.
One of the things that are new for me as an ambassador, which I now understand a lot better, is how US firms have played an important role in the development of the Malaysian economy.
This is not only in the oil and gas sector, but also in electronics, starting in the 1970s in Penang through the building of companies like Intel, HP and Motorola.
Q: How about society in general? The birth of extremism in this region has cast a rather bad light on Muslim countries like Malaysia. What is your opinion on this?
A: We at the embassy are working with Malaysia on things that are related to counterextremism. It’s extremely difficult and sophisticated, and there are Malaysians working in this area and we are working with them.
All countries face this challenge, including the US. We have a lot of law enforcement cooperation in this area and in cybercrime.
There is also the old debate about English education. We’re lucky because the Malaysian and US governments have developed our English Teaching Assistants (ETA). We have 100 young Americans, who recently graduated from universities, aged 23 and 24.
The Education Ministry has placed them in schools in Kelantan, Terengganu, Sarawak, Sabah, Pahang, Kedah, Melaka, Perlis and Perak.
One of the challenges is to inspire young people to use and speak English comfortably and confidently. The other thing is, encouraging them to open their minds to travel outside Malaysia to broaden their perspective.
Q: Can you elaborate more on this?
A: Our ETAs help in terms of using English and challenging young students to speak and interact. American education is different from other countries, so we bring in these teachers and they’re all about changing and using education in an innovative and creative way.
We also have the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programme.
The programme is joined by Malaysian students who recently graduated from secondary school.
These students go to the US for six months to live with US families. They go to US schools and they’re usually in a place where there are no other foreign students, so, no Bahasa Malaysia.
When they come back, they start walking like Americans, shake my hand and look at me in the eye. It’s unbelievable. If I could send more, I would.
We have five high school American students spending a year here — three in Kedah and two in Kuala Lumpur. This is the type of exchange for them, and for our ETAs, they are going to be our advocates for the bilateral relations in the future.
MALAYSIA–U.S. TIES
Q: What are your views about the Malaysia-US ties that were rather lukewarm in the past compared with recent years ?
A: During former president Barack Obama’s administration, his relationship with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak developed strongly.
Both sides agreed the partnership would be a comprehensive one. As we entered President Donald Trump’s administration, the relationship is still strong in our economic ties, military, security and law enforcement in regional cooperation.
Malaysia is US’s partner in Asean in terms of humanitarian disaster response committee. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came here in August and Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Najib (Razak) visited Washington in September. I foresee more visits and I think the president and Malaysia’s administration are close partners.
VISA-FREE TRAVEL (VFT)
Q: What are the latest developments on VFT?
A: My predecessor, the embassy, and the Foreign Ministry continue to work on all aspects related to ensure legitimate travel — security in terms of travelling for Malaysians and Americans, and the use of passports, such as lost and stolen passports.
All of you are aware of the foreign fighters’ issue. People coming out of Syria and Iraq, people coming out of southern Philippines, Mindanao. Malaysians know there are some things that the US is looking for in any country that would be considered for VFT.
I cannot say Malaysia has met all those things, but the administration has changed from president Obama to President Trump.
There’s been a lot of change in the leadership of our government. There’s also been an increased focus on travel concerns, security and travel.
Similar to many of the things president Obama’s administration was focused on, other things have also been intensified. I would say that in the current time frame, no countries have been added to the VFT and I don’t foresee that happening any time soon. At the same time, as I have always said, both Malaysia and the US have an interest in continuing the work in these areas for the security of Malaysians and Americans, and it is my hope that we can continue to make progress together.
Q: Since this has yet to be decided officially, is there a way to facilitate Malaysians who wish to travel to the US?
A: To apply for a visa to travel to the US is an online process. We have tried to streamline and speed up the process for the benefit of Malaysians applying for visas. We also have a very high issuance rate for Malaysians applying, so if you are a Malaysian who’s applying for a student visa or you are married to someone who is going there as a student with children, your issuance rate is 99 per cent.
We issue the visas here. We do not send our passports out and we’ve just come to the anniversary of issuing the first 10-year visa, so now Malaysians are starting to renew their 10-year visa. They’re able to do it without having to come for an interview.
Q: There were a few matters that were not agreed upon and failed to be resolved two years ago during president Obama’s administration. What are these conditions?
A: I cannot go through all of them. There is one, on the refusal rate for the Malaysian citizens and every year, it’s calculated and, you know each individual comes and applies for a visa. Therefore, we have no idea who they’ll be or how many will come in a given year. There are also other security aspects in terms of information sharing and Malaysia providing information in real time on lost and stolen passports. There are other aspects that are really security-driven.
Q: Will Malaysia’s approach to practising moderation help its citizens in getting the green light for the issuance of visas to the US?
A: The new administration hasn’t added new countries. We and Malaysia are working together on the foreign fighters’ issue. These are the things we are doing for security. The cooperation is across a number of areas, such as sharing information on lost or stolen passports in real time.
THE ROHINGYA AND PALESTINIAN CONFLICTS
Q: One of the things our prime minister stressed to the White House was the plight of the Rohingya. What is the US’s stand on this?
A: They (Najib and Trump) did discuss it in a meeting, where Secretary Tillerson was present and included in a joint statement. Tillerson has publicised the comments on what happened, including the need for accountability and expressing concerns about the nature of the atrocities.
Since August last year, the US has provided US$87 million (RM338.7 million) in humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya who are in Bangladesh. We continue to provide support to the United Nations and some of our non-governmental organisations are working on the ground. We appreciate Malaysia for providing assistance such as the military hospital.
Q: What about the Palestinian conflict? This issue is close to the hearts of many Malaysians and the US is perceived to be a bit biased.
A: President Trump announced his view on acknowledging (Jerusalem as Israel’s capital). The reality is, for decades, Jerusalem has been the location of the government of Israel, including the legislature, executive branch and courts. He was careful not to prejudge Israel’s sovereignty. Many Malaysians expressed concern about this decision. This is one of the things about our partnership that we can have differences and
can frankly discuss them. President Trump is perceptive on pursuing negotiations.
MALAYSIA’S ROLE AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
Q: How does the US see Malaysia’s role in Asean?
A: The US considers Malaysia’s role in Asean, both as a founding partner and a member, as important in terms of the economic integration and environmental concerns in Asean. Malaysia is a critical partner. Looking back, Malaysia spent two years as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), during which it was a good partner to the US.
In every area, Malaysia and our side need to do more. One of the things I will touch on is military cooperation, which has grown in the last five years and continues to be strong. We carry out many exercises together. We have Malaysians attending our professional military institutions.
Two exercises coming up are the Pacific Partnership in April, which is a multilateral exercise that Malaysia, the US and other countries work together, as well as focusing on humanitarian response. There will be two ships coming this year to Tawau.
Last year, it was in Kuching, where we had Japan, Australia and South Korea joining in. The civilian responders were part of the exercise to prepare our militaries and first responders to work together. Secondly, it’s the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (Rimpac), a regional event, where navies send their ships to Honolulu, to our Pacific Command. For the first time, the Malaysian navy is planning to send a ship to Hawaii. It’s exciting because we’re working together.
Q: What about on the cross-border crime?
A: We have cooperation on cybercrime such as on child porn. Also, our colleagues are working with Malaysia on narcotics, as well as on human and wildlife trafficking. The truth is, whatever kind of trafficking, whether it’s people or counterfeit pharmaceuticals, the way we do investigations is by building a case, prosecuting the case and finally through the judicial system.
We are working closely with Malaysia’s law enforcement to tackle different types of trafficking by working with the Home Ministry. We also have private US firms to ensure their supply chain is free of any questionable trafficking connections.