Why Malaysia Stays Quiet About Its Claims In The South China Sea

Malaysia’s Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein delivers his opening remarks during the third Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers-PLUS meeting in Subang on November 4, 2015. A meeting of Asia-Pacific defence ministers has scrapped plans for a joint declaration after the Chinese delegation lobbied to block mention of Beijing’s island-building activities in the disputed South China Sea, a US defence official said November 4. (MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images)


You would expect more noise out of Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government claims a dozen Spratly islands in the disputed South China Sea. China and Taiwan claim them as well along with the rest of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea that’s packed with fish, gas and oil. Malaysia even opened one islet, Layang Layang, to diving tourism. The Southeast Asian country has reserves of 5 billion barrels of crude oil and 80 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in sea, more than other claimants, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. But Malaysia says little about its claims compared to ever-vociferous neighbors such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Malaysia tries to avoid rocking boats because the claimant most likely to splash disputed water on it is China. China happens to be Malaysia’s chief economic partner and one with a record of withdrawing economic support elsewhere when friends turn hostile.

China, a global economic heavyweight, is Malaysia’s top trading partner and source of direct foreign investment. State-owned China General Nuclear Power Corp. bought Malaysian development firm 1MDB’s energy assets in another company for 9.83 billion ringgit ($2.37 billion) in November and a month later China Railway Construction Corp. bought a multi-billion ringgit equity stake in real estate mega-project Bandar Malaysia. Those are just two investment examples.

“China is getting involved in investment in Malaysia and is now Malaysia’s top foreign direct investment source,” says Ibrahim Suffian, program director with Kuala Lumpur polling group Merdeka Center. “That’s going to shape Malaysian policy on the South China Sea.”

Keeping the boat steady also stops China from lashing out at Malaysia when disputes come up. Beijing has “tolerated” Malaysia’s natural gas fields in a tract of ocean China wants, the conflict-resolution NGO International Crisis Group says. Malaysia exports what it extracts from the seabed, part of a domestic energy sector worth 20% of its GDP. So the government is happy to let Vietnam, the Philippines and their mutual ally the United States do the shouting.

(Source : forbes.com)

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