Words are weak currency

Over the past week, city folk would have been, at the very least, aware of a few important events going on in the city centre.

If the strangely familiar but not quite common Asean flags along some streets in Kuala Lumpur were not hint enough, there were grand posters of a handsome, fatherly Narendra Modi strategically located in Indian majority parts of town.

Even if you missed them both, chances are you would have caught, at least in social media, either the grammatically entertaining LED signage that welcome Barack Obama here, or the many pictures of guys in snipers in and around KL, said to be protecting the US president.

Though in retrospect, having both something as secret as the US president’s security detail and something as embarrassing as greeting the president of the world’s largest English-speaking country in flawed English plastered all over social media seems quite… disturbing, and for similar reasons.

Interestingly, the current US administration has made more official visits to Malaysia compared to all the previous administrations combined.

Obama, for this trip has spent close to three days here, right after meeting our prime minister in Manila.

Prior to Obama, the last trip to Malaysia by a sitting US president, was during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, 48 years prior.

During and after his first visit in 2014, Obama initiated many programmes in this region: leadership programmes, anti-human trafficking programmes, eradication of poverty initiatives, programmes for the promotion of democracy and so on.

He, and also members of his Cabinet, also managed, during their trips here, to squeeze in times to meet social and civil leaders, some of whom are openly known to oppose the Malaysian government.

It is perhaps this renewed attention to Malaysia that has led some quarters excited about his visit this time around.

The hope was that he could, perhaps, affect some change and do something about the problems we face about corruption and good governance and extremism we are seeing here.

But it is a hope that is, in my humble opinion, quite misplaced.

The US is hardly the defender of human rights it used to be.

While harsh on some countries, like North Korea or Iran on issues of human rights and democracy, the same cannot be said on their stance on China or Russia.

While often condemning the public beheadings performed by Isis and Al-Qaeda as barbaric, the same opinion does not seem to be shared where it comes to their close ally, Saudi Arabia, who have, in this year alone, performed close to 100 of such executions.

When pressed on if he intended to raise issues pertaining to corruption and democracy, the president gave a classical diplomat answer, strongly worded, polite, resolute but absolutely noncommittal.

Some view with much optimism the time and effort spent by the president with local civil society leaders. But at the end of the day, he spent much more time discussing things with the leaders we want him to do something about.

Compared to the clear statement given by Al Gore at a Malaysian state dinner to the then Mahathir administration on the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Obama’s comments on the donation scandal and even Anwar’s second incarceration that many probably hoped him to speak up on, remain rather muted. (It was, however, later reported in an online portal that in a private meeting, Obama told Najib to release Anwar.)

Perhaps more significant to us would be the Asean summit.

Asean after all, are our neighbours, and account for 9% of the world population, and 12% of the world’s surface area.

Asean has in some ways come a long way since its formation. From one summit in five years, we now meet twice a year.

From just five member states to 10 with many observers.

From just a handful of action items, Asean now runs over 600 meetings a year on various technical matters, ranging from animal smuggling to medicine to defence arrangements.

Yet somehow after 50 years, the only really tangible thing we seem to have achieved is visa free travel, leaving plans for a common currency, common time zone, common defence pact, common trade area, remaining as plans.

It would be nice if we could use Asean to at least solve the smoke issue.

Economically, we only trade 20% with each other- leaving 80% for non-Asean countries.

And at the end of the summit, papers would have been presented and batik shirts worn and resolutions passed and press conferences given. But how much of it will really materialise?

At the end of the day, words are nice.

They make for readily available currency where there is none, physical or intellectual.

But doing is a different story. Doing is almost always left to those who want the change bad enough. – November 24, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.