Better for Mat Sabu to have read from a prepared text than to expose Malaysia as dimwits & weak in national security & international relations

Remarks delivered by Minister of Defence Mohammad Sabu at the18th IISS Asia Security Summit Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) last weekend has since gone viral in social media earning himself and Malaysia in the process lots of mockery as to the poor standard of Mat Sabu’s English, his common sense knowledge as well as the capability of the Malaysian Armed Forces.

Of course we should acknowledge that Mat Sabu is courageous in attempting to converse in English spontaneously despite his poor English command. However, the main issue here is the substance (or lack of it) in Mat Sabu's speech. It shows that Mat Sabu does need to undergo a formal training in military knowledge and also International Relations.

Mat Sabu could also attend courses for civil servants at the National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN) as to how to present himself in international forums. Alternatively, if he does not have the time for this, as a Defence Minister, he can instruct his top officers in the related field to give him a briefing of the subject matter he will deliver on. In preparing himself for such a prestigious international summit, it is within his authority to instruct his Ministry to prepare for him written text.

In such international summits where Cabinet Ministers and top ranking civil servants are in attendance, surely these arrangements on the Malaysian side would have been liaised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the respective related Ministries. With accompanying civil servants who specialise in such areas, surely, they could have liaised with the Communications office of the respective Ministries to prepare the text from which Mat Sabu could read from ad verbatim.

The remarks delivered not only reflect the quality of our PH's ministers, but also will destroy the diplomatic relationship which BN has built with New Zealand for the past decades. Furthermore, Mat Sabu's presentation also shows that he needs to learn how to communicate efficiently and effectively by showing our military's strength and prowess, rather than arbitrarily telling the whole word, our naval forces are weak. Doing so, he has also slighted the sacrifices of our Royal Malaysian Navy who patrol our waters in defence of the sovereignty of Malaysia. Terrorism is an pervasive society malady that must be tackled through regional and global cooperation. However,  Mat Sabu’s articulation of it has made light the seriousness, violence and slaughter attached with terrorism.

We all look up at Japan, with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad's recent visit, which also shows that Malaysia should embrace the Japanese work ethics in the public sector. They speak Japanese proudly in international conference but are also able to converse fluently in Eeloquently and confidently in English.

Therefore, one of the suggestion that we could provide to Mat Sabu is this, if you can't communicate well in English, please communicate in Malay, and let the translators do their job, embrace Malaysia's official language. Or. is Mat Sabu not proud at all to be Malaysian in this New Malaysia?

The Weaver's from the Emperor's New Clothes – that is exactly who Amanah Youth Deputy chief Faiz Fadzil is now. Defending Mat Sabu blindly will not only cause our New Malaysia to move backwards, but Faiz also has also proven a point that meritocracy is not that important or pertinent after all. Is this the new Malaysia that we all wanted? Slamming MCA for the sake of political pursuit does not resolve the issues MCA has raised.

Faiz must have missed out reading some of the news, be it 1MDB etc, investigation is going, trial is proceeding. We put 100% faith into our enforcement and judiciary, therefore we will let them do their job by not interfering.

Nicole Wong Siaw Ting
MCA National Youth Chairman

-MCA online-