Najib hits out at 'confrontational' foreign policies of the past

PUTRAJAYA: National interest should always take precedence over personal political interests, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said today.
Taking a dig at a former leader, Najib said when he became the prime minister, he had to break away from the confrontational foreign policies that were adopted by this leader "for his personal popularity".
He said the move was necessary as he believed Malaysia's foreign policy should be about building partnerships that benefited the country and people.
"I decided that national interest should always come before personal political interests ... that developing relations and economic partnerships with other nations was what promoted peace, security and prosperity for our people," he said during the opening of the 2016 Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (Capam) biennial conference at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre today.
Najib said some of the benefits the country had seen since the change in approach were dealing with legacy issues with Singapore and building a high-speed railway system between the two countries; facilitating negotiations with the Philippines to resolve Asia's longest-running insurgency; and cooperating with Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh to address the issue of migrants at sea, which had seen hundreds of thousands taken in as refugees.
Najib also hit out at certain "powerful nations" who he said were intervening in the domestic affairs of other countries.
He stressed that the days where imperial powers could tell others how to behave, whether politically, economically or culturally, were over, and that nations should govern through the mandate given by the people.
"We in the Commonwealth — many of us from states that were once colonies — should recognise that while larger powers may seek to push us to act as they wish, it is our peoples' right to choose our own path.
"So I make no apology for defending the sovereignty of Malaysia and the interests of our people," he said.
Najib said if he had listened to these nations, the country would not have been able to reach out to the rebels in Ukraine, secure the wreckage and black boxes of Flight MH17 that was shot down in 2014, and retrieve the bodies of those who lost their lives.
"And when we faced the tragic disappearance of Flight MH370, we would not have been able to bring 28 countries together in an unprecedented coalition, with huge help from some of our partners, unless we had pursued a policy of being open and friendly to all," he said.