For those who observe propaganda, smart and silly, the recent 'public' outrage in the Malaysian official media against Australia and its Prime Minister, John Howard, ought to be made an important case study for the common moral and intellectual benefits of liberating the hearts and minds of Malaysians from malleability and credulity.

Whether Howard's claim for the right of 'pre-emptive' self-defence as the last resort against war-like terrorism emanating from Southeast Asia is right or wrong is not the issue here.

The real issue can be debated from all perspectives, including the new functional, technical and operational necessities of armed self-defence against terrorism as a form of asymmetrical warfare, and the politico-ideological possibility of state-sponsorship of war-like terrorism.

But how do Malaysians debate rationally and make intelligent decisions in international businesses and choices of destinations for higher education, if the facts presented to them in the official media are selective and one-sided? In effect, consciously presented half-truths are lies.

For example, while an Australian opposition leader, Dr Carmen Lawrence criticised Howard on the issue, his statement was published in the front page of the New Straits Times, but the support of Japan's counter-terrorism Ambassador, Hiroshi Shigeta given to Howard is not noticeable in any prominent space in the same newspaper.

Inevitable oversights

True, in the daily operation of press rooms the world over, some human oversights and misjudgements on the newsworthiness of a particular item are only inevitable, and also understandable in situations of information overload. However, this cannot be the excuse for the official media in Malaysia.

After a few days of intense, anti-Western and almost Boxer-like attacks on Howard and Australia, and the very conscious selection of Dr Carmen Lawrence's criticisms against John Howard as an item in the front page, there is no reason why an honest media cannot see the significance, positive or negative, of the Dec 10 interview of Hiroshi Shigeta in The Age in Melbourne.

The only explanation is that Hiroshi Shigeta's statements in support of Howard would destroy the propagandistic scripts in Malaysia that Howard's claim is motivated by a sense of 'Western', 'Christian', 'Anglo-Saxon' and 'colonial' superiority, and that the powerful Australia is going to 'bomb', 'invade' and 'occupy' a weak 'Islamic state' in Malaysia.

The twin purpose of this script is to rebuild a 'siege mentality' among Malaysians, and to feature Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as a 'brave protector' of Malaysia's 'political independence', 'territorial integrity' and 'national honour and dignity'.

As a matter of fact, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma, which are also Southeast Asian nations and members of Asean, have remain silent on Howard's claim of 'pre-emptive' self-defence. This fact has not ben highlighted or given fair opportunity to appear in the official media in Malaysia.

Dangerous mismatch

For those who read contemporary world history, the script and psycho-drama is quixotic. It can only come from a 1905-1945 ethno-nationalist understanding of international relations wherein a Japan-led and Germany-supported anti-'Anglo-Saxon' movement in Asia and Europe was rising up 'in unison' against the 'perfidious West', and finally 'liberating' the 'subjugated' and 'coloured' peoples in the British, Dutch and French colonies.

It is a serious and dangerous mismatch between the pre-war mental imageries, and post-war realities of the world and international relations.

The post-war reality that persists until today has always been that Japan is officially a security ally of the United States. Germany, and for that matter, France are also ally of the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). Moreover, Australia still maintains close security ties with the United States in the form of the 1951 Anzus Treaty, while New Zealand, although opted out of the Anzus Treaty in 1986 on the question of nuclear weapon, is still regarded by the United States as a close friend, like Singapore, on issues and matters pertaining to international security.

In the Asia-Pacific region, about 100,000 US troops are stationed in Japan and South Korea, while logistical, maintenance and intelligence facilities are also available to the US and its allies in Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. The security alliance relations of Thailand and the Philippines with the US date back to 1955 and 1952 respectively, and still valid and operative till today.

Above all, there is no more Soviet's powerful Pacific Fleet for Mahathir to play his game of balance-of-power as in the period between 1980 and 1991.

Potential ally

The recent visits of US warships to Hong Kong and Qingdao have also signified the resumption of security relations between the United States and People's Republic of China (PRC). The United States is also under the obligation of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to underwrite the security of Taiwan through the sale of arms.

Seen in this overall, balanced and objective context of contemporary international and regional security relations, the only potential ally of Mahathir in the Asia-Pacific region is North Korea. But then, like it or not, Malaysia itself is also part of the Western security alliance as evidenced by its continuing membership in the Australia-anchored 1971 Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) and Malaysia-US security arrangements, namely the 1984 Bilateral Training and Consultation (BITAC) agreements which Mahathir himself signed with the then US Defence Secretary Casper Weinberger.

Seen from these overall geographical perspectives and linear time-line, the United States, Australia and their allies are not 'returning' to Southeast Asia. They have always been here since September 1945, and have never left or departed for a moment.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia. Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.