Some years ago, Dr Ling Liong Sik, then president of the MCA, reminded Chinese Malaysians to behave appropriately as a minority in this country.

Shamelessly paraphrasing his 'bon mot', I would say Malaysia, as a small nation in the treacherous sea of world politics, should learn to behave likewise as well.

Under the premiership of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia was made to look larger than life, and all the more so as Mahathir's tenure was nearing its end. With the benefit of hindsight, I now tend to believe the intensive diplomatic grandstanding, evidenced in Malaysia's playing host to the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference Summits, was in fact a package of goodwill for the longest-serving prime minister to step down in a most pompous fashion possible, perhaps with a secret wish from many in his party that his shadow would be exorcised for good thereafter.

Alas, the negative legacy of Mahathir lives on. And one only needs to look at the way Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was welcomed and greeted on his arrival at the Subang airport after a whirlwind of visits to the United States, France and Britain.

In keeping with Malaysian traditions, the prime minister was garlanded with colourful flowers, being warmly received and hugged by his deputy Najib Abdul Razak. I shall not delve into whether all the paraphernalia were the compliments of some BN-connected suppliers.

With a flurry of self-important articles and comments on Abdullah's recent overseas trip, exemplified by Hishammuddin Aun of Berita Harian this week, Malaysians are quietly sleepwalking into a false sense of manifest destiny, forgetting the raw fact that we are in reality small fry in the ocean of sharks.

Visits to the US

Just as our press went into ecstasies over the prime minister's ice-breaking visit to the White House, the Elysee Palace and Downing Street, a trip to the United States by yet another Malaysian was met with scanty coverage at home - the presence of Nurul Izzah at the Convention of the Democratic Party to lobby for her father, Anwar Ibrahim.

My worry is, Nurul's tour to America for her father's sake could very easily be misconstrued as an attempt to court foreign interference. In a classic post-colonial society in which the ruling elites are in possession of the entire state machinery to manufacture consent and prescribe patriotism formulas, foreign interference is among the handiest tools for the powers-that-be when it comes to stigmatising political rivals and silencing domestic dissents.

When Al Gore, then US vice president, was in Kuala Lumpur for the APEC Summit in 1998, he made use of the opportunity to lend support to the encouraging calls for political reform, saying that "the wind of change has been sweeping across the region." Although he fell short of endorsing the Anwarites, his breaking the sacrosanct diplomatic rule of not commenting on the domestic affairs of a sovereign nation was no doubt a slap in Mahathir's face at that time.

But Mahathir had his crowds of fans too, and no less so in our mainstream media, which quickly dispatched teams of journalists to go about towns seeking public opinions on Al Gore's 'outrageous' remarks. One gets no reward for predicting correctly a resounding 'no' from the patriotic Malaysians to the vice president, who had shown no respect for Malaysia's sovereignty by interfering in 'our domestic affairs'.

Such Malaysian mentality is bizarre, as if it is perfectly acceptable for one to abuse one's child, so long as it is done in one's own house and not in public.

The mainstream media also appears to have adopted a policy of benign neglect with regard to the appeal by a group of Malaysian non-governmental organisations for the American, French and British leaders to raise the issue of human rights violation in Malaysia with Abdullah. Surprisingly, it was Dr Chandra Muzaffar who thought it most perfidious.

Although many find Chandra's out-and-out anti-US rhetoric hard to swallow, there is some truth in what he argued nonetheless. For national interest is the uppermost guiding principle of the foreign policy of successive US governments, despite the laborious effort of Washington to convince the world otherwise.

For example, the US used to be highly critical of the Internal Security Act in Malaysia, especially when it was used against the reformasi activists.

But the about-turn of the Bush administration on Mahathir could not have come sooner after the Sept 11 attacks. Now, one can easily detect the mysterious silence of the White House on the issue, and more so with the so-called Islamic terror suspects under ISA detention.

Highlight hypocrisy

At a recent public event in KL, a Muslim girl took an American official to task for US prejudice against the Palestinians in the Middle East. But I think it would serve more purpose to highlight US hypocrisy if one considers the fact that the wise men in Washington have been profusely and religiously lecturing China, Malaysia and Zimbabwe on the importance of human rights and democracy, while conspicuously acquiescing in the oppressive rule in Saudi Arabia and the military dictatorship in Pakistan.

Furthermore, report after report has revealed that weapons of mass destruction are a superb material for modern day fantasy, and a CNN commentator recently remarked that going after Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of Sept 11 was akin to attacking Mexico after the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbour in 1940. For those who stay unfalteringly behind the war on Iraq for moral reasons, it is worth pondering as to how the money meant for restoring order in the occupied territory is being spent.

I have no problem with Nurul's presence at the Democratic Convention in Boston this week. After all, Chai Ling, a student leader who managed to flee China after the Tiananmen massacre in June 1989, also appeared at the Democratic Convention in July 1992. Then, Chai was standing shoulder to shoulder with Bill and Hillary Clinton, with the Clintons pledging to be tough with China on the issue of human rights and democracy if elected into the White House.

Four years later, President Clinton announced to the world China was a strategic partner of the US and, bowing to pressure from Beijing, declared that the democratic Taiwan was an 'inalienable part of China' in 1998. Given the current international climate that forces the US to engage more with China, I reckon Chai has become a persona non grata in the corridor of power in Washington.

As for Abdullah and Nurul, it would be in their interest to know there is neither perpetual enmity nor friendship in politics. Coming to terms with this reality will surely help Malaysia to behave more appropriately in international relations.