My reply to Foreign Minister Anifah Aman

COMMENT | On Sept 17, 2017, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman affirmed that the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) will "arrest any illegal fishing vessel" that intrudes into the Malaysian waters.

Thus, they claim there is no alleged Malaysian "pivot" to China. That Malaysian foreign relations have always been based on fair treatment and engagement with all countries.

Now the issue is: MMEA falls under the Prime Minister's Department, and not the Prime Minister's Office. Indeed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a marginal relationship with MMEA. The Ministry of Defence, for obvious reasons, has a deeper structural relationship with MMEA.

Then why is the Foreign Ministry using MMEA as an indicator that Malaysia's foreign relations are still intact? Clearly, Anifah has either stepped on the turf of the Prime Minister's Department, or, indirectly, the Defence Ministry.

There is one serious immediate implication here. If Anifah is trying to deny that Malaysia has pivoted to China, then he should have all the facts at hand. The focus is on "all" – he should also understand all lines of authority in Malaysia. In both cases, he didn't have any. Take Malaysia's response by MMEA, for example.

In reality, MMEA has gone beyond arresting illegal Chinese vessels, albeit belatedly. The Sun daily in an Aug 30 report categorically affirmed that MMEA had had to take an even more drastic step. How? The MMEA, in final recognition of the serious problem of illegal fishing vessels from China and elsewhere, had begun "burning" these vessels at sea in the Malaysian waters.

If the problem of illegal Chinese and non-Chinese vessels was not serious, would MMEA have burned these vessels? In the Sept 17 press statement of Anifah to challenge my Malaysiakini article, which denotes the seriousness of the issue, the eminent minister did not even know that MMEA had gone further than what he himself had attested, which is merely to "arrest."

No, the MMEA had started "burning" illegal Chinese and non-Chinese vessels at sea, of course in Malaysian waters.

Indeed, The Sun further reported that the problem of illegal fishing vessels from neighbouring countries, including China, had been a serious issue since early 2016. Illegal fishing vessels in Malaysian waters are not new. As the foreign minister of Malaysia, Anifah should have known the issue at the back of his hand, rather than to try to deny it.

Invariably, if Anifah had seen it fit to finally release a press statement on Sept 17 to deny that Malaysia is now in the orbit of China's military and commercial influence, why have two distinct inconsistencies emerged in Malaysia's policy responses?...