MALAYSIA’S Ambassador to the United States since February 2023 and former Umno Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, has been criticised in social media for appearing at a rally held by President Trump in Washington DC holding a sign “Make America Great Again”.
While Nazri Aziz has been rightly criticised for his actions, there are much more serious matters which we need to pay attention to with regards to Malaysia’s foreign policy and diplomatic engagement with the United States.
The most obvious “fail” by Nazri Aziz is not holding up the MAGA sign but his inability to arrange for a phone call between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and President-elect Donald Trump after Trump won the US presidential elections in November 2024.
The leaders from our neighbouring countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore, all had calls with President-elect Trump before his inauguration.
These calls are important “signals” in the diplomatic community as they indicate a country’s ability to reach out to the then soon to be most powerful person in the world.
This fact would not have gone unnoticed by Anwar and his team given that it is well known that public optics are prioritised by the Prime Minister and his office.
Even after President Trump’s inauguration, Malaysia has not managed to leverage our position as the chair of ASEAN to get a call between Prime Minister Anwar and President Trump.
The role of ambassador to the United States has never been more important than before given the magnitude and volume of presidential announcements and executive orders under the second Trump presidency.
The ambassador must engage and communicate, both formally, but more importantly, informally through lunches, dinners, coffees and other meetings with the US cabinet ministers and the heavy hitters in Congress.
The ambassador has to coordinate his team of officers at the embassy to engage with the relevant staff members of US cabinet ministers and important congressional representatives who sit on the relevant congressional committees in the Senate and in the House.
The ambassador must position Malaysia via public and private talks organized by influential think tanks and lobby groups in Washington DC. It would also help project Malaysia’s image via the ambassador’s social media engagements. (Nazri Aziz does not have his own Instagram account and his twitter account does not have any posts and has not been updated in a few years).
There are indications that Nazri Aziz will be replaced as Malaysia’s ambassador to the United States soon.
His replacement should have the following qualities: (i) Direct access to Prime Minister Anwar to communicate important information on the bilateral relationship and to provide recommendations to the Prime Minister on how best to engage with the President Trump, his cabinet, and congress
(ii) Access to and is known to key Malaysian cabinet members (Finance, Trade and Industry, Transportation, Foreign, Energy) to recommend strategic policy positions and
(iii) Ability to engage publicly and privately to key stakeholders in the United States power structure (including positioning via social media).
Prominent individuals who fulfil the above criteria include:
(i) Datuk Dr Mohd Faiz Abdullah, chairman of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia who is currently providing important inputs on foreign policy to the Prime Minister including in his speeches overseas
(ii) Nurul Izzah Anwar, the Prime Minister’s daughter and key aide, and a former Member of Parliament
(iii) Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, the current Miti Minister, whose senatorship expires at the end of 2025 and has proven himself to be a trusted minister to the PM and more than capable when it comes to diplomatic and economic engagements
(iv) Mohd Yusmadi Yusoff, a long time PKR leader and member of Anwar’s inner circle and former MP and Senator
(v) Tan Sri Nazir Razak, the former chairman of CIMB, a well-known corporate figure and is familiar with many of the politicians in the Malaysian cabinet
In the meantime, we cannot afford to sit on our hands and wait for the current ambassador to be replaced (which may take up to six months or more). We should send a high-ranking minister – the Foreign Minister, the MITI Minister, or one of the two Deputy Prime Ministers – to Washington DC to send a personal invitation from Anwar to President Trump to attend the ASEAN summit in Malaysia at the end of the year.
Whether or not President Trump attends is a separate story.
The signal that such a visit and such an invitation will send to President Trump and the White House, and to the international community, would be important in of itself.
During this visit, other high-level engagements with members of Trump’s cabinet and senior officers in the White House should also be arranged, using our leverage as the chair of ASEAN and demonstrating our leadership in engaging with the United States. – February 7, 2025
Professor Dr. Ong Kian Ming is a former deputy minister and Pro Vice-Chancellor for External Engagement, Taylor’s University
