- Another anti-Trump politician is self-purging himself from the Republican Party, asking himself, ““You could fight your butt off and win this thing, but are you really going to be happy?” I wonder if a similar trend might soon take place in Umno. The Bossku phenomenon suggests that Umno is at a crossroads: will the party turn back towards the middle ground, and reclaim the popular vote that it has progressively lost since 2008? Or will Umno stay in its current hard-right corner, justifying corruption and grand larceny in the name of Malay supremacy?
- The fact that an 84-year old Ku Li is still a “player” in Umno – the party of Tunku and Tun Razak and Tun Dr. Ismail – shows the depths of the party’s current lack of leadership talent.
- China trolls its Pacific neighbours, even as the US tightens its focus on Asia with its recent Aukus deal.
300 Words About Learning to Let Go
It doesn’t appear much on the front pages of Sinar Harian or Utusan Malaysia, but I cannot stop thinking about the recent announcement of the AUKUS alliance, which certainly helped to advance America’s intentions to escalate its stance against China, but has also brought the relationship between the USA and France to a level of tension that has not been seen since the late 18th century.
What was particularly interesting to me is the venom with which France has responded to the recent developments. French diplomats called it “a stab in the back.” “You can’t understand the depth of our anger and sense of having been disrespected.” These words from the French ambassador to Australia were very telling.
Just like Brexit, I believe that the fury of the French reaction can only be truly understood when seen in the long arc of imperial history.
The French, under Napoleon, were on the brink of European – and by extension, given the colonial drive of the 1800s, one could even say World – domination, until Waterloo. French history, since then, has been one long slide downwards, culminating in the submission to Germany in World War II, the humiliation of Dien Bien Phu, and the loss of Algeria.
Like Britain, France has struggled to adapt to the realities of postwar Europe, and the primacy of America. How will France move forward from here? If Britain’s example is anything to go by, there will be further flailings of existential angst to come.
Will France go as far as switching its allegiance away from its Atlantic allies, and cozy up to Russia and China? At the moment, this seems rather unlikely, but stranger – and more suicidal – things have happened when nations cannot let go of a glorious but all-too-distant past.