Malaysian Troops for Lebanon? Some Views!

DPM Najib insisted that Malaysia will send a peacekeeping force to Southern Lebanon under the United Nations' (UN) auspices despite opposition from Israel. He averred that Lebanon welcomed the presence of Malaysian peacekeepers. Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar also said it was the UN and not Israel that had the final say in selecting the peacekeepers to monitor the situation in Lebanon.

Najib said he could not understand why the presence of Malaysian peacekeepers was being objected to merely for the technical reason that Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

When reminded that Malaysia's pro-Palestinian and pro-Muslim stand could affect the impartiality of the Malaysian peacekeepers in Lebanon, he repudiated that view, saying Malaysia’s peacekeeping force had always served in a professional manner.

However, he mentioned that the UN hasn’t yet informed Malaysia when it could send its peacekeeping force to Lebanon.

KTemoc's view is that Foreign Minister Syed Hamid has expressed a technical view on the UN peace keeping force without taking into consideration the reality Israel as an affected party (additionally backed by the USA) would have a big say in the composition of the UN force. Israel has already expressed its preference for European Union troops.

I am also very cynical about the Malaysian government's over-eagerness to send our troops there. I am examining its intention vis-a-vis domestic politics.

Last month, Major (Rtd) Swami wrote in to Malaysiakini giving his views why Malaysia should not send troops to Lebanon. I gather from his letter he is a former member of the Malaysian Rangers. He said:

Your report M'sia mulls sending ME peacekeepers refers. I hope it is just plain mulling. First of all, Malaysia does not have any diplomatic ties with Israel, Most of the time, Jews and Israel are demonised in Malaysia. Just a reminder, so as to enforce my argument, someone once said ‘Jews rule the world by proxy'. Even the current PM's son-in-law has led demos against Israel.

Malaysia has had experience peacekeeping in various parts of the World, the most challenging being in the Congo and Somalia. The rest of the missions were a stroll in the park. Peacekeeping is a different ball game all together when it involves Israel.

The current United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) comprising China, France, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Ukraine and the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (Unsto) comprising Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the US are toothless and expensive. Note the commonality, no Muslim countries. What many seem to forget are the lads mentioned above are the ‘UN presence’ that everyone is clamouring for.

This is what would likely happen if troops from Muslim countries were deployed. An incident like the case of Jordanian peacekeepers firing at American soldiers after a dispute over Iraq whilst on a peace keeping mission in Kosovo. This is bad for the peacekeepers’ morale and anyone who is in a mood for a debate.

So far so good – Major Swami (assuming that's his real name) seemed to know what he’s talking about, up to this stage. He even referred to a disgraceful incident involving the Royal Malay Regiment in Bosnia, where two soldiers purportedly burned a Christian cross. I can’t comment on this as I am not aware of the incident.

Unfortunately he spoiled his excellent assessement of the viability of sending Malaysian soldiers to Lebanon by revealing his pro-Israel attitude further down in his letter. He said:

Throughout my military career, I have noticed that most Malay officers tend to side with the Arabs and most non-Malay officers tend to sympathise with the Israelis.

I do agree with him on this, though I have my views as to why. I’ll be blogging on this soon.

Many an argument broke out with the Malay officers saying ‘Why on earth do we support Israel?’. In my case, my argument is always that Israel has never hurt Malaysia. Why on earth would I want to support the Arabs as all the major wars fought by the Arabs against Israel were supported by then Communist Russia.

We were fighting the communists, so it is natural to root for Israel. Further, the wars fought by the Jewish state were against the Arab nations that did not want it to exist. Geographically too, why bother? They’re too far away

Unfortunately Major Swami’s views in the last two paragraphs are typically those of conservative Christians like Dr Sarah Verghis who wrote a pro-Israeli letter to Malaysiakini titled Absurd to say Israel illegal.

Notice the same good Christian anti-Communist cum pro-Israel (and thus anti-Arab) stand?