'Normalisation' fears in Asean as Indonesia welcomes Israeli athletes, Anwar defends Trump visit

5 days ago

'Normalisation' fears in Asean as Indonesia welcomes Israeli athletes, Anwar defends Trump visit

There are concerns that Israel, facing major backlash in Europe, South America and Africa, has found greener pastures in Southeast Asia, as the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia, the two main Muslim countries in the region, attempt to justify a series of actions seen as departing from the decades-old policy of no engagement with the Zionist state.

This comes as the Indonesian government approved the presence of Israel’s national gymnastics team to compete in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta on Oct 19, just a week before Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s planned red carpet welcome for Donald Trump, despite strong resistance from students, activists and Muslim intellectuals against the staunchly pro-Zionist US president’s presence in Malaysia.

The presence of Israeli athletes complements Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s recent speech at the United Nations calling for security for the state of Israel.

Prabowo is regarded as Indonesia’s most Israeli-friendly leader in recent decades. 

Previously, Indonesia has consistently rejected any Israeli participation in global events it hosted.

In 2023, it was stripped of its hosting rights for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, after Wayan Koster, the Hindu governor of Bali, refused to allow Israeli players to participate.

Indonesia also chose not to host the 2023 World Beach Games due to a condition not to exclude Israeli athletes.

“Though costly, those decisions signaled moral clarity: the defense of Palestinian rights outweighed the prestige of hosting international sports. Why abandon that clarity now?" asked Indonesian analyst Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, a researcher at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, opposition to Trump’s visit has put Anwar on the defensive.

Last night, the government hurriedly convened yet another rally for Palestine, by now a familiar scene every time Anwar comes under attack from pro-Palestine groups who accuse him of softening Malaysia’s policy of zero tolerance towards Israel.

A similar rally was held in August 2024, where busloads of civil servants were brought to fill a stadium to hear speeches from government leaders, just as opposition peaked against Anwar’s move to bring in a company owned by BlackRock—the US firm accused of complicity in Israeli war crimes—into a consortium to manage airports nationwide.

That rally saw his deputy, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in a comedic slip of the tongue when he accidentally chanted support for Israel, for which he later apologised, saying he was caught up in the excitement and fervour.

This time, it comes as various groups, including some members of Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan coalition, continue to oppose the move to extend an invitation to Trump to attend the Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur, despite a propaganda campaign that has enlisted the Federal Territories mufti, Ahmad Fauwaz Fadzil, whose attempt to provide religious justification for the US president’s presence drew condemnation from pro-Palestine and Islamic groups.

"President Trump has been so deeply immersed in the on-going genocide of the Palestinian people that any positve gesture towards him, however symbolic, would be viewed with utter repugnance by a huge segment of the Malaysian nation," said prominent thinker Chandra Muzaffar recently, who urged Anwar to write a “polite letter” to Trump to rescind the invitation.

Anwar has issued several contradictory statements in defending Trump’s visit.

He said Trump’s invitation was not by the Malaysian government, but in its capacity as the chair of Asean, where Washington is one of the bloc’s dialogue partners.

However, Anwar has also warned that Malaysia, as a “small country”, could not afford to risk any economic backlash should it not invite the US president.

That argument may not sit well with the fact that Malaysia’s rise as an attractive destination for US investments took place during the era of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has been among the most vocal critics of American policies in the Middle East, which has earned him the "anti-Semite" label from the US Zionist lobby.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Prabowo makes no secret of his plan to establish ties with Israel, as he clearly indicated in his UN General Assembly speech.

Prabowo’s ill-timed call for security for Israel has been widely condemned by pro-Palestine groups in both Indonesia and Malaysia.

Many in Malaysia could not help but draw comparisons with Anwar’s statement in 2012, when he said he would “support all efforts to protect the security of the state of Israel”.

In Israel, the rise of both Anwar and Prabowo has been met with anticipation that a new chapter may open in the Jewish state's relationship with Malaysia and Indonesia, giving it access not only to their vast markets but also the legitimacy needed from two countries whose combined populations make up 15% of the global Muslim population.

Shortly after Anwar was named prime minister in 2022, the editor of an influential Israeli daily welcomed him as "certainly more open to Israel than the hard-line Mahathir".

"Israel would love closer ties with Kuala Lumpur. Could this be the opportunity?" asked Esther Solomon, chief editor of English daily Haaretz.

Similarly, Prabowo's presidency has been welcomed by the powerful Zionist lobby in the US, eager to see Israel score a major diplomatic victory through the establishment of formal ties with the world's most populous Muslim nation at a time when it is being abandoned by its traditional allies.

A campaign is already underway for Indonesia to join the so-called Abraham Accords, Trump's grand plan launched during his first term to get Israel's Arab and Muslim neighbours to unconditionally establish formal diplomatic ties with the Zionist state.

Coinciding with his UN speech last month, giant billboards were put up in Tel Aviv featuring Prabowo among several world leaders, as part of a campaign to promote the expansion of the Abraham Accords.

"It’s time for a new Middle East" and "Seal the deal" were among the slogans displayed on the billboards.

Last year, MalaysiaNow cited diplomats and analysts as saying that the Trump administration would exert pressure on Malaysia and Indonesia to join the Abraham Accords.

Even before Trump, the Biden administration dispatched senior officials to Kuala Lumpur to warn Malaysia not to violate Washington's sanctions against Iran and to take action against the flow of money to Hamas.

Anwar then tried to quickly allay US fears by saying that his relations with Hamas were limited to its political wing.

"I have no involvement, no discussion with the military apparatus, that's very clear," he told a Bloomberg forum in Qatar last year.

There is widespread perception that Anwar's government is backpedalling on Malaysia's longstanding policy of rejecting any recognition of Israel, a policy that was strengthened during Mahathir's era, which saw official ties with Hamas.

This perception is fuelled by the treatment of pro-Palestine supporters, such as when police arrested two activists outside the US embassy and a group of Universiti Malaya students were barred from holding an anti-Israel rally on campus.

On Tuesday, students held a noisy protest outside the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya, part of a series of gatherings planned in the coming days which will culminate in a rally in Kuala Lumpur on the day of Trump's visit.

A key argument put forward by Anwar's supporters is that Trump's visit provides an opportunity for Malaysia to convey its strong stance on Palestine.

But even if the message is claimed to have been conveyed - probably without anyone knowing when or how - Trump's presence would be enough to pave the way for Israel's eventual diplomatic debut in a very critical part of the Muslim world.

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