We’re pretty sure that after Tun Dr Mahathir took the cape as the seventh prime minister, many of us were expecting a lot of things from the new government. Amongst them are the possible diplomatic relationships that may develop since the positive shift of government.
Nonetheless, it appears that we may not be making any immediate bonding with one specific country, namely the United States of America (USA).
According to Malaysiakini, Tun M declared that he had “no immediate plans” to make contact with US president Donald Trump even though Trump had confessed in a congratulatory message that the US looks forward to working with us. Gotta wait in line, bro!
Describing the US president as a “fickle-minded person”, Tun M confessed that he wouldn’t know how to work with a person like that.
“I don’t know how to work with a person who changes his mind overnight.”
“For example, he wants to meet the president of N Korea, then he says he doesn’t want to meet him and now he is saying that maybe the meeting is going to happen,” Tun M explained.
Awwh, Tun M just doesn’t understand how to work with Trump!
Tun M was talking about the much-anticipated cancelled meeting between the two power-house countries (North Korea and the USA), which was initially scheduled for next month (June) in Singapore. If they had actually met, this would officially mark the first-ever meeting between a serving US president and North Korea leader!
On Thursday (24 May 2018), Trump abruptly cancelled the summit with Kim Jong-un accusing North Korea of its “open hostility” even though they have been following through with the pledge to “blow up tunnels as its nuclear test site”.
However, on Friday (25 May 2018), Trump suddenly announced that the meeting could happen, after all! He made this statement after he received a “conciliatory statement” from Pyongyang, North Korea.
Not only that, it’s pretty obvious that Tun M isn’t very fond of Trump. This is because Tun M publicly didn’t agree with Trump’s previous relationship with Dato’ Seri Najib that symbolised the Malaysia-America relationship.
Previously in 2017, when Najib visited Trump to talk about Malaysia’s investment to increase US’ economy, Tun M was not on-board with the idea to use the people’s money (EPF) to help the development of America’s economy. Tun M was quoted as saying,
“US has enough. If they don’t have enough money, they can make more money through the quantitative easing method, he can print more money.”
All in all, we cannot expect an immediate meeting with the US president as Tun M has decided to put it on hold for the time being. Maybe Tun M just wants to focus on restoring Malaysia’s economy first! Either way, let’s give the man some time to work things out.
Do you agree with Tun M’s decision? Let us know what you think!
Also read: Trump Congratulates Dr M as 7th PM, Looks Forward to Working Together