KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia should send the strongest diplomatic protest to China and the United Nations over China\u2019s military activities in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the recent increase of incidents where Chinese vessels encroached on Malaysian waters demonstrated the superpower\u2019s lack of respect for its neighbours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Malaysian government must summon the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, and we must immediately request for a United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting to find a solution to the South China Sea emerging military conflict,\u201d he said in a statement here today.<\/p>\n
Kitingan said while he acknowledges that the issues are delicate and that there are other interests that both governments, particularly Malaysia, must consider, he believed that Malaysia\u2019s lack of action will send the wrong signal to the threatening side.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though China is one of our largest trading partners, we will lose our stability if we do not address this situation and defend our sovereignty. We cannot remain silent in the face of this latest intrusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile trade deals are good, they are meaningless if they require us to be always on guard and fear losing our territory one day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Kitingan stated that if Malaysia does not speak up, other countries may interpret the country\u2019s silence as a sign that it is acting as a proxy for China.<\/p>\n
He believed that Malaysia needed to remain neutral and transparent for the sake of its own political and economical security.<\/p>\n
Simultaneously, he urged the federal governemnt to increase the Malaysian military readiness and be prepared to protect the Sabah and Sarawak regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe China flyby incident in June of this year should serve as a reminder to us to increase our preparedness for similar incidents in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the South China Sea is lost, Sabah and Sarawak will be the first targets of these attacks. To be honest, we are feeling rather vulnerable and exposed right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Therefore, Kitingan urged the federal govenrment to take a firm stance on the issue and state unequivocally that the territory belongs to Malaysia, regardless of the short-term economic consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf China is wrong, then they are wrong. No more of this nonsense entering our seas or airspace. The world\u2019s superpowers, including those from the West, must stop using our region as a proxy to fight their war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have disagreements with one another, resolve them among yourselves. Don\u2019t use the South China Sea to demonstrate your might. Leave our region, our people, our economy and our future to our own device.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Southeast Asia should be the ones to chart our own course for the future. Not anyone else, and especially not some foreign entities claiming to be \u2018big brother\u2019,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KOTA KINABALU: Malaysia should send the strongest diplomatic protest to China and the United Nations over China\u2019s military activities in the South China Sea. Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said the recent increase of incidents where Chinese vessels encroached on Malaysian waters demonstrated the superpower\u2019s lack of respect for its neighbours. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7021,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7020\/revisions\/7021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}