Mehmet Özay 26 May 2019
The turbulence in the Middle East between Israel and
Palestine has undoubtedly had a great impact upon the policies of the nation
states and sensitivities of the Muslim communities in Southeast Asia.
It is assumed that having larger Muslim populations in
some countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei in the region would translate
to a strong united stand in international politics to challenge the policies of
Israel and its allies. However, whether this is reflected in real life or not
is another issue.
Firstly, none of these countries have formal
diplomatic relations with Israel. Israeli companies and citizens are not
allowed to enter in normal conditions to these countries. In this regard, their
relations with Israel are confined to discussions in some international conventions
and so on.
And it is observed that these countries procedurally
contribute to the resolutions consecutively taken during and after various
occasions for more than half a century in relevant bodies of the United Nations
(UN) and also the general meetings of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC). As seen in the above-mentioned account, these three countries simply
reflect their own nation-state approaches.
On the other hand, they recognize the legitimacy of
the free Palestinian state and have Palestinian embassies or representative
bodies in their relevant capital cities.
In addition, they allow Palestinians to visit, work
and study, activities which are to an extent supported by the state agencies or
individual organizations. This policy is a crystal-clear indication that the state
agencies and general public strongly support the Palestinian case.
Islam as uniting factor
There are two areas which determine the anti-Israel
stance and policies of the above-mentioned nation-states in support of
Palestine.
The first one is related to the fact that the people
under these respective nation-states historically and anthropologically, called
the Malays, have always been considered as Muslims.
The Malays’ strong relationship with Islam and Islamic
discourse should not be regarded as insignificant even though they live in the
so-called periphery of the Islamic world.
The feeling of being a part of the larger Ummah is a
major reason why the Malays continue appreciating the importance of Al-Quds. This
socio-cultural situation plays a decisive role for the establishment of
policies of these nation state towards the Middle-East based conflict.
Reaction to the neo-colonial
situation
The second reason is that the Malay people, who themselves
were subjugated by the Western colonizers throughout the centuries, have sympathy
towards the Palestinians as an oppressed people, who are being deprived of
their legal and legitimate land and rights.
In this regard, the anti-colonial stand of Southeast
Asia countries helps in taking a pro-Palestinian stand towards the situation in
the Middle East.
The policies developed under the leaderships of
founding fathers Sukarno in Indonesia and Tunku Abdul Rahman in Malaysia were
structured by the above-mentioned anti-colonial sentiments. These sentiments
are still valid pertaining to the relevant article referring in Indonesian
constitution.
While the former initiated strong ties with Arab
leaders, the latter is known to have developed the idea of the OIC to protect
the rights of the Palestinians.
In addition, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the fourth prime
minister of Malaysia, gained fame globally due to his outspoken reactions
against Israel. He expresses his thoughts and feelings without mincing his
words against the Israeli governments. He even describes the latter as the
responsible for state terrorism against the Palestinians.
As he is ruling the country, currently in his second
tenure, he continues his anti-Israel stand, which was witnessed in his most
recent statement that Israel is “the root cause of world instability”.
Though some Western scholarly works emphasize to criticize
the stand of these leaders as having ‘pro-Arab’ tendencies, it is perceived
that this labelling aims to distort and manipulate the reality appearing in the
form of the Zionist invasion of Palestinian lands.
On the other hand, some leaders have attempted to
build bridges in order to normalize the relationship with Israel, either because
of global pressure or demands from Israeli governments.
In particular, this occurred in the vicinity of the Middle
East peace talks in the late decades of the previous century during the Suharto
era in Indonesia, although there were no convincing developments.
Besides that, Abdurrahman Wahid, former Indonesian
president, during his tenure as the president, as a liberal politician, tried
to take concrete steps for the abovementioned normalization, but he failed to
realize it either.
In general, it was observed not only in Wahid’s
attempt, but also in the attempts by Indonesian political elites, who
conditioned first the fair peace process between Israel and Palestine, but could
not act without considering the Muslim communities’ sensitiveness to the issue.
While the country is still undergoing a reformation
process, which is mainly reflected in the form of socio-economic development,
this reform process implicitly covers the international relations side as well.
As observed, political leaders such as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the former
president, and Joko Widodo, incumbent president, have from time to time attempted
to attract the world public attention by hosting democracy forums,
extraordinary OIC meetings etc.
It suffices to note here that subjugation of the land
of the Palestinian nation and blockade of the Sacred sanctuary of Islam by the
Zionist regime of Israel are the major reasons for the reactions of the Muslim
nations worldwide, including the ones in Southeast Asia as well.
And they acknowledge explicitly that the
Israeli-occupied territory is an inseparable part of the historical and legal
right of the Palestinian people.
As a result of this, the Muslim population in
the region continue to demonstrate great sympathy to the Palestinians, and the
respective states have not undergone any significant changes in their policies
to extend their support for Palestinian rights.
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