1. Humanity Consideration in Policy Making
1.1. It is not enough to understand how people are thinking, in completely different ways, what we now think of as the international, how our present concepts come to have a historical legacy, and how concepts are lost and found in translation
1.2. Civil society is now heavily involved at many levels in the development and implementation of foreign policy (Sending and Neumann 2006; Stengel and Baumann 2017).
1.3. Culture Consideration in Policy Making
1.3.1. Culture offers a way to think, see and interpret the things around it. It shapes and serves as our tool to analyze everything around us
1.3.2. There is a heated debate among scholars about whether and how culture, in particular and with international relations in general, affects and defines state foreign policy and security policy. However, many international relations scholars argue strongly that the way we believe (i.e., our culture) affects the policies we conduct
2. The Irony of Malaysia Not Implementing ICERD
2.1. Malaysia is sticking with the Palestinian for their rights to get their land back and end the discrimination involving their race and all the annexation that’s happening. However, does Malaysia especially some of the ethnic group really concern about the racial discrimination as it is doing to Palestinian now?
2.2. Malaysia’s biasness in race can be seen clearly during the implementation of ICERD (the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination)
2.3. ICERD is a United Nations convention (or treaty) to encourage racial equality in all parts of the world, but interestingly does the reverse, because politicians ( especially member of Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and the largest opposition group, UMNO) and some Malaysians both disagree over Malaysia’ s signing of the treaty or not
2.4. The fact that Malaysians who oppose ICERD have expressed their belief in Malay supremacy is deeply distressing.
2.5. According to Free Malaysia Today (2018), one member of the United Nations Committee, Gün Kut, a Turkish citizen who is a member of the ICERD Committee of 18, said Malaysia is currently viewed as accepting racial discrimination by failing to ratify the international treaty. Malaysia is now seen globally as accepting racism
3. Development of Foreign Policy in Malaysia
3.1. The independent, principled and pragmatic foreign policy of Malaysia continues to be built upon values of peace, humanity, justice, and equality
3.2. The foreign policy of Malaysia is largely influenced and shaped by three main factors, namely its strategic position in Southeastern Asia, its trading nation attributes, and its unique demographics.
3.3. Although approaches to foreign policy have varied over the years due to changes in national and external factors, since independence, fundamental principles of policy remain.
3.4. Malaysian Foreign Policy Framework
3.4.1. Treaties, agreements and conventions with other countries and all matters, which bring the Federation into relations with any other country.
3.4.2. Diplomatic, consular and trade representation.
3.4.3. International organizations; participation in international bodies and implementation of decisions taken thereat
3.4.4. Passports; visas; permits of entry or other certificates; quarantine.
3.5. With a large Muslim majority, Malaysia also plays the role of Ummah solidarity and the spirit of cooperation between the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is one of the countries with a large Muslim majority.
3.6. The status of Malaysia as a development nation imperatively requires that it participate actively in Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Commonwealth, the Seventy-Seven Group (G77), Developing Eight (D8) and Asia Middle East Dialogue (AMED), the Far East Asia Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).
3.6.1. Malaysia’s Strategy as Commonwealth Member; The games did not only have great commercial success – corporate sponsors contributed more than RM4 million to the surplus — but the Southeast Asian Games also seemed to draw Malaysian interest and support from various backgrounds and from beyond the conventional ethnic divisions
3.6.2. Malaysia’s Participation in SEA Games under ASEAN; The game is intended to be attended by 11 countries, including Brunei and Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippine, Singapore , Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam, in order to foster cooperation and strengthen relations amongst countries in Southeast Asia.
3.6.2.1. Unfortunately, several setbacks occurred, but the Kuala Lumpur 2017 still went smoothly
3.6.2.2. On the bright side, in the 2017 SEA Games, Malaysia had become leading sports country with a medal total of 32