Bilateral Relations of Malaysia with special reference with United Kingdom

8/7/2019 Bilateral Relations of Malaysia with special reference with United Kingdom

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1.0 Introduction

Bilateral diplomacy is an important mechanism to strengthening bilateral relations

between Malaysia and other countries in all over the world. From Tun Dr. Mahathir

Mohamad, the most real diplomacy is determined by raw power that is political, military

and economic.1 From the statement of our former Prime Minister, the scopes of

Malaysia’s bilateral cooperation are varied through political, economic, culture,

education, tourism, science, technology and so on. Malaysia has established a good

relationship between a lot of countries in the world, through either bilateral or multilateral

diplomacy. Through the bilateral relations, Malaysia will focus on the strengthening the

economic diplomacy for the promotion of its trade, investment and tourism potential. The

main focus of the bilateral diplomacy is to maintain and enhance the bilateral relationship

in terms of political relations, promote trade and investment, and also enhance the

cooperation and capacity in various fields, implement infrastructure development and last

but not least to promote peace and stability.2

UK is one of the European countries like France and Germany. These European

countries are invaluable dialogue partners, a vital destination for Malaysia’s trade, source

of investments in terms of the economic, high technology, education and so on. EuropeanCountries are one of the important countries to Malaysia as it is one of the main players

in the global economic and political systems. The European Union (EU) was Malaysia’s

second largest trading partner with total trade in 2007 amounting RM 137.72 billion (€

27.57 billion). Malaysian exports were valued at RM 77.81 billion (€ 12 billion). In the

political sectors, Malaysia’s relations with the European countries are also improving.

Moreover, the economic ties are growing stronger, and these relationships can be seen

from all of the agreement and cooperation with these two countries.3

1 Abdullah Ahmad, Dr Mahathir’s Selected to World Leaders, Introduction and Selected Commentaries,

2007, pg. 2072 Bilateral Affairs, Ministery of Foreign Affairs Malaysia, gained from the World Wide Web:

http://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/bd-overview by 29th Aug 2010.3 Bilateral Affairs, Ministery of Foreign Affairs Malaysia, gained from the World Wide Web:

http://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/bd-overview by 29th Aug 2010.

1

http://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/bd-overview








Map 1: United Kingdom

2.0 Malaysia and UK

UK, or the formal name is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is refer

to the union of four separate nations. The countries are including England, Scotland,

Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK is situated north-west of the European continent

between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It has a total land area of 244 100 square

kilometres, of which nearly 99% is land and the remainder inland water. From north to

south it is about 1 000 kilometres long.4 On the other hand, Malaysia is one of the small

countries situated in Asian region. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories

and has a total landmass of 330 252 square kilometers (127 350 sq mi). The country

consists of Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo (also known as West and East

Malaysia respectively) and they are separated by the South China Sea.5

4 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland gained from the World Wide Web:

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/britain/uk.htm, by 25th Oct 2010.5 Norlida Mohd Ibrahim, Malaysia Jubli Emas, 2007, pg. 54

2

Map 2: Malaysia

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/britain/uk.htm

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/britain/uk.htm



3.0 History

The relationships between Malaysia (formerly known as Malaya years ago) and UK has

started a long time ago. Both of these countries are the members of the Commonwealth of

Nations. In 1957, the Peninsular Malaysia has gained its independent from the UK as the

Federation of Malaya. After the independent, in 1963, Sabah and Sarawak also gained

their independent and joined Peninsular and became Federation of Malaya. This

situations shows that Malaysia and UK has started their bilateral relationship long time

ago. According to the history, since the 17 th century, Britain has become one of the trade

country all over the world.6 In 1600, East India Company (one of the company owned by

the Britain) and another English firm were able to make Penang (one of the states in

Malaysia) as their port. During that time, from 1710 to 1778, Penang has being made as

the British’s navy base.

4.0 Military

6 Malaysia Kita, 2000, pg. 51

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The military is another societal structure that is significant in both socialization and also

recruitment process. It is a structure that can be significant on its own in shaping the style

of political participation that is permitted in the political arena. According to Eric

Nordlinger, the military are the symbols of state sovereignty and the primary defenders

against possible external or internal attacks to the country.7 Each and every country in

this world is separated by the boundaries either by ocean, or land. In order to maintain

peace and harmony, these countries have to respect other’s boundaries and in the same

time, keep an eye on its own. As time pass by, the boundaries is not only limited on the

geographic, but also on the geopolitics.

To fulfill the needs and wants, a lot of agreements have being made between

Malaysia and UK to safeguard their country. One of them is the agreement for the Air

Services, between and beyond their respective territories. This agreement is made in

order to maintain the good friendly relationship between the two countries. Besides the

agreement regarding the air service, another memorandum has being signed. For

example, the Memorandum of Understanding between Malaysia and UK concerning

about the Defence Equipment Procurement and related Services.

In July 2008, The Defence Minister, Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Razak urged

the local defence industry to support to the aspirations of the government to make the

industry of Malaysia Defence Industry Council (MDIC) stronger, independent and more

competitive. In the meanwhile, the need to make the government’s aspirations a reality

must be emphasized strongly. This memorandum between Malaysia and UK was made

on 1990s, together with the Memorandum of Understanding between Malaysia and UK

concerning Defence Cooperation. In addition, some joint-ventures are being undertaken

with UK and some other countries like Russia, Germany, and Australia in shipbuilding

and aerospace industry.8

7Gregory S. Mahler, Comparative Politics: An Institutional and Cross-National Approach, 2003,4th ed.

New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.

8 Malaysia Defence Industry, gained from the World Wide Web:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/malaysia/industry.htm, by 26th Oct 2010

4

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/malaysia/industry.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/malaysia/industry.htm





5.0 Economic

Most of the relationship, both bilateral and multilateral are concerning about the effective

ways to gain the national economic growth. This is due to the needs to other countries in

terms of technology, capital and so on. In developing country such as Malaysia, we are

depending on big and developed country like UK. This is what we called as the

international economic relations. The priority of international economic relations in

global society is due to the growth of international economy since the twentieth century.

The global economic relations are vital because of the priority of national wealth in the

world politics. There are two major reasons regarding these matters, which are; the

people desire rising standard of living, and the national wealth in contemporary world

politics. 10

Because of these two reasons, the Malaysian government has put their full effort

in upholding the Malaysian economy by exchanging a lot of trade and business with

many countries worldwide. One of them is the agreement between Malaysia and UK for

the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to

Taxes on Income on February 1999. In the case of Malaysia, this agreement covers the

income tax and the petroleum income tax. Where, in the case of the United Kingdom, the

agreement covers the income tax, the corporation tax, and the capital gains tax. The

agreement of these two countries consists of 31 articles regarding taxation, interest,

royalties, technical fees and so on so forth.11 Both UK and Malaysia are eager to avoid

10Mark R. Amstutz, International Conflict and Cooperation: An Introduction to World Politics. 1999,

Amerika: McGraw-Hill College, pg. 38611UK/Malaysia Double Taxation Agreement, gained from the World Wide Web:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/malaysia.pdf , by 26th Oct 2010

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http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/malaysia.pdf

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/international/malaysia.pdf



double taxation. Double taxation occurs when a taxpayer is taxed twice for the same asset

or income. When an individual have to deal with double taxation, he may lose a

significant portion of income.12

6.0 Social

In order to uphold the society in harmony and stability, and in promoting sustainable

development, a significant number of scholars agree that the quality of human life must

be improved. Besides expanding the economic, living conditions must be increased, and

government should seek to redress significant income inequalities. 13 Every good

government who has good intention to make sure that the people are well cared will

provide the best opportunity in terms of education, health, better infrastructure and so on

so forth. All these requirements must be provided by the government because it may

confer the sustainable development in terms of social.

To boost the educational level in our country, one memorandum called the

Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Malaysia and The

Government and Devolved Administrations of the UK on Co-operation in the Field of

Education has being made. One of the programme under the educational level is to

accompaniment the Malaysian students to international welfare programmes in all over

the world, including Britain. The Malaysian youths or ‘Rakan Muda’ may get the

opportunity to work alongside their Commonwealth counterparts in empowering young

people to enhance their contributions to development. Rakan Muda is also looking at

possible collaborations with Oxfam, Britain’s leading charity to fight the global poverty -

the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and other charities.

Dato’ Ahmad Shabery Cheek the Youth and Sports Minister said that the

Malaysians were there to Britain in order to learn about the intrinsic values of volunteer

and humanitarian work. Dato’ Ahmad Shabery is responsible to launched Britain's Rakan

Muda International Outreach Programme in London's Malaysia Hall. Later, the minister

12 What is Double Taxation, gained from the World Wide Web: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-double-

taxation.htm, by 26th Oct 201013 Mark R. Amstutz, International Conflict and Cooperation: An Introduction to World Politics. 1999,

Amerika: McGraw-Hill College, pg. 427

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http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-double-taxation.htm








presented a RM50,000 mock cheque to Ahmad Nazri Sulaiman, the Malaysian Students

Department director to start the programme. A 10-member protem committee

representing Malaysian students in universities across Britain has been formed to

brainstorm ideas and identify the charities to be involved. The students are from

universities including the University College London, London School of Economics,

Imperial College, University of Manchester University of East London, Surrey University

and Southampton University.14

The latest news gained by the bilateral relationships between UK and Malaysia

was the UK-Malaysia Symposium on Cancer, Drug Discovery And Development on

February 2010. This symposium was organized by Cancer Research Initiatives

Foundation (CARIF) in collaboration with British High Commission (BHC), ScienceAnd Innovation Division, Ministry Of Science Technology And Innovation (MOSTI),

Malaysian Institute Of Pharmaceuticals & Nutraceuticals (iPharm), Center For Natural

Products Research And Drug Discovery (CENAR), and Royal Society Of Chemistry

(RSC). The title of this symposium is; “Unearthing Green Remedies: From Backyard to

Bedside”.

The rationale for this programme is to support and promote collaboration between

scientists in the UK and Malaysia in the fields of Drug Discovery and Development for

Cancer. Besides, this programme helps to organize activities to enable researchers to

spend time with potential partner institutions to gain an in-depth understanding of their

research. Together with that, this symposium may able to formulate proposals for future

collaborative research and funding opportunities. Besides, it may provide and facilitate

opportunities for technology transfer of assay technologies from expert laboratories in

UK to Malaysia through collaborative research. Lastly, it is made in order to facilitate

opportunities for commercialization and drug development of potential targets from

natural products with UK through collaborative research.15

14 Malaysia News Bulletin, gained from the World Wide Web:

http://www.kln.gov.my/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=243532&folderId=271278&name=DLFE-

4413.pdf , by 26th Oct 201015 UK-Malaysia Symposium on Cancer, Drug Discovery And Development, gained from the World Wide

Web: http://www.ikm.org.my/downloads/UKSymp-flyer.pdf , by 26th Oct 2010

8

http://www.kln.gov.my/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=243532&folderId=271278&name=DLFE-4413.pdf


http://www.ikm.org.my/downloads/UKSymp-flyer.pdf








7.0 Conclusion

Each and everything in the world comes with pros and cons, so as the relationship, either

the bilateral relationship or multilateral relationship. Each one of them has their bad and

bright side of the view. According to this principle, Malaysia has understands and taken

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all the consequences and possibilities in making relationship to the other countries in the

world. Any relationship or diplomacy is ties with terms such as discussion, negotiations,

tolerate and so on. The terms of discussion were quite traditional, as negotiators never

considered conservation of the cod, nor did they really address the problem of shifting

technology. In a sense, the diplomats could not create a permanent solution because the

environment, the technology, the fishing patterns, and the markets that shaped human

fishing were all interconnected and all changing constantly. In short, they were trying to

create static solutions to dynamic problems. This has been a recurrent shortcoming of

environmental diplomacy.16

However, as we may not stay alone as one country without depending to other

country, Malaysia has adapted this relationship for the needs and wants of our country.

From Dr. Vladimir Petrovsky, he stressed that in the modern world now, the modern

diplomacy, it is important to maintain a balance between traditional innovations. Despite

all the changes in the international environment, the past experience of diplomacy is the

great value and it is ultimately important to keep links in time.17 It is clearly seen that

Malaysian government has put its efforts to play good governance by joining the

relationship with other countries for the Malaysian people.

16Environmental Diplomacy - The united states–canada bilateral relationship, gained from the World Wide

Web:

http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Environmental-Diplomacy-The-united-states-canada-

bilateral-relationship.html, by 26th Oct 201017

Diplomacy as an Instrument of Good Governance gained from the World Wide

http://www.diplomacy.edu/books/mdiplomacy_book/petrovski/petrovski.htm, by 26th Oct 2010

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http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Environmental-Diplomacy-The-united-states-canada-bilateral-relationship.html


http://www.diplomacy.edu/books/mdiplomacy_book/petrovski/petrovski.htm



http://www.diplomacy.edu/books/mdiplomacy_book/petrovski/petrovski.htm

Documents

Bilateral Relations of Malaysia with special reference with United Kingdom