OCT 20 — There was an air of inevitability about the by-elections in Port Dickson (PD) last weekend; the optimism on the ground alone was almost enough to confirm that Anwar Ibrahim would be sworn in as the PD Member of Parliament (MP). The successful by-election is practically a ticket for him to eventually return to Malaysian politics proper as Mahathir’s successor, ceteris paribus of course. Almost galvanised by the ‘MP’ status, he has vowed to address wrongs, especially those of a humanitarian nature. Next week, Anwar Ibrahim will meet Chinese Communist Party leaders in Beijing to discuss, among other issues, China’s treatment of its Uighur Muslims. Even before reading the predictable criticisms of his intention to broach this sensitive topic, I wondered why he wanted to talk about this so soon after little more than a symbolic electoral victory. Two points are important here.

One, does he know what he’s getting himself into? Yes, he has amassed the support of Malaysians eager to witness a Malaysia ‘Baru’, or ‘New’ Malaysia. It is easy to fall into the trap of heroism and not realise that as noble as it sounds, explaining to a country how it has been treating its own citizens is not the best diplomatic ice-breaker. Of course it would be equally unfair to purely assume that he wants to "condone any form of violence, either by the society or the state” for personal gain. Let’s just assume he is doing it in his diplomatic capacity, however little it may be for now. Never mind the policy of not interfering into the matters of other countries; lecturing China or anyone on how to uphold human rights jeopardizes any efforts to "have an effective, strong bilateral relationship”, which, by the way, is what Anwar Ibrahim said he seeks to achieve on his visit to the Asian powerhouse. Would a discussion on human rights rule out the possibility of (maintaining) a warm relationship between the two countries? I’m assuming these are questions on many Malaysians’ minds.

Then there is the question of why this group of Muslims? Granted, China is no paradise for Uighur Muslims. Just recently, Chinese authorities in Xinjiang launched an inexplicable ‘anti-halal’ campaign, claiming that the myriad of halal products was fomenting religious extremism in the region. That’s right, ‘halalification’ is apparently an epidemic in China, but I digress. On a more grim note, Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang have been living under harsh conditions for a long time, to say the least.  As human rights activist Rukiye Turdush found out, the Chinese government has fired on all cylinders in its efforts to demote Uighur culture and ethnicity to a mere footnote. For example, there are camps and schools dedicated to indoctrinating Uighur children with Han culture while cutting them off from their families and religion. Sure, any country that infringes on human rights should be called out, but what about minorities of other countries that do not have it easy? Why the outward focus of Anwar Ibrahim at the expense of bringing up the institutional discrimination embedded in the country’s Bumiputera policy or even the plight of innocent civilians in bloodthirsty civil (proxy) wars such as that in Yemen?

Anwar Ibrahim is by no means an inexperienced politician but to be fair, he has been out of the political scene for a fair bit. Euphoria can dictate to us that he is the Prime Minister-in-waiting or the PKR President Elect but the fact is, in Beijing, he will still be an MP of a town with a population of about 120,000. With a humble political portfolio, taking to task one of the global hegemonies today may not be political suicide, but certainly is a huge political gamble. Let’s not forget that above all, he is representing Malaysia. How would China view Malaysia after Anwar’s visit? As a concerned human rights proponent, or a country that does not know its place?

*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.