As the next chair of the Southeast Asian grouping, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will likely share the concerns of his new BRICS partners, says the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research’s Dr Shankaran Nambiar.
File photo. Malaysia 's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sep 6, 2023. , with Malaysia this week formally submitting its application, is in keeping with his determination to pursue a “fiercely independent” foreign policy.
The move also presages Malaysia’s role in ASEAN as a nation that can take the lead in championing the BRICS agenda. This is particularly significant since Malaysia will assume the role as ASEAN chair in 2025. He asserts: “We can no longer accept the scenario where the West wants to control the discourse because the fact is they are not colonial powers anymore and independent countries should be free to express themselves.”The decision to join BRICS seems a choice for the future. A PwC forecast expects China to be the world’s largest economy in 2050, with India overtaking the US to take the second spot. Indonesia, Brazil and Russia will rise to occupy the fourth, fifth and sixth places.
Anwar has got his numbers and trends right, and he is taking a pragmatic look at how things will turn out. He is not content with a quiet understanding of how things will unfold. He likely seeks to provide the leadership that will tilt for the future.Singapore and the Philippines have been reserved on how they stand, and likely will not join the grouping.
While Malaysia sees inclusion in the BRICS grouping as an expression of its non-alignment, Indonesia wishes to convey the same message by staying out.
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