KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 – Malaysia’s Ambassador-designate to the United States (US) Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz who leaves to the US on Thursday says helping to reset Malaysia’s image in the US tainted by the infamous ‘1MDB’ scandal will be among his top priorities.
The 69-year-old former Padang Rengas lawmaker who will assume his new post in Washington DC on March 8 believes his vast experience serving in the Malaysian government under various capacities, including as a cabinet minister will help him to accomplish the uphill task.
“I feel there is much to do in my mission in the US, especially in bringing up and cleaning the image of Malaysia which was dented due to the 1MDB scandal. This issue has put Malaysia in a bad light,” he told Bernama in an exclusive interview here, recently.
The long-running high profile financial scandal surrounding Malaysia’s state development fund 1MDB has gripped the world for years, with the US Justice Department seizing assets that were allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB money and returning the money to the Malaysian government since 2016. US financiers Goldman Sachs and many others were also implicated in the scandal.
The scandal also resulted in the country’s former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak being convicted and subsequently jailed for 12 years due to the charges related to the multi-billion dollar graft scandal in August 2022.
In resetting Malaysia’s image in the US, Nazri also wants to address other issues that remained a point of contention in the US-Malaysia ties especially the human rights issue involving foreign workers in Malaysia.
“There are things which the Malaysian companies feel it is normal, but turn out to be an infringement to human rights for foreign workers from the US point of view and this can be addressed,” he said adding that he also wants clarify the issue of forced labour in Malaysia involving children in the plantation sector.
Finding ways to improve Malaysia’s Tier 3 ranking in the US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report released in 2022 will also be his priority as it has placed Malaysia at a disadvantaged position.
“Of course, my aim is to improve the ranking of Malaysia to Tier 2 and gradually to Tier 1 under (US) watchlist…we aim for the highest,” he said.
According to the TIP report, the Malaysian government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.
The former minister of Tourism and Culture said all the outstanding issues between Malaysia and US which is yet to be resolved will be discussed at a weekly ‘Cabinet meeting’ which he plans to hold at the Malaysian Embassy in Washington DC upon assuming his new post.
On several parties trying to create an issue out of his new appointment saying he is not fit for the job as he did not have a diplomatic background, Nazri replied the issue is uncalled for as past records have shown that some of his predecessors were politicians too including the late Tan Sri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis.
Nazri instead felt that the appointment of Malaysian representatives to foreign missions abroad should not be confined to career diplomats alone.
As an experienced politician who has been heading the Padang Rengas Umno division for almost 20 years now, Nazri says ‘diplomacy is something not alien to him’.
“Politicians must be nice to everyone and you can’t be nasty to people if you need people’s vote…I myself contested six times in general election and have won each and every time I contested and this speaks well on how diplomatic I am towards my voters,” said Nazri, who didn’t seek re-election during the 15th general election.
Nazri, who will be serving in US under a two-year contract, thanked Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah for consenting to his appointment, and also Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for backing his appointment though he was appointed by the previous Perikatan Nasional government.
Bilateral ties between Malaysia and the US were established upon Malaya’s independence in 1957, with the US being currently Malaysia’s third largest global trade partner and export destination, while Malaysia is the US’ 17th largest trade partner.
