L. Thangsuankhup, International Journal of Research in Engineering

L. Thangsuankhup, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.565, Volume 09 Issue 04, April 2019, Page 131-138 Africa-Malaysia Relations: Major Determinants

L. Thangsuankhup (Phd Scholar, Centre for African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India) Abstract: Malaysia and many African countries has a deep and long history and had shared colonial experiences in the past but their relationship in the 21st century is mainly due to the South-South cooperation. Africa-Malaysia relations could be ascribed to four major determinants namely- the Bandung Spirit, the South- South cooperation, Malaysian foreign policy and lastly Malaysian involvement in African Affairs and vice versa. All the major determinants are discussed in the paper. Finally, the article concludes that the South-South cooperation, reinvigorated by the Bandung Spirit, posed a serious challenge by making the new development cooperation patterns of trade and investment by developing countries of the South in Africa, like the North, appears to be largely focused and concerned in the continent’s primary commodities which may end up with marginalization of Africa. Keywords: South-South cooperation, Bandung Spirit, foreign policy, marginalization

Since the end of Cold War and the dawn of the new millennium, the ideas of an anarchic system has become less and less possible in several fields of statecraft, whereas interdependence and globalization have grown and resulted in an evolution for restructuring systematic interactive phases among nations by breaking down barriers in the areas of politics, diplomacy, economics, culture, communication and several other fields of endeavour. These transformations have brought overall development in Africa particularly the sub-Saharan Africa and helps Africa nations to build their relations with other world especially with the developing South countries. Malaysia has a deep historical political, economic and cultural relationship with many Africa countries due to their colonial experiences and also through their active involvement in many international activities which are organized under the umbrella of South-South Cooperation. Africa and Malaysia had shared the same experiences in terms of their relationship with their colonial master. They both were ravaged by imperialism for more than three hundred years. Thus, Africa’s engagement with Malaysia are of course historical and time- tested; nevertheless, their ways of engagement has change and become revitalized in accordance with time and most importantly with the changes in foreign policies of the country’s and in general, due to global change and the arrival of globalization in recent years. Therefore, beyond their traditional trading style, there is an increasing political, economic and cultural relationship between Africa and Malaysia. The engagement of Africa and Malaysia in the 21st century was mainly under the umbrella of South- South cooperation (SSC). The SSC also has unfolded the opportunities for economic cooperation between African nations and the developing Southern nations in the contemporary global arena. A hallmark of the old geography of trade in which the relationship between the North and the South was the centre periphery is steadily being superseded by more balanced economic relations among developing countries. Thus, this transitional change has made Africa and Malaysia to work together in tandem during the international arrangement in the era of globalization. Thus, better future and development for Africa starts germinating through their engagement with other developing South countries particularly Malaysia under SSC in the 21st century. Determinants of Africa-Malaysia relations Four major determinants that has contributed to Africa-Malaysia relations are namely the Bandung Spirit, Malaysia foreign policies, the SSC and lastly the role played by Malaysia in Africa and vice versa. The Bandung Spirit The beginning of Anglophone Africa-Malaysia engagement in the 21st century could be traced back since the 1955 Bandung conference. The commemoration was a milestone because all the leaders of Asia and Africa in the meeting came together with one mind and one objective and no ideology had divided them. They all sought for the solidarity and cooperation of the developing South. The resultant Bandung Conference not only brought together the leaders from two continents of Africa and Asia but promotes peace, prosperity and progress in the two regions and also bridge the gap for mutual benefits and development. Later, Non-Aligned Movement was formed in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Even though Malaysia did not participate in the conference, she was influenced by the Bandung spirit and later played an active and integral role in the formalizing the South movements. Also Malaysia developed bilaterally and multilaterally relationship with African countries through international mechanisms such as UN and its agencies like the creation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Group of 77 (G-77) in 1964, the Group of http://indusedu.org Page 131

15 (G-15) in 1989 and other organizations. In fact, it was the “Bandung era” which heralded the beginning of a period marked by the Southern countries efforts to “achieve economic modernization at home via state-led development, and demand greater political and economic equality vis-à-vis developed countries in the international stage. This era saw the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and calls for a New International Economic Order” (CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness, 2014). Motivated by the actions of NAM and G-77, The United Nations General Assembly embraced a series of resolutions calling upon the United Nations system to support developing countries in their works to increase technical cooperation among themselves during 1972- 1977. During this period, the General Assembly gave a stringent efforts and decided to- formulate recommendations on technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC) by establishing a working group; promote TCDC by setting up a Special Unit within United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); organised a special session at a high political level fervent to development and technical cooperation; and engrave TCDC as a permanent item in the General Assembly agenda (M. Mounir Zahran, Enrique Roman-Morey and Tadanori Inomata, 2011). After preparing continuously for five years long, the United Nation conference on TCDC took place for the first time in the capital of Argentina from 30th August to 12th September, 1978. In this conference all the members had adopted the Buenos Aires plan of action (BAPA) for promoting and implementing technical cooperation among developing countries. The BAPA main emphasis was on “national and collective self-reliance” among the developing countries and provides new orientations in approaches to development cooperation. The BAPA became the first major blueprint for TCDC and new International order foundations. It was in 2003 that the UN had started using the term ‘South-South’ cooperation by clubbing two models of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) and Economic Cooperation among Developing Countries (ECDC) which were introduced in the 1970s (Zenaida Delica-Willison, 2011). One year later, “the General Assembly, in resolution 58/220, replaced the term TCDC by South-South Cooperation (SSC)” in 2004, (M. Mounir Zahran, Enrique Roman- Morey and Tadanori Inomata, 2011). In short, the Bandung Spirit means “the spirit of unity of the Asian and African people, opposing imperialism and colonialism, struggle for the defense of national independence and world peace and the promotion of friendship among the peoples as demonstrated at the Conference” (Kamarulnizam, 2013).It had strongly tried to demolished colonial heritages and rejected a history of repressive foreign interference all through the two regions by uniting various countries of Africa and Asia so as to work outside the realm of Western power and impact. The Bandung gathering was an announcement of principle from the worldwide south that denoted the confidence of less developed countries against the imperial and outside the circle of developed West in the international stage. Then again, in spite of the fact that the non-aligned movement continued until the finish of the Cold War, the solidarity created by the “spirit of Bandung” had debilitated by end of the 1960s, through which time a large number of the original participant members in the conference had been never again in power in their separate nations. Nevertheless, the Bandung Principles which was once a standout amongst the most vital results of the conference have been steering nations in the Asian-African continents just as those in different continents through the hardship and commotion of the cold war period since their inception. A decade after the Bandung conference and the aftermath of Cold War, the facts confirm that colonialism in the traditional sense had all vanished in the decades that pursued, however it was supplanted with others types of control that were similarly harsh and oppressive. Most strikingly, one could discover expanded economic control, intellectual predominance, and social and cultural colonialism present in the furthest reaches of the African and Asian continent in the post Bandung conference. For instance, the respected desire of both African and Asian pioneers for base up development and growth dependent on unity and social solidarity had to a great extent been supplanted by the development paradigm that emerged from the developed West nations. That is, theories and ideologies that have been fortified by Western rhetoric and upheld the Westernized global capitalist market. By any measure, it is very clear that a huge larger part of African and Asian countries has been subjected to exploitation through the acts of global capitalism, and have rendered such countries particularly powerless to additionally control from the West. A noteworthy number of African and Asian countries have been marginalized in the wake of neglecting to succeed from the chances and advantages offered by the globalization. As needs be, it has been perceived by Asian and African Governments that the “prevailing conditions in Asia and Africa necessitate the need to actively pursue a common view and collective action to ensure the equitable sharing of the benefits of globalization” (Kyle Brown, 2013). Hence, with an end goal to revitalize the Bandung Spirit and improve cooperation among African and Asian countries, the city of Bandung, facilitated the main Asian-African Sub-Regional Organizations Conference (AASROC) in 2003, with the second being facilitated by Durban, South Africa in 2004. These conferences were essential as they established the framework and laid out the main solid strides to the appropriation of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP). Finally, most remarkably were the Asian-African Summit and the Commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the 1955 Asian-African Conference http://indusedu.org Page 132

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License L. Thangsuankhup, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.565, Volume 09 Issue 04, April 2019, Page 131-138 which was co-hosted by Jakarta and Bandung in April 2005 with the adoption of the Declaration on the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP). It denoted the start of new understandings and cooperative agreements concentrated on a typical view and collective action to guarantee the equitable sharing of the advantages and benefits of globalization and achieving mutual prosperity and development by countering the dangers of globalization. South-South cooperation For the last decades, Africa continent increased their ties with Asia’s emerging powers- like India, China and Malaysia and has been in the limelight and have received considerable scholars’ attention in the recent years. As the idea of SSC has turned into a prominent subject in the international discourse and has assumed a crucial role in cementing solidarity among developing nations, one could possibly say that the historical relationship between Africa and Malaysia took place due to SSC. Looking the main focus of SSC since its formation, it can be clearly seen that SSC has “metamorphosed from being interested in geo-politics and opposition to imperialism, global racism, colonialism and the cold war, to emphasis on geo-economics and political economy” (Ugwuja Alex A. et al. 2014). These are the prima focus of the developing Southern countries to encounter the developed Northern nations and the fast changing global affairs. Thus, Africa and Malaysia where both belonging to the developing Southern nations caught up under the platform of SSC. Thus, Malaysia engagement with Africa through trade, investment, technical assistance, training and capacity building happened because of their engagement in SSC. Meanwhile, within the spirit of SSC various diplomatic missions has also been opened up such as MTCP, LID, SAID and others. For instance, looking at the past record of their relations, Malaysia’s trade with Africa has grown more than double from RM 12.02 billion in 2006 to RM 30.1 billion in 2015, registering an average annual growth rate of 10.6 percent (Speech from Yb Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, 2016). Regarding investment, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report (the latest year for which figures were available) “The Rise of BRICS FDI and Africa,” Malaysia’s FDI flows into Africa ranked third among the top twenty investing countries in Africa in 2011. Malaysia’s portfolio of global FDI reached $106 billion by the end of 2011, of which $19.3 billion went to African states (Tianyi Wang & Andy Lim 2013). Apart from trade and investment, Malaysian assistance/ aid provided to the African continent were mostly through training assistance and capacity building which was started in a very small way but with a genuine and noble goal of extending a hand in friendship. This imperative drives the MTCP and the government stays committed to the program in the 21st century. Since its inception in 1980, more than 33,000 participants from one forty-four countries have benefited from different programmes and trainings which were offered under the MTCP till to-date (http://mtcp.kln.gov.my/about-mtcp). Malaysia Foreign policy Foreign policy is essentially a dynamic process and not static as it varies overtime. Some of the diverse factors that have influenced Malaysia’s foreign policy include anti-colonialism, anti-communism, opposition to racial discrimination, non-alignment, regional cooperation, and critical dependence on free trade. These all became the key pulled factor for Malaysian government to formulate their country foreign policies for maintaining and cultivating relationship with other countries irrespective of their differences in politics and ideologies. “Pragmatism and flexibility remain essential to the formulation and execution of foreign policy” (Malaysia Foreign Relations from globalsecurity.org). The strategic interest of Malaysia’s towards Africa after globalization was mainly due to its foreign policy which is “prosper thy neighbor” and its policy to support the weaker allies especially from the developing South nations. Malaysia, subsequently after the announcement of Malaysia’s Vision 2020, has experienced a globalized era in different areas by opening up markets for outside world, migration of people in and out of Malaysia, education policies, etc. and adopting a more opening and broader policies which includes not only economy but social and cultural to fulfil the Vision 2020. Malaysia’s engagement with Africa through trade, investment, technical assistance, training, and capacity building has been largely under the umbrella of South- South cooperation. Another important key aspect towards African- Malaysian relationship success in the era of globalization is education. According to the Malaysian Immigration Office, students from African countries were issued more than 27, 000 student visas in 2015 and majority of the African students in Malaysia come from Nigeria, Sudan, Libya and Somalia (Samok, 2017). In the 21st century, Malaysia’s foray into Africa was mainly due to its foreign policy “prosper thy neighbor” and supporting weaker allies. As we know, continuity and changes are a feature of Malaysia’s evolving relationship with African countries, Malaysia engagement with African nations has been not only directed towards political and economic strategy but has broader goals by extending their focus towards cultural links. For instance, by 2011, around 93,000 international students were there in Malaysia for studying, however the nation aims to rise this number to 2, 00,000 by 2020. According to Malaysia’s Department of Immigration reported 2012, a total of 79,000 Africans entered the nation and around 25,000 student visas were issued for African students and the student visa validity is just for one year (Frauke Kandale 2014). Currently around 21,000 African students are studying in Malaysia (Malaysian Business 2013). http://indusedu.org Page 133

Taking account of Malaysia developments and the changing leadership from time to time, one can clearly observe the evolution of Malaysia foreign policy over the years. Prior to her independence in 1957, no independent relations had been existed between Malaysia and other countries due to the British colonial rule. But after independence, changes occurred under the different premierships and the foreign policy of Malaysia had started cultivating “the principles of interaction in terms of economic, political, and security approaches in international spheres particularly Africa” (Ashari 2013). Currently, in order to promote and protect national interest abroad, a total of 105 missions in 83 countries has been established by Malaysian government and also 53 Honorary Consuls has been appointed. Also, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry operates 13 diplomatic representations across Africa in total which consist of eight embassies and five high commissions. Traditionally, Southeast Asia and the West was the main focus of Malaysia’s foreign policy and Africa continent was never her priority despite having a long and established connection in historical, social and religious context with the region. It was only in the 1980s that closer cooperation between Africa and Malaysia had just started within the framework of strengthening relationship under South-South cooperation. During the post independent period under Tunku Abdul Rahman (1957-70), the first Prime Minister, Malaysia’s foreign policy has been consistently premised on the survival and stabilization of the country and had maintained a close links with the Commonwealth countries and was totally opposing Apartheid. He was known for anti-Communist and pro-Western. Malaysia’s foreign policy, under the stewardship of Malaysia’s second premier Tun Abdul Razak (1970 1976), has shifted from the steadfast pro-West position to a policy of non-alignment in 1970 and internationalism with Malaysia joining the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). Under Tun Hussein Onn (1976-1981), Malaysia's foreign policy was strongly consolidated with the ASEAN. Dramatic shift took place in Malaysia foreign policy when Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad became the Prime Minister in 1981. He had adopted an active and assertive foreign policy which can be summed up as ‘active internationalism’ to enhance Malaysia’s role in international affairs and further brought Malaysia into international recognition. During the premiership of Dr. Mahathir, Malaysia’s foreign policy became much more economic oriented than before in their external relations. This was coupled with an interests and aspirations of developing countries and the supporting of south-south cooperation apart from strong and nationalistic defense of the rights. The new approach toward economy has led to the advocacy of the South-South Cooperation, the G-77 and the establishment of the G-15 which enhanced and strengthens her relations with Africa continent in the 21st century. Hence, for many developing countries particularly African countries Malaysia became the role model and the voice for the developing world. Malaysia becomes well recognized for its active stance at the UN by participating in peacekeeping missions under the UN and other international conferences. Tun Dr. Mahathir's premiership opened numerous new initiatives mainly towards Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe countries in trade, investment and technology transfer through active bilateral engagement. After the departure of Dr Mahathir from office in 2003, Malaysia under the premiership of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2003-09) has adopted for a quiet and soft style of diplomacy rather than a combative approach. According to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, “a good foreign policy will make other countries comfortable in dealing with Malaysia. Malaysia’s foreign policy should not be a static doctrine...it must always be a dynamic instrument” (Mokhtar Selat Ahmad 2006: 24). Malaysia’s foreign policy towards Africa under Badawi could be seen from her leadership role as Chairman of the NAM and in expanding the focus of OIC from political to socio-economic development of Islamic countries and ASEAN. Furthermore, Abdullah Badawi introduced the Islam Hadhari concept to promote a form of civilizational Islam. When the second Prime Minister of Malaysia son Sri Najib Tun Razak assumed the country's leadership in 2010, the main focus of Malaysia's foreign policy was to create a strong and united country in an increasingly interconnected world. Tun Razak emphasized that under his administration the foreign policy of Malaysia would be significantly moulded by the concept of 1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now. In January 2012, he hosted the first International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) in Kuala Lumpur to express Malaysia’s moderate and anti-extremist policy in foreign affairs and to mobilize international support for the idea of establishment of a GMM (Evolution of Malaysian Foreign Policy from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia). “The priorities demonstrated by Dato’ Seri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak (2009-18) indicated the continuity in Malaysia’s foreign policy particularly in improving the country’s relations with countries in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America” (Halisha Ashari 2013). Moreover, Malaysia has maintained her bilateral and multilateral relationship with African countries in a very excellent through the existing international mechanisms such as UN, OIC, NAM, G-77, G-15 and other organizations which she is a member of. Malaysia’s foreign policy towards Africa under successive prime ministers has been reflected by a pragmatic response of the geopolitical and economic changes of their times. Among the many factors one important phenomenon that had a great impact on Malaysia's foreign policy towards Africa in the 21st century is globalization. Malaysia in order to withstand the strong impact of globalization and compete with other countries needs to position herself well in maintaining diplomatic and foreign relations towards other countries http://indusedu.org Page 134

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License L. Thangsuankhup, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.565, Volume 09 Issue 04, April 2019, Page 131-138 particularly African countries. Moreover, Malaysia foreign policy needs to give more weight to Africa to win their trust and to gain advantage from the developing African market. Malaysia’s initiatives and commitment within the South-South Cooperation has been part and parcel of Malaysia’s foreign policy to assist in the development of human resources in the African nations. It is strategically important for Malaysia foreign policy to maintain well developed links and relations with African countries in the 21st century as they can be a source of political support for Malaysia in the international arena. After independence in 1957, Malaysia has adopted different economic policies. Initially, Malaysia economic policy was mainly focus on export-oriented industrialization and import-substitution strategies. Prior to the 1970s, the Malaysian development policies emphasized mainly on fair and impartial growth due to the country’s multi-racial society. Later, the country’s equity growth policies were not the only concerned of the leaders as industrialization came into being. In the 1980s, Malaysia’s economic policies and leaders had turned their interest towards heavy industrialization to further economic diversification, increase local linkages and promote Bumiputera (sons of the soil) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, it pursued to upgrade the country's technological capacity. In the mid-1980s, Malaysia’s development plans were seriously affected by the economic downturn. This led the Government to support and encourage public-private cooperation more. Therefore, Malaysia government introduced various incentives for private sector participation. FDI was given more weight and attention than others during this period. Moreover, new ventures were granted “more generous treatment and flexibility with regard to foreign equity participation, especially in export-oriented industries” (UNCAD 2003). During 1971-1990, Malaysia had introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP). In 1991, Malaysia’s policy in investment was broadly reformed by discontinuing tax incentives for exports. Nonetheless, full tax exemption was granted to investments related to specific higher technology and strategic sectors. The financial crisis in 1997 and 1998 urged Malaysia to a more advance liberalization by lifting the restriction on foreign equity (National Economic Recovery Plan, 1998). In 2000, the local content requirement was even remove to conform to the WTO Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) Agreement (UNCAD 2003). During 1991-2000, Malaysia government had introduced the National Development Policy to eradicate poverty irrespective of ethnic groups. In short, the main objectives of Malaysia’s policies before 2000 were to improve the living standard of the poor by assisting and equipping them with training and necessary resources. With the rapid increased of globalization in 1980’s and 1990’s, Malaysia had experienced a tremendous changed in its economic policies towards the outside world. The country's economic growth got expanded with the expansion of trade and FDI. One of the key factors that drive Malaysia's economy was the establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), which was announced by the Prime Minister of Malaysia couple of years before the Asian financial crises. The declaration for the establishment of MSC was to help the nation financial and economic change from a production-based economy (P-economy) to a knowledge- based economy (K-economy). Thus, in this way Malaysian economy and the world economy become more integrated during the globalization era. In line with globalization, Malaysia in the spirit of South-South Cooperation has started building up her bilateral relationship with many African countries and actively engaged in trade, investment, training, technology transfer and human capacity building. Malaysia’s engagement with African countries could be seen through her Diplomatic Missions opened in different countries and the further extension of Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) in these countries. As already mentioned above, Malaysia economic policy under successive prime ministers keeps on changing in order to relevant to the country's needs and to adapt and response the geopolitical and economical changes of the world. Malaysia’s leadership role on various issues of deep interest towards Africa and the developing world has also been recognized. Malaysia as one of a trading nation needs to orient her foreign policy and give more interest on economic diplomacy after globalization. Therefore, Malaysia after becoming an industrialized trading nation changed her economic policies to compete with other economic powers and to find new markets for goods and services in a globalized world. The Economist in 2011 referred to Africa as the “Rising Continent.” Africa has undergone a great changed in the past decade because of the rapid economic transformation. Africa has emerged as one of the quickest developing region in the world with yearly GDP growth rates continue at averages 5.2% yearly from 2001-2010. As indicated by the World Bank reports, Africa's aggregate GDP is presently greater and noteworthy than Brazil or Russia, and almost 50% of all its countries have achieved middle-income status. What's more, by 2030, African spending power is anticipated to reach $1.3 trillion, as indicated by McKinsey and Company (David Hutt 2014). Other optimism about Africa is that the continent overall population is estimated to reach 2.4 billion by 2050 and under 18 years will increase by two thirds to reach nearly one billion. This will highly increase the consumer products demand and the requirements of middle class in the near future. It’s even more enticing in terms of resources abundance as Africa possess huge amount of world natural resources like 90 percent platinum, 70 percent cotton, 50 percent gold and 30 percent diamonds. Currently, it http://indusedu.org Page 135

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License L. Thangsuankhup, International Journal of Research in Engineering, IT and Social Sciences, ISSN 2250-0588, Impact Factor: 6.565, Volume 09 Issue 04, April 2019, Page 131-138 has been estimated that only 20 percent of Africa’s extractable natural resources have been discovered (Malaysian Business, 29 November 2014). Therefore, Africa which could possibly supply all the goods and commodities that Malaysia requires became the destination and main target of Malaysia foreign policies. Malaysia, in order to tap into African markets has set her sights and interest towards Africa continent and makes efforts to ensure a constant and stable supply of raw materials and minerals besides oil and gas in the era of competitive global economy. Malaysia has therefore implemented a number of policies that will help in achieving a strong, dynamic and resilient economy relationship towards Africa. Amongst many other policies some of the policies are Group of 15 (G-15) which was first advocated by Malaysia, South-South cooperation, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Langkawi International Dialogue (LID) and South Africa International Dialogue (SAID). To conclude, the main pull factors that lead Malaysia to include Africa in their foreign policies according to Siswo Pramono, et al. (2012) are- “(i) access to an underserved but highly potential market (ii) access the investment opportunities and benefits in infrastructure (iii) the natural resources endowment exploitation (iv) the effective used of Africa as a gateway to access other markets like US and Europe and (v) the privilege and opportunities to strengthen and promote their partnership with other developing South countries”. Malaysia in African Affairs and Vice Versa Firstly, in the late 1950s after the Bandung Conference, Malaysia as a newly independent and young country firmly believed that the best policy for smaller nations to survived and sustained under many other powerful nation’s was association and cooperation with the UN. Malaysia saw the UN as the only platform and spot where “the smaller nations could be heard and to ensure their own security” (Ahmad, 1985, p.28). For instance, in 1960 during the Congo crisis, Malaysia sent 613 troops to Congo to help the UN's peace-keeping mission and initiatives. The number of troops sent was later increased and reached up to 1,413 personnel as requested by the Secretary General of the UN. The involvement of Malaysia in Congo under the UN’s peacekeeping mission lasted for three long years and its personnel was just pulled back due to the internal and regional issue faced by the nation amid Konfrantasi (Ahmad, 1985). Secondly, another important factor that bought Malaysia closer to issues affecting Africa was its firm policy on decolonization, anti-colonialism and the Apartheid which were very much prevalent during the 1960s. Malaysia involvement on Apartheid in the continent of Africa was very remarkable and influential in increasing the support of the international community to act against the white government who were the minority of South Africa. The role of Malaysia could be clearly seen from Miller’s biography of former British Premier Harold MacMillan South Africa which states that it was Tunku Abdul Rahman argument at the Afro-Asia Conference in 1960 that forced South Africa out of the Commonwealth. Malaysia was also involved in various African political affairs through its participation in Afro-Asian Conference (Davenport, 1977 p.287). Malaysia had also raised their voice by criticizing South Africa’s policy towards Namibia (Ahmad, 1985). Another worth mention regarding Malaysia’s role is that it strongly opposed the illegally announcement of the Unilateral Independence Declaration (UDI) by Ian Smith on behalf of the minority white government in Southern Rhodesia in 1965. Malaysia getting dejected with the illegal declaration and the Smith Government called for the expulsion of Southern Rhodesia from the Commonwealth Organization and halt their relationship. Malaysia, to show its opposition against the minority white government, was very instrumental in enforcing political and economic embargo in Southern Rhodesia (Saravanamuttu, 1983 p.87). Malaysia’s efforts of maintaining close relationship with the newly independent Africa in the 1960s helped in securing herself a place in international community apart from promoting and benefiting Africa. In fact, it was not only Malaysia who helped Africa but African countries also played a vital role in shaping the Malaysian history by supporting her in the international political affairs. For instance, during the Konfrantasi (1963-1965), the formation of Federation of Malaysia was sternly opposed by Indonesia and the Indonesian government had endeavored to impact the international community, particularly among the individuals from Afro-Asian Conference. This had resulted in the exclusion of Malaysian representatives in the meeting during the amid the gathering of Afro-Asian Poeoples' Solidarity Organization in Tanganyika in 1963. In response to that, Malaysia quickly sent Tun Abdul Razak to East African nations in particular Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Malagasy and Uganda in March-April 1965 to give and elucidate Malaysia's record on the issues and to accumulate and gain the support from those nations for the formation of Malaysia. In addition to gain the support from other countries of Africa, Malaysia sent two ministers to West African countries in 1965, followed by Tun Razak's Tour of Nigeria in 1965-66. Malaysia's push to win the help and support of African nations was effective and in 1965 gotten endorsement to become one of the member of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). In the post 1965 after becoming the member of NAM, the relationship between Malaysia and Anglophone Africa and Africa in general improved much better than before through the acknowledgment of Malaysia's participation in NAM. During the 1970s, Malaysia relations with African countries became much better due to the other international organizations, for example, International Islamic Conference and the http://indusedu.org Page 136

Commonwealth which were likewise instrumental in producing their relationship in different ways. The United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which was established because of the unevenness between the developed and developing countries with in the international economic discourse 1964 had also played a very significant role in clearing the way for cooperation among Malaysia and the other developing African nations especially the Anglophone African nations during the following decades (Gosovic, 1972, p.4- 27). However, the relationship between Malaysia and Africa changed dramatically in the 1980s. During this period, the nature of relations between the world community have changed as a result of the new issues faced by them and that escalated them more toward cooperation. The formation of South Commission in 1987 is one of the development cooperation among many others which gears the developing South towards cooperation. This development cooperation was finally initiated by the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia following long periods of informal talk and dialogue among scholarly and political pioneers from the South after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur by the Third World Foundation and the Malaysian Institute of Strategic and International Studies. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was the person who declared the aim to build up the South Commission to the Non-Aligned Movement Summit Meeting in Harare in 1986. The development of South Commission under the chairmanship of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the former president of Tanzania, amid the tenure of Malaysia as the host of the SSC campaigned Malaysia's enthusiasm for the organization (Ahmad, 1985).

CONCLUSION Africa-Malaysia relations has started from the Bandung conference in 1955. As both Africa and Malaysia shared the same yoke of European imperialism and exploitations, they started their journey towards solidarity and cooperation through regional cooperation and international conference as envisage by the resolution of the final communiqué of the Bandung conference. The Bandung spirit along with the Malaysian foreign policy and the Afro-Asian caucus engagement gave impetus for the formation of the G-77, NAM, G-15, SSC, LID, SAID, MTCP, etc. in the post Bandung conference. Looking the history of Africa-Malaysia relations, one could clearly see the rising role of many developing South countries including Malaysia in different areas like global trade, investment, finance and governance which was combined with their fast financial and economic development has resuscitated the enthusiasm for South-South participation. However, the 21st century which endowed Africa continent and developing South countries including Malaysia with new partnership and engagement under SSC have presented challenges from the way it was implemented in Africa continent despite the significant benefits from the South- South cooperation. One most striking challenges is that the patterns of trade and investment by developing countries of the South in Africa, like the North, gives off an impression of being basically engaged and inspired by the continent’s primary commodities which may finish up with marginalization of Africa even in the new period of trade and investment geography. However, the present scenarios have raised the eyebrows of the many people which clearly show that African countries are actively engaging with other South countries particularly Malaysia and are becoming no longer passive recipients of money, but places for investment. Similarly, foreign countries are no longer gate keepers but are now partners.

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