VARIOUS public opinion polls and articles by local political analysts published in Malaysian mass media show that Malaysia mostly understands the origins of the Ukrainian crisis.
Today, ordinary Ukrainians pay with their lives for the interest of the West and its desire to dominate globally and to determine rules of conduct for all countries in the world.
I am confident that the tragedy could have been avoided if the Western powers did not ignore killings of Russians in Donbass since 2014 and the rise of neo-Nazism in the country they control.
The Western countries once again split the world into "us" and "not-us" (or, to be more precise, "with-the-US" and "not-with-the-US"). Their "us" — for sure — are "good guys", and "not-us" are supposed to be bad ones. This is a very primitive but very effective way to manipulate the people's minds. Who wants to be a "bad guy"?
Following British High Commissioner to Malaysia, Charles Hays', article published last Friday in the NST, "us" regard the UN Charter, "not-us" disregard it.
By the way, do you know of any Western country that joined the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations? Not one. Why? Just because they don't care about the UN Charter — it's more important for them not to be on one side with "not-us" like China, Russia, Cambodia, Laos, Iran, Algeria and so on.
Double standards? Yes, they are. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) draft resolution mentioned by my British colleague is absolutely hypocritical and is not related to the will expressed by citizens of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, who have the same right to voice their will as peoples of, let say, Kosovo, Scotland, Timor-Leste, and so on and so forth.
People of the former Ukrainian regions — mostly Russians — followed the advice of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that those who consider themselves Russians should move to Russia.
Their choice is obvious — otherwise they would be under threat of physical elimination as had happened in Donbass.
I would like to remind everyone that the Western countries admitted an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice regarding the "independence" of Kosovo that recognised the right of territories to secede from the state in case of real threats of serious violation of the rights of the people living there.
Why doesn't the West admit the same in respect of Donbass and other regions? Because Kosovo is "us", while the Russian people of these regions are "not-us". Double standards once again.
The real state of affairs is that "us" again and again try to isolate "not-us" and treat them like enemies. "The Western way" of doing business is to put pressure on Malaysia and other UN member states, forcing them to vote in favour of "us". Otherwise, they label these countries as "not-us" and apply unilateral sanctions against them — just to make others fearful.
That is why we proposed to implement widely secret voting in the UN system, letting sovereign states get a real chance to say what they really want to say, without worry of being punished by the US and their allies.
Moreover, Hays attempted to draw Malaysia into a new "cold war" that the West is bringing to the world stage right now. However, the British colonial mindset has nothing to do with an independent and balanced foreign policy of Malaysia.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in his address to the UNGA said: "Malaysia would like to reiterate its insistence that all countries, especially the major powers, refrain from creating isolation blocs that will only push the world towards a cold war."
He also emphasised that "Malaysia does not agree with the isolation of a country from international organisations. Such a measure is against the principle of multilateralism and hinders dialogue."
No more words needed. Malaysia boleh!
The writer is ambassador of Russia to Malaysia