COMMENT | The 'misfits, loony tunes and squalid criminals' in M'sia

COMMENT | Is Malaysia becoming a “rogue” or “pariah” state?

Since the revelation of the 1MDB scandal, news reports worldwide have often labelled Malaysia as rogue. This is so unfortunate.

The term is not an internationally recognised criterion in political science, although it is popularly used in the media and by leaders worldwide.

The concept emerged in the 1980s when US President Ronald Reagan mentioned “outlaw states” in a remark at the Annual Convention of the American Bar Association.

He stated, “we are not going to tolerate… attacks from outlaw states by the strangest collection of misfits, loony tunes, and squalid criminals since the advent of the Third Reich".

International political theorists define a rogue state as any state that threatens world peace. US administrations since Reagan have labelled countries as rogue if they proliferate weapons of mass destruction, engage in state-sponsored terrorism, and severely restrict human rights.

Currently, four countries are considered rogue states: Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.

A close relative of the rogue state is the “pariah state”. These are predominantly autocratic states labelled by the US. They are different from rogue states, in that their leaders direct their “rogueness” against their own citizens.

In Malaysia’s case, we do not sponsor terrorism and neither do we harbour weapons of mass destruction. However, we clearly have collections of misfits, “loony tunes”, and squalid criminals in our society, both among...