An ambassador awaits her return
The uS ambassador to Malaysia misses being in Malaysia (and eating nasi lemak); she shares in a wide-ranging interview that touches on the turmoil in the united States, Malaysia’s part in its pandemic response as well as the economic realities of a Covid-
paulnews@thestar.com.my
US Ambassador to Malaysia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir has been working from home – all the way from Westport, the United States.
She had left for Washington DC in late February for work purposes and then, as has been routine since being posted to Malaysia in 2016, headed home to Westport, Connecticut, to visit her parents, Ann Hallan, 87, and Noor A. Lakhdhir, 95.
For the devoted daughter, this turned out to be the final opportunity to spend time with Hallan, who died on May 7 after an illness.
It was at her mother’s prodding that Lakhdhir joined the US Foreign Service in 1991, beginning a career which eventually led her to a broad range of key positions in Washington and then abroad.
“I would not be a diplomat or an ambassador without her inspiration, you might say, her pushing. And I was very lucky to be with her in her last two months. She was a terrific mother,” Lakhdhir tells Sunday Star in a video interview.
Lakhdhir was kept from travelling by Connecticut’s lockdown at first and later, travel restrictions. With restrictions lifted now, she’s working with Wisma Putra over details of her quarantine upon re-entering Malaysia.
In the meantime, she is keeping on top of work remotely, organising video calls with members of her mission in Kuala Lumpur as well as Malaysian officials, including connecting with the new Perikatan Nasional government. Here she shares what she’s been doing and how the United States is dealing not only with the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic disruption but also the widespread and ongoing protests over racial injustice.
I think across the United States, Americans from every community responded that this tragedy should not be repeated, that we need to have equal justice under law and that we need social change. And now, across all 50 states and more than 12,000 towns and cities, there have been demonstrations.
And I know the Floyd family has just had a funeral (on June 9) and they’ve been speaking out for their brother’s death and for this tragedy to make sense, there needs to be change so that this doesn’t happen to other families.
I think many Americans are responding to that call. Many mayors and governors are in action already and many communities are grappling with how they want policing to be done and how they want justice to be equitable.
At the top of our Supreme Court are the words “Equal Justice Under Law”. And that’s what Americans across the country are asking for. I think many people know we have a long history in the United States of racial injustice, discrimination and prejudice. And this is part of a journey we’re taking as Americans, to have a more just and fair society. We had civil rights demonstrations under Martin Luther King Jr and peaceful demonstrations wanting change. This is part of that history and legacy.
I would say yes, that in many cases that is true. In fact, police chiefs, governors and mayors have come out and said, “Yes, we need a change” or “We have made these changes and we’re listening to our communities”.
One of the challenges in the United States is that our police are tied to locality. We don’t have a nationalpolice.WehavetheFBIbut every community, city or town has their own police. It’s very decentralised. So changing so many different police stations and their practices is going to require the whole country to do that. And it’s going to require communities to hold their government and police accountable. It’s going to shed a lot of light onto what is happening because the change will have to be across the country in all different cities and towns. And it’s very hard.
Even though our Congress is debating on having a law to establish certain requirements in terms of police practices, the implementation will have to be at the local level. So it will require communities to hold police accountable and to continue to demand of their government and police that they uphold these standards.
A lot of states – not every state – in the United States went into a lockdown, the Tri-State (Region, comprising New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) most intensively. In California, it’s very strict and was very early. So a lot of lives, through that action, were saved.
It’s the challenge Malaysia faces, though on a larger scale (in the United States) millions of people lost their jobs. The economy across the country basically came to a halt. We need to resume economic activities, at the same time we still have the coronavirus. And do we resume economic activities but also try to continue to fight the spread of the virus?
What we have seen is that across the states, there are different things happening. And also rural versus urban areas. Some communities have very few hospital beds. So for them, the challenge is even greater. One of the most upsetting case is the Navajo Nation, one of our native communities, and they have very high numbers.
So one of the challenges in the United States, and it’s true in Malaysia on a smaller scale, is how you differentiate what kind of resources you put into different communities and what they need and how much economic activity can you allow. New York has just started allowing, I think, 400,000 workers to go back to work. There are a lot of worries.
I think there is a variety. Different states are still doing different things. Different communities are doing different things. I actually think a lot of Americans aren’t on the move. I think a lot of Americans are still sheltering (in place, ie, in lockdown). Especially if they’re in thevulnerablecategoryandif they’re elderly or immunecompromised.
American schools are basically still closed. There are public schools that are still closed. A lot of universities and colleges are still grappling with what they would do to reopen in August. Would they open online? A lot of universities are making decisions based on their factors – are they small and can they do social distancing or are they large universities, so that’s not possible so maybe those would go online.
A lot of institutions and companies are choosing not to go back to work. If (their employees) can remain at home, they will tell everyone to stay home. I think like in
Malaysia and like in every country in the world, the worry is, will there be another wave? I think a lot of people are looking at the situation and trying to limit their exposure. It’s extremely complex.
Part of what they talked about and part of what the embassy and Miti (Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Ministry) had been working on with our private sector is that ... I think a lot of Americans and even Malaysians don’t know that Malaysia is part of the global supply chain, particularly in health and electronics.
When Malaysia imposed the MCO (movement control order), our private sector, our American Chamber of Commerce, the embassy and Miti all worked together to get approvals because some of these companies needed to continue their operations, as they are part of the critical response in terms of public health. In addition, Malaysia, as you know, is the world’s largest producer of gloves for medical first responders. The United States, working with Malaysia, did a series of air bridge flights where they brought 500 million gloves to the United States. And Malaysia is continuing to produce.
So Malaysia played a critical part in helping the United States respond to the coronavirus (pandemic). There are medical devices and all sorts of things that Malaysia is producing. Ventilators, and I could keep going.
There was an expression of appreciation from our President through the Prime Minister to Malaysians for the important role Malaysia plays in the global supply chain.
Recently, there was a job report that two million jobs were added. There was a lot of surprise because our economists had predicted that the numbers were much worse. They are also predicting that the 30 million was actually not the full number.
So there is, I would say, a greater cautious optimism, let’s put it that way, that the economic situation can resume more rapidly than our economists were predicting.
There are a lot of factors we still don’t know. The coronavirus is not disappearing. So how it develops, both globally and in the United States, could be a big set of factors that we don’t know yet. There is a lot more hope that jobs will come back.
I noticed some companies have already gone into bankruptcy and some of the small-and-mediumsized companies have indicated that