Three cheers for AAB

If he's serious, make it so. In my ledger, Pak Lah yesterday scored three credit points.

Credit 1: Decision to cancel crooked platform stays
( http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=213903 )
I applaud AAB for holding his ground. A unilateral effort by Malaysia will put everything back 25 years. The bridge should only be reconsidered when Malaysia-Singapore relationship reaches a new maturity. I hate to say it, but it may mean after the mortal passing away of Dr M and SM Lee. There's just too much baggage currently, which is a pity because a synergistic MSA-SIN could do so much for Southeast Asia's emergence as an economic, cultural, and political player on the world's stage. We could do so much together.

Credit 2: PM wants coconut planting to be revived
( http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=213901 )
Many might pooh-pooh this, but coconut is big. Nutritionists and dietitians have established that coconut oil beats olive oil. Google for yourself and find out. In a sustainable-oriented world, coconut trunks are being processed into structural planks, finish flooring and furniture. We know enough about the uses of the shell, copra, husk, the leaves et al. In other words, an acre of coconut trees can potentially bring in way more ringgit than sitting on your butt as an unemployed graduate. Like with many other tropical plants, we are sitting on a goldmine here yet we remain so enamoured by foreign species like birch, oak and maple.

I've always been a fan of AAB's decision to reintroduce agriculture as a key engine for economic growth. Implementation remains the biggest challenge. The Mahathir administration was too caught up with the fancy-shmancy urban high-tech industries. Agrotechnology is a field our people can definitely handle. It's been our foundation. Making cars wasn't, especially when we weren't even making bicycles. High-intensity, efficient farming in the tropics coupled with sophisticated R&D is a broad niche in the global market.

Seize it well, and we'll carve a place in the world. Lapse for a moment, and we'll lose out to communities who see this immense potential and grab it. Remember coffee? It's a product of the tropics. It's so endeared as a beverage there's even that commonly-used computer language called Java, named after the caffeine-loaded blend from the Indonesian island. The temperate West made it happen, they own it now. We have to make what's ours, ours. It begins with reverence of who we are and where we're from.

Credit 3: Malaysia affirms commitment to Aceh peace process
( http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=213872 )
Pak Lah's says he'll be encouraging Malaysian businesses to invest and spur jobs in Aceh. The Malaysian contingent will continue to play its role in the Aceh Monitoring Mission.
While domestic issues have tainted our relationship with Singapore, I do feel pride when I read about our role in helping neighbours such as our exemplary peacekeeping forces in Timur Leste, and the rescue missions during February's Southern Leyte landslide in the Phillipines. We were there after an earthquake hit Yogyakarta in May.

This is Malaysia at its finest – a true friend.

We may not be the most sophisticated outfit in a disaster zone, but we have the heart. And it is because of this humble and giving quality that we are appreciated regionally, respected and taken seriously. It is a fine quality indeed, a well-earned honour.

This is why AAB, to my mind, remains the best person in the country to help forge an energised Asean, a vibrant commonwealth rather than a sluggish acronym for a patch of land and sea. Not Mahathir, not Anwar, not Ku Li.

This is why it is also imperative he delivers his Promise on the domestic scene.