By and large, Malaysians seem to be pretty inward looking when it comes to their political worldview, due perhaps to their immersion within the sea of their domestic issues of race and religion. Comments and debates on foreign affairs and international relations are few and far between, at least on Malaysiakini.

Finally, Malaysiakini has also opened up a World Section that carries foreign news, but I wonder how many hits those stories will get from readers, compared to stories on BTN or news about political parties.

They cannot be blamed entirely for their apparent lack of interest in this particular domain of our national life. We are a small country without the kind of clout to influence major international events, unlike the United States or China. People may feel that whatever happens on the other side of the world, there is very little Malaysia can do about it.

But we do live in an increasingly inter-connected and inter-dependent world...