In dismissing the possibility of a US sanction against Malaysia over the involvement of a private Malaysian company in a Pakistan-based global network of nuclear proliferation, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reportedly described it as "one small incident". Abdullah, who also holds the Home Ministry portfolio, is also the father of a majority owner of the controversial company in Malaysia, Scope Precision Engineering (Scomi).

Abdullah was recently quoted as responding to a US-based weekly Newsweek which reported that Washington was contemplating sanctions after Scomi was accused by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Secret Intelligence Service or Military Intelligence Section No.6 (MI6) of manufacturing uranium-enrichment centrifuge parts for Libya.

Representatives of the CIA and MI6 also reportedly met the Malaysian police in Kuala Lumpur "to inform" the latter of their discovery.

Earlier, in a major policy speech delivered to the US National Defense University in Washington DC President George W Bush described how the Pakistan-based global network operated, including its agents in Malaysia, like Sri Lankan BSA Tahir whose Malaysian wife was once a fellow shareholder of Kamaluddin Abdullah, the only son of Abdullah.

A classic case

It is interesting to note that Bush delivered his speech - which mentioned Malaysia five times - in the National Defense University after the Malaysian police had first reportedly "cleared" Scomi of any witting complicity.

A second police report which was released after Bush's speech, while still insiting that Scomi was "innocent" or "ignorant" of the end-use of its products, revealed more details, including the admission of BSA Tahir of his own complicity.

Seen in this sequential and contextual background, it could be reasoned that Bush's speech and its platform of delivery were deliberately chosen to highlight the importance of a classic case of nuclear proliferation, and also to increase political and diplomatic pressure for the more actions to be taken on the part of the Malaysian government. Hence, the second police report which revealed more than the initial statements made immediately after the case was made public in the New York Times.

In other words, Bush has, through his speech and high posturing, succeeded in extracting a slightly higher degree of "co-operation" from the Malaysian government which, according to one diplomatic observer in a local university, "had, under pressure, to sacrifice BSA Tahir and other foreigners, possibly as a quid pro quo, in order to protect Kamaluddin Abdullah and other Malaysians ".

On the premise of this observation, it could be argued that, despite the nominally anti-Bush and knee-jerk anti-American rhetoric in the forms of the official protest note and "unofficial " letters to the editors in the official media, there has been a deep and secret sense of being shocked and awed on the part of the top decision-makers in Malaysia.

However, as spokespersons of the Bush administration have subsequently clarified, in his speech in the National Defense University, Bush did not accuse Malaysia, as a country, of complicity in nuclear proliferation.

It seems what the Bush administration meant, and still means, is that while Malaysia, as a country, has been cleared of any complicity in this particular and clear-cut case of nuclear proliferation, the government should do more to enforce its declared commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which it is a signatory.

Not unilateralist

According to a Feb 25 report by CNSNews.com, US State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher revealed that discussions with Malaysia about strengthening export controls were continuing. Boucher was also quoted as saying that the US "thinks these examples of what individuals or firms in Malaysia were able to do emphasize once again the importance for all governments of having solid export controls" and the US "will continue to pursue that with the Malaysian government".

However, a Feb 25 New Straits Times report also quoted a top Malaysian government official as saying that Malaysia would likely reject calls by the US for tighter export controls, and also not sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regulating the movement of nuclear components.

What is also noteworthy is that Bush's anti-proliferation policy and strategy is not unilateralist in the strict sense of the word. For example, immediately after the delivery of his speech in the National Defense University, BBC reported that Japan, China, Indian and Pakistan expressed their support.

In a tough speech delivered to the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Feb 23, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer called for a new United Nations Security Council resolution that would require states to criminalise proliferation and sign a tougher Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would deny some countries even peace nuclear technology. Lowy Institute is an Australian think tank which conducts research about international political, strategic and economic issues from an Australian perspective.

Downer also expressed full support for the US-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which involved the interception of suspected nuclear shipments, and also for Bush's call to expand worldwide counter-proliferation operations through the use of Interpol, the 181-member international police organisation whose mission is to prevent or combat international crimes.

According to Downer, the challenge was "to lift the standards of compliance and enforcement" in the existing nuclear non-proliferation regime.

On the same day, Singapore's Straits Times reported its Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean as suggesting that all the loopholes should be closed to prevent nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of terrorists and rogue regimes. Teo named North Korea as a "inscrutable and unpredictable regime" which is "armed with nuclear weapons".

International cooperation

According to Teo, no country acting alone can hope to deal with these problems effectively and more international cooperation is required to meet the challenges.

Teo also reported warned that "the nightmare scenario of terrorists and rogue regimes collaborating in the use of weapons of mass destruction is now well within the realm of possibility" and "if terrorists were to set off a nuclear device or chemical or biological agents, the damage and panic would be massive".

While very close to the United States in areas of defence and global security, Singapore is also a member-state of the 1971 Five-Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) which also comprises of Malaysia, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Malaysia has also maintained some forms of defence and security cooperation with the United States under the 1984 Bilateral Training and Consultation (BITAC) Agreement.

Malaysia and Australia have also maintained bilateral defence cooperation in the form of Malaysia-Australia Joint Defence Programme (MAJDP), which essentially involves military training.

In the last three years, the US has revitalized its defence and security alliances in the Asia-Pacific region with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Australia, with Japan and Australia joining its missile defence shield system.

Seen in the light of these larger pictures, the rogue nuke scandal in Malaysia is certainly not "one small incident" as trivialised by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.