COMMENT | If the reports in the media are anything to go by, Malaysian soldiers deployed in Yemen would soon be recalled. They would be returning home. This is good news. Bringing the troops back, when they haven't suffered any casualties in any form or manner is always a thing to rejoice.

Hence, the announcement of Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu that Malaysia will exit Yemen should be seen through the optic of responsible politics - the form that has begun to acquire some decent shape after the strategic upset of May 9, 2018.

Had Umno and BN won on that fateful day - they lost badly - they would have felt obliged to place the troops on Yemeni soil indefinitely; in light of their entwined interest with Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE), which began with the implosion of the 1MDB fiasco.

No one is saying that Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and UAE are directly responsible for 1MDB. The investigation is still on-going. But perception is politics too.

Part of the paper trails or excuses that money was originally donated by a prince from Saudi Arabia has had Malaysian voters curious about the Middle East, indeed, wondering loudly why was Najib so close to the Middle East, when in fact, every embrace of that region - especially when it is volatile - lead to policy failure.

Take Turkey, for instance. Under Dr Ahmet Davutoglu, the former prime minister of Turkey (2014-2015), he tried to be friendly to all contiguous regions connected to Turkey. This includes North Africa, Europe, Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East.

While strong and positive relationships could be maintained with all the member states of these regions at first, things began to go wrong when Turkey found itself unable to extricate the country from the turbulence of the Middle East after the aftermath of the Arab Spring that exploded in 2012.

In turn, Turkey found itself unable to maintain good relationship with Egypt, Syria, even most of the Gulf countries, with the exception of Qatar. Before long, Turkey's foreign policy was adrift, and two million refugees from Syria were making a beeline to Turkey, which Turkey is now hosting.

Malaysia cannot absorb any large influx of refugees when things go wrong, not when our national debt and liabilities have reached RM1.09 trillion. By this token, Malaysia should be close to the Middle East strictly in terms of trade. All else should be approached with serious caution, let alone war.

Thus, exiting the 34-member coalition led by Saudi Arabia makes...