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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright November 2022
Malaysia is one amongst many Asian countries that is courted by the superpowers in order to gain political influence in the region.
The United States and China are two major powers that are now actively working within ASEAN states toward this end.
There are many channels employed by both nations to gain their objectives including open diplomatic moves involving foreign aid and related financial assistance.
In fact, the Americans have openly declared that they did try to achieve a regime change through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the last two decades in this country.
However, other non-diplomatic channels are known to have been employed as means to directly influence political leadership in the region.
That does not exclude covert operations that you read about in spy novels. One of the methods allegedly employed is to hand-pick a candidate and groom that individual towards their way of thinking.
That brings to mind the idea of having their own Manchurian candidates to run in elections for public office.
"A Manchurian candidate is a person, especially a politician, being used as a puppet by an enemy power. The term is commonly used to indicate disloyalty or corruption, whether intentional or unintentional."
Anyway since we are on the subject of a Manchurian candidate it would be worth your while to revisit the novel by Richard Condon, published in 1959. "It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy." (Tv Tropes)
We do not intend to insinuate that anyone in particular who did run for office in the last election could be a Manchurian candidate for any of the two major superpowers currently in a tussle to win influence in this region.
But out of 900 plus aspirants that ran for Parliament recently, anyone could have been targeted by the superpowers as their chosen candidate.
A case in point is the Philippines that went through a general election recently. SCMP reported "Politicians being manipulated by foreign powers are a real-world concern in the Philippines, and talk has now turned to the possibility of a ‘Manchurian candidate’ in the 2022 polls. "The CIA once steered the pro-American ‘Amboy’ Ramon Magsaysay into office, but analysts believe China will wield influence now, and the dictator’s son Ferdinand Marcos Jnr may be its pick".
There is a video recording that has gone viral on social media that we invite you to view and make your own conclusions as to whom the US would have favoured now that China has picked Marcos Junior as its candidate in the Philippines.
God have mercy on Malaysia if indeed we have a Manchurian Candidate as Prime Minister in Putrajaya.
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