(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) US President Barack Obama's visit to Malaysia aims to cement US ties with Muslim-majority countries of southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, said professor Chandra Muzaffar of the University of Science in Malaysia, in a statement to KUNA on Saturday.
A number of Islamic countries have problems with Islamic radicalism which has given a negative impression of the religion of Islam, whereas Indonesia and Malaysia take pains to improve that impression, he said. The opposition in Malaysia are trying to make a fuss about the lack of human rights and racism and religious intolerance in the country, he noted, but that characterization, he stressed, lacked a grain of truth, which is that Malaysia has followed the course of democracy for five decades with noticeable success.
He said that Obama's visit to Malaysia would in part be the US president's attempt to promote the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) which is opposed by China.
It is not likely that Malaysia would sign off on it without being totally clear on such crucial issues in the Agreement as economic sovereignty and limits of intellectual property rights, he said.
He emphasized that Malaysia, in all cases, would not jeapordize its commercial relationship with China, nor its security ties with the US.
Obama currently is touring southeast Asia for one week and his visit to Malaysia is the first for a US president since a 1966 visit by former president Lyndon Johnson.
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