KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — Malaysia’s political leaders are not focusing on international relations that will benefit the country economically, said former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) deputy governor Sukudhew Singh has said.

Writing on social media LinkedIn, Sukudhew said Malaysia’s leaders have failed at providing a balanced perspective on international developments thus failing at being international statesmen.

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“Rather than seeking to reconcile and understand, have instead reacted emotionally,” he wrote yesterday.

Sukudhew also noted that Malaysia has an obvious lack of economic momentum and economic policies.

“Now, we have leaders who are more interested in pulling self-glorifying international relations stunts, rather than address core issues hurting economic progress,

“For a country with a government debt burden of RM1.5 trillion, and one still growing fast, even as economic growth remains moderate (slow), it not only needs to optimise how it spends taxpayer funds, it must also focus on stronger ties with economically strategic countries,” he said.

Sukudhew said small countries like Malaysia must be clever in their international relations to make sure they do not antagonise important economic partners and undermine their economic prospects.

“I have noticed that our national leaders have been spending a lot of their time on foreign relations ventures that will provide little economic benefit to the country,

“They risk alienating those very countries on which Malaysia’s future economic progress is highly dependent,” he wrote.

He said if things continue as they are, it is not unforeseeable that in the future Malaysia will require global financial assistance, adding that oil revenues will not save a country living beyond its means for so long.

Sukudhew was the deputy governor at BNM for four years and nine months from April 2013 to December 2017.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim insisted that Malaysian government’s stout support of a free Palestine and its condemnation of Israeli atrocities in Gaza will not deter United States investors from doing business here.

Anwar said his administration had secured a total of RM63.02 billion in proposed investments that are mainly from technology giants at the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit, which he cited as proof that the American investment appetite in Malaysia remains strong.

Anwar was responding to MPs who had expressed concern that his administration’s criticism of Western powers in response to the Israeli assault on Gaza could have economic repercussions for Malaysia.