Malaysia's National Security: Rhetoric and Substance

Analysing national security entails both its substantive and rhetorical dimensions. In its substantive form, the concept suffers from distortion given that it is subject to the psychological processes of human cognition. As rhetoric, it justifies state actions, including issues that do not reflect, but which are not totally divorced from, reality. These themes, examined in the Malaysian context, highlight the external and internal dimensions of national security, the substantive aspects being more pronounced in the former, and rhetoric being more salient in the latter. While the security of the political regime is a determinant of both domains, its influence was greater in the internal-rhetorical quadrant of Malaysia's national security. However, in the post-Cold War period, strategic and economic imperatives have tended to blur the distinction between the internal and external realms of the state, resulting in domestic politics becoming more susceptible to the dominant values of the international system. This development, taken together with localized socio-political change, has induced greater plurality in Malaysian politics. While the rhetoric of national security still has its instrumental value, it is however becoming more problematic for political élites to advance their interests in the name of the state.