Malaysia’s Dilemmatic South China Sea Policy under Muhyiddin Yassin

Abstract

Malaysia’s South China Sea policy under the current Perikatan Nasional government is largely consistent with its previous approach, except for some minor recalibrations. Although Malaysia continues to pursue a “low-profile” approach by de-emphasising the problem and suppressing nationalist sentiment over the issue, it does however, selectively display increased willingness in taking a harder stand when it comes to preserving sovereignty in the disputed waters, especially when there is a spike of nationalist sentiment among Malaysians.