Chandra Muzaffar, founder and president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), based in Malaysia, writes: “The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) joins a whole host of Malaysian groups and individuals in appealing to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to formally disinvite President Trump to the forthcoming ASEAN Summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur from October 26th 2025 to October 28th 2025.
“JUST understands the difficult situation Prime Minister Anwar is in. Trump as the current U.S. president, together with some other world leaders, has been invited by ASEAN, not Malaysia, to the Summit. Malaysia is chairing the Summit which is why the Prime Minister of Malaysia is playing the role he has to play.
“Nonetheless, President Trump has been so deeply immersed in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people that any positive gesture towards him, however symbolic, would be viewed with utter repugnance by a huge segment of the Malaysian nation. There are at least three reasons why such repugnance may be justified.
“One, the U.S. leadership is not just complicit in the genocide which has already claimed in modest terms at least 66,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza. Through its military, financial and diplomatic involvement in the genocide, the U.S. government under Trump has been one of two principal authors of the brutal, barbaric massacre since early October 2023 (the other is, of course, Israel). To put it differently, without Trump’s involvement, there would have been no genocide. It is significant that of the 66,000 lives lost, 20,000 have been children. Should Malaysia play host to such a human being with such a cruel and callous record?
“Two, in this regard, Trump has not once admonished in public the Israeli government or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for its systematic denial of the most basic rights of the Palestinian people. This includes in the context of the current genocide, their right to food, to shelter, to healthcare, indeed, to life itself. A leader with so little compassion should not be welcomed anywhere in the world!
“Three, leaving aside basic rights, Trump, unlike a couple of his predecessors, appears to be totally ignorant of the Palestinian struggle for justice. He has no notion of their deep link to their ancestral land, of their culture that predates the arrival of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the region, of how Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities interacted with one another in the past, and how a distinct Palestinian identity evolved over time. Why should Kuala Lumpur, why should ASEAN, embrace such an ignorant leader who at the same time doesn’t even have an iota of empathy for the Palestinian cause?
