According to a 2014 survey by the Anti-Defamation League, 60 percent of Malaysians hold anti-Semitic beliefs—the highest proportion of any country in Asia outside the Middle East. Hatred of Jews also figures prominently in Malaysian political discourse, rearing its head most recently in the context of the corruption scandal now rocking the country. Jon Emont connects these sentiments to the country’s own social and ethnic divisions:

Considering the current state of the region and the policy mistakes of the recent past, David Pollock and Robert Satloff outline a strategy that is “both virtuous and realistic” for defending human rights and encouraging democratization in a region plagued by autocracy, chaos, and brutality. They argue that “in the long run, more democratic, tolerant, and inclusive governments are likely to be better at defending themselves, and more reliable and effective security partners for the United States.”