'Diverse, beautiful and food' - outgoing UK High Commissioner

KUALA LUMPUR - It was never a dull moment during the four-year stint here for outgoing United Kingdom (UK) High Commissioner to Malaysia Charles Hay.

As for Hay, three words best sums up his Malaysian experience "diverse, beautiful and food”, though challenges were there in striking a balance between national interest and shared values of both countries while carrying out his diplomatic duty.

"To strike the balance has always been the key task for any ambassador. While the UK-Malaysia agrees on many things, there are certain areas where we do not agree or we might have a slightly different perception of things.

"One of many examples where it has been tricky over the years is palm oil. It has indeed been a very interesting learning experience for me to understand more and better about the industry - which is six times more productive than other oil crops.

"Another issue on which we probably will find it harder to agree is LGBT rights, in which I had some fascinating conversations with people. It was an interesting journey to explain to a lot of people and I learnt more from it by being open and discussing things with people.

"What I did was to be humble and listen, and try to understand the other’s point of view,” he told Bernama in an interview featured in Bernama TV’s ‘The Nation’ programme, Wednesday.

Elaborating further, Hay highlighted his term here has never been more interesting than to also witness the simultaneous-transitional changes in both countries’ governance.

Hay added the transitions had indirectly portrayed Malaysia’s strength of democratic fundamentals which he dubbed as playing a major role in maintaining good diplomatic and bilateral ties between both nations.

"During my time here, I’ve seen four Prime Ministers in both Malaysia and the UK. Many Malaysians even come to me and asked if British businesses are worried about the instability in Malaysia.

"I replied to them by saying ... if Malaysia is unstable, then so is Britain. The point is that actually, neither of us is politically unstable. There are no basic concerns here as fundamentals in Malaysia are strong and independent which include its institutions, Parliament and judiciary.

"These are the qualities that business players are looking at and they don’t really necessarily look at who’s in power,” added Hay, noting that his posting in Malaysia was the first in the Southeast Asia region in his three decade diplomatic career.

Hay pointed out that he could have done more to encourage more British people to come, study and work in Malaysia.

"So many Malaysians are very familiar with the UK that really helps in terms of business and culture that the high commission here is trying to do.

"But very few young British people come to study and work in Malaysia, something that I really wanted to try to reverse and we're making some inroads now through a specific scheme that allows British students to come here, but there's still more to do,” he said.

Hay will be replaced by Ailsa Terry, the former envoy to Brussels and Islamabad as announced by the high commission in a statement last October. - BERNAMA