EMBASSY SENIOR-LEVEL ENGAGEMENT ON TRAFFICKING IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUALA LUMPUR 001145

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS AND G/TIP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/16/2017
TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV ELAB KCRM KWMN MY
SUBJECT: EMBASSY SENIOR-LEVEL ENGAGEMENT ON TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS


Classified By: Ambassador Christopher LaFleur for reasons
1.4 (b & d).


1. (C) Summary: Senior Malaysian officials are still
smarting over the U.S. decision to rank Malaysia in TIP Tier
3 but they have expressed much more willingness to discuss
the issue quietly than they did in the immediate aftermath of
the USG decision of June 12. We have engaged with senior
officials fairly intensively over the past week, and, while
they reply with pointed complaints about the perceived
arrogance of the U.S. decision, they also tell us that the
GOM is in the process of gazetting the new anti-TIP law and
opening shelters for TIP victims. They nevertheless advise
against a visit to Kuala Lumpur by Ambassador Lagon before
September on the grounds that it will look like the GOM is
caving to the Americans. We have urged the Malaysians to
move out smartly in gazetting the law and opening the
shelters. Meanwhile, we believe there are opportunities for
GOM capacity building in trafficking, and we will be
coordinating with our Malaysian counterparts and with
Washington on what might be possible. End Summary.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib on TIP
--------------


2. (C) The Ambassador told Najib that we put Malaysia in Tier
3 because the GOM had not done much to address the problem
over the past two to three years. He reviewed what we knew
of the statistics that defined the TIP problem in Malaysia
and explained that the administration must provide an interim
report to congress on what steps Malaysia has taken since the
June release of the TIP report. A negative interim report
could negatively affect military exchanges and other
non-trade related programs supporting the bilateral
relationship, the Ambassador said, also expressing the hope
that Malaysia could find a way to move forward on TIP between
now and September. He urged that Malaysia gazette the new
anti-TIP law, establish the TIP commission called for in the
law, and open a shelter as soon as possible.


3. (C) The Deputy PM replied that as far as he knew, the U.S.
was the only country that "passed judgment on and punished"
other countries on issues like this. "This is a great source
of discomfort in our bilateral relations," he added," as no
country likes to be judged. He continued that the American
decision had made Malaysian leaders "very uncomfortable," but
he was working to diffuse its effects on the relationship,
and he hoped he could limit the spillover. He said he would
look further into where the GOM is on implementing the new
law but that he had heard that the GOM was now looking at
technical issues related to its text.


4. (C) Najib acknowledged Malaysia had a TIP problem and
agreed with the Ambassador that we share the same goal in
wanting to address this problem. He continued that in other
areas, such as our military-to-military relationship, our
bilateral relations are improving and that Malaysia was close
to closing a deal on a large purchase of U.S. Colt M-4
assault rifles. The TIP issue could complicate purchases
such as this. Doing this kind of business with the U.S. has
lots of imponderables, Najib concluded, unlike doing business
with other suppliers. Again, he said, the TIP decision had
been a source of discomfort in bilateral relations, but he
also acknowledged that we have to manage this problem.


5. (U) The Ambassador plans to discuss TIP with Minister in
the Prime Minister's Department Nazri on July 17.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
--------------


6. (C) DCM engaged Dep Sec Gen II, Ambassador Tan Seng Sung
in a discussion of TIP on July 12. DCM explained that he
believed the Tier 3 designation had been made because
Malaysia had done little to alleviate the TIP problem during
the reporting period ending in March; the GOM had told the
Embassy little about its plans for the new anti-TIP law
during that period; and Malaysia had promised to open a
shelter two years ago but had not followed through. The U.S.
was not pursuing a hidden political agenda in making the tier
ranking designation. We had not made the decision because we
had failed to reach agreement on a FTA, for example. Tan
asked if we had made the decision "because of the Malaysian
Ambassador in Washington," to which question the DCM replied
that Ambassador Rajmah was known to speak her mind, but the
decision was based solely on an assessment of GOM actions to
resolve the TIP problem. (DCM had told Tan in a mid-June
conversation that he thought the Malaysian Embassy in
Washington could have done a better job explaining Malaysian
TIP-related activities to the State Department. Tan at the

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time replied that he did not know which side his Ambassador
in Washington was on with regard to this issue.)


7. (C) Tan indicated that he did not have authorization to
meet with us but felt it necessary to do so for the sake of
the bilateral relationship. The U.S. was once again
dictating its values to a small country, Tan said. He had
reviewed all of our tier rankings and had concluded that the
U.S. had focused unjustly on Islamic counties this year and
that this impression had filtered out to the Malaysian
public. The American TIP decision was extremely sensitive
politically in Kuala Lumpur, he explained, especially given
PM Abdullah's reputation for being too pro-American and too
close to President Bush. An election is coming up, Tan
intoned, and this issue is just too sensitive for the GOM to
be seen by the public to be caving on to the Americans
between now and September. He added that the public
reaction will be so negative that if the U.S. imposes
sanctions on Malaysia it will be even more difficult for the
GOM to move forward on TIP. Tan commented that, like his
minister had commented to the press, Malaysia did not care
about America's "nonhumanitarian, nontrade related foreign
assistance" and that he did not care about our military
training assistance and scholarships for Malaysians either.
They did not need US assistance.


8. (C) The DCM explained the 90 day review process required
by our law and the possibility that sanctions could be levied
on Malaysia if the GOM failed to make significant efforts
between now and August, when we would have to start putting
our report together. He said he thought it had been G/TIP
Ambassador Lagon's intention to provide a report during his
proposed late-June visit to Kuala Lumpur. Tan replied that
it would have been politically impossible for Amb. Lagon to
visit KL so soon after the tier-ranking decision, indicating
further that if the GOM is going take measures between now
and September in response to U.S. requirements it could not
do so with any pubic fanfare for fear of further inflaming
public opinion. He recommended against an Amb. Lagon visit
to KL before September on this basis.

9. (C) The DCM said that he could not speak authoritatively,
but he thought that if the GOM gazetted the new law and
opened a shelter, that would be taken as a good sign. It
would also be desirable if the GOM named the commission
established in the new law and arrested some traffickers.
Tan said he thought that it would not take long for the GOM
to gazette the new law but he refused to say when that might
be. We asked how soon after the law was signed would it be
gazetted, and Tan replied that it would be between 2 and 4
weeks. Current plans were to open a shelter for women by the
middle of July and a shelter for children victims by the
middle of August, but construction contractors don't go by
political schedules, and delays could take place, Tan said.
He claimed he was hesitant to share those timelines with us,
fearing that the U.S. side would pocket the news and turn
these into hard deadlines. He also pointed out that the DCM
could give no definitive account of what the U.S. required
between now and September in order for Malaysia to get relief
and expressed the belief that the U.S. would "raise the bar"
on the GOM. Tan concluded that he felt certain that Malaysia
could open the shelters and gazette the new law before the
interim review in mid to late August, but that if the U.S.
expected more to happen, it was not realistic.


10. (C) The DCM explained that he did not want the TIP issue
to affect overall bilateral relations and that if Malaysia
wanted the same we would have to work together to create the
basis for a review in September that does not result in
sanctions. When we commented that Women's Minister Shahrizat
had offered to meet and discuss TIP with the Ambassador when
they met at the U.S. July 4 reception but that the Minister
had yet to arrange and appointment and she planned to travel
to Paris this weekend. Tan expressed the desire to set up an
interagency meeting at MFA to discuss trafficking,
cautioning, however, that, given the pres of events and the
difficulties of scheduling, it might not happen until August.
Tan agreed to meet again with the DCM and discuss this
issue, and he said he would advise us if he could set up the
interagency meeting.

Other Discussants
--------------


11. (C) Poloff discussed TIP training with the DirGen of the
Judicial and Legal Training Institute during our July 4
reception. She expressed a willingness to work with us to
plan courses to address the concepts codified in the new TIP
law. We will meet with her again to follow up on her
commitment to train the front-line prosecutors and
magistrates. Separately, DCM and PolCouns raised TIP with

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the Home Affairs SecGen and the Immigration DirGen on July 3.
They responded positively to including immigration officials
in future TIP training on such subjects as victim
identification. We are following up with ICITAP/Jakarta to
make use of the facility to conduct training for law
enforcement personnel. The Malaysian police in Sarawak will
host a July 17-19 conference with Indonesian law enforcement
personnel focused on improving operational cross-border
cooperation between Malaysia and Indonesia to better combat
trafficking in persons. Malaysian immigration officials will
also participate. DOJ/ICITAP and the French government are
supporting the conference and providing expert speakers.
LAFLEUR