Ukraine War: Stop the blame game, says Hamid Albar

SHAH ALAM - The blame game surrounding the Russia-Ukraine conflict needs to stop as it makes the ground for finding a common solution more difficult, and this can be done through dialogue sessions between countries affected.

Former Foreign Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar said the only way we could solve the war of aggression was through diplomacy and it has to be done fast.

“You cannot stop the war without dialogue. I don’t know whether US president and Russian president have started a dialogue among themselves but it is important and I think we should stop the blaming game.

“This blaming game makes the ground for finding a common solution difficult,” he said.

Syed Hamid added that countries under Asean could also play a role in stopping the war, but we first have to put our house in order within Asean itself.

He claimed that Asean countries at the moment were too immersed in competition with other countries, focusing on how to counterbalance China and other countries, among others.

Thus, he believed that Europe could play a role in the Ukraine conflict when things in Asean were challenging.

“I think this is when Europe can take leadership and play a better role since the world at present has a lack of leadership on the Western side, but they must not be part of the United States to find the solution,” he said.

Syed Hamid added that Europe must have its own narrative, which would be a proper way forward for the world to have a better multipolar world, where everyone could have shared prosperity.

Syed Hamid was a panelist at the Sinar Daily’s dialogue Wacana English Edition titled ‘Global Challenges in a Multipolar World’ held in conjunction with Europe Day yesterday.

He shared the stage with EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas and Universiti Malaya Asia-Europe Institute Economic Professor Datuk Prof Dr Rajah Rasiah.

Aside from Rokas, 15 other EU ambassadors to Malaysia and Head of Missions also attended the dialogue, including German Ambassador Dr Peter Blomeyer, Hungary Ambassador Dr Petra Ponevacs-Pana and Poland Ambassador Krzysztof Debnicki, among others.

Also in attendance were Karangkraf Group Chairman Datuk Hussamuddin Yaacub, Karangkraf Group Executive Director Akmal Eirfan Mohamed Fauzi, Sinar Karangkraf Chief Executive Officer Farah Hussamuddin and Sinar Karangkraf Editor-in-Chief Rozaid Rahman.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict occurred when Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February, which saw thousands of civilians dead and more than seven million people internally displaced.

The conflict had forced another five million Ukrainians to flee to neighbouring countries—the majority of whom have arrived in Poland, a NATO country where the United States and other allies are helping to accommodate the influx of refugees, the UN said.

The conflict had been went on for more than two months.