NEW US ENVOY GETS FAMILIAR WITH MALAYSIA THROUGH CULTURE AND FOOD

By Nor Faridah Abd Rashid

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 (Bernama) -- What does a diplomat do to familiarise himself
with his new posting?

For newly appointed United States ambassador to Malaysia Paul W. Jones, it is
immersing himself with the country’s culture and food.

"I did my homework, I read and spoke to many senior officials in Washington; but
for me the most important thing is first-hand experience," he said in an
interview with Bernama, the first Malaysian media organisation he visited since
arriving here five weeks ago.

He presented his credentials to the Malaysian King Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin,
at Istana Negara (National Palace) on Monday.

On the very first weekend after arriving here, Jones and his wife Catherine,
author of food and health books, toured the city, going to places such as the
Islamic Arts Museum, Batu Caves and Chinatown.

The couple had their share of nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk), teh
tarik (specially prepared tea), roti canai (a type of bread) and some “wonderful
Chinese food” -- exploring the “culture through food” as the ambassador puts it.


“I think the most important thing is to immerse oneself in the country and in
the culture and began learning,” Jones said when asked how much he knew about
Malaysia prior to his posting and how he had prepared himself for the new task.

His posting came amid a very positive relationship between Malaysia and the US,
and Jones has set his sight to taking the bilateral relations to greater
heights.

“I think it’s actually growing more positive, we are getting closer in
collaborating in some areas that are new and important to our people,” said the
50 year-old diplomat.

He said US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Najib Razak had met a few
times and most recently in New York where they had an “excellent exchange”
particularly about education and exchange programmes.

“I know they are both excited to pursue that,” said Jones who met Bernama
General Manager Hasnul Hassan during the visit to Wisma Bernama. Present was
editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong.

“Taking the relationship to greater heights is what we are trying to do because
I think that is the message from President Obama and Prime Minister Najib,” he
said.

And even if there are any kind of challenges in achieving this, he said:
“Challenges are what make the job fun. And I don’t see any difficulties in the
challenges."

“The challenge is engaging as much as we would like to with the entire
population and that is just a matter of getting out and meeting as many people
as possible” .

He said that there were 100 American diplomats with the US embassy here from
seven US government agencies.

“They all have their relationships and contacts and what I want to do is to
bring that to a higher level... engage more from people-to-people side, to the
high government side.

“Just managing that and how we do it, that is the challenge I see but it is a
great challenge to have,” said Jones who had served in a variety of challenging
assignments in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Most recently, he was Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
and concurrently Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

From September 2005 to February 2009, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission and
Charge d'Affaires in the Philippines, coordinating 30 US government agencies to
implement counter-terrorism, poverty reduction and business development
programmes.

Asked whether there were any particular area where the US would like to have a
stronger relationship, the envoy said: “We look at our relationship with
Malaysia as a comprehensive relationship."

“The areas that I like us to focus on and I think our leadership wants us to
focus on is trade, economic development on both sides and education and science
and technology because I think all of those areas add up to greater prosperity
for our peoples,” he said.

On education, he said, when he presented his credentials to the Malaysian King,
they discussed about a language programme in east coast state of Terengganu.

“He was happy to hear it was moving forward successfully. We talk about the
possibility of extending that elsewhere,” said Jones who graduated from Cornell
University and received master's degrees from the University of Virginia and the
Naval War College.

Early this year, 14 Fulbright scholars from the US were roped in to teach
English in Terengganu under the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) programme.

Established in 2006 between the Terengganu state and the US government through
the Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange, the programme would
see that the scholars would teach the subject for 10 months from Feb 1.
-- BERNAMA