Brexit and the Commonwealth: What next? Britain and Malaysia

Deputy British High Commissioner to Malaysia, Paul Rennie says the UK remains part of Europe and is more outward facing than ever.

Here are excerpts from his speech at the Malaysia launch of a special issue of The Round Table Journal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December 2016. [You can find the report on the event below].

Paul Rennie told the audience:

‘It is because I am an economist by profession, but a historian at heart. And I believe that if we are to understand the future, we must understand the past and understand what really drives a society.

And so it is that I have been asked to speak to you today about Brexit and the Commonwealth – and to try and in some way answer that physically short, yet conceptually infinite question of ‘what next?’

I would argue here that the story of what next is as much about what will not happen as what will.

On a practical level, what will happen is Britain will leave the organisation known as the European Union (EU). We have had a referendum where a majority of the British people made that decision. We have a Prime Minister and a Government who have been categorical in their desire to carry out those wishes. ‘Brexit’, as Prime Minister May said, ‘means Brexit’.

We have a process within the EU for that to take place, the now famous ‘Article 50’, which specifies a two-year window for negotiations with other EU members.

And we have a time frame to trigger that, with our Prime Minister indicating that she intends to invoke Article 50 by the end of March 2017.

After that, we will make a success of our departure from the EU!’

Read Paul Rennie’s entire speech here.

Excerpt 2:

‘And Brexit does not mean that Britain will shy away from its global engagement and aspiration.

I have read a great deal of late about how we will become more globally facing once we have left the EU. But as a man who has spent his career working in countries outside Europe, I would hesitate over that characterisation.

We will become more globally facing not because we are leaving the EU, but because we have always been globally facing. Because we have always looked beyond our borders, and because as the importance of emerging economies on the world stage has exploded, the UK has moved quickly to engage with them.

Over the last decade our Diplomatic Missions and our staff have expanded significantly outside Europe, long before Brexit was ever on the table.

Our businesses have pushed into new and dynamic markets. In Malaysia alone the top 24 UK companies employ about 80,000 people with total investment value just under RM90 billion.

And our universities have continued to attract the best of global talent, which is why four of them are in the global top ten. And such internationalism explains why five of them have now opened campuses in Malaysia – Nottingham University set up its Malaysian campus fifteen years ago!

Our role on the United Nations will be no less tireless in the search for global solutions to global problems. Our work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or the World Trade Organization (WTO) will not waiver as we work to ensure the benefits of economic growth and stability can be shared by all.

And our pledges to both defence and development, both of which receive fixed commitments as a share of the UK’s GDP, will not diminish.

And nor will our relationship with the Commonwealth.

Having spent five years in India prior to this posting, and now almost three years in Malaysia. I can assure you that the Commonwealth is ever present in Britain’s thinking, and we strive every day to enhance the benefit and opportunity it brings to so many. And let us not forget three of the current EU members are also members of the Commonwealth.

The UK will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2018. Malaysia will host the subsequent meeting in 2020.

So there has never been a better moment for our two countries to unite and collaborate in ensuring we fulfill our Commonwealth obligations to the development of free and democratic societies; the promotion of peace and prosperity; and the improvement of the lives of all peoples of the Commonwealth.

That has not changed after the EU Referendum.

That is not to say the UK does not face some big decisions after the EU Referendum. Among these are decisions about what shape our future relationship with the EU will take, and decisions about what rules and regulations we apply when no longer bound by those of the EU.

Decisions about what form future trade deals will take, conscious that a great many countries have already indicated their willingness to do such deals with us, including Malaysia.

The thinking on this is evolving. Such thinking cannot and does not take place in a vacuum. So it would be foolish for me to attempt to speculate on what the specifics of any of these decisions will look like.

Suffice is to say, the British Civil Service is an organisation of the highest calibre and some of our very brightest people are working on this in support of our Prime Minister and Government. I have immense confidence they will find the best possible deal for all of the UK.

Ultimately, we are, and always have been, a Global Britain. I take tremendous pride in that. And while children in Britain fifty years from now will be able to turn the page in their history books to find out what happens next. It is a luxury we do not have now.’

Report on the Round Table event in Malaysia

The Round Table organised a well-attended launch function for two of its recent special issues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 15 December 2016.  The function, held at the University of Malaya, was sponsored by the Faculty of Economics and Administration (FEA) of that university.

Professor Edmund Terence Gomez of the FEA gave an opening speech in which he welcomed his Faculty’s collaboration with the Round Table and expressed delight at the publication of the two special issues, one of which – entitled China, India and Southeast Asia: Paths to Development and State-Society Relations  – was guest edited by him along with two other academics, Cheong Kee Cheok and Vamsa Vakulabharanam.  The other special issue, edited by Dr Peter Clegg of the University of the West of England, was entitled Brexit and the Commonwealth: What Next?

The next speaker was the Editor of the Round Table, Dr Venkat Iyer, who explained the origins of the journal, its development over the years as Britain’s oldest publication of its kind, and the background to the special issues.  He encouraged contributions – in the form of articles and opinion pieces – from Malaysia, and noted that a wide range of sectors had been represented at the function, including from academia, the arts, business, the legal profession, civil society, the judiciary, and medicine.  Among the participants was also the President of the Malaysian branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Bernice Narayanan, who expressed confidence that her society would be able to collaborate with the Round Table on future events in the country.

The chief guest of the day was Britain’s Deputy High Commissioner to Malaysia, Paul Rennie, who, as well as launching the special issues, gave a stirring address touching on the recent Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom.  He was particularly upbeat about Britain’s continuing engagement with the Commonwealth, noting that:

Having spent five years in India prior to this posting, and now almost three years in Malaysia. I can assure you that the Commonwealth is ever present in Britain’s thinking, and we strive every day to enhance the benefit and opportunity it brings to so many.

And let us not forget three of the current EU members are also members of the Commonwealth.

The UK will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2018. Malaysia will host the subsequent meeting in 2020.

So there has never been a better moment for our two countries to unite and collaborate in ensuring we fulfill our Commonwealth obligations to the development of free and democratic societies; the promotion of peace and prosperity; and the improvement of the lives of all peoples of the Commonwealth.

The London launch of the Round Table Journal special edition on Brexit.

Access the special Journal edition Brexit and the Commonwealth: What Next?