馬來西亞於1957年從英殖民母國獨立以來都把中國視為仇寇,主要原因是中國的海外支部馬來亞共產黨在馬來亞/馬來西亞意圖顛覆固有國家體制。馬中後來於1974年建交時,馬共在馬來西亞的作亂未減,中國也未在建交公報上承諾將約束馬共,不過馬來西亞執政黨卻在建交後的三個月內舉行的全國選舉,取得對中國仍有祖國情結的馬來西亞華人選民廣泛支持,重奪上屆丟失的國會三分之二多數。表面上,馬中建交並未給馬來西亞帶來實質國家利益,卻因為執政黨投華人選民所好,成功鞏固在國家内的政權利益。本文採用多元啟發論分析馬來西亞首相等政治精英與中國建交上的決策過程,檢驗馬來西亞政黨有否為了滿足政權利益,犧牲國家利益。
Malaya/Malaysia took a hostile stance toward the PRC since the independence of Malaya in 1957. It was due to the Malayan Communist Party, a branch of the Chinese Communist Party, had attempted to topple the democratically elected government for decades. Even when Malaysia established official ties with the PRC in 1974, the armed rebellion of the Malayan Communist Party never subsided. On the other hand, the PRC as well did not agree with Malaysia to restrain the Malayan Communist Party in the joint communique. However, the ruling party of Malaysia won a landslide victory and regained the two-third majority in the parliament in the general election that hold less than 3 months after the normalization. The party successfully gained mass support from the Chinese community who perceived China as their motherland. Superficially, the formalization of the Malaysia-PRC official ties did not benefit Malaysia's national interest but the ruling party's regime interest. This article adopts the Poliheurtistic theory to analyze the decision-making process of the Malaysia ruling party in establishing official ties with the PRC and to examine if the party had sacrificed the national interest to fulfil its regime interest.