COMMENT | The Malaysian PM is obliged to say only good things when abroad. This is in keeping with the spirit not to offend the host, in this case, China.

But the Malaysian PM is also expected to defend the national interests of the country. This, to be sure, is a tall order.

As multinationals, especially those in China, have grown into such gargantuan size that they can practically lord over the terms of their entries to any country.

This is where the PM must be beyond reproach. He cannot be above the law, nor can he subvert it. Rules and regulations are placed to defend the interest of the country, one of which is open bidding.

By declaring publicly that the Wanda Entertainment Group can be the darling of Bandar Malaysia, one wonders if the PM knows he has subverted that very process that his predecessors have put in place to guard and guarantee the country from being compromised by other bigger entities and powers?

The PM, just as he was oblivious to 1MDB, an entity that was supposed to function as the sovereign fund of Malaysia, has become impervious to his own faux pas (false step) once again.

Wanda can no more be given any preferential treatment than Warners Meyer - if the idea is to find the best anchor developer to build what is now still a big hole in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Besides, reports suggest that US$8 billion (some say US$10 billion) is expected from Wanda. Yet when Wanda tried to buy the Dick Clark Productions at one-eighth the price in Hollywood, the treasury authorities in Beijing shot the idea down.

Linda Yueh, writing in Nikkei Asia Review, notes that Ten Cent Group of WeChat fame, managed to “invest US$1.7 billion in Tesla”, a company that specialises in technological breakthroughs and space travel.

What makes a hole in the ground so special - as indeed is Bandar Malaysia - so special that the investment expected from Wanda will be more important than Tesla’s tech play in the US?

Malaysia is drifting, and sinking, ever so slowly. In the op-ed to South China Morning Post (SCMP) on May 12, the PM wrote that it must seem “ridiculous” to the readers of the newspaper that there are Malaysians out to deny Chinese foreign direct investments from coming into Malaysia.

Malaysia is a part of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) just as it is part of the China Asean Free Trade Agreement (Cafta). Malaysia welcomes investments from China or even the US.

What Malaysia cannot tolerate is the tendency of the Malaysian PM to promote our open-door policy to all and sundry without them going through the proper bidding and conceptualisation process.

Wanda Entertainment Group, for what it is worth, owns the AMC cinema outlets in the US. And it is big on the entertainment business in China, too.

If this be the case, does this mean that Bandar Malaysia is built to cater to the business vision of Wanda, or, the national interest of Malaysia?...