If I were the Foreign Affairs Minister

If I were the Foreign Affairs Minister of Malaysia,

I would be working to organize the conference of the Malayo-Polynesian Organizations in the world. You can build networks that will influence the politics of New Zealand, the South Pacific, Taiwan, Africa via Madagascar, and the United States of America via Hawaii.

If you finance and help indigenous Hawaiians to the two Senate seats for Hawaii you actually will gain two votes in the US Senate.

Image from https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherineparkermagyar/2020/12/29/the-ultimate-guide-to-the-hawaiian-islands/#276fd5d8597b

And with the thousands of excess doctors the Ministry of Health cannot afford to hire, the Foreign Ministry should hire them and use them for diplomatic purposes. For example, we can send 100 of them to Samoa and this will increase the number of physicians in their country by 100% and with this you already have a close friend and extra vote in the United Nations. Repeat this for the two scores of Island Nations and you easily have two scores of votes in the UN. It is win-win, you solve the excess doctors problem and you make a lot of friends!

Image from https://www.forbes.com/sites/fionatapp/2020/04/22/new-zealand-will-be-waiting-for-you-when-this-is-all-over/#1ebcf571bc2a

If the have enough doctors like Fiji then Malaysia should open its universities' Masters of Medicine and Masters of Surgery programmes to increase the number of specialists and sub-specialists in all the island nations of the world. They number of 30 independent ones and about 50 islands that are dependency. We are not the best in the world but we can certainly help people who are behind us. Malaysia's HDI is ranked number 61 in the world and we can definitely help Fiji at 98, Maldives at 104, Tonga at 105, Samoa at 111, Marshall Islands at 117, and East Timor at 131. You see if you can do the small things and help the smaller countries you are not yet rich you are not going to handle the bigger things. Instead of trying to get foreign students that are roughly around our HDI we should aim for smaller places like Bhutan, the island nations of the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean.

Image from https://www.funjet.com/destinations/fiji

In terms of influence we do not have the billions to spend on aid like the US and China but because of the strings that are attached along the aid they come across and bullies. Malaysia with a much smaller budget can make friends and influence people, and by being nice to people I think we can play an out-sized role in world affairs, punch above our weight, and when they are your friends you can sell them palm oil and rubber products.