A curious silence has fallen on the Malaysian government when it comes to guarding its territory and sea rights in the South China Sea. This week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit was the ideal time for Malaysia to take a lead, or at least do more than waffle about China’s claims to almost the whole sea and its resources. It didn’t do so despite the fact that Malaysia took over the revolving chairmanship of Asean for 2015 and presumably could have been expected to show some leadership on the issue.