Malaysians joke they have ‘no oil, only palm oil’ after US Embassy shares space photo

The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur’s attempt to show off an awe-inspiring throwback image from space instead triggered a distinctly Malaysian burst of self-deprecating humour, casting the country as strategically uninteresting amid Washington’s recent foreign policy moves.\nOn Friday, the embassy posted a 2016 photograph taken from the International Space Station showing lightning flashing in clouds high over Malaysia. The caption says the Southeast Asian nation had “never looked more electric”, clarifying that the bright bursts were lightning, not city lights.\n\n\nWithin hours, the comments section had turned into a meme thread, with hundreds of Malaysians leaning into a familiar strain of self-deprecating humour to portray the country as too rural, too spooky or too lacking in petroleum – offering only palm oil – to be of any strategic interest, a joke shaped by wider debates about US power, resources and foreign policy under President Donald Trump.\n“Sorry, we don’t have oil, we all live on a tree, all those lights you see are bonfires,” commented user Aimin Razali. Amin Muthalib added: “we don’t have any oil here … only palm oil.”\nSome commenters widened the joke beyond oil to questions of surveillance and intervention. “With no warning at all, it’s quite strange that the US Embassy released a satellite image of Malaysia,” wrote user Ina Abd Rahman.\nMany joked about “freedom” and intervention, a recurring motif in global discussions about US actions abroad. “Nice and electric … imagine if it was oil? Here comes ‘freedom’,” wrote one user, echoing a recurring satirical framing of US foreign policy.\nOthers pushed the humour into darker territory. User Lina Abdullah Karim joked about being “kidnapped” – a clear nod to the Trump administration’s controversial military operation on January 3 that resulted in Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s capture and transfer to the United States.\n“Kinda scared we’ll get snatched … Hello! We don’t have all these modern things … and I think you’ve got enough already, sir,” she wrote.\nMuch of the humour was grounded in the context of recent US foreign policy moves.\n\n\nReuters reported that, after Maduro’s capture, the US and Venezuela had reached a deal for Venezuela to export up to US$2 billion worth of crude to the US, after President Donald Trump said the country’s interim authorities would be “turning over” 30 million to 50 million barrels of “sanctioned oil” and that he would control the proceeds.\nIn Europe, Trump has reiterated his desire to annex Greenland for US national security reasons, drawing strong rebukes from Danish and Greenlandic leaders.\nMalaysia, for its part, has been trying to balance relations with Washington amid intensifying great-power rivalry in the region. In October, Trump visited Kuala Lumpur for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit, where he met Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and other regional leaders.\nDuring the trip, Anwar and Trump signed an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade and a critical-minerals supply-chain MOU, deals critics warned were lopsided and could undercut Malaysia’s economic sovereignty.\nThe embassy appeared keen to show it was in on the joke. In a follow-up post on Tuesday, it wrote that Malaysia had signed the US-led Artemis Accords, adding: “No ‘balan-balan’ sightings here, just world-class science”, referring to the name of a flying-head spirit from local folklore.\nNasa said Malaysia and the Philippines joined the Artemis Accords during Trump’s Kuala Lumpur visit, describing the pact as one aimed at promoting peaceful and transparent space exploration, with the White House announcing the signings on October 26.\n