At least three major American oil companies completely funded Fulbright public diplomacy positions in Malaysia, an investigation by Earther revealed. Multiple participants in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program told Earther they learned, only after they were working in Malaysia, that the entirety of their work there was funded by Hess, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon. Malaysia was Southeast Asia’s second-largest oil and gas producer in 2019, and the fifth-largest LNG exporter in the world. “These companies are using Fulbright to essentially launder their image, Rachel Jacoby, an English Teaching Assistant who worked in Malaysia in 2019, told Earther. They’re positioning themselves as indispensable to the U.S. government, which, in my opinion, shouldn’t be beholden to corporations, especially in public diplomacy programs.” (Earther)
