Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : SINGAPORE
Tarikh/Date : 27/01/92
Tajuk/Title : THE FOURTH MEETING OF THE ASEAN
HEADS OF GOVERNMENT
Mr Chairman;
Your Majesty;
Your Excellencies;
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me say how happy I am to be at this gathering of
friendly neighbours. My congratulations and thanks to you,
Mr. Chairman, and to the Government and the people of the
Republic of Singapore for hosting this Fourth Meeting of the
ASEAN Heads of Government. I join my distinguished col-
leagues in extending to the Prime Minister of Papua New
Guinea, His Excellency Mr. Rabbie Namaliu, a warm welcome to
our Meeting.
2. This Meeting is timely because ASEAN needs to consider
appropriate responses to the profound changes that have
taken place in the world since the last ASEAN Summit in Ma-
nila in 1987. The final disposition of the new global poli-
tical and economic order is uncertain but we must ready
ourselves for all the possible mutations of this order. In
South East Asia itself changes will take place, and the form
of cooperation which will result must be such as to
strengthen our region and keep it continuously dynamic.
3. With the Cambodian problem on the way to resolution
ASEAN must now transform the adversarial stance which
characterised South East Asia in the past into new construc-
tive relationships. It is not an accident that the South
East Asian countries of the ASEAN group are among the most
dynamic in the world. We have demonstrated that peaceful
neighbourliness and cooperation and a willingness to help
each other can contribute greatly towards rapid development.
It is therefore equally likely that if all the nations of
South East Asia were to adopt this approach to neighbourly
relations and economic development, then all will be equally
prosperous. A prosperous region will command respect and
influence.
4. ASEAN must therefore take the initiative to reorganise
its relations with the Indochinese countries. We can begin
by establishing close and positive relations with them both
bilaterally and as a group. Should they wish to do so we
should welcome them as members of the ASEAN Group subscrib-
ing to our Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. We should pro-
mote and foster the concept of a Zone of Peace, Freedom and
Neutrality as well as a Nuclear Free Zone. I hope that the
greatest military power with the most efficient intelligence
agency is wrong when it predicts the possibility of a "Gulf
War" in East Asia which can only be deterred by its military
presence. By now all the nations of East Asia should have
learnt of the futility of wars of conquest of the Gulf vari-
ety. They should have found that economic development and
trade with neighbours highly beneficial.
5. Poor neighbours are no asset to anyone. The problems
of the poor are likely to spill over in the form of refu-
gees, smuggling, black markets, etc. Poor countries are not
good trading partners. Helping neighbours to become pros-
perous is therefore mutually beneficial. If ASEAN wishes to
be stable and prosperous then it must help its neighbours to
attain prosperity. Above all it must eschew confrontation.
6. While we should not let our different political systems
stand in the way of mutual cooperation, we cannot of course
support oppressive regimes which are not concerned with the
well-being of their own nationals. Without interfering in
the internal affairs of independent nations we must still
strive to ensure acceptable standards of good Government.
It is the height of arrogance to claim that only a partic-
ular system is right and just. It is equally arrogant to
claim that there is only one system of Government which is
right and just. The fact is that even democracy can bring
misery to a lot of people. This we see in the violence and
deaths during elections and the frequent riotings and
strikes which reduce the productivity of nations and perpet-
uate poverty.
7. We see today a democratically elected Government sys-
tematically depriving its legitimate citizens of political
rights, dispossessing them, terrorising and killing them and
generally behaving like a rogue but being supported by other
democracies simply because it is defined as democratic. The
empty shelves and the hunger we see in the new democracies
of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Eastern
Europe are yet another evidence of the imperfections of de-
mocracy. We must not miss the forest for the trees. Democ-
racy is not the universal cure it is made out to be. To
succeed there must be circumspection in the application of
the democratic process. No one should be forced or hurried
into a system that they are unfamiliar with.
Your Majesty,
Your Excellencies,
8. On the international front, the creation of powerful
economic groupings to advance regional interests have become
a reality of the international economic life. International
trade and other economic relations are increasingly being
managed to protect the positions of the powerful trade
blocs.
9. In a world where peoples and countries are organising
themselves regionally, it should not be so wrong for East
Asian countries to come together. East Asia is a geograph-
ical entity, as much as Europe or America are geographical
entities. Indeed so is South East Asia.
10. If South East Asia can form an association in order to
derive mutual benefit and still remain compatible with being
members of the Asia Pacific organisations, is there any rea-
son why the East Asian countries cannot form a mere caucus
and coexist with other organisations in the Asia Pacific re-
gion?
11. The ASEAN experience has shown that when countries in a
region consult and cooperate and speak with one voice, their
status and influence are enhanced. Other countries and
groups would certainly not have dialogues regularly with
each and everyone of us separately. But as a group they
will and they do. And in the process we have gained and
have consequently developed much faster than other individ-
ual countries of the region.
12. The East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC) will not be any
kind of trade or economic bloc but a Caucus, an informal
getting together of nations in East Asia for the purpose of
consultation and to seek consensus so as to speak with one
voice at international trade conferences. And that is all.
We do not understand why we are not allowed to speak with
each other or even to call ourselves East Asians. Is this a
foretaste of the new world order?
13. We need a strong ASEAN base to be better able to face
new uncertainties in the wider Asia-Pacific environment as
well as a rapidly changing world. When the Cold War was on,
we all yearned to be free from this oppressive conflict and
the proxy fights and divisions it spins off. We in the
ASEAN region have a right to be more free now since it is
our side which won. But it would seem that we are now less
free. The evolving new world order is full of restrictions.
Your Majesty,
Your Excellencies,
14. An issue of equal importance to all countries and re-
quiring global cooperation concerns the management of the
environment. Unfortunately there is undue focus on the
tropical forest and its role in renewing the supply of oxy-
gen, the preservation of flora and fauna and the ecological
balance.
15. The fact is that the rich 20 percent of the global pop-
ulation accounts for 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emis-
sions. Thirty percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from
one industrial power alone. On the other hand in the devel-
oping world, 1.5 billion people live in abject poverty.
Their fate is ignored when what is often their principal
source of income, the tropical forest products, are boy-
cotted.
16. If forests can save the world from the greenhouse ef-
fect, then the stress should be on a massive regreening of
the world. It must be remembered that at one time the world
was almost completely covered by forests. The natural
changes as well as the changes brought about by men de-
stroyed most of this forest cover. With the wealth of the
rich and the technology at their command it is entirely pos-
sible to plant and cover even desert areas with trees, in-
cluding tropical hardwood timber. Controlled logging can go
on but in a hundred years there will be three times the
present tropical timberland.
17. One issue, totally ignored, is the fact that forest
fires cause greater damage to the environment than con-
trolled logging. Developing countries do not have the fi-
nancial and technological capability to effectively handle
forest fires which can rage for weeks and months. Cer-
tainly, more forests can be saved by preventing forest fires
or putting them out quickly than by boycotting the export of
tropical timber or advocating that forest dwellers remain in
the forest, eating monkeys and suffering from all kinds of
tropical diseases.
18. It is claimed that tropical forests are a common herit-
age of the world. We dispute this, for we have a better
claim to our forests than those who claim to own Antarctica.
But if the world is so concerned about depleting tropical
forest and think they have a right to it then they should do
something about forest fires in the tropics. Massive and
valuable equipment are available all over the rich countries
of the North. Most of them would be under-utilised when
there are no fires. It would be a simple matter for an
international organisation to be set up to catalogue all
these resources and deploy them to the poor tropical coun-
tries whenever there is a forest fire. This is much more
constructive than dramatising the acreage of tropical forest
destroyed per day or how 300 Penans are being deprived of
their million hectares of hunting ground.
Your Majesty,
Your Excellencies,
19. While we dispute the claim that our forests belong to
the whole world, we have always accepted that certain
straits and sea-routes through our waters are international
waterways. The best-known of these international waterways
is the Straits of Malacca.
20. It was of little concern to the littoral states when
the ships passing through the Straits were small and infre-
quent and carry no significantly dangerous cargo. But now
not only have the numbers multiplied many times, but their
sizes have increased tremendously. In addition the cargo
they carry is often dangerous; as for example the oil and
chemical tankers.
21. Already we have had collisions and the spillage of oil
onto the sea and on our shore. Not only is cleaning up
costly but damage to our fishing industry and our tourist
industy is considerable. It takes months for fishing to be
lucrative again.
22. Now we have a new problem -- piracy. The pirates are
not after the cargo but the cash and valuables belonging to
the crew. In the dark of the night they clamber on to the
ship and tie up the crew while they pillage and rob. And
when they leave, the crew members remain tied. For hours
the ship will sail unguided. It may deviate from its course
and it may collide with another vessel or run aground, caus-
ing all kinds of damage.
23. Whose responsibility is it to keep these international
sea-lanes safe? The littoral states collect no dues. Nor
are they rich. On the other hand, maritime patrols by sea
and by air are expensive. The maintenance of equipment and
personnel to fight spillage and other damages are equally
costly.
24. If the world is fond of claiming rights then the world
must also accept responsibility. It is time that the inter-
national community appreciate the problems and the dangers
faced by littoral states. Is it too much to ask that those
who use the passage and the maritime nations contribute to-
wards the cost of keeping them free and safe?
Your Majesty,
Your Excellencies,
25. ASEAN is without doubt the most successful of the re-
gional groupings of developing countries. We came together
initially because we had to have a forum to resolve border
problems in the post-colonial period. We have not resolved
all of these problems but at least we agree that the ASEAN
way is that of consultation and negotiation.
26. Having come together we felt it could be beneficial to
cooperate economically as well. Again, with our competing
economies we have not been very successful. Still we must
soldier on.
27. But in the meantime the world has changed radically. I
shall not repeat here what these changes are. What is cer-
tain however is that we will be affected by the fallout. We
can survive, I think. We can even prosper as a result of
these changes. But it is up to us to design our response if
we want to come out of these changes stronger and more pros-
perous. It will require all our ingenuity to do this.
ASEAN must emerge from the restructuring of the world, freer
and more resilient and better developed than ever.
28. Finally, Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank you, the Govern-
ment and the people of Singapore for the warm welcome and
generous hospitality extended to me and the members of my
delegation. I am confident that, under your able chairman-
ship, this Fourth ASEAN Summit Meeting will be a resounding
success.
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