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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : THE ISTANA HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 22/03/94
Tajuk/Title : THE OPENING OF THE TENTH
INTERNATIONAL GENERAL MEETING OF
THE PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
COUNCIL (PECC X)
Let me at the very beginning say what a pleasure it is
for me to be here today, before such an important assembly.
2. The economies that are represented here at the Pacific
Economic Cooperation Council (PECC X) have a total Gross
National Product (GNP) of more than US$ 12 trillion. This
is two times bigger than the total GNP of the European
Union. It is three times bigger than the total GNP of the
rest of the world. No less than three-fifths of the wealth
of the entire global community is generated by the economies
represented in this room.
3. In purchasing power parity terms, the figures are even
bigger. The United States is the world's largest economy.
China is the world's second largest economy. Japan is the
world's third largest economy. Indonesia is the twelfth
largest economy in the world.
4. It is a matter of historical record that every economy
in Pacific Asia was not too long ago considered a domino or
a domino-to-be. We were seen in the same way that so many
countries in Africa are seen today. Economies with little
hope. Beset by problems that obviously could never be
solved, cultures that surely would weigh us down, handicaps
that would inevitably reduce many of us to life with a
begging bowl. South Korea was seen in this light.
Indonesia before the arrival of President Suharto was seen
in this light. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and
even Japan. Even China. You name it. We were all, at one
time or another during the post-war years, assumed to be
societies with little hope.
5. Now, almost without exception, we are all regarded as
dynamos.
6. Imagine the possibilities of a Pacific of such enormous
verve and vitality, of such enormous wealth, of such
enormous diversity, of such enormous talent, of such
enormous synergistic potential! Imagine what we can do
together -- for ourselves and for the rest of the world --
if we can put our act together, if we can together build a
true community of cooperative peace and mutual prosperity.
A community worthy of the name of the Ocean whose waters lap
our shores, worthy of the hard-working people who sweat and
toil in the lands that rim the Pacific.
7. Some of us have been energised by the Pacific potential
long before some of the present champions of the Pacific
recognised the vitality of the super-region and awoke to its
immense possibilities.
8. Malaysia was the first in Asean to join Pacific Basin
Economic Council (PBEC). In May this year, Malaysia will be
hosting, with pride, the International General Meeting of
the PBEC, to which I am strongly committed. For the last
seven years, Kuala Lumpur has played host to the Asia
Pacific Roundtable, a security forum which for the first
time in Pacific history brought together all the friends and
foes of the Pacific into a process of talking and
reasoning together. In June this year, this attempt at
community-building in the Asia Pacific will meet for the
Eighth Asia Pacific Roundtable.
9. On this day, Malaysia is proud to host the tenth
international conference of the Pacific Economic Cooperation
Council. I have been informed that this is the most
high-powered non-governmental international conference ever
held in the Pacific.
10. I particularly welcome former President Aylwin of Chile
and Prime Minister Goldenberg of Peru, the Secretary General
of UNCTAD and the Deputy Secretary General of the OECD --
and all who have come from across this vast ocean.
11. I am a great respector of what some have called 'this
vision thing'. There is of course a great danger in grand
idealism wedded to grand illusion. Great visions can
sometimes get in the way of the day-to-day things that we
must do today, that are urgent, that brook no delay.
12. But there is no virtue in activity without purpose.
There can be little satisfaction in mileage without
milestones and distance without a destination. There is no
sense in getting quickly to places we do not want to go.
13. I am a Malaysian nationalist (something that some
people do not like). As a Malaysian nationalist, in common
with most Malaysians, I have a clear sense of direction and
of directions for Malaysia.
14. I am also an Aseanist. Far too many ignorant people
today under-estimate Asean. It has been central to our
post-colonial past. It will remain central to our future.
Indeed, I confess, without any sense of guilt, that I will
fight every impulse, contain every force and confront any
danger that will damage or destroy the Asean family. For
this, I make no apology. I express no reservation.
15. At the same time, I am a South-east Asian and an East
Asian. As a South-east Asian, I am proud that we have,
together, been able to turn a battleground into a
marketplace. A South-east Asian neighbourhood of warmth and
friendship has to be tended and nourished.
16. As an East Asian, I am committed to the building of an
East Asian community in which our common peace is
cooperatively constructed and our common prosperity is
cooperatively built, an East Asian community in which the
giants of our region -- China, Japan, Indonesia -- shall
have their rightful place, discharging their rightful
responsibilities, all of us living in harmony in an
egalitarian community of mutual respect and mutual benefit.
17. As a global citizen, my country must play an active
role in the making of a new world community based on
egalitarianism, mutual respect and justice. We will do what
has to be done, even if there is a price to be paid.
18. As a fervent believer in the need to enrich and
strengthen Pacific interdependence and cooperation, I also
believe that the nations of the Pacific, the business
enterprises of the Pacific, the intellectual leaders of the
Pacific -- all of us in the Pacific -- each in our own way,
should work hard to contribute to the making of a productive
community of cooperative peace and prosperity in the
Pacific.
19. There are two key words here. The first is
'community'. The second is 'productive'.
20. I believe that what we must build is a Pacific
community that is robust and that will endure, not a
temporary Pacific association of convenience, or a Pacific
construct erected over a transient enthusiasm -- or a
Pacific club or organisation with a single purpose or
interest, an appendage to someone, something that is here
today and gone tomorrow.
21. In the jargon of sociology, the German word
'gemeinschaft' is used to refer to a social relationship
based on affection, kinship or a sense of community, "as
within a family or a group of friends." The German word
'gesellschaft', on the other hand, is a relationship based
on law, adherence to rules and regulations and to duty -- as
within a structured organisation. I believe that what we
must build is a Pacific `Gemeinschaft', a Pacific village or
family or group of friends, not an artificial, Cartesian
construct -- over-legalistic, over-structured and
over-institutionalised.
22. If this is our vision, obviously we have more to learn
from the patient wisdom of our traditional culture, the
stamina of the long-distance runner and the simple
brick-layer who builds a house brick by brick, than the
philosophy of Rene Descartes and the most magical builder of
the house of cards.
23. The eager and the enthusiastic have to undertand the
enormous diversity of the Asia Pacific. In some of our
cultures, friends are made in the course of a day. But for
most of us, given our cultures, it takes time to become true
friends.
24. A dozen years ago, in the very early stages of the
Pacific movement, at a conference on the Pacific in Bali, I
stated: "Tak kenal, maka tak cinta". We did not yet know
each other. How could we be expected to be firm friends?
Over the years, some strangers have begun to know each other
much better. But there are new strangers who must be made
our firm friends.
25. The eager and the enthusiastic have to understand that
not so many months ago, some of us of the Pacific were
prepared to throw megatons at each other, to kill hundreds
of millions of each other's citizens.
26. Clearly, the Asia Pacific journey to full trust,
empathy and respect is a journey of a thousand miles, with
very few safe short-cuts. There are no bullet trains. We
must be prepared often to go on foot, despite the
inconvenience.
27. So many ties have to be established, so many webs have
to be weaved, so many chasms have to be bridged. The work
-- so full of frustrations -- has to be done with patience
and with persistence. Rome was not built in a day. A true
Pacific community cannot be built in a decade. We must
think in terms of decades. We must find the stamina to stay
the course.
28. We must understand at the same time that the building
of a true community cannot be a monopoly of bureaucrats or
governments meeting intermittently. It can only be built by
a million hands, working every day and every hour of the
day.
29. Indeed, right or wrong, it is the private sector, the
business person pursuing growth and profit (not officials
armed to the teeth with the best of intentions, laws,
regulations, frameworks and authority, or politicians and
statesmen who strut the great stage of international play)
who have the greatest contribution to the making of the
Pacific economic community. It is the intellectual and
media leaders, like so many of you in the audience, who must
help to build the needed community of the mind and of the
heart.
30. APEC properly structured has of course a most important
place and a most important role. But those APEC members who
wish to measure the Pacific spirit and the Pacific
commitment purely in terms of being macho on APEC, are
misguided.
31. There is a role for PECC to play, for PBEC to play, for
PAFTAD to play, for the Asean Regional Forum to play, for
the ASEAN dialogue process to play, for all the sub-regional
forums to play.
32. We contribute to Pacific interdependence and
community-building when we improve our bilateral relations.
We contribute when we improve neighbourly relations and
foster a peaceful neighbourhood and a flourishing one. All
have to be part of this multi-layered, multi-dimensional
process of Pacific community-building.
33. To ensure the 'productive' community that we need, it
is essential that we establish an egalitarian Pacific
community, not a hegemonic Pacific community.
34. Let me say it for Malaysia: we cannot accept a Pax
Sinica; we cannot accept a Pax Nipponica; we cannot accept a
Pax Americana. Not now and not in the future. Instead, we
believe in the establishment of a Pax Pacifica, a Pax
without an imperium, without a protector, and without an
overlord. We believe in an egalitarian community.
35. Most obviously, China is not Canada or Chile. Japan is
not Hong Kong or Mexico. Even within the closest family,
there are older brothers and sisters. Power and size will
have their inevitable play. But this must be within an
egalitarian framework of mutual respect and mutual benefit.
36. Egalitarianism is not an illusion founded on departure
from realities. Nor does it deny the need for leadership.
The leaders must lead. But leadership, too, must be within
the framework of mutual respect and mutual benefit.
37. I believe that it is also important to ensure a Pacific
community that is democratic and consensual and that works
on the basis of democratic and consensual principles --
however frustrating democracy is, however infuriatingly
difficult consensus may sometimes be to secure.
38. We should also be strongly committed to the objective
of making sure that the Pacific community that we build
conforms to the imperatives of open economic regionalism.
This of course is the central theme of this conference.
39. Before I proceed to say a few words on open
regionalism, I hope we can all proceed on the same basic
premise. Is there any doubt that the first best option is
not open regionalism but open globalism?
40. This entire planet should be a single market place, a
single trading bloc, with as few obstacles and distortions
as possible to the freest and least managed exchange of
goods and services. Can we not all agree that global free
trade, like democracy -- with all the inherent imperfections
-- is by far the best option, ensuring the greatest good for
the greatest number?
41. I used to think that we all agreed that the command
economy makes economic nonsense in the international
economic system, just as it makes economic nonsense within
the domestic economic system. Now some seem to question
this. Is it the system or is it the people? Most handle
the free market as badly as the closed market.
42. There can surely be no question about the fact that
economic regionalism is a reality of life that will not go
away. In the years since World War II, more than 55
regional trading arrangements have been submitted to GATT
for its examination.
43. Australia and New Zealand were the pioneers in the
Pacific. In 1965, they launched the first NAFTA, the New
Zealand-Australia Free Trade Agreement. The latest
ramification is the 1983 Australia-New Zealand Closer
Economic Relations Trade Agreement or ANZCERTA.
44. Regional trading blocs -- which by definition are
regional trade groupings which have a common set of market
access conditions among member economies which are not
accorded to those outside the bloc -- have been implemented
or tried in every area of the world, except only in
North-east Asia. Except for the North-east Asian members of
APEC, all APEC members are already involved in one or more
regional trading blocs.
45. The Asean countries will have AFTA. The United States,
Canada and Mexico have NAFTA.
46. Given that trade blocs are not going to go away and may
even proliferate, it surely requires statesmanship of the
highest calibre to ensure that they will be as open as
possible to non-members and that they will positively
contribute to global liberalism rather that global
protectionism.
47. The Uruguay Round negotiations have come to something
of a conclusion. We will have to wait and see just how
meaningful that conclusion is. I happen to think that those
who believe in trade liberalism will continue to have a
fight on their hands against the forces of protectionism.
Those who believe in open regionalism, too, have a fight on
their hands.
48. PECC has the San Francisco Declaration on Open
Regionalism upon which it can build, and from which it can
sally forth as a champion of open regionalism. It,
obviously, has an important role to play. And its
tripartite nature gives it the comparative advantage to
fully develop the doctrine and the legitimacy of open
regionalism.
49. In May last year, at the opening of the 26th
International General Meeting of the Pacific Basin Economic
Council in Seoul, I stated my view that all those who claim
to be examples of open regionalism must pass two tests. The
first is the test of intent. The second is the test of
outcome.
50. The first test requires that the members of a regional
enterprise pursue their regional undertaking not with the
purpose of raising the ramparts and manning the barricades
but with the intent of liberalising the conditions for
economic intercourse between themselves and with the intent
of reducing the barriers to economies outside the regional
trading bloc.
51. This is a very rigorous test. The entire European
experience from the European Coal and Steel Community,
through the Treaty of Rome and Maastricht, fails the test of
intent. The desire to open to those outside need not be the
primary intent. But the desire must be there.
52. As for the test of outcome, I believe it demands that
what actually results is trade liberalisation within the
regional grouping. In addition, the barriers to outside
economies must actually be reduced.
53. If these two tests are passed, there is no doubt that
open regionalism will indeed be a contributor to the open
global trading system that I believe we must fight for.
54. Earlier in my speech, I said I was a Malaysian
nationalist, that I was an Aseanist, a South-east Asian, an
East Asian, a globalist and a Pacifican.
55. As a Malaysian nationalist, I want to open the economy
of Malaysia even further. In the last six years, we have
been growing around 8.5 per cent a year. We must exploit
all the advantages that further liberalisation and openness
engenders. The entire world has to be our marketplace. And
we must draw in the entire world in the making of our Vision
2020 future.
56. As an Aseanist, I wish to see the Asean community open
itself further, so that we will all become stronger, more
competitive, and more prosperous. I am confident that AFTA
will not only lower the internal barriers but also the
barriers to outside economies.
57. As a South-east Asian, I would like to see an open
South- east Asia. The course is set. The benefits are all
too clear.
58. As an East Asian, I would like to see the flourishing
of East Asian economic cooperation and interdependence, and
East Asian open regionalism. I have no doubt in my mind
that Asean's proposal for an EAEC is an idea whose time
cannot be denied.
59. As a globalist, I know we must fight against
protectionism, managed trade and an international command
economy. We must fight for liberalisation and free trade.
60. As a Pacifican, I urge you to dedicate the PECC and
your countries to the cause of open regionalism in the
Pacific.
61. I pray that you, during the course of this conference
and the nations of the Pacific in the decades ahead, will
indeed succeed in holding firmly to the cause of open
Pacific regionalism and in finding the way forward.
62. We of the Pacific who generate three-fifths of the
wealth on this planet owe this to our peoples and to the
rest of mankind.
63. I wish you a fruitful meeting and a pleasant stay in
this country.
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