Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : THE PUTRA WORLD TRADE CENTRE,
KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 05/08/94
Tajuk/Title : THE FIRST EAST ASIAN YOUNG LEADERS
CONGRESS ON "EAST ASIAN PEACE,
STABILITY AND PROSPERITY"
There are times in the affairs of mankind when history
takes a definite turn. This could be such a time. For much
of world's history, Asia was the centre of human
civilisation. Asia contributed considerably to the
development of the human society and its civilisation. Asia
led in the arts and the sciences and the sum total of human
knowledge.
2. Asia had its share of wars and violence but by and
large it was more peaceful than Europe ever was. Although
history books seem to suggest that Asian empires appeared
and disappeared with startling rapidity, in fact they were
durable, each lasting hundreds of years. And the Imperial
courts patronised the arts and the sciences, causing them to
bloom. There may be people who think that just because the
Cold War is over there is no more history, that history has
come to an end. I don't pretend to understand this
conclusion. But I think you will agree with me that the end
of the Cold War marks the beginning of a new era.
3. You as other movers and makers of East Asia's future
should prepare to play a role in the making of this new
history, history in which Asia once again becomes the most
important cradle of human civilisation.
4. Asian history has for too many hundreds of years been
an appendage of European history. Our lives have for much
too long been too dependent on the events and aspirations of
nations elsewhere.
5. It is time to dedicate ourselves to a
non-confrontationist, non-Xenophobic Asian Resurgence, a
movement driven not by the outside or by resentment or anger
but by our own ambitions for our own people, our own
countries and our own region. It is time to commit
ourselves to that long and awesome process whose final
destination should be a durable and comprehensive Asian
Renaissance founded on the finest traditions of Asia and on
Asian ethics.
6. The challenges are enormous. Much will depend on how
much peace, how much stability and how much prosperity we
can generate for our people and for the region in the
decades to come.
7. Obviously, Asia must advance over the broadest
geographical front.
8. But I suspect that much of the inspiration, the impetus
and the drive for an Asian Renaissance, if it ever were to
come, will come from East Asia.
9. Certainly we in East Asia can look back with some
degree of pride on what we have been able to achieve over
the last few decades. It has been a period of massive
trials, tribulations and transformations. Fortunately it
has also been a time of achievements most remarkable.
10. Most of the region is now a marketplace -- filled with
the ringing sound not of bugles and bullets but of bazaar
bargaining and stock market babble, of pile-driving steam
hammers, of roads and harbours and magnificent edifices, of
progress and growth.
11. There are still disputes and threats and words spoken
in anger. But the forces that are at work are not those of
war and conquest but those of the market.
12. But not for a century and a half has the strategic
environment of East Asia been as good as it is today. We
can take reasonable satisfaction from this.
13. Let us nevertheless all regard what we have achieved as
only the first installment towards the Asian Renaissance
that I speak of.
14. Let me now turn to the third leg of the Asian
Resurgence that has already begun and the most basic
foundation of the Asian Resurgence yet to come: our dynamism
and prosperity.
15. After all the current talk of "the East Asian Economic
Miracle", it is important to remind ourselves how often in
the past, the leaders in the East threw up their hands in
despair, as they predicted not "an East Asian Economic
Miracle" but "the East Asian economic morass".
16. At one point or another, every economy in East Asia has
been assumed to be economies without hope. A ton of learned
treatises explained why we were condemned to economic
stagnation or worse. Even Japan had grave doubts about the
future of the Japanese economy. Indonesia and South Korea
were regarded very much in the way that the worst sub-Sahara
African countries are regarded today.
17. The learned analysts have been confounded. This region
of yesterday's "dominoes" is now clearly a region of humming
dynamos. We will be the primary source of tomorrow's growth
and dynamism for the rest of the world.
18. But there can be no resting on laurels. The vast
proportion of our peoples are still poor. For them the
Economic Miracle, the economic growth rates are quite
irrelevant. They have no share in it.
19. But first let us ensure that the present peaceful
relation between East Asian states is prolonged. We did not
really work towards it. But let us not let the accident of
peace be allowed to end in another accident, that of war.
We must now actively promote peace between us and peace
among us.
20. I think it was the ancient Romans who said, "To have
peace you must prepare for war." But really we cannot
afford to spend so much on military preparedness. Today's
weapon systems are just too costly. We will be bankrupting
ourselves trying to deter each other. We will be creating
tensions and tensions between nations do not encourage
economic investments and long term development plans. We
will not have the money for development.
21. It should be the adage of the modern East Asian that:
if you want peace, prepare for peace, work for peace, fight
for peace -- fight for peace with the resolve and the
resources that are generally reserved by nations for the
prosecution of war.
22. In the cause of cooperative peace -- cooperation to
build an East Asian region of peace, friendship and
tranquility -- obviously there are many things we must be
prepared to do unilaterally. Reassuring our neighbours,
abiding by the rules of international law, negotiation
instead of confrontation, ensuring domestic stability and
order, behaving with sensitivity and responsibility, and
leading by example.
23. Because it does not have the glamour of
multilateralism, what is forgotten is that a great deal does
hinge on the development of good bilateral relations. All
of East Asia will become a region of amity and goodwill if
we can build a seamless web of friendly bilateral relations.
24. There are things that we can do at the United Nations
and at the global level in pursuit of our commitment to
cooperative peace. There are contributions to be made at
the minilateral level, in terms of the smaller region, and
in terms of the bigger region of East Asia. We in the ASEAN
Community can never afford to neglect ASEAN. ASEAN can be a
base and an example of a much wider East Asian Cooperation.
25. Choosing to build an East Asian region of peace does
not mean turning away from other concerns, other interests
and other regions. We should not. Indeed we could not, for
all of us are trading nations. We need the rest of the
world. The richer they are the better customers they will
be.
26. Fortunately, nations can do many things at the same
time. The nations of East Asia have no choice but to do a
great many things at the same time if they wish to make the
necessary contribution to peace, if they are committed, as
they should be, to peace.
27. We have almost all done well if not very well. An East
Asian regional economy, integrating at a remarkable rate, is
rising at breath-taking speed. The integration has been
private sector driven, a source of real strength. In
purchasing power parity terms, East Asia is already the
largest regional economy in the world, bigger than the
Western European or the NAFTA regional economy. In US
dollar terms, we will enter the 21st century being the
largest regional economy in the world.
28. Will we enter the 21st century as the object of
international economic relations or as a full subject of
international economic relations? Will we be "the prize",
the victim, the economic battlefield of the 21st century,
with no say in the wider world, whose rules will be decided
elsewhere? Or will we be full-fledged actors, able to play
our rightful role in global economics, and able to make the
contribution we must to the healthiest development of the
commonwealth of man?
29. On the issue of peace, I have spoken of the
criticality of self help and unilateral action.
I have also stressed the need for cooperation
between us.
30. On the issue of prosperity, also, let me stress the
importance of self help and individual action.
31. Just as I believe in the importance of ensuring an East
Asian system of cooperative peace, I believe in an East
Asian system of cooperative prosperity.
32. We will compete against each other. We must compete
against each other. But we must also cooperate with each
other. And we must establish processes of cooperative
prosperity with each other, especially as our competition
mounts, especially as our enormous interdependence
escalates.
33. This is why I proposed the idea of the East Asia
Economic Group, now called the East Asia Economic Caucus.
34. Since the campaign of lies and deliberate
disinformation on the EAEG or EAEC concept has been so
strong, let me for the umpteenth time explain what is the
EAEC.
35. Malaysia is opposed to the creation of a preferential
trading arrangement, or a free trade area, or a customs
union, or an economic union for East Asia. What we wish to
see is the establishment of a loose consultative forum for
East Asia. This forum should have both a regional and an
extra-regional agenda.
36. In pursuit of the regional agenda, the economies of
East Asia should meet at the ministerial level to discuss
how we can enrich our regional economic cooperation. In
pursuit of the external, extra-regional agenda, we should
discuss how we can cooperate to ensure an open,
non-protectionist, healthy global trading and economic
system.
37. Second, although regional trade is crucially important,
we should not be confined to trade. There is much that can
be done with regard to optimising joint development zones,
trans-border investment, technology sharing, tourism, even
labour flows. The areas for cooperation -- from
privatisation to infrastructure development -- are too many
to enumerate.
38. Third, on matters related to world trade, we must be
champions of free and fair trade.
39. Fourth, we must champion the cause of "open
regionalism". If we agree to do something on regional
trade, we must ensure no new or higher measure of protection
and discrimination should be introduced against those
outside East Asia. When others decide to do something on
regional trade, we should act to ensure that they too adhere
to the principle of open regionalism.
40. Fifth, we should aspire to be a model for true
North-South cooperation.
41. Sixth, we must contribute to the security and
well-being on the part of all the economies of the region.
42. Seventh, whatever cooperation we embark upon should be
grounded in the principles of mutual benefit, mutual
respect, egalitarianism, consensus and democracy. Each one
of these basic principles is basic in itself.
43. At the same time that we pursue these ends, we should
ensure that we are not confrontationist, that we are not
bullied and intimidated and that we do not damage ASEAN,
APEC, and other established processes; we should not allow
others to divide the Pacific, ASEAN or East Asia; we must
not be cowed from speaking out against racism, exclusivism
and attempts to create closed trading blocs.
44. And finally let us not be afraid to uphold and defend
Asian values. We are fortunate in that we could see the
results of the experiments with new ideologies and values by
others. While the democratic western liberals may claim
victory over the socialist/communist ideologies of the East,
the West itself is far from being the ideal society.
Materialism and extreme hedonism has resulted in the
collapse of the family and the institution of marriage.
Homosexuality is of course found in all societies but when
it is accepted and even glorified then the practice will
spread even among those not ambiguously created by nature.
Now the law permits men to marry men and women to marry
women. Worst still incest, marriage between brother and
sister is no longer condemned. And soon father and
daughter, mother and son will pair off.
45. Individual freedom knows no limit. In the name of
individual freedom anything can be done, even if it hurts
the community. Liberal democracy is sacrosanct and may not
be tampered with even when it is obviously destroying
society and more. And all the while new freedoms are
invented and old values derided.
46. Asian values are old and orthodox. The old, the
parents, the teachers, they are respected. The community
comes before the individual. The family is extended and is
responsible for its members, not the Government. These are
but some of the values which we accept and practise. They
have not destroyed our society. Indeed they have helped us
to maintain a balance in the contest between evil and good,
in a world that is getting ever more confused. We should
hang on to them despite the sneers of the liberals and the
modern.
47. I think I owe it to you to explain why I believe in the
East Asian future that I have advocated above.
48. What I am suggesting for East Asia is what has already
worked for ASEAN.
49. After a quarter century, the ASEAN Community is now a
haven of peace, of stability and of prosperity.
50. History can never be made to repeat itself. But it can
be a great teacher and the source of great inspirations.
51. I ask you now: why not an East Asian zone of peace, of
stability, of prosperity? If we achieve it, we may change
the course of history; directly, the future of more than a
quarter of mankind in the East, indirectly, the destiny of
mankind.
52. An Asian Renaissance will not come in my lifetime. I
pray that it will come in yours.
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