Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : THE KUALA LUMPUR HILTON HOTEL
Tarikh/Date : 28/03/95
Tajuk/Title : THE MEETING ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
COOPERATION IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
It gives me great pleasure to welcome all delegates,
local and foreign, to this Meeting on Regional Development
Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific. Malaysia, and in
particular Kuala Lumpur, is honoured to play host to this
meeting which must be considered as being most timely.
2. Regional cooperation is both logical and desirable in
order to achieve the greatest amount of good for the
greatest number of people. However, it cannot thrive within
the framework of a master-disciple relationship. Instead,
it must be predicated upon mutual respect for each country's
sovereignty and sensitivities. I hope your deliberations at
this meeting will contribute towards improving efforts to
chart new approaches and directions for the growth of Asia
and the Pacific region.
3. The Asia Pacific region which encompasses all countries
in Asia and islands washed by the Pacific Ocean, presents a
unique challenge to the world community. Due to the greatly
increased demand for capital resulting from the former
command economies switching to the free market system, the
flow of funds to the region in the near future is likely to
be limited. With this, the major challenge of the
multilateral institutions will be to provide better and more
cost-efficient development assistance in order to resolve
the problems faced by the countries of the region.
4. With the end of the East-West hostilities, and with the
growing euphoria over the predicted Pacific Century presaged
by the achievements of many East Asian economies, many had
expected the developing countries of the Asia and Pacific
region to reap fully the dividends of peace. But instead,
they are now being made to pay a heavy premium. The
developed North has invented and imposed all kinds of
conditions on developing countries including linkages with
human rights, labour rights, environmental restrictions,
access to markets and an anarchic regime in the exchange
rate of currencies. Every move by the North to protect
their interests invariably results in the poor countries
becoming poorer. The rich man's club not only disregards
the interest of the poor but positively refuses to hear
their views before damaging decisions are made. And so The
Plaza Accord, for example, raised the value of the Yen,
resulting in the developing debtor countries having to pay
as much as 100 percent more for their Yen loans. And the
value of the Yen is still being forced upwards with dire
consequences for most developing countries. This gloomy
scenario will continue unless the developing countries,
particularly in the Asia Pacific region, are willing to
cooperate in their development programmes.
5. We had expected the United Nations, at least, to serve
as a forum for airing the views of the developing countries.
But in fact their views there are totally ignored. The
so-called free press censors the views of the developing
world until it appears that they are, if not dumb, at least
voiceless. You can be absolutely sure that nothing will be
reported in the international media about this meeting
except, of course, the negative aspects. Yet if certain
members of the Security Council were to so much as sneeze,
there will be headlines on the front pages of every one of
these papers and prolonged interviews in the world
electronic media. So much for the so-called free press.
6. It is perhaps symptomatic of the malady affecting the
developed world that the recent World Summit on Social
Development in Copenhagen was remarkable for the absence of
their representatives. Yet the Rio Conference on the
Environment and Development was fully attended, perhaps
because the developing world was supposed to contribute by
sacrificing their own development in order to preserve their
forests and resources as sinks for the pollutants of the
rich.
7. The Asia and Pacific region is vast in size, vast in
numbers, vast in the challenges it faces and equally vast in
the opportunities it holds. In terms of size, it is one
third of the planet. In terms of numbers, it supports
almost one half of the world's population. The region
accounts for 25 percent of global exports, 22 percent of
global imports and 33 percent of global international
reserves. At the same time, it is also home to the largest
number of poor people in the world.
8. More than 800 million people live in abject poverty in
the Asia Pacific region. Several hundred millions are
denied access to the basic necessities of life - food, clean
water, clean air, shelter, education and health. The
infrastructure for developing the resources of the people
through education and training is inadequate. To make
matters worse, a rapidly growing population coupled with
rapid urbanisation have complicated the picture and are
putting greater pressure on the fragile resources of the
region.
9. This state of affairs is due in part at least to our
own faults. Sometimes we are so sold on the efficacy of
democracy that we are too free with our freedom and our
rights. We take to the streets at the drop of a pin in
order to force the hands of Government or to force it out.
We believe that a change of Governments will heal all our
ills. But changes in Governments have often resulted in
worse Governments being set up, as incapable or as unwilling
to do the right things as the previous ones. Again we take
to the streets, hold general strikes and generally
destabilise the nation, with no real results in terms of our
well-being.
10. Good, strong Governments can go wrong too. So also can
the systems of administration or the approach towards
developments. We must admit that all these can go wrong and
do go wrong. While it is right and proper for us to blame
others, it is perhaps easier to correct ourselves than to
ask the others, particularly the rich countries, to correct
themselves in order that we may enjoy healthy growth and
resolve our socio-economic problems.
11. Assuming that we are able to put our act together and
really make democracy and our administration work, we will
still not be able to resolve our poverty and development
problems if we do not cooperate with each other. This is
because the developed nations are all ganging up and forming
all kinds of blocs. Although they may insist that they do
not mean to be exclusive, but the fact remains that they
have a tendency to jointly act against our economic
interests if we do not conform or do what we are told.
Mention has already been made about their insistence on
linking trade with human rights, workers' wages and
environmental issues. It is reasonable to expect everyone
to be concerned with these issues. But what is worrisome is
that the linkages invariably affect our competitiveness. It
would seem that they are more interested in pushing up our
costs than in seeing that our people and our workers are
free, and our environment well-preserved. And yet when they
were on their way up they exploited people and the
environment more than we are doing. Those of us who were
colonies of the developed nations before must remember how
our people were fully exploited and our pristine forests
were razed to the ground to make way for plantations and the
extraction of minerals.
12. We should not object of course to what is reasonable
and fair. But our problem is that we are unable to have our
views heard, much less considered. And this is due to our
lack of coordination and cooperation while the developed
countries are not only coordinated but are arraigned against
us in solid blocs.
13. For a long time developing nations had depended on the
production and export of primary commodities in order to
earn the foreign exchange we need to buy manufactured goods.
Unfortunately, the advanced countries invented substitutes
for our commodities and through market manipulation
depressed commodity prices further. The terms of trade
became more and more against us.
14. Some developing countries have now turned to
manufacturing, particularly labour and resource-intensive
industries in order to benefit from our lower cost of living
and resources. But again we are being frustrated by
conditionalities imposed on our exports, as for example,
eco-labelling.
15. The only way we can counter all these is for us to
coordinate and cooperate. By showing a united front we will
be able to influence trade policies and the World Trade
Organisation (WTO). Admittedly, our clout will not be very
powerful, but it will be better than no clout at all.
Working alone and in isolation will get us nowhere.
16. Malaysia's experience is that the attainment of
prosperity and progress by developing countries invariably
benefits other countries as well. Thus when South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore achieved high growth, they
became not only good trading partners for us but also good
investors in our country. Very often these countries alone
and together top the foreign investments in Malaysia.
17. In time Malaysia was able to switch to manufacturing,
progressing from labour-intensive to high-tech industries.
The extensive knowledge and capital accumulated in Malaysia
have now enabled Malaysia to invest in other developing
countries in the region. We fully expect the same cycle
which Malaysia went and is going through to be experienced
by the other developing countries in the Asia Pacific
region. In time the whole region will be prosperous.
Indeed, trade between the countries of East Asia is today
comparable with intra-European or intra-American trade. All
these go to prove that cooperation and cross-investments,
together with transfers of technology, benefit everyone,
rich or poor. They are mutually enriching.
18. The world can be a much better place if the rich were
less obsessed with maintaining their status. They do not
gain by impoverishing the already poor, by making them debt
slaves or permanent recipients of aid. A world of evenly
developed countries, each exploiting its comparative
advantages, be it knowledge or skills or resources or
labour, trading and competing fairly with each other, is far
better than a world divided into North and South, rich and
poor, developed and developing, powerful and weak, and trade
blocs and trade blocs. Maybe this sounds too idealistic.
But humanity without ideals will certainly mean the end of
history, of civilisation.
19. In the final analysis, our goal must surely be the
well-being of our people. We hope to be respected members
in the family of nations. Action, and not words, begets
respect. In our haste to improve the lot of our people, in
our race towards the status of a developed nation, we run
the risk of putting undue pressure on the very elements that
sustain development -- the resources, the institutions and
the people. In so doing, we often lose sight of the goal of
development, that is, the well-being of our present
generation and the generations to come. We must, therefore,
set our priorities right by putting the ultimate goal of
people development firmly in our minds as we move ahead.
20. In making development happen, we must take to heart the
lessons of history -- the successes that have been achieved
which could be emulated and the mistakes to be avoided. For
us, the search for that elusive balance between the need to
develop and the capability of the resources to sustain
development must be a matter of priority. Among the myriad
possible approaches to development, the countries of Asia
and the Pacific must tread the path of responsible
development, that is, development with a conscience. In
this, we must not bow to pressures exerted by the fads and
fashions of environmental movements and economic lobby
groups. We must determine our own national and regional
priorities on the basis of our own circumstances. We must
recognise that economic sustainability through responsible
development does not only refer to issues related to the
preservation of the environment. It includes other elements
like social justice, the right to development and wealth and
an equitable world society. While emphasising the most
productive exploitation of our resources, and making sure
that pollution does not retard economic growth, we must also
take into account that people must be treated fairly and
have a voice in decisions that affect them, and that wealth
must be distributed equitably among all segments of the
population. We must also take pains to preserve the
enormously diverse elements within our societies which in
themselves give meaning to life.
21. The road to responsible development is fraught with
problems and uncertainties. Towards this end, multilateral
development institutions must play the role of the honest
broker, matching universal principles and priorities with
local circumstances. It is imperative that such
institutions do not take a slanted view of development as
prescribed by the western pundits. Instead they must
initiate collaborative approaches with the developing
countries. For us, the concept of responsible development
holds out the hope of better times ahead. Much remains to
be learnt.
22. I hope this meeting will come up with fresh insights
into problems hindering regional growth and will propose
measures that will identify new avenues for promoting
regional cooperation.
23. On this note, I have great pleasure in declaring open
this meeting on Regional Development Cooperation in Asia and
the Pacific.
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