Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : HOTEL ISTANA, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 21/11/96
Tajuk/Title : THE THIRD PACIFIC DIALOGUE
1. I would like to thank the organisers for the honour of
addressing this distinguished gathering of business leaders of
the Pacific Rim and others who are interested in the affairs
of this region.
2. This Pacific Dialogue is basically a gathering of
outstanding personalities from the United States and East
Asia. I wonder whether I may be permitted to say a few things
to our American and Asian friends and to conclude with just
one thought which it might be useful for us all to ponder
together.
3. To our colleagues from across the Pacific, let me press
three points. First, may we of Asia ask for a little
understanding, a sense of fairness, a little time and a little
space. By all means, do not let anyone of us, Asians, hide
behind excuses. Let all oppressors and despots fear the
conscience of mankind to which Asia as well as America must
fully contribute. But let us be fair. We will lose nothing
by so doing.
4. Second -- and here I direct my remarks not to America`s
politicians, media and NGO's but to America's enterprising
corporations -- you have so much talent, so much creativity.
You have so much to give, to contribute to our future and to
your bottom line by coming out here to rebuild your companies
or to take them to a higher level of performance and
profitability. I would urge you to `Go West', go West beyond
the boundaries of your continent and your current imagination.
Be our companion on our long journey to full modernity. Help
us to build a new Asia.
5. Third, let me speak of productive partnership. Come and
let us -- America, Asia and whomsoever wishes -- let us join
hands in a joint venture, to build a new World, a global
commonwealth such as the world has never seen, worthy of the
hopes of mankind and worthy of the 21st century.
6. We, all of us have a right to ask that we be allowed to
earn our daily bread the old fashioned way, through the sweat
of our brows and the hard work of billions of our people. The
developed among us have all the advantages -- technology,
capital, rich domestic markets, educated workforce, market
savvy, experience, organisation. They have all the products
to sell. Those of us in Asia are only beginning to learn to
produce manufactured goods, relying only on our cheaper labour
cost, cheap because our cost of living is still low and our
expectations not high. Surely you must admit that the threat
we pose is minimal. Yet of late there has been such a
crusade for leveling the playing fields. When the contest is
between giants and midgets, would a level playing field be
enough to ensure a sporting chance for the midget? Surely
many of the businessmen of the West and even politicians play
golf and understand the need for handicaps.
7. Most of the developing world have only the
industriousness of their people to count on and the scraps
which they can hope to pick up. Yet even this seems to be too
much. There are so many amongst the rich who want to ensure
that this single advantage, this one competitive element, is
neutralised. If the rich take from the poor the only thing
which they have, the only means by which they can work their
way out of the pit of poverty, where is the justice? Or does
it not matter?
8. When America was young and growing, finding its way and
working its way up in the world, Europe did not demand that
European institutions be introduced, that European labour
practices be adopted, that you don't expropriate the land of
the natives to grow wheat and tobacco and to rear cattle. For
a time they even allowed you your slaves. Nor did they or
anyone else stop you from clearing forests because of concern
for the wolves and the bears, the mountain lions and the
rattle snakes. Europe in fact was happy to buy the products
that you exported with no question asked. But of course that
was then, not now. Things are different now. We are all a
lot wiser and perhaps a lot more humane. But is it humane and
wise to keep so many Asians in a state of poverty for whatever
reason?
9. I will not defend pollution and the desecration of the
environment, the theft of intellectual property, the
destruction of whole peoples, child labour. But as you look
around, do you see us doing nothing else except these terrible
things? We try, but as you may have noticed poor people are
usually more desperate than the rich. They pollute and they
chop down trees simply because they cannot help themselves.
Electric ovens and gas cookers are still luxury items for a
majority of Asians. Cutting down trees for firewood or for a
living may be the only way out. The alternative may be
uncooked meals or unemployment. We would like to manufacture
sophisticated products on our own and market them worlwide but
most of us don't know how under environmentally ideal
conditions or cannot afford. Besides, if we do try we are
told that we are not treating our workers right. Also we have
to pay royalties or we are simply denied the technology. To
subsist we have to chop down forests and opt for low tech, low
pay labour intensive industries.
10. We speak of Asian values, meaning hard work, respect for
authority, discipline, submission to the interest and the good
of the majority and filial piety. Suddenly we find Asian
values equated with authoritarian rule, disregard for human
and workers rights, political stability and economic success
at all costs. We must now discard Asian values and adopt the
so-called universal values as conceived by the West.
11. Our American and European detractors have forgotten that
enormous tribulation separated the clarion call of "liberte,
egalite, fraternite" and a truly democratic France. The First
Republic replaced the absolute monarchy of the ancient regime
with the imperial glory of Napoleon. The French saw a
revolution not only in 1789 but also in 1830 and 1848. The
1848 revolution saw the birth of the Second Republic. The
Third Republic came with the overthrow of Napoleon III after
the Franco-Prussian War. The Fourth Republic came to an end
after the Second World War and the collaboration of the Vichy
government with Hitler. It all took time and I don't think
that even now French democracy is perfect.
12. In the United States of America two centuries and one
civil war stood between the American Declaration of
Independence where you so rightly proclaimed the virtues of
democracy, where you so rightly proclaimed that "all men are
created equal" and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Two hundred
years. One civil war. And so many tribulations in between.
13. Women were granted the right to vote in Italy only in
1945, in Switzerland only a few years ago. The aborigines of
Australia were granted citizenship, the right to vote, and
full recognition as human beings only in 1967. But there
still survive a few who, even now believe that the new
attitude towards the aborigines and indeed the abolition of
the White Australia Policy are mistakes.
14. So many of us Asians were not granted the right to
democracy or even the right to govern ourselves, the most
fundamental of human rights, until recent years. It is
interesting that so many of us, who were regarded as obviously
unfit for self rule and democracy for hundreds of years were
required to be good or even model practitioners of democracy
the moment the colonial flag was lowered and the flag of
independence went up. No time at all is given. Perfection at
the first try is required of us Asians. Having multi-parties
and holding regular elections are not enough. To be truly
democratic we must change Governments with each election,
endure civil strifes and frequent disruptive demos and strikes
and generally verge on anarchy. We should of course not do
well economically and challenge the established developed
countries.
15. None of these means that democracy is not important for
Asia or that human rights are of lesser relevance to Asia than
it is in other parts of the world. To argue the former is to
utterly misunderstand the task at hand. To argue the latter
to Asians who have advanced faster and more fundamentally with
the human rights of hundreds of millions -- at speeds never
before seen in human history -- is to betray incredible myopia
and to demonstrate incredible ignorance.
16. Asia can no longer sit down and take injury and insult in
stoic silence -- from those who think that their own complete
lack of knowledge should be no impediment to putting entire
countries on trial. We of Asia will increasingly demand and
we have a right to demand a little maturity and sophistication
on the part of those who wish to analyse and proselytise; who
so easily slip into the role of policeman, prosecutor, judge
and jury; who so habitually try, judge, punish and persecute
without even giving a hearing.
17. What Asians need is not theology and the easy assumption
that we cannot think for ourselves. Once upon a time we might
have bought snake oil. But we are a little bit more
sophisticated now. Too much water has flowed under the
bridges of history. To those politicians and all-knowing NGOs
who still want to sell snake oil, we say take some yourselves
for you may need it more. We would like to point out that the
oppression of nations by nations is no less undemocratic than
the oppression of Governments over their citizens. You cannot
preach one without practising the other.
18. Let me now turn to my call to American enterprise to `Go
West', to come out in large numbers to what so many of you,
and some of us, still call "the Far East". The Far East for
America is actually Europe up to Asia Minor. The world is
quite round as has been confirmed by satellite pictures. Any
place can be the central reference point. Relative to
America, Asia is the West. Even as you left the cosy comforts
of home a century and a half ago and built the American West,
you should now do the same but venture further, across the
Pacific in fact and help build Asia. You will not have to
deal with marauding natives and lose your scalps. You will be
welcomed instead and you will gain more than you ever did when
you pioneered the opening of your Wild West.
19. In the 21st century, no corporation can be a world player
if it is not nourished by and strongly anchored in our part of
the world. Already, the Asia Pacific is where 60 percent of
the world is. On this planet, at this time, already 60
percent of all the goods and services produced is produced in
the Asia Pacific. In the decades ahead, the economic centre
of gravity must shift Westwards even as it did in America's
own history only a hundred and fifty years ago.
20. To be sure, some of us in Asia may not want you and will
not be prepared to ensure that you and you alone flourish and
profit from your enterprise and our enormous dynamism. We
would certainly want a share of that profit. That apart, let
me say that in most of Asia Pacific and certainly in Malaysia
you are most heartily welcome. We need you as co-builders of
our co-prosperity. If you help us to prosper, then you would
be building a great market for your goods and expertise, for
no matter how we try there will always be things that we will
need from you. No matter how much we want to be independent,
we cannot help but be inter-dependent. We cannot only sell to
you, we must buy also, as much as we realise you must sell in
order to be able to buy what we want to sell to you. We know
this and you know this.
21. Asians and Asian values are not identical. We differ
quite a bit. Mostly we are polite and even accommodating.
But sometimes we are not. So do not be surprised if the
customarily polite becomes frank and the usually frankly
brutal becomes nice and accommodating. If I may be allowed I
would like to seriously advocate a joint venture between Asia
and America and others in order to create a single global
commonwealth. You see, we do believe in good friendly
relations for the common good of mankind even.
22. A single interdependent global commonwealth was not
possible in the great age of colonialism because the world was
divided into exclusive economic blocs, each oriented towards
its centre of the imperial cosmos. However, it is today
possible for the first time in human history. Imagine the
productive consequences of such a new economic reality. It
will be the real mechanism which will transform the whole
political, strategic and psychological make-up of the world.
We would indeed have a new world.
23. In a previous dialogue I suggested that we opt for win-
win-win solutions. I said that we should forever bury the
primeval and primordial beggar-thy-neighbour reflexes that
have been so natural in the past. Let us put in their place
prosper-thy-neighbour impulses aimed at ensuring that all our
neighbours and all their neighbours, far and near, will
prosper. Is it wrong for everyone to be prosperous? I am
sure we have noticed that prosperous people have more time to
attend to the well-being of human kind, their freedoms and
their rights. Wouldn't a commonwealth of nations where wealth
would really be common be better than wealth that is uncommon
for most nations of the world?
24. There has been much talk of the 21st century becoming the
Asian Century. I beg to differ.
25. I believe that the 21st century will not be the Asian
Century in the way that the Nineteenth century was the
European century and much of the 20th was the American
century. The 21st century will be the century when the world
takes precedence over the narrower interests of nations and
continents. This will be best not only for the rest of the
world but also for Asia.
26. But the century of the world will not happen if we all
talk of the Asian Century. We should downplay this Asian
Century thing. We should play up the 21st century as the
Century of the world, the century when the world comes
together, to build greater prosperity not only for Asians but
for all mankind.
27. We Asians must forego the ego massage that so many others
seem to need. The idea of Asians lording it over the rest of
the world may seem attractive and satisfying for Asians. But
let us not be lulled by this egoistic dream.
28. Yet we must surely want Asia to have a bigger say in the
making of the 21st century. We cannot have a bigger say if we
mess up our administrations through democratic
irresponsibility, if we unnecessarily confront each other over
trivialities, if we fail to seize the hour. How can we have a
bigger say if we can't even make up our minds what to say?
29. If we are to command the respect of the world, we do
truly need to do even better in the process towards
modernisation. We must be more successful in devising systems
of more democratic governance. We must advance faster, over a
broader front, in the struggle to ensure the dignity of man,
the dignity of all our citizens, their rights and
responsibilities.
30. We have been able to secure the greatest advance of
mankind in human history in the last generation because we
were able to recognise what really counts is pragmatism, not
ideological fervour; that the welfare of our people must take
precedence over the egos of the few, and that that well-being
can only come from economic growth, not jingoistic nationalism
or even continentalism.
31. East Asian and Americans share a common Ocean, the
Pacific, the Ocean of peace. It may have distanced us from
each other in the past as the Atlantic never did between
Europe and America. But that distance is no longer the
dividing factor that it was. Where once it took months to
cross today it takes a matter of hours. And we can talk and
see each other as if there is no oceanic gap between us.
32. True, most wars have been between close neighbours. But
neighbours have been known to form strong and lasting
alliances. Cannot we be friends, Asians and Americans? Cannot
we be a little more tolerant of each other's quirks and
foibles? Stop comparing. Neither of us are perfect, nor
either absolutely imperfect.
33. During this Pacific Dialogue you will be concentrating
constructively on three subjects: Moving Forward on the
Economic Front, Moving Forward on the Political Front, and
Moving Forward on the Culture/Civilisation Front. To move
forward together on any front, we need understanding and
tolerance. Otherwise we will be moving forward against each
other and there can only be a destructive clash in the end.
34. Almost one thousand years ago, as the world that was
Europe then moved towards the end of the first millennium and
the beginning of the second millennium, there was near panic
and utter depression. This was because the learned Christian
clerics of that time believed that the world would come to an
end exactly one thousand years after the birth of Jesus
Christ. Economic development wound down. Human endeavour
petered out. For what was the use of doing anything positive
if the world was going to come to an abrupt end?
35. Today, one thousand years later, we know better. We must
seek a new beginning. Let our uncommon sense prevail. Let us
build as determinedly as we can destroy.
36. If Asia and America can be joint venture partners in
prospering each other we will surely be the catalyst for a
single global commonwealth of common prosperity and this will
surely result in a century that is not Asian, not American,
nor European, nor even African, but a World Century.
Idealistic perhaps. But Man, working towards an ideal must
achieve something nearly that.
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