Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : WASEDA UNIVERSITY, TOKYO, JAPAN
Tarikh/Date : 27/03/97
Tajuk/Title : THE FUTURE OF ASIA AND THE ROLE OF
JAPAN: CHALLENGES OF THE
21ST CENTURY TO YOUTH
1. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the
President of Waseda University, Dr. Takayasu Okushima and
his staff members and students for inviting me here. I
am deeply touched by your gesture and hospitality. I
consider it both an honour and a privilege to be here
with you today, especially to address a very special kind
of audience.
2. As one of Japan's oldest universities Waseda
University has a glorious record. It has left an
indelible mark on the pages of the educational and nation-
building history of Japan. Your achievements fulfilled
the vision of your founder, Shigenobu Okuma. Waseda
University can take pride that it has played a big part
in helping to produce the good citizens who helped to
form the backbone of modern Japan. I understand your
Alumni numbers nearly half a million. May I take this
opportunity to congratulate you for your fine
achievements. As we prepare for the next millennium may
I wish you greater success.
3. I welcome the opportunity to have this encounter of
the minds with you here today because I think you are a
very special audience. You may not have thought about it
but you are indeed a very special group of people for at
least two reasons.
4. First, you actually represent the children of post-
Second World War Japan or the new Japan -- a democratic,
responsible and prosperous Japan that blossomed under a
Peace Constitution. By and large, you have emerged as
the primary and principal beneficiaries of this new found
national creed and prosperity of Japan.
5. Second, apart from the fact that as students of
Waseda University, you are the creme de la creme among
the children of a prosperous post-war Japan, you are also
among the most fortunate youths of the century because
you are going to be an important element in the bridge
and the link between this century and the next. You
represent both the present and the future. You are
Japan's hope and aspiration for the coming millenium.
6. It is in this context that our gathering here today
takes on a very special meaning. My aim is very modest.
I would like to invite you to join me in taking a close
look at some of the major changes currently sweeping Asia
and the world. In a shrunken and increasingly borderless
world we cannot of course look at Asia in isolation.
7. I submit that it is important for us to come to
terms with the emerging Asia. Perhaps more so for Japan
for reasons I do not have to elaborate here. We all have
to try to understand not only the dimensions and the
dynamics of change that are going on all around us but
also their less tangible, but equally significant,
underlying causes and implications.
8. Japan is generally regarded as a success story. Very
few people will disagree with that although some may have
their own views on what actually constitute success.
Fundamentally, it was the emergence of Japan as an
economic superpower in the post Second World War era that
has inspired admiration and initiated the economic
revolution among many East Asian nations, a revolution
that has changed almost completely the character of this
region, and projected it into prominence in the world's
economic equation.
9. Emerging from the Pacific War with a devastated
country and economy, Japan has become today one of the
few countries in the world that is truly powerful
economically, becoming a creditor nation very early
during its emergence as an economic powerhouse. I am told
unemployment has been for a long time almost a non-issue
in this country. Other developed nations may be
prosperous but have almost never been able to achieve
full employment. Despite some recent recurring economic
ills, its per capita income is still one of the highest
in the world. And perhaps even more important it is one
of the most peaceful and pleasant countries to live in.
10. Some people attribute Japan's miraculous economic
feat to its unique culture. Their basic argument is that
the Japanese have been successful simply because they are
Japanese and that on account of the uniqueness of the
Japanese culture, there are many things about the
Japanese which simply cannot be learnt or emulated.
11. I beg to disagree. Japanese culture may have played
a role. But really there is nothing that cannot be
learnt, including elements of a country's culture.
Malaysia has always been very much impressed with the
Japanese achievements and over a decade ago we set out to
seriously learn certain aspects of your culture. Hence
the Look East Policy. Now 13 years later the policy has
proven beneficial to Malaysia, and incidentally, it has
benefited Japan as well.
12. It is simply indefensible to hold that certain
skills and knowledge are the exclusive monopoly of
certain nations. I am not anti-European, but the myth of
exclusivity in certain skills was invented by Europeans
in the heyday of their imperialism. We, the colonised
people, actually believed at one time that there was no
way we could acquire these skills. But Japan and the
Japanese have shown that the claim was false. Anyone can
acquire any knowledge or skills provided he is prepared
to pursue these doggedly. And our Look-East Policy has
proven that even Japanese ethics and work culture can be
learnt without of course making us any less Malaysian.
13. Asia, freed from the aforementioned myths will grow
and develop in the coming years, in the coming century.
Certainly East Asia, i.e. North East and South East Asia
will grow very fast. Japan is likely to stay ahead but
the so-called dragons and tigers will not be far behind.
Short of a nuclear war exploding, there can be no
stopping the emergence of East Asia as an economic
powerhouse of the same stature as the European Union or
NAFTA in the 21st Century. But what all these portend
for the future of Asia and indeed of the world will
depend on our understanding and perceptions of the
various alternatives presented to us and the role we
choose to play.
14. Due to sheer size alone China must become a major
economic power in the region. We are being urged to fear
this but the combined size and wealth of the other North
East Asian countries together with the South East Asian
countries can easily balance that of China. Certainly in
economic terms China will not be as big as the rest of
East Asia. An antagonistic stand towards China by the
rest will not be necessary. It will actually be counter-
productive. Instead cooperation between all the
countries of East Asia including China, not in a military
or even economic terms, but in promoting justice and
equitability world wide, in arguing on behalf of weak
nations, would create the kind of understanding which
will diminish the possibility of conflicts and
confrontations in East Asia. And by extension, it would
contribute towards building a peaceful and more equitable
world.
15. Some will probably think that a strong cooperative
Asia will want to dominate the world. Already some are
talking of the 21st Century as the Asian Century. But a
strong Asia cannot dominate the world in the sense the
Europeans on both sides of the Atlantic dominated the
world for well over four centuries. The concept of
domination and hegemony in the old sense, is out-dated
and silly. It is unfortunate, however, that the
Europeans are still clinging to this idea and postulating
all kinds of possible hegemonic threats by Asia. Having
lost their globe-girdling colonies, the Europeans now
want to continue their dominance through dictating the
terms of trade, the systems of Government and the whole
value system of the world including human rights and
environmental protection. They are still at it because
no one seems capable or willing to counter them. The
Asians, the only people capable of balancing European
influence, are divided and unwilling to play a meaningful
role in world affairs.
16. But, if Asians particularly of East Asia have a
better sense of responsibility, they will undertake the
task. Asia cannot dominate the world. There cannot be
an Asian century. But a more cohesive Asia can provide
the balance which will contribute towards the creation of
a more equitable world.
17. Asians as much as Europeans have been guilty of
cruel wars in the past. Millions have died because of
the ambitious wars of conquest by Asians. The Seljuk and
the Ottoman Turks and the Mongols swept over Central Asia
and then Europe, killing millions and devastating towns
and cities. Arab armies reached beyond the Pyrenees into
France. In recent times Japan too set out on such an
adventure, enamoured by the European concept of
imperialism.
18. There is no doubt that they would have continued to
occupy and rule these territories that they conquered.
But there is a slight difference between Asian conquerors
and their European counterparts.
19. Europeans colonised and dominated the people they
conquered. They remain apart even when their subjects
embraced their religion and culture. Asian conquerors,
on the other hand, tended to be assimilated by their
subject people. Thus the Turks embraced Islam, the
religion of the Arabs they subjugated and ruled. The
Mongols became Muslims in Muslim countries and Buddhists
in China. There was no clear and permanent line between
the conquerors and the conquered. They do not impose
their faith or their system or their values on the
subject people. Indeed they identify with the subject
people and eventually seek to free themselves together
with the local inhabitants from the rule of their own
kind. There were no colonies of the conquering Turks,
Arabs or Mongols.
20. How relevant is this to the problem of balancing the
influence of the West in the 21st Century? Not very much
perhaps. But the fact is that there was a time when
Asians played a significant role in shaping the cultures,
religions and politics of the world. If they could do
that before, they should be able to do the same again,
not through wars of course but through balancing the
pressures of the Europeans. But can they succeed in
doing this? Again, I would like to say that they can if
they have the courage of their conviction and the will to
try. The problem is that at the moment the Asians are
passive, fragmented and timidly defensive. If they
continue to be as they are now, then the role of Asians
in the next century will not be any different from their
present role. And in that case they deserve to be
dominated by the Europeans in an inequitable and an
unjust world.
21. I would like to stress again that playing a
balancing role is not the same as trying to dominate. I
am not suggesting that Asians should forcibly confront
the Europeans in an attempt to make them less prone to
using arm-twisting methods to impose their will and their
perception of things global. No one has a monopoly of
wisdom, not the Asians, not the Europeans. But Europeans
have been wrong many more times in the immediate past.
They can be wrong again in their evangelizing today. Let
us examine their record.
22. When the 20th century dawned, the Europeans were at
the height of their world dominance. Almost every
European power including European Russia boasted of huge
globe-girdling empires. They saw nothing wrong in their
colonising and subjecting non-Europeans to their rule.
Indeed, they invented the myth of the White Man's Burden
to justify their oppressive imperialism.
23. But in the end they had to admit that they were
wrong, that the natives had their own civilisations and
the right to be free of European norms and overlordship.
24. Having tacitly admitted that they had been wrong
about the White Man's Burden, they then created the Cold
War as a sequel to the World War II they won. World War
II had been touted by them as the war to end all wars.
But apparently it only resulted in a prolonged Cold War
because of ideological differences. The ideologies
concerned were all of European origins and both sides,
the Western Europeans and the Eastern Europeans preached
these ideologies as the only correct ideologies which the
whole world must embrace.
25. In the end, after much tension, costly preparations
for war, proxy wars and assorted confrontations, it was
admitted that the Socialist ideology of Western Europe
and the Communist ideology of Eastern Europe were wrong.
It was, however, claimed that the liberal democracy and
free market capitalism of the West had triumphed and been
adjudged the right set of systems. Now the whole world
must accept these systems.
26. Their value systems too were proven wrong
repeatedly. They denied voting rights for women at first
but later accorded them the right as well as other rights
undreamt of. They decided that workers and their unions
could do no wrong but today they have half-reversed their
liberalism, limiting some of the rights of their own
workers. Again they have tacitly admitted that they have
been wrong.
27. But despite being so often wrong in so many of their
ideas, they are absolutely convinced that their brand of
liberal democracy is absolutely right. No other system
would therefore be tolerated by them. Every country must
now practise liberal democracy. If they don't, then
economic sanctions and even military threat will be
directed at them. That such methods are rather
undemocratic does not worry the Europeans one bit. When
promoting their cause everything is justified.
28. Now we all believe that there is no better system of
Government than democracy. But democracy is interpreted
differently by different people. Indeed the
authoritarian rulers of Communist countries were fond of
describing their countries as democratic republics. The
Eastern Europeans are as inconsistent as the Western
Europeans. They have now largely discarded their
democratic republics, considering them not democratic at
all. In other words they have admitted they were wrong
about their brand of democracy. Is it not possible that
since the Europeans both East and West have been wrong so
many times, that their liberal democracy too would be
proven wrong eventually? Is it not possible that our
Asia interpretation of democracy may be proven right?
29. In the field of international trade we are told that
the only right system is free, unrestricted commerce
between all countries of whatever level of economic
development. The playing field must be level even if the
players are not evenly matched. This is just and this is
right. Already in the WTO they are pressing for the
opening up of all markets to their huge powerful
companies. Being small and weak is no excuse for
protecting domestic business. They, the powerful
European economies, will open their markets to the tiny
companies from the poor countries in order to demonstrate
how fair they are.
30. Everyone must accept liberal democracy and the
absolutely free market because the Europeans say they are
just and fair. But if they have been so often wrong
before could they not be wrong also regarding their
interpretation of free trade? Could it not be possible
that others, including the small Asian trading countries,
be right in their objections?
31. But divided and uncoordinated, the emerging
economies of Asia have so far been unable to effectively
have a say in the political and economic affairs of their
own countries and certainly not in the world. We are
going along with the dominant European views regardless
of their mistakes in the past and the possibility of
their making a mistake again now. If in the end all
their systems, political and economic, are proven wrong,
then obviously we will all have to pay a price. It could
be a very heavy price. Already the Western thinkers are
predicting clashes of civilisations. The pressures on
China and South East Asian countries are causing
bitterness as they obstruct the growth and development of
these countries. The carping criticisms of human rights
records and environmental pollution or destruction and
the linking of these with trade will be much resented.
Tensions will rise, threats will be hurled and unpleasant
incidents will colour the relations between East and
West. one day someone might do something stupid and
economic pursuits will be replaced with political and
even military confrontations.
32. All these may seem rather pessimistic. But all
these things can happen. They can happen because the
only people who can do something to stop it will not act.
And the only people are the Asians, the countries of
Asia, specifically East Asia.
33. So far Asia has refused to do anything in concert.
They worry the Europeans on both sides of the Atlantic
may not like it. At all cost they must not annoy the
Europeans. Even if the Europeans are obviously wrong
they should not be angered by telling them they could be
wrong.
34. I submit that this is the wrong way to ensure a
peaceful and glorious 21st Century. Asia must speak up
if the countries of Asia want to enjoy peace and
prosperity in the next century. Asia must be willing to
confront the Europeans across the table now if it wants
to avoid confronting them in other arenas later.
35. During the Cold War there were two blocs. Each bloc
had to be careful and considerate of the needs of small
countries in order to gain their support, even if the
support was only moral in nature. The end of the Cold
War has resulted in an unbalanced domination of the
victor over the whole world. The sole dominant power has
already demonstrated a tendency to be very heavy handed
when dealing with other countries, particularly those not
of the European bloc.
36. The only way to lighten this heavy-handedness is to
create a counterbalance. Asia can provide that
counterbalance. We are not talking about a balance of
terror, a balance in terms of military might. That is
wasteful and unproductive. The Asians can prevail simply
by arguing their case together to counter the tendency of
the Europeans to impose their systems and their will on
the world.
37. As has been pointed out the Europeans have been
wrong again and again. We must convince the Europeans
that they could be wrong again now -- about their
ideology, their political systems and their economic
creed. We have to do it now before their overbearing
ways lead to bitterness and tensions and worse.
38. The future of Asia will be largely determined by
Asians. If Asia decides to accept continued European
domination of the world, then a rapidly inequitable and
oppressive atmosphere will build up which must in the end
be damaging to Asia if not to the whole world. But if
Asia decides to play a meaningful role in world affairs,
to counter and correct wrong attitudes and the
international policies of the Europeans, then there will
be hope for a more just world, a more equitable world, a
world in which the weak and the strong can coexist in
peace and prosperity. Again I would like to stress that
I don't mean military confrontation. All that is needed
now is for the Asians to push their own arguments in the
light of their own experience, past and present. It can
do a lot of good. It cannot do much harm.
39. The role of Japan is obvious. It is by far the most
advanced nation of Asia. It is well-placed to lead as
the first among equals. It should play its rightful role
in world affairs. It should set a good example for Asia
by taking up the issues of concern to Asian countries.
It should cease to consider itself a western developed
nation in the East. Japan has the credibility to lead,
not towards Asian domination in an Asian Century, but
towards a more equitable world community in the Century
of the World which is dawning upon us.
40. As for the youths, the challenge for them in the
21st century is to try to throw off the baggage of
history. The youths of the 21st century must think of
themselves as true citizens of the world. They must
forget colour and creed and notions of superiority or
inferiority. They must think of equality not in terms of
material wealth alone but in being all members of the
same human race. The borderless world in which they will
live must not only be in terms of information. It must
be borderless in the true sense of removing the
distinctions due to unequal wealth and unequal power,
colour and creed and intolerance between religions.
Above all, the youths of the 21st century must not allow
the Western wish for a clash of civilisations to occur.
41. The youths of the 21st century must fully understand
that the world is round. No country is truly East or
West except relative to each other. Japan is a western
country in so far as the US is concerned. And by the
same token the US is an Eastern country. We all have as
much right to call ourselves Eastern or Western people
with no implied connotation about being different,
inferior or superior.
42. The youths of the 21st Century must reorientate
themselves to a world which has not only shrunken but
will no longer be divided between East and West. And
they will have to regard the whole Earth as their planet
and country, the object of their ultimate loyalty.
National traditions and cultures they must retain but all
traditions and cultures of all countries are of equal
importance and worthy of being respected by all. There
should be only one world civilisation although some
traditions, standards and perceptions must be allowed to
differ. All should be accepted as universal, unless we
all agree they are totally unacceptable.
43. The Information Age has dawned upon us and with it
comes a borderless world in which no nation can be an
island. We all belong to the same world, fed by the same
information and accepting ever more uniform values and
culture. Eventually, there will evolve a world
civilisation to which everyone will belong. The
challenge for the youths of the 21st Century is how to
adjust to this century of the world while retaining some
of the diversity of race and creed which will make the
world continue to be interesting. For Asian youths,
their understanding of the shape and the dynamics of the
21st century will determine the role that they will play
and the Asia that will emerge.
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