Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : DEWAN TUN ISMAIL, PWTC,
KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 11/04/97
Tajuk/Title : THE JOINT MEETING OF THE MALAYSIA-
BRITISH SOCIETY AND BRITISH-
MALAYSIA SOCIETY
1. Firstly, I wish to thank the organiser, The Malaysia-
British Society, for inviting me here today to share some
thoughts with you on issues that could trigger a more
serious effort to promote collaboration between Britain
and Malaysia. The relations between Malaysia and Britain
have largely matured over the years. The generation
which knew the Malay States of the colonial days is
almost gone. The present generation know very little and
remember not at all of the links that our two countries
had had in those years.
2. Still there is a sense of familiarity with each
other and along with it a degree of comfort. We don't
need interpreters for example when we talk to each other
and this in itself contributes towards better
understanding. When we have interpreters we really
cannot be sure they are in fact interpreting correctly.
The story goes that General Templer, one of the most
prominent of the British High Commissioners in pre-
independent Malaya, told the villagers of Kulai, Johore
who had failed to provide information of a communist
ambush in that area that they were all bastards but he
was a greater bastard than all of them. The interpreter
was flabbergasted and translated it by saying that the
good General knew that the parents of the villagers were
all not married but the General's parents too did not get
married. Templer was quite happy with the reaction.
3. Well, I am glad no one in this room will be getting
the benefit of the dubious ability of such interpreters
to interpret for me.
4. But that aside, we know we are comfortable with each
other because our systems are largely similar. We have
the same system of administration, the same understanding
of the rule of law (You are innocent until you are proven
guilty etc.) and the same abhorrence of rude bluntness.
Except for the fact that the Malaysian Constitution was
written, we have the same system of constitutional
monarchy and every year we hold a tea party and confer
numerous sashes and medals with sonorous titles. In fact
even in terms of racial composition of the population we
are slowly approximating each other. I suspect next
year's Commonwealth Games will see quite a colourful
British team participating.
5. All these similarities should enable us to work
closely together. The relations now of course should be
as between equals. Malaysia is still junior in many
ways. Population-wise, GDP/GNP-wise, technology-wise, we
are miles or eons behind. But ego-wise we have managed
to blow ourselves up and we think and behave as if we are
at par with our partner, the British. Just to convince
you and everyone, we dig into our pockets and paid for
the world's highest building and the region's biggest
airport. For good measure we throw in two reputedly
intelligent cities in between the towers and the airport.
6. Many say that we are being irresponsibly
extravagant. Those edifices or monuments cost us
billions which we cannot afford. An American magazine
did a good job by publishing a picture of the twin towers
with a wretched slum building in the foreground. But the
Prime Minister seems a little bit carried away with
memorials before he is even gone. But actually if you
add up, his ego is even bigger. The whole Multimedia
Super Corridor will actually cost over RM100 billion. By
the time it is half-finished, Malaysia will be going
around with a begging bowl. But the Prime Minister has
already worked this out. The Economic Planning Unit has
predicted that he will not be around to carry the bowl in
2020. His successor unfortunately will. The Prime
Minister will go to his grave smiling happily, all his
monuments in place.
7. Sorry for this gallows humour. But actually it is a
standard joke whenever I make a speech about 2020. I
always tell my audience ad nauseum, that the date was
chosen so I would not be around when the things fail. It
never failed to bring a laugh - although I notice that
the laughter is becoming a little bit more strained each
time.
8. But really, Malaysia has some big plans. We do want
to become a fully-developed country by the year 2020. We
cannot do this alone. We need help from friends. And
British friends are the most comfortable. You have the
technology and the skills which we need. To be developed
is of course not just a question of per capita income.
We must have a fair deal of the know-how, the skills and
the expertise. We must be able, firstly, to produce all
those sophisticated products which developed countries
produce and sell to the world, and secondly, we must
eventually be able to invent and innovate and patent our
products so that the current stress on intellectual
property becomes meaningful to us.
9. We know Britain has the technology and the
sophistication. A glance at the new products section of
the brochures issued by the British High Commission
should convince everyone of the innovativeness and
inventiveness of the British. It is said that the
Japanese are more skillful in applying these discoveries
and profiting by them. Perhaps British entrepreneurs
working with Malaysians can find ready application for
these ideas and discoveries and market them, or test
market them in this region. The Japanese have been
doing this all the time. If their South East Asian
guinea pigs survives then it is safe to market whatever
in the rest of the world. Why not the British and the
Malaysians together avail themselves of this strategy.
10. Malaysians have bought into British companies in
order to gain access to technology or other assets. The
purchase of Lotus is a case in point. The potential is
tremendous. We need the sophisticated engineering know-
how of the company and the injection of Malaysian capital
has apparently come in handy for Lotus. The synergy is
obvious here. I am sure there are other Lotus-like
companies which can benefit from `Malaysian injection' of
equity capital.
11. There is one area which the twin societies can help
to realise. For more than a century Malaysian students
have been going to Britain to study. This has benefitted
both Malaysia and Britain. Malaysia of course gain the
kind of knowledge and skills it requires for its
development. Britain on the other hand gained from the
tendency of those who had studied in the United Kingdom
to favour everything British, particularly the
engineering students.
12. But beyond that, partnership between British and
Malaysian companies should also do well in third
countries. Malaysian companies are now testing the water
in many countries of the South. They have not done too
badly but they need greater skills and sophistication.
Employing British engineers and other professionals is
one way out for the Malaysians. They could have employed
Russian or Poles but there is a language problem. The
British fortunately speak English and although it is not
exactly the English the Malaysians speak, the Malaysians
can understand the British English quite well. But a
better way would be for serious joint-ventures to be set
up between Malaysian and British companies, each side
contributing its particular strength, thus enhancing the
capacity of the joint venture company. It is difficult
to identify what strength the Malaysian companies have
which is not found in British companies. But I do
believe they have something to contribute which could be
worthwhile.
13. But at the ASEM meeting in Bangkok last year it was
decided that there is merit in European students in large
numbers studying in Asian universities. As Asian
students studying in Europe learnt to understand the
culture and the way of life of the Europeans, European
students studying in Asia will similarly learn Asian
culture and Asian ways. They would be then more
understanding and less critical of Asians and would
contribute towards better relations between the West and
the East. It may not happen of course. There could
still be clashes of civilisations. But we can try.
14. Now Malaysia in particular is keen to receive
European students, particularly British students to study
in Malaysia, not about anthropology, about Homo Asiancies
or Homo Malaysiancies but other quite mundane subjects.
We assure you our universities will be just as good. You
can provide some of the teachers and the external
examiners. God willing, British students will learn to
appreciate our value systems and be more friendly when
later on they work in the British press or in the British
Foreign Office. They might even learn how to understand
and speak Malaysian English. I am sure Malaysia/British
relations will benefit from this.
15. Finally I would like to mention our most ambitious
project yet - the Multimedia Super Corridor. Physically,
this is a 15km wide stretch of land extending from the
Kuala Lumpur City Centre 50km south to the new
International Airport in Sepang. Within this area and
next to the new so-called paperless electronic Government
Administrative City will be Cybercity, a haven and heaven
for the Information Age industry involving Multimedia. I
will not say much more about this Super Corridor but I am
sure we can provide lots of information on what we intend
and is in fact already doing there. British multimedia
companies are welcome to participate in this exciting new
venture, a testbed for real life experiment in electronic
government, multimedia university, borderless
manufacturing, a single intelligent card to replace the
numerous cards that we have to carry today, R&D
laboratories, media content producers and a host of other
activities which have become possible because of modern
real-time, borderless information distribution world-
wide.
16. Clearly the scope for cooperation between Britain
and Malaysia is unlimited. Britain (and America) has the
advantage because language is less of a problem. Hiccups
will occur but we have had two major hiccups and came out
of them with better understanding and stronger relations.
We should be able to take future hiccups in our stride.
17. The Malaysia-British and the British-Malaysia
societies can obviously play a big role in enhancing the
relations between our two countries and peoples. Purely
business consideration should be supplemented and
augmented by forays into other fields, into culture,
education and even religion. As long as we can agree to
disagree and leave the meeting rooms as friends, there is
no limit to the things we can discuss when these two
societies meet.
18. I wish you all the very best for this session of
your conference. I am sure you will take us one step
further in the cementing of relations between our two
countries and peoples.
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