Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : ISTANBUL, THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
Tarikh/Date : 15/06/97
Tajuk/Title : THE SUMMIT LEVEL MEETING ON
"COOPERATION FOR
DEVELOPMENT" OR D-8
1. I wish at the outset to thank President Demirel for
the warm words of welcome and for the gracious Turkish
hospitality extended to me and members of my
delegation. May I also express my appreciation to
Prime Minister Erbakan for the excellent work he has
done to move the D-8 initiative forward.
2. We meet here in Istanbul, a historic city which
has been the seat of Empires. The Ottoman Empire has
now been replaced by modern Turkey, a dynamic country
which I'm sure will reclaim its past glory. The
vision for that has already been set by its founder and
it remains only for the successor Governments to strive
towards it. I am sure that the people and the leaders
of Turkey will not fail in their duty to their
motherland.
3. We are glad to be associated with Turkey and other
nations, in the long struggle to achieve our common
visions. The members of the D 8 have two things in
common. We are all developing countries wanting to
lift our countries and peoples to a higher stage of
development.
4. We are, secondly, countries with large Muslim
populations. Other countries could also fall into this
category but we are conscious that large memberships
tend to slow down the process of cooperation. So
Malaysia subscribes to the initial small membership. It
is not, I am sure, a desire to be exclusive. It is
merely the need to be manageable. Once progress or
success has been achieved we should open our membership
to others. By confining ourselves to the 8 countries
we are not doing anyone any disservice. I am
stressing this because I would not like to create
misunderstanding or to offend anyone.
5. Cooperation between countries is now the accepted
formula for accelerating progress and development. Even
the developed countries are forming unions in order to
grow their economy. It is now recognised that the most
important thing to any Government or country is the
well-being of its own people. And economic development
would contribute much to that well-being.
6. Certainly for developing countries like ours,
cooperation for economic development is even more
important. Our people are in need not so much for
affluence as they need just the basic necessities of
life in order to live with dignity as befitting members
of the human race.
7. It is true that there is strength in numbers. But
numbers can also weigh us down. In the 8 countries of
this group there are almost 800 million people. Whether
they will contribute to strengthening us or whether
they will weigh us down depends very much on us, i.e.
the Governments responsible for the development or
otherwise of our countries.
8. Malaysia with a population of only 20 million is
the smallest member. We have succeeded in overcoming
some of our problems because our numbers are small. We
cannot claim to know how to handle large populations
especially now when we are expected to become more
democratic and to give voice and power to our people.
More people must mean more different views which may
become difficult to reconcile. Our experience with
such a system is not long enough. Yet unless we can
handle the democratic system and achieve political
stability, economic progress will evade us.
9. I am not suggesting for one moment that we should
discard democracy. But I do want to suggest that since
we cannot wait for years of experience to teach us and
our people how to make democracy work, we should
really hold crash courses in order to educate our
people on how to make democracy work and to understand
the limitations of democracy. A system is as good as
the practitioners. A good system does not work simply
because it is good. Good people are still needed in
order to make a good system work.
10. In many of our countries the freedom of democracy
simply leads to irresponsibility. Governments are
elected which are not given a chance to govern. Newly
elected Governments are brought down through democratic
strikes and democratic demonstrations and new
Governments put in place, only to suffer the same fate.
And so despite the virtues of democracy what we get
from it is anarchy. And anarchy cannot help us to
develop. Developed countries may not need Governments
for them to advance. But developing countries in a
state of permanent turmoil cannot be expected to lift
themselves out of the economic morass they are in.
11. We are being harassed into accepting democracy as
interpreted by those who are mature and strong and can
survive perpetual crises. We have a need to formulate
our own form of democracy, a democracy in which the
most important thing is that Governments can be brought
down through the ballot box and not by other means.
Between each election the Governments must be allowed
to govern. If they fail to satisfy the people, then
they should be voted out of office at the next
election. Everyone of us must accept that our office
is not permanent. The important thing is public good,
not our political survival.
12. We, the D-8 have come together in order to
cooperate. The first thing that we should cooperate on
is the defence of our system of democracy. We must be
democratic but democratic in our own mould. Liberal
democracy may be good for some, but not for everyone.
And I don't think from what I have observed it will
work for everyone of us. The welfare of our people is
more important than the right of a few to disrupt peace
in order to promote themselves. We have seen time and
time again how their accession to power accomplishes
nothing. Our countries continue to slide backwards
despite the changes in Government.
13. The democratic system is not divine law. It is
concocted by very human and fallible people. We cannot
be accused of heresy if we disagree and reject some of
the interpretations of the new prophets.
14. We, the developing countries, need political
stability more than ever before. Empires may be a
thing of the past. But political and economic hegemony
is very much alive. If we don't put our houses in
order, if we remain weak politically we will all revert
to being colonies, in fact if not in name.
15. Without political stability even the economically
strong will become weak. Certainly the economically
weak will become totally paralysed. And we are
economically weak and often politically unstable.
16. I would like once again to make it clear and to
emphasise that I am not advocating authoritarian rule.
I am advocating democracy as it was practised by the
Western democrats during their democratic infancy. When
they were less liberal democratically no one condemned
them or threatened them. We are asking that we be
allowed to evolve our democracy at our own pace without
harassment and threats. That is all.
17. Once we are politically stable then only can we
focus seriously on economic growth and the welfare of
our people. We can probably manage to grow on our own.
But growth would be made easier if we cooperate, if we
exchange information and learn from each other. No
country is so capable that it can know everything about
the management of its own self. Malaysia has copied
openly and unashamedly from others. We copied from the
West and when the East did well we initiated our Look
East policy. We even learn from the failures of others
for then we would know what to avoid. And still we
are looking around in order to learn from others.
18. That is why we welcome membership in the D-8. We
hope to learn from the other members and to cooperate
and trade with them. It is believed that poor
countries are not good trading partners. But what is a
fact is that the rich have always traded with the poor.
Obviously they benefited from this trade. If they can
extract some benefit from the poor, we should be able
to do the same from each other. Only with us the
extraction and benefits should be mutual.
19. Since we launched South-South Cooperation for
example, the trade between the members of the G-15 and
with other developing countries has grown by leaps and
bounds. Similarly trade between the developing
countries of South East Asia has trebled in just five
years.
20. The D-8 countries can increase trade between them
as well if we put in place the necessary policy and
legal framework. For this we need to exchange
information. I am glad that various working groups
have been set up to look into these matters. There
will be delays and obstruction but if there is
political will, I am sure, we can overcome them. Again
I would like to stress here the need for strong
political leadership. Political will is going to be
very necessary if we are going to make any progress at
all.
21. As I have said just now, apart from being
developing countries, we all have large Muslim
population. Islam has been blamed by Muslims and non-
Muslims alike, for the backwardness of our countries. I
happen to think that this is not true. Islam had not
only inspired the feuding primitive Arab tribes to
unite and build the greatest empire in history but it
has also enriched materially, spiritually and in terms
of human knowledge all those who accepted the faith.
If today's Muslims are backward it cannot be due to
Islam. It is most likely to be due to erroneous
interpretation of Islamic teachings.
22. There are in our countries many who are learned in
Islam. The majority of them wish to see the return of
past greatness. We should call upon them to sincerely
study and interpret the teachings of Islam. In the
first 100 years of the Hijrah Islam changed primitive
tribes, united them and built a great civilisation. It
is illogical to think that a religion that brought
greatness to such people could be the cause for a great
civilisation to decline and fall . It is not Islam
which is wrong. It is the ummah who have failed the
religion. How else can we explain the quarrels and
wars between Muslims when Islam enjoins us to be
brothers? Yet there are many among us who blatantly
preach enmity between us and not brotherhood. Is Islam
wrong or are those who interpret the religion wrong?
23. The D-8 must serve as a purposeful forum of like-
minded countries to exchange views and devise specific
programme of action for effective cooperation among
themselves. At the initial stages, we should not
become overly ambitious. It is more prudent to be
cautious and to plan our moves. But we must move,
deliberately and positively. Development doesn't just
happen. It has to be made to happen.
24. If the D-8 is going to gain credibility, we must
show results, results which are irrefutable, on a
yearly basis. If we fail then we should not make a
pretence of being useful. We should fold up rather
than hold meaningless meetings. That is the challenge
that we have to face.
25. May Allah the Merciful and the Compassionate give
us guidance, so we may not fail in our quest.
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