Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : THE PALACE OF THE GOLDEN HORSES SG.
BESI, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 12/01/98
Tajuk/Title : THE 4TH PACIFIC DIALOGUE
1. First of all I would like to bid you welcome to
Malaysia, to this 4th Pacific Dialogue. Malaysia is not
quite what it was when you last met here. The economy is
not doing so well. We have lost a lot of whatever due to
the currency turmoil in East Asia. We are no longer
growing at eight percent per annum as we had been doing in
the last nine years before 1997. But these minor things
are not going to affect our hospitality to our guests,
something that is a part of our tradition. A good host
would rather deny himself than deny his guests. And I
believe Malaysians are still good hosts.
2. However we are in the midst of our month of fasting.
In the month of Ramadan Muslims do not eat or drink or
even think bad thoughts from sunrise to sundown. Malaysian
Muslims are not fanatical. Certainly we are not extremist
terrorists given to killing foreign tourists. But we do
take our fast seriously. Even if we are not fasting for
whatever reason, we do not eat in public. We are however
considerate of our non-Muslim brothers and guests. They
may eat and if they wish to, can think evil thoughts as
usual. So if Muslims don't join you in your lunches and
teas, it is not that they mean to be rude. You will find
however that Malaysian hotels and restaurants serve lavish
breaking of the fast spread to which all, Muslims and non-
Muslims, are welcome to partake. Still many Malaysians
are not Muslims and they do not fast. They can join you.
That way Malaysian hospitality would be sustained even in
the fasting month.
3. You have come here to discuss the affairs of Pacific
neighbours, the countries and the peoples on the shores of
the Pacific. The aim I believe is to create understanding
about each other and among each other. As we rush towards
the twenty-first century we want to see a better world and
the Pacific Ocean, the divide which unites, is an
important part of that world. It is important that the
peoples of the Pacific make their contribution to building
that better world.
4. At the moment the economic performance of the
countries on the West Coast of the Pacific is not so
great. I am sure you will be discussing about how to make
it great again, to restore the confidence which is so
essential for market forces to react positively and
constructively. I don't have much to contribute towards
the restoration. It seems that I tend to get in the way
of the restoration. So I will not say much about the
economy and the finances. I will be listening and waiting
for your views and suggestions.
5. Other than this little problem Malaysia is doing
well, bearing up well under the strain. We have always
prided ourselves in our rationality and our unity. Ever
since independence we, a fairly evenly mixed multiracial
society, have been able to stay and work together
remarkably well. It has not always been easy of course.
6. In 1969 we had racial riots and people were actually
killed in the streets of Kuala Lumpur. People expected
the riots to recur periodically. But there has not been
one since that 1969 incident. We have emerged from it
more conscious of the damage it can do to us and the need
to avoid it. Since then we have become more united,
always having Governments in which every race is
represented.
7. Malaysia has managed to be democratic without being
unstable. We believe that elections should determine who
should form the Government. Once elections have done that
we do not try to topple Governments half-way through the
statutory period by street demonstrations and general
strikes, democratic though these may be. We allow the
Governments to stay in power. The Governments have always
been conscious that their re-election would depend on
their performance. And so they seriously try to fulfill
their promises, developing the country, providing the
necessary infrastructures and attending to the welfare of
the people.
8. They must have succeeded for they keep on being re-
elected again and again, embarrassingly. Some say it is
undemocratic not to change Governments at every election.
We say it is undemocratic not to let people make their
choice. If they choose to return the same Government it
is their democratic right. It is also their democratic
right to elect a substantial number of opposition members
and ensure lively debates.
9. And so today more or less the same party rules. I
say more or less because although the policies are the
same, the styles may be radically different. Nevertheless
all Malaysian Governments since independence in 1957 have
concentrated on developing the country, every part of the
country, the rural as well as the urban.
10. In international affairs Malaysia has adopted the
universal policy of 'prospering thy neighbour'. We do
not believe in zero sum games in which your opponents must
lose if you are to win. Certainly we are not interested
in destroying our competitors so that we can have a small
piece of what they have. We believe in a win- win formula
in which we gain and our partners gain as well.
11. In our experience 'prospering thy neighbour', as the
policy is usually described as, results in prospering
yourself. When we were a two-commodity country the
foreigners came to invest in manufacturing industries. We
didn't believe we could manufacture anything except wooden
clogs. But the foreigners taught us to produce
sophisticated electronic goods for export.
12. As a result of the industrialisation by foreigners we
prospered and were able to buy a lot of things from other
countries. The foreigners benefitted because we bought a
lot of their products. In other words in return for their
help in prospering us we helped in prospering them by
being a good market for them.
13. On the other hand when Vietnam was trying to
stabilise after the country was reunified a lot of
Vietnamese decided to migrate. The country was very poor
and the migrants were actually economic refugees. They
landed in Malaysia because we are so near. We could not
provide them with permanent asylum and had to arrange for
them to be sent to more hospitable countries like Europe,
the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
14. Still we were not able to resettle all of them in
third countries.
15. To resolve the problem we worked with the Vietnamese
to help them rehabilitate the country. We even invested
in Vietnam though God knows we need the investments for
ourselves. But whatever may be the reason, Vietnam began
to prosper a little, to have more job opportunities. And
eventually we were able to repatriate all the remaining
refugees because they saw opportunities for gainful
employments in their own country. And so helping a
neighbour to prosper help resolve the migration of their
people to our country.
16. You can see why we believe in prospering our
neighbour and not beggaring our neighbour. When you
beggar others, their problems will spill over into your
country. And among the problems will be mass migration to
your country. We saw the Albanians invading Italy to
reciprocate the Italian invasion of Albania before the
last World War. The Albanians had problem of poverty in
their country. Even though they could not very well like
the Italians, they had to go to Italy to seek relief from
the misery at home. The same kind of migration took the
Mexicans to the United States. We in Malaysia believe
that if our neighbours are poorer than us we will face
this migration and other problems. Fortunately we are now
as poor as they are. In fact where we were once host to
almost two million workers we now have to send one million
back. It was gracious of the CNN to report this. It also
reported that there is no more haze in Malaysia once they
noticed the clarity of the skies. We are duly grateful.
17. Stability is something that Governments like but the
opposition dislike. The Governments of Malaysia want
stability not only in the country but in the region as
well. Indeed we want to see stability throughout the
world -- but we cannot do much about that, not being even
a bit player.
18. We have worked hard for stability in Malaysia and
despite the opposition we have succeeded quite well. And
because we are stable we can manage things quite well and
weather the occasional storm that strikes us. We are able
to tackle problems such as the one we face now fairly
well. We will not come out of it unscathed of course. We
will be bruised and battered but the Malaysians will pull
through eventually. Putting money in Malaysia is still a
wise thing to do.
19. In the region we are doing quite well. We are at
peace with everyone and everyone is at peace with each
other. Yes, we are all facing problems at the moment but
that neutralises the problem. If some of us are facing
problems while others are not, then we won't have equal
capacities to work together. Now we have and we intend to
use our common misfortunes to enhance our cooperation.
20. We hope to cooperate with all the countries in the
Pacific Region and we expect to gain from it. So your
discussions will be very interesting to us. We hope to
get a few tips on how we can handle the problems we face.
21. Until then I would like to wish you a good dialogue.
Do join in the breaking of the fast this evening and every
evening that you are here.
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