Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR.
MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : HAVANA, CUBA
Tarikh/Date : 12/04/2000
Tajuk/Title : THE SOUTH SUMMIT
I would like to congratulate the Government of Cuba, in
particular His Excellency President Fidel Castro, for
hosting this important Summit of leaders of the South.
I would like to thank you, Mr President, for the
generosity and the warm hospitality that has been
extended to my delegation and I. That was a most
revealing dissertation that you delivered this morning.
It highlights the disparities between rich and poor of
this world.
2. Our gathering here today may be regarded as a
manifestation of our unity and solidarity. However
while it is easy to meet it is not so easy to act
together. Therein lies our weakness.
3. The rich are apparently more united. Theirs is a
small group of only seven countries. Although they may
have varying degrees of differences between them, they
close rank very rapidly if their dominance is
challenged.
4. Their approach is very simple. Should there be any
new ideas in the social, economic or political field
they would quickly come up with their own
interpretations, which are designed to benefit them.
Thus we see them foisting on the world their moral
values, their political systems and now economic
globalisation. The South has no choice but to react to
their interpretations. And reacting limits the choice
and is less beneficial.
5. Presently the focus is on globalisation.
Technological advances is the excuse for doing away with
the independence of nations and replacing it with
interdependent nations. We are told through their
propaganda machine that globalisation is an idea whose
time has come and resistance would be futile.
6. We had welcomed globalisation believing that
foreign capital, know-how etc, could help our economies
to grow. Then in East Asia the rogue currency traders
demonstrated that simply by devaluing our currencies
they can make the so-called
East Asian Economic Tigers suddently into meowing cats.
Millions were thrown out of work and made destitutes.
The international institutions then moved in ostensibly
to help with loans but in reality to facilitate the
takeover of the countries' economy and even politics.
7. All these are made possible because the rich
interpretes globalisation as the right of capital to
cross and re-cross borders at will. Capital is the new
gunship of the rich. By coming in with short term
investments they create an illusion of wealth. Once
that has happened they merely have to pull out their
capital in order to impoverish and weaken their victims
and force them to submit to foreign dictates.
8. But if globalisation implies integration of all
countries into one single global entity then why should
it mean only the free flow of capital and capitalists
across borders? Why should not workers, especially
unemployed ones, move across borders freely? If money
is capital for the rich, labour is the capital of the
poor countries. They should be allowed to migrate to
the rich countries, to compete for the jobs there just
as the powerful corporations of the rich must be allowed
to compete with their tiny counterparts in the poorer
countries. Just as the big corporations from the rich
can easily put out of business the small companies of
the poor, the hard working lower paid workers of the
poor can easily displace the high cost labour in the
rich countries. The result would be lower production
cost and lower cost of living for the rich and more
remittances to poor countries.
9. This is a ridiculous idea of course. How can one
expect a rich country to let poor people in to displace
their highly paid workers? But if it is right for the
big corporations of the rich to displace small weak
corporations of the poor, why is it so wrong for the
poor workers to displace the rich workers in the rich
countries?
10. The economic turmoil in East Asia has resulted in
the rich taking what belongs to the poor. As the banks
and businesses of the former Asian tigers collapse and
as their share prices plunge, the rich have moved in to
buy the devalued shares and acquire the companies. They
could have bought at normal prices during normal times
but they preferred to emasculate us before they take
over at a fraction of the cost. Backing this move are
the international institutions, which insist that we
open up our countries so that the predators can move in
to take over everything. Governments may not protect
local businesses. Market-forces must prevail and since
money equals force in the market, those with money will
dominate.
11. We admit that we are not perfect. We have
corruption, cronyism etc. But so have the rich.
Despite our alleged corruption etc we had developed our
countries and given our people a good life. The market
forces, which want to eliminate corruption etc in our
countries have had no noticeable success despite the
high cost to us. But they have certainly made fortunes
by their manipulations of the currencies and the market
and now by their acquisition of the banks, industries
and businesses.
12. Globalisation should stress results rather than
methods. Presently we are being told that globalisation
must be espoused and practised even if it destroys us.
13. We are falling into the old trap of believing that
systems on their own can solve human problems. When we
put too much faith in a system we will forget the
reasons why the system was initially formulated.
Systems are devised because they are believed to be able
to right current wrongs and bring benefits to the
practitioners. Unfortunately once a system is accepted,
it becomes so sacred that even if the results it
delivers are worse than the situation it was supposed to
remedy, it must still be upheld, defended and practised.
At that stage if anyone dares to go against the system
he will be regarded as a heretic and universally
condemned.
14. Globalisation has already shown signs of becoming a
religion that tolerates no heresy. This is rather
unfortunate, for globalisation, if properly interpreted
and regulated, can bring about a great deal of wealth
and benefit to the world, the rich as well as the poor.
The important thing is to focus on the results rather
than dogma. If the results are good then by all means
implement it as currently interpreted and practised, but
if the results are bad for anyone, then globalisation
must be reinterpreted and modified until the expected
results are achieved.
15. It is a mistake to exclude the weak and the poor
from participating in the formulation of globalisation.
They have a great deal of experience. We have seen in the
East how Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), technological
transfers and opening up of the markets of the rich has
resulted in the poor countries becoming enriched. We have
also seen how nations can be made poor suddenly. Our
experience can help shape a globalisation that benefits
all. So let us in.
16. There is no doubt that if globalisation is properly
interpreted and practised it can result in a more
equitable world order where wealth is more evenly
distributed between the rich and the poor. Badly
interpreted it can destroy the poor especially and by
extension stifle the growth of the rich.
17. This is a Summit of the countries of the South.
There are many of us and each one of us is poor and
unable to influence international policies in our
favour. But weak though each of us may be, our combined
strength is very considerable. It is therefore
imperative that we act together if we want to be
effective.
18. Today political or ideological interests are of
less importance than economic growth and greater
material wealth for our people. Most of us believe that
free trade and private investments can help achieve
these. We believe that globalisation can contribute to
more rapid growth through free flows of goods, services
and capital.
19. But we also know that the best run economies can
run into deep trouble. We the poorer countries cannot
afford the recessions. We believe we can contribute
towards avoiding recessions. Therefore our views should
be taken seriously in the formulation of the
international financial and economic systems.
20. I am pleased that the draft Final Declaration which
we will be adopting at the end of our Summit Conference
is a succinct forward-looking document, which will guide
us in our collective approach towards the attainment of
our common goals.
21. The programme of action which will also be adopted
will supplement the collective strategy to attain those
goals.
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