Oleh/By : DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : NEW YORK, USA
Tarikh/Date : 03-02-2002
Tajuk/Title : GLOBALISATION: CHALLENGES AND
IMPACT ON ASIA
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
1. Globalisation is a word which seems to describe
the coming together of all the countries of the globe
into one entity. It is coined by rich countries
apparently in response to technological advances and
the speed and ease of travel.
2. But the emphasis is on free flows of capital and
trade in goods and services. People and other things
may not flow so freely.
3. Free means free of Governmental regulations, laws
and policies. International institutions would take
over, enact rules and enforce them. Looked at from
the point of view of weak countries, rules, laws and
policies still exist but they would have no say in the
determination or enforcement. For most of them
globalisation means not more freedom but less freedom
from rules, regulations laws and policies. Worse
still, these uniform rules etc, disregard their
particular weaknesses and problems.
4. But they are being told that being poor they will
benefit from capital flowing into their countries. In
fact for many of the East Asian countries capital
inflows have brought about unprecedented economic
growth. Even their stock markets have benefited from
foreign investments. But what they are not told is
that the same capital can flow out and when it does
their countries can be bankrupted.
5. It is unfortunate that they learnt about this
through experience and they now know how terrible the
damage is and how difficult it is to recover.
6. The East Asian financial crisis was precipitated
by the free exit of capital. It started of course by
the manipulative devaluation of the currencies of East
Asian countries. Devaluation caused foreign
investment to lose value. To avoid losses from
further devaluation foreign capital was pulled out.
The market collapsed resulting in rapid increase of
non-performing loans, deprivation from bank funding of
business operations, numerous bankruptcies and failure
of the banking system in the end.
7. With the economy in tatters the Government had to
borrow from the IMF. Loans would only be given if the
Government surrenders economic management to the IMF
and allow foreign white knights to pick up the
devalued local banks and businesses.
8. We are seeing many countries floundering about
because the money they borrowed from the IMF had to be
used to pay off foreign creditors. Nothing is left
for the locals. Of course they still have to pay the
IMF money they had borrowed.
9. East Asian countries are actually luckier for
some have made a fair degree of recovery. But
Argentina is not so lucky. Sovereign loans are not so
safe after all as countries can go bankrupt when IMF
imposes its policies.
10. Is what happened to the East Asian countries a
manifestation of Globalisation or not? Clearly it is.
Trading in currencies is only possible if Government
abdicates as the authority to determine the value of
currency and leaves it to so-called international
market forces. The market is interested only in
making profits and cares nothing for the well-being of
society.
11. The market favours the rich and the
technologically advanced. Today banks and
corporations are merging and acquiring each other to
become ever bigger. Quite naturally the big
corporations and banks are not going to be from
developing countries. When all the borders are down
these super giants will move in to gobble up all local
businesses and will ignore the interests of the
countries where they operate. Their only concern is
to make money. If they have to pull out of a country
in order to reduce losses and maximize profits they
will do so without compunction. It is irrelevant to
them if their pulling out precipitate economic
turmoil, massive unemployment and bankruptcies. It is
all the fault of these countries.
12. Being big is all important. It guarantees
success. It makes for economies of scale, more
research and development, and cheaper products. But
we have seen that size did not save LTCM or Enron.
Indeed the bigger they are the harder they fall,
dragging down everyone with them.
13. Asia's experience of globalisation has not
convinced it that this is the answer to economic ills
or the vitamin for economic growth, at least the kind
of globalisation that is being promoted by the rich
western countries. Globalisation need not be about
free capital flows only. There can still be
globalisation but it should not be absolutely free, it
should not be purely market driven. Regulated
globalisation can still be compatible with the idea of
globalisation.
14. The challenge for Asia is not how to manage the
present concept of globalisation, to make it work, to
benefit from it. The challenge for Asia is to
influence the thinking on globalisation, to reshape
it, to reduce the chances of it going awry and
destroying economies and countries.
15. There is nothing sacred about the present concept
of globalisation that it cannot be changed, radically
if necessary, so that it will pose less danger to
those accepting and practising it. Free trade is not
synonymous with globalisation. If we have to
regulate trade in order to benefit from globalisation,
why not?
16. People who play golf know that there will never
come a time when handicaps will be abolished. In
business too, fair competition can only be between
entities of fairly equal strength. Level playing
fields are not enough. The contestants must be evenly
matched. If we cannot match them then give them
handicaps.
17. Prior to 1997 the Asian countries were growing
miraculously. Malaysia grew at 8% plus per annum for
ten consecutive years. Today everyone of the miracle
economies are but shadows of their former selves. The
impact of globalisation involving the free flow of
capital and the straightjacketing of business has been
disastrous. For years now the attempts to
resuscitate the economies have not been very
successful. There will be permanent scars. And the
impact will not be any better, for as long as the
present interpretation of globalisation is forced upon
Asia. In fact the world is likely to fail to recover
if, instead of focusing on resuscitating the economy
following Sept 11, we continue to force the
globalisation of capital flows on the world.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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