Oleh/By : DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : PANGKOR LAUT RESORT, MALAYSIA
Tarikh/Date : 08/09/2002
Tajuk/Title : THE ASIAN GLOBAL LEADERSHIP
FORUM:THE PANGKOR RETREAT
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
"Building and Shaping Prosperity :
Giving a Human Dimension to Globalisation"
If I may, can I begin this discourse with a
hackneyed phrase i.e. that Globalisation is an idea
whose time has come. But having said that I would
hasten to add that like all ideas, ideologies, and
concepts, Globalisation lends itself to many
interpretations. While we all accept and agree on
Globalisation I am afraid we differ and differ widely on
the interpretation of Globalisation.
2. There in lies the problem.
3. Globalisation is the natural consequence of a world
that has shrunk and still is shrinking rapidly. The
process began as soon as man acquired the ability to
move from place to place faster than his two feet could
carry him. With his continually improving mobility the
world appeared to be bigger than the immediate area he
was able to cover walking on his two feet.
4. Finally he was able to discover that the world was
a spinning ball with a definite and constant size, and
he could move about to any place in this world,
depending on the speed of the vehicle he was able to
create. As the speed of his movement increases he feels
that in terms of time distances have diminished.
Physically then he now perceives the world to be
smaller, and is getting smaller.
5. But faster than his speed of travel is the speed of
sound and visual communication. They have now become
instant and transmissible in real time. The world has
indeed become physically a village. And a village,
being the smallest unit of community cannot be divided
into smaller units. The Global Village can only be one
village. Consequently Globalisation is an idea which
cannot be denied.
6. But even villages need to be administered and to
have rules and laws. Rules and laws must of course be
for the general good. In these days of democracy
equitability is an imperative. The will of the majority
must be respected. And the will of the majority must
result in the common good.
7. But Globalisation at the moment is not about
egalitarian sharing, about common good. Presently
Globalisation is about competition, the competition of
the market place. It is about the dominance of the most
efficient. Ostensibly it is about the efficient giving
the best at the lowest cost. But in reality it is about
establishing the monopoly of the strongest and the
biggest.
8. The most important thing about Globalisation as
presently interpreted is the freedom of capital to move
about unhampered by rule and restrictions. It is really
not a bad thing. There are many places in the world
parched of capital while in other places there is a
surfeit of capital. If the places with the excess
capital were to transfer their capital to the parched
regions then no one would be without capital; everyone
would be able to gain the benefit that capital brings.
The world, the global village would in fact become more
equitable because of the sharing of capital.
9. Along with the capital would come the technology,
management expertise and the marketing skills.
10. Malaysia knows all these. Right from the time we
gained independence 45 years ago we rejected the idea of
keeping our puny market to ourselves. We had always
been a trading country. There is evidence that 1800
years ago the people of the Peninsular had collected
jungle products to exchange for silk, gold ornaments,
lacquerware and others. Under the British we produced
rubber and tin for the world market. And so when we
became independent we bucked the trend towards
nationalisation and keeping out the foreigners. Instead
we invited foreigners to take part in the economy of
Malaysia. It was largely their capital and know-how
which transformed Malaysia from an agricultural country
to an industrialised country.
11. But we had safeguards. We did not allow an
absolutely free hand to the foreigners. We imposed
conditions which safeguarded the Malaysians and their
small businesses and their share of the economy. We
extended sufficient carrots to be attractive.
12. It was not difficult in those days to be attractive
to foreign investors. Most of the other newly
independent countries were actually hostile towards
foreign investors. So a few well-chosen incentives were
sufficient for us to attract the labour-intensive
industries we needed for our growing work force.
13. The foreigners were not actually competing with the
locals for the locals were not into the kind of
industries the foreign investors were bringing to
Malaysia.
14. In time our people acquired the skills and the
discipline of the work place. In time our people
acquired the capital and the know-how and they were able
to go into the industries on their own.
15. Today we still desire foreign direct investments
but investment by locals have become significant and
with the flow of FDI going elsewhere we are not too
badly off. Our own industries can compete in the
domestic and the world market.
16. We are not yet ready to lift the safeguards that we
have put in place. Certainly we will not be able to
compete with the giants which are preparing to invade
our country. We think they will not provide us with
fair competition. It seems that they are merging and
acquiring each other in order to become so big that they
will be able to overwhelm us completely. If they are
allowed in unrestricted then all our banks and companies
would go under.
17. It is clear that Malaysia had subscribed to the
concept of Globalisation all along. Long before foreign
direct investments became a by-word and FDI became
familiar to the great economists of the world, Malaysia
had already welcomed FDI and has benefited from it
greatly. The high level of economic growth of Malaysia
and its conversion from an agrarian economy to an
industrial economy is the result of FDI.
18. This being so why are we so critical of
Globalisation? Well, it is because globalisation is
interpreted simply and almost exclusively as the free
movement of capital into and out of a country. Free
movement means no rules, no regulations, no conditions
and no controls. While admittedly inflow of capital
benefits a country but outflows, especially sudden and
massive outflows, can seriously damage the economy and
even the social and political life of a country.
19. That was what happened in 1997. Devaluation of our
currency impoverished us, and caused a fall in the price
of shares. To avoid losing money the shares were dumped
by foreign investors and the index plummeted. Banks and
companies were left breathless and distressed. They
were all going to go under, taking the whole country
down with them.
20. If Globalisation including FDI is to bring benefits
to the poor countries, then it has to be regulated,
taking into consideration the weaknesses and the
sensitivities of these countries. Total freedom of
inflow and outflow of capital cannot be allowed.
Manipulation and speculation in the stock market and
currency trade must be banned. We have seen how much
damage the manipulation of share prices can do even for
the powerful economies.
21. This is why Malaysia is critical of Globalisation.
22. The pity is that globalisation can be tailored to
benefit not just the capital and technology-exporting
countries but the recipients as well. This can be done
by respecting the policies of the hosts, by recognising
that they are at different stages of development and
they are not yet ready for the free for all, dog eat
dog, winner takes all market. Each one of the
developing countries needs to be treated differently,
taking into consideration not just the stage of its
development but also the culture and the ways of its
people and the systems of governance.
23. Also those who benefit from Globalisation must pay
a tax to the world. When we do business in our
countries or in any country we accept the logic and need
to pay taxes to the country concerned. We may be
exempted but we cannot dispute the right.
24. Now, when the whole world becomes our country, the
place that we do business in and make profits from,
surely we should accept the need to pay a world tax. It
should not be much. Even half percent of the profits
after taxes should be enough. And the world tax should
be used exclusively for building the infrastructure so
much needed by the developing countries in order to
develop, indeed to become more attractive to foreign
investors.
25. We can build roads, bridges, railway lines,
airports, ports, power plants, water supply facilities
etc which will raise the standard of living for the
people, create jobs, support local suppliers and
contractors and cause a real inflow of funds. It does
not matter who builds. It is not a matter of providing
funds to the Governments. It is a matter of actually
building the infrastructure as indeed some countries
have done by building bridges of friendship for example.
The difference is that the recipient countries will not
be obliged to any particular donor who very often exert
too much influence on the country and its people.
26. Think of how much can be contributed towards the
elimination of poverty in this world if the poor
countries are able to exploit their resources and even
become attractive to investors because they have all the
necessary infrastructure. Think of the lower cost of
their imports and the higher earnings from their
exports. Think of the job opportunities created during
the construction, the supply of local construction
materials, the little businesses selling food and other
needs of the people involved in the construction.
27. Perhaps it may even be necessary for the worldwide
funds to help maintain the infrastructure, resulting in
a continuous inflow of money for the country's economy.
28. The world had once agreed on a voluntary
contribution of 0.7 percent of the donor country's GDP
to help poor countries. But most countries had reneged
on their undertaking. Besides, the funds provided may
not be used properly. But an international tax is
legally enforceable and the infrastructure projects will
be specific and the construction internationally
supervised or indeed be constructed by reliable
international companies.
29. This way much of the world poverty can be
eliminated and the anger and frustration of a large
segment of the world population diminished. The
apartheid which Thabo Mbeki spoke about, the divide
between the rich countries and the poor, will be
reduced. Those who extract riches from a globalised
world owe this to the world, to the world's poor to
return some of their profits. It will cost them
practically nothing as they can offset this against the
taxes imposed by their home countries.
30. With the reduction of poverty in this world, the
global village will be a much better place to live in.
Today, while some countries are able to attract FDI,
many get nothing at all. No jobs are being created, no
industralisation, no amenities, nothing. It seems like
the global village is the village of the rich. The poor
will have no share in it. It is apartheid indeed.
31. Then there is terrorism, a result of the
frustration and anger and bitterness in a world that
tolerates oppression and all kinds of injustices.
People, innocent people, are being deliberately starved
through sanctions imposed actually by the very rich, the
overfed and most wasteful of consumers.
32. Weak countries are being militarily attacked, their
people killed and their land seized. They are punished
for not accepting western cultures, values and systems.
Despite all the talk about freedom of choice, about
democracy and human rights, the fact is that the only
choice permitted is liberal democracy. Failure to
accept democracy results in sanctions, even bombing
attacks, and blatant attempts to change Governments by
force of arms.
33. It may be coincidental but the fact is that most of
the targets of oppression and attacks are Muslims and
Muslim countries. Pakistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosova,
Sudan, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Chechnya have suffered
military attacks, sanctions and discrimination.
34. In Bosnia-Herzegovina 200,000 largely Muslim
Bosniacs were massacred before the powers-that-be
stepped in to put a stop to the killings. If they could
act at the later stage, surely they could have acted
earlier. But they held back and just watched the
slaughter.
35. In Palestine today the killings go on. Yes, the
Palestinians too are guilty of terror attacks, but what
recourse have they? No one is helping them or
restraining their enemies. Indeed the Israelis are
being financed and armed to the teeth in order to
systematically kill more Palestinians. Yet the Israelis
are not blamed. They are said to be defending
themselves. That they occupy Palestinian land and kill
more Palestinians than the number of Israelis killed is
considered as justified. Palestinians wanting to free
their land and retaliate in the only way they can
against the Israelis is regarded as terrorists.
36. I need not mention the sanctions against Iraq,
Iran, Libya and Sudan -- all Muslim countries. Is it
any wonder that Muslims everywhere feel oppressed, feel
angry, bitter and frustrated? They cannot go to war in
the conventional way. They did that before against
Israel but they were defeated, largely because Israel is
backed by the great powers. The only way they can
retaliate is through acts of terror, hitting out blindly
at the innocents as well as the guilty.
37. Today the world lives in fear of Muslim terrorists,
not other terrorists, but Muslim terrorists. Because
terrorists cannot be easily identified or located, all
Muslims are considered as potential terrorists and are
so treated. Because the majority of the people of
Malaysia are Muslims, all Malaysians are being
penalised. They are denied visas, are checked and
rechecked, and are humiliated when they go to certain
countries.
38. Huntington's forecast has come true. There is now
a clash of civilisation, that of the West against the
Islamic civilisation. And typically the Western
solution is to physically fight against the enemy, the
Islamic civilisation, the Muslims.
39. But unfortunately, short of total genocide, the
terrorists cannot be militarily defeated. The West
refuses to acknowledge this and will continue this
costly war without end.
40. We in Malaysia have had some experience in fighting
terrorists and we have defeated them. We defeated them
not just by military means but by psychological warfare,
by winning the hearts and minds of the supporters
initially and eventually the terrorists themselves. We
think that what is being done in the war against the
Muslim terrorists is wrong. There is practically no
effort to win the hearts and minds of the Muslims. In
fact everything is being done to alienate them further,
to anger and frustrate them, and to ensure there will be
a constant and probably increasing supply of recruits to
terrorism.
41. The West does not care to find out the causes of
terrorism and to remove them. The faint voices
protesting from among them are ignored. The powerful
are bent on revenge rather than solutions. And so there
will be no end to Muslim terrorism.
42. The world is today less peaceful than it was during
World War II. The world lives in fear. The world
believes that this fear can be dealt with by raising
high walls around it. Yet the world talks about a
borderless world, about Globalisation. That just cannot
happen. And when that cannot happen, the rich resort to
force, the only thing that they believe in.
43. Just as force cannot remove the fear, force cannot
create a richer world. The rich may colonise the world
once again but history has shown that colonisation did
not work. There will be constant rebellion and turmoil.
Many will die as people struggle to free themselves.
44. The answer does not lie in confrontation, in force,
in a war to end all wars. The answer lies in justice
and fair play, in being sensitive, in being willing to
step back and to admit mistakes and to banish the idea
that any one race has a monopoly of the right values,
the right systems and the right solutions to all the
human ailments.
45. Democracy, human rights and all the other rights
have caused as much turmoil, injustice and damage as
autocracy. There is really no perfect system, certainly
no system that suits all. Even if the system is good,
and democracy is perhaps the best system yet devised by
man, the changes and the adoption must be gradual. Not
everyone knows how to handle democracy or freedom. And
handling something that you are not familiar with will
definitely not bring about the expected good results.
46. If we want to restore normalcy to this planet, the
first thing that has to be done is to stop thinking of
revenge and begin to think of justice and fair play.
Pride does not have a role in solving human problems.
Humility has. Only humility can bring the kind of
justice and fair play to reduce the causes of the
turmoil, political, economic and social that the world
is facing. The arrogance of power must be eliminated.
Until then there will be no prosperity for the
globalised world.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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