Oleh/By		:	DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD 
Tempat/Venue 	: 	PETALING JAYA HILTON, KUALA LUMPUR 
Tarikh/Date 	: 	27/08/84 
Tajuk/Title  	: 	THE FIRST MALAYSIA-JAPAN COLLOQUIUM 




 Distinguished guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am very pleased to be invited to address this first meeting of the
Malaysia-Japan Colloquium organised by the Institute of Strategic and
International Studies, Malaysia and the Gaimusho. It is in fact a double
pleasure, since, as you know it is the outcome of a suggestion I made some
time ago.

2. You are of course aware that this Colloquium is not the first meeting,
official or otherwise, between Malaysians and Japanese to discuss
bilateral matters of common concern.

Businessmen on both sides have been meeting regularly and I might add,
have had good discussions and have made useful suggestions to smoothen our
business ties. But I thought that it would be most useful to establish an
annual forum where we can frankly and freely discuss, among a broader
range of people, a wider agenda -- within an ambience of complete
confidentiality and candidness.

3. Malaysia and Japan today are friends. In an atmosphere such as this
Malaysia-Japan Colloquium, we meet to discuss as friends intent on
ensuring a better world for our children into the next century. Let us be
reminded that a friend is easier lost than found -- Tomo o ushinau wa
yasuku eru wa muzukashi. I hope the very frank discussion that you will be
having over the next two days and the free flow of ideas that will result
can help to cement that friendly relationship which we have developed
between us. I urge you to sweep nothing under the carpet. Put what you may
on the table. So that what is not known can be known, what is known can be
dissected and what needs to be understood will be fully understood.

4. You are aware, of course, that I have been a prime advocate of learning
from Japan through a "Look East" Policy. It is understood by most, but
some seek not to understand it. Malaysia's Look East Policy does not mean
that we want Malaysians to be Japanese. We do not mean that Malaysians
should eat maki sushi and shabu shabu and wear kimonos. It does not mean
that we should per se buy Japanese or sell Japanese. It does not mean the
awarding per se of contracts to Japanese. It is not an invitation to
arrogance or insensitive behaviour.

5. What it means is that we must learn the reasons and the factors for
Japanese success in modernisation: a good work ethic, social
consciousness, honesty and discipline, a strong sense of social purpose
and community orientation, good management techniques, Japan Incorporated,
sogoshoshas, aggressive salesmanship and so on. I have explained that
Malaysia's present economic goals are not dissimilar from the targets that
Japan set for herself in the 1960's, namely high speed growth through
increase in productive capacity, greater industrial production, and
production of exports.

6. One question to ask is whether Japan can or will assist Malaysia in her
modernisation. Is migthy Japan earnest and sincere enough in developing
her economic, political and social relationships with a developing
Malaysia? What sort of bilateral relationship can we build for the future
so that this relationship is based on mutual respect and not on an unequal
relationship? Can we together resolve some of the persisting problems that
plague our relationship? 7. I believe that we can. At the very least we
should try. For whether we like it or not, our future history is
intertwined. We are part of the givens of the game in the Pacific. We have
to live with each other, either in a positive, peaceful, cooperative,
mutually beneficial relationship or in a relationship that is not so
positive, that is not so peaceful, not so cooperative and not so mutually
beneficial.

8. I am sure that you will agree with me that the first scenario is
better. I am as certain you will agree that an unequal relationship is an
inherently unstable one. It cannot persist; or if it persists, it does so
only at the expense of tension and possibly turmoil. Ladies and gentlemen,
there are elements of an unequal relationship between Malaysia and Japan
today.

9. I do not wish to imply that there is not much with which we are
happy. There are a great many things for which we are sincerely and deeply
grateful to Japan. We would not be what we are today without the
cooperation and assistance of Japan, which the Japanese decided upon on
the basis of market forces, self interest, and sometimes enlightened self
interest. Where you have shown enlightened self interest, I congratulate
you. But I do believe that something has to be done to improve the pattern
of economic relations between our two countries. That pattern conforms in
many regards to the classic pattern of ecnomic colonialism. It is a
pattern that cannot but generate tensions in the years ahead.

10. Let me give you some examples. First, we sell to Japan raw
materials. We buy manufactured goods. Thus, in 1982 our main exports to
you were crude oil, wood, tin and mineral ores. These four items alone
amounted to 84 per cent of our exports to Japan. Japan bought practically
nothing of our manufactured goods. The biggest single category --
thermionic and cathode valves, tubes, photocells and diodes -- amounted to
only 170 million ringgit, or less than 3 per cent of our exports to
Japan. We in fact bought more of these things from Japan than we sold to
Japan. On the other side of the coin, we imported the widest range of
manufactured goods from cars to cassette recorders. We cannot and will not
remain merely as hewers of wood and drawers of water.

11. To be fair, to change this colonial pattern, Malaysia can buy less of
these products and place restrictiions on the widest range of manufactured
Japanese goods. But this is not the way. The way, I would stress to Japan,
is for the Japanese market to absorb more Malaysian manufactured
goods. Japanese all agree that protectionism is bad. On the other hand,
the Japanese economy is extremely protectionist in reality. I do not say
we cannot or should not do more to penetrate the Japanese market. I do say
that the market itself has to be more open.

12. In passing, let me just briefly mention the dishonest and
tension-generating practice of tranfer pricing. Let me say too that
something has to be done with regard to the invisibles
situation. Malaysia's trade deficit with Japan -- excluding crude oil and
gas exports -- rose from US$775 million in 1980 to US$2 billion in
1983. In 1982, the invisibles deficit accounted for 13 per cent or US$379
million of the trade deficit. By 1983, this had risen to US$400
million. By 1985, the deficit in invisibles is forecast to be in the
region of US$594 million. This problem needs to be tackled -- to be sure
with fairness, but also with determination. That fairness must come from
both sides. So too must the necessary determination. We also have to
ensure a better picture with regard to the transfer of technology, the use
of local materials, equal partnership and participation with regard to
consultants, sub-contractors and professionals. We must not forget
manpower training and development.

13. You might be relieved to know that I do not intend today to bring up
the problem of air rights and improper behaviour.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

14. Japan today is no longer a second rank nation, struggling to uplift
its standard of living and to ensure its dignity in the world comity of
nations. It is a rich nation in the very forefront of the Free World. It
has many lessons to teach others. It has taken its own individual
course. It has been able to reach the front ranks without embarking on an
unwise rush to arms and the foolish accumulation of military
hardware. Whether the Japanese people wish it or not, whether anyone likes
it or not, it is a leader. As a leader, it has not only rights but duties
in the commonwealth of mankind. I call on Japan to exercise the
statesmanship that is now needed. I ask the Japanese to look not only at
what they can take but also at what they can give. Let none detract from
what Japanese grit and Japanese ingenuity have done for Japan. But I ask
the Japanese people to look at their recent past and examine whether they
would be where they are today without the friendship and the generosity of
others.

15. Between Japan and Malaysia and between Japan and Asean, there is truly
the need for a heart-to-heart relationship. We have to go beyond positive
coexistence to a new era of symbiosis. We must truly commit ourselves to
making the pie bigger rather than striving merely to get a bigger slice of
the pie.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

16. One hundred and thirty-one years ago, Commodore Perry arrived in Tokyo
Bay with four black ships, an event that is known as The Black Ship
Incident. He did go away. But only to return in February 1984 with seven
ships. Commodore Perry's firm stand resulted in the Treaty of Kanagawa,
which opened the ports of Hakodate and Shimoda, which acted as a catalyst
for the passing of the Tokugawa Shogunate, for the Meiji Restoration, and
the First Opening of Japan. The rest, as they say, is history.

17. Let me now speak to Japan and say that you now have before you not
four, not seven black ships, but the six black ships of the Asean
Community. It is time for the Second Opening of Japan.

18. Internationalism is one of your declared creeds. Let it be a way of
your life. Open your society; open your minds; and open your
hearts. Enter, with full confidence and in full humility into the global
meeting-place of minds. Let the world into your household, to allow us to
understand you better and to enrich you further.

19. Japan must develop fully into a post-industrial society, into an
economy that does not squander the wealth of its talent and the energies
of its people in inefficient and wasteful industrial pursuits. Why does it
produce the manufactued goods that others can produce better and
cheaper? Why does it restrain the rise in its standard of living to its
fullest height? Only in the prosperity of its buyers can its own
prosperity be guaranteed.

20. Japan holds lessons for mankind. Why are you not a teacher to the
world? Unesco reported in 1981 that there were 8,100 foreign students in
Japan. The United Kingdom had more than 55,000, France more than 100,000,
the United States more than 300,000. For the 200 Malaysian students that
are now in Japan, we are most grateful. But in the United States there are
20,000 of our students.

21. Japan is now in a unique position of being able to create a
relationship with Malaysia, and in the wider context, with the Asean
Community which can be an example to the world and to history. The
potential is there, the positive correlation of forces is there. Will it
grasp the opportunity? 

22. Distingusihed participants, as you well know, as a result of the Black
Ship Incident and the Meiji Restoration 130 years ago, Japan reformed its
education system. Japan abolished feudalism, changed its tax system to
ensure capital, destroyed many old industries and founded new ones.

I do not suggest such a fundamental transformation. And I do not wish to
draw too many parallels. But it might be mentioned that one of the reasons
why Commodore Perry succeeded in 1854 was the fact that his black ships
were in a position to impose great hardships, even starvation, on Tokyo by
cutting off the bulk of necessary supplies that had to come from outside,
by sea. The Asean black ships are of a peaceful kind but they do carry
many of the commodities that are the lifeblood of Japanese industry, and
therefore, that are the foundations of Japanese prosperity.

23. We are anchored in Tokyo Bay. If you turn us away, we will be back. I
say to the Japanese people: Prepare for the Second Opening of Japan.

Thank you.