Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : HILTON HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 15/08/96
Tajuk/Title : THE 1996 REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF
HARVARD CLUBS OF ASIA
1. I would like to thank the Harvard Club of Asia
for the honour of addressing this distinguished
gathering of members of an equally distinguished
Club.
2. I have been asked to talk on the subject: `Asia
- the challenges ahead'. I am sure that Asia will
face a lot of challenges but I believe that in the
last few years of the 20th century and on to the
year 2020, Asia faces three very basic challenges.
3. The first is the challenge of domestic reform
and revolution. The second is the challenge of
regional cooperation and friendship. The third is
the challenge of striving for a more just and more
productive new world order.
4. All three constitute what I would refer to as
the challenge of achieving an Asian Renaissance.
5. Of these three basic challenges, perhaps
domestic challenge is by far the most important.
For Asia to grow and prosper it must accept and
manage reform and revolution in individual Asian
countries.
6. Asia has done well so far but there is no time
for euphoria. There must be no resting on laurels.
We must understand that we have only just begun. It
is even useful to minimise our own accomplishments,
if we want to avoid irritating those who fear the so-
called `Asian challenge', those who have lost
confidence in their own ability to compete, those
societies which know that in order to meet the world
head on they will need to change their ways but are
either unwilling or unable to do so.
7. Humility is good for us but it should be the
humility of good manners not the humility of those
with an inferiority complex which will only stunt or
delay our progress.
8. Our progress of course is not just economic.
We have made political progress also, though not in
the way approved by the West.
9. Domestically we have foregone much of our old
authoritarian ways. We are not all democratic but
elements of democratic thinking and caring for our
people have influenced our thoughts and action.
10. Regionally there are still numerous areas of
tension, unresolved boundary issues and many
potential causes of conflict. These things
notwithstanding, we have not had as much peace in
the last century and a half as we have now. We have
not known such relative tranquillity for a hundred
and fifty years. There are no wars between nations
in East Asia. We keep our powder dry, but the guns
are silent.
11. Economically, we have been the world's record
breakers in terms of dynamism and growth for more
than a generation. This is even more remarkable
because as recently as 1950, Japan had a per capita
income half that of India and Pakistan. We don't
have to bring the per capita income of the United
States, Switzerland and Sweden into the reckoning.
It was only in 1960 that the per capita income of
Malaysia reached that of Haiti. Today, the standard
of living of Malaysia is ahead of almost all the
major countries in the Americas save only the United
States and Canada.
12. By the year 2000, the gross regional product of
the East Asian economy will reach parity with that
of Western Europe or Northern America, a giant leap
when it is noted that even in 1980 our total
regional GDP was only two thirds that of Western
Europe or Northern America. According to the World
Bank, by 2020, seven of the ten largest economies in
the world will be those of Asian countries. There
are some who believe that by the year 2030 East Asia
will be the size of North America and Western Europe
put together. These forecasts are not made on the
basis of simplistic straight line projections.
13. Unfortunately all these glorious statistics are
not welcome by everyone. Some countries are not too
happy. There is very little talk about Asia
becoming the engine of growth for the rest of the
world. Instead there are ominous signs that spanners
will be thrown into the works, frequently and
deliberately.
14. There is a political analog to Newton's third
law: for every action, there is an opposite and
equal reaction. In politics however, the reaction
may not always be equal, though it will often be
opposite. Thus the World Bank's predictions on China
have cost that nation dearly and will continue to
cost China dearly. The same goes for all the talk
on the East Asian `miracle'.
15. We can of course look at the past with some
satisfaction. But as I said there is no room for
euphoria, there is no cause for complacency. We
must never forget that pride comes before a fall.
16. Theodore Roosevelt said during the Second World
War: "The only thing we have to fear is fear
itself". But there is the other side of the coin.
For some of the more exuberant amongst us it is
worth reminding that what we may have to fear is the
lack of fear itself. Freedom from fear leads to
complacency and over-confidence. It is the disease
which had affected the old developed countries of
the West.
17. There is a second, more important, more basic
reason why we must emphasise the necessity of the
most serious, single-minded pursuit of reform and
revolution. There truly are so many things wrong in
our societies that must be put right. The distance
to be travelled is so far and the time we must spend
in traversing the distance is so short that the word
`revolution' is apt.
18. I do not think we need spill a single drop of
blood. The changes must be orderly, not tumultuous.
But revolutionary, orderly and radical change there
must be.
19. What are the key areas for domestic reform and
revolution? The exact priorities are of course
different in different Asian societies. Although we
have made political progress many of us still need
to discard loyalty to old and clearly impractical
ideologies. We have to make up our minds ourselves,
without any push by others. But the outdated
economic theories which had resulted in the
formulation of these ideologies have been proven
wrong. If we accept new economic models, then we
must adjust our politics to suit them.
20. For many, the need is for fundamental reform.
For some, the need is for kaizen, constant
improvement, constant fine tuning, as our societies
continue to be dramatically transformed. In some
societies in the Western world, there is the belief
that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it." In all our
societies, we must bend to the kaizen principle: if
it isn't perfect, perfect it.
21. We in Malaysia have always practised democracy.
Some may dispute this but let us remember that those
holier than thou democrats are not too particular
about democratic principles when it comes to pushing
their views and their selfish policies down other
people's throats. We are democratic because the
essence of democracy is majority rule and the right
to bring down a Government without resort to
violence and civil war. We therefore commend
democracy as the ideal political system for Asian
countries.
22. Still it is foolish to even think that
democracy can be a panacea. The theology of
democracy can sometimes be somewhat infantile and
some of its most vociferous theologians must think
they are selling candy to small children. I commend
democracy despite the fact that democracy does have
many weaknesses and can be unproductive or even
counter-productive at times. I commend democracy
despite the fact that many Asian countries have
succeeded only in establishing democracies where
democracy's weaknesses run riot, rather than
building democracies where democracy's profound
strengths hold sway.
23. Although Asian countries have mostly done well,
there is still the need for economic reform and
revolution. We have done remarkably well in the
past. But we must never forget that the tremendous
economic results of yesterday were the result of
what was done and what was achieved before
yesterday. We must now lay the foundations for
equally tremendous results tomorrow and in the
decades to come.
24. And we cannot do this without domestic economic
reforms and continued societal revolution. In this
regard, I believe there are few things more
important than the struggle for increasing
productivity.
25. Paul Krugman recently wrote that there is no
such thing as the Asian `miracle'. He is right.
There was no waving of the magic wand. There was no
magic. There is no mystique. We did it the old
fashioned way, through the investment of an ocean of
sweat, through the investment of massive capital,
and through improving the comprehensive
productivity of our societies (what economists call
TFP, `total factor productivity'). He is right in
saying that the old fashioned way is the only way
anyone gets great economic results. His theory is
right. He is even right about many Asian tiger and
dragon economies having done badly with regard to
total factor productivity.
26. He is only wrong with regard to some of his
statistics. And he is profoundly wrong in assuming
that those who have been poor productivity
performers in the past will be poor productivity
performers in the future.
27. If the East Asian economies have shown
anything, they have shown intellectual honesty in
discovering the obvious, in discovering the well-
trodden path to dynamic economic development, in
discovering the only means of achieving massive
growth. Our genius has arisen from being able to do
what everybody knows, in being able to do the
obvious, in being able to get our people to scrape,
save and sweat, to do what needs to be done.
28. What East Asians need to do now, without
exception, is to mount a massive productivity push
and to move our economic systems to new levels of
productivity performance.
29. We may not all succeed in our struggle for
productivity. Some will no doubt fail. We must
expect to pay the price. If we fall we must get up
and push again.
30. The sceptical world should watch what Asians
are doing and take it as examples for them, for
Asians who trade know that poor trading partners are
no good to anyone. We want everyone to prosper for
as we all know a world divided into haves and have
nots is not going to be an objective worth
struggling for. Such a world is no good for anyone.
31. There is a third item on our domestic agenda
which needs to be emphasised. We must ensure that
our political development and economic growth must
be accompanied with or result in social justice for
all.
32. The challenge of social justice is as wide as
it is deep. It ranges from the absolute eradication
of absolute poverty, to ensuring sound judicial
systems, the rule of law, equality, the protection
and fostering of women and children, helping the
disadvantaged and those left behind by development.
33. The social justice agenda in all our nations is
a long one. In meeting the social justice
challenge, we cannot go wrong if we sincerely and
seriously bow to the fact that every one of our
citizens is important. To each man, he is the
world.
34. Let me now turn to the second fundamental
challenge that Asia faces: the challenge of regional
friendship and prosperity.
35. So many of us have been strangers to each other
for so long, so many of us have been adversaries of
each other for so long, that too many of us have
never dared to ask the most basic and obvious of
questions: why can we not, why should we not be
friends?
36. We need to escape the mindset dictated in
capitals in other continents, many of whom may not
have a similar interest in our peace and our
friendship. It is touching how so many of us in
Asia seem to assume that others can have a greater
interest in the welfare of Asia than Asians do. It
is remarkable how much we borrow from others in
terms of what to think about, how to think about the
things we think about, even what to think about the
things we think about. Colonialism is dead. But it
is amazing how vigorous is our intellectual
subservience and how deep is our psychological
servitude.
37. The minimal task of regional statesmanship lies
in ensuring that none of us slip down the slippery
slope towards violent conflict. The real task of
regional statesmanship lies in building a warm and
cooperative peace in our East Asian Home - initially
and in the rest of Asia eventually.
38. In trying to do this, we can encourage and
support the constructive assistance of our friends.
But the East Asian Peace that we must build must be
built largely by us on the basis of non military
balances and alliances.
39. The undeterred hard-core Balance of Military
Power enthusiasts, who very often call themselves
`Realists' with a big `R', and who are to be found
in surprising numbers even in Asia, will no doubt
say that if no single nation can create a Balance of
Power on its own, the obvious answer is to create
alliances. It is interesting to note that amongst
these so-called `Realists' there is not a single one
who advocates an alliance against the United States
or even against Japan. It is quite obvious who they
want to create an alliance against. China is the
mother of all threats. When there is a shortage of
security threats, China can always be trotted up.
40. Indeed, there is today, especially since the
World Bank forecast of China emerging as the world's
number one economic power, the most vigorous
marketing of the China threat. We have not seen
such vigorous marketing since the days of John
Foster Dulles. I am most perturbed since I know
that once we treat nations as if they are the enemy
of tomorrow, they will rapidly become the enemy of
today.
41. In speaking against the Balance of Power
approach to the making of the East Asian Peace, I am
not dismissing the importance of military
capability. Obviously, some nations in the region
must militarily build up even as some should
militarily draw down.
42. The hard Balance of Power approach must mean
the creation of alliances and counter-alliances, the
drawing of lines between friends and foes and the
division of East Asia into rival camps. This is not
only counter-productive but is most unwise.
43. When we start to arm to the teeth in order to
be able to adequately `deal' militarily with each
other and to forcefully balance each other, what are
the psychological costs in terms of suspicion, the
erosion of trust and the undermining of whatever
confidence that had been built; not to mention of
course the horrendous cost and waste of money and
time and effort. If we prepare for war, are we not
more likely to get war rather than peace? Is real
peace, as opposed to the mere absence of war, ever
created by the ruinous process of vigorous military
balancing?
44. If we truly want an East Asian Peace we must be
prepared to fight for it with the will and the means
that are normally reserved for the prosecution of
war. And the most opportune time to launch this
fight for the East Asian Peace is now, when tensions
are at their ebb, when nations are relaxed, indeed
when peace is already there.
45. It is under these propitious circumstances that
the foundations of an enduring, warm and cooperative
peace must be built and buttressed.
46. The conditions in Southeast Asia in the mid-
Sixties when the members of ASEAN launched their
historic act of regional statesmanship were much
less propitious than are the conditions prevailing
in East Asia today. I believe that it is time for
East Asia to launch a similar act of regional
statesmanship.
47. The East Asian Peace must allow for the
constructive contribution of all the states of this
region. An outside deterrent is not only not
necessary but can run counter to the objective. The
East Asian Prosperity must similarly allow for the
constructive contribution of all states, big and
small, for all Asian states have shown a capacity
for level-headedness, irrespective of size or
situation.
48. East Asia must be strongly wedded to the
principle of `Open Regionalism'. This means that if
we regionally cooperate amongst ourselves on issues
of trade, the result of that cooperation must
be a reduction of the barriers not only between
ourselves but also to the outside world.
49. At the beginning of my speech, I spoke of what
I thought were the three key components of the
making of the Asian Renaissance: domestic reform and
revolution, regional friendship and prosperity, and
contributing to a better, more just and more
productive new world order.
50. Since the term `new world order' was first
proclaimed, there has been an almost incredible
attempt amongst some to banish it from our
consciousness. They who were so enthusiastic before
seem not to want a new world order now. I speak of
a new world order because I believe we do need a new
world order, one in which there is greater justice,
greater mutual respect, greater egalitarianism, a
stronger sense of global fraternity, much greater
global peace and much greater global prosperity.
51. Asia must rise. It must make a greater
contribution to the global commonwealth of man. It
must contribute to greater justice in the world, to
greater mutual respect in the world, to greater
egalitarianism in the world, to greater fraternity
in the world, to much greater peace in the world and
to much greater prosperity in the world.
52. In order to do this, Asia must put its own
house in order. Asia must empower itself. Asia
must be worthy of leadership. And Asia must rise to
the challenge of contribution.
53. You may have noticed that at the very start, I
set a 2020 time horizon. I will not be there to see
the day. But I hope that by then enough will have
been achieved that we can see the glimmer of the
Asian Renaissance of which I spoke.
54. Many have spent a great deal of their time
throwing cold water on the very idea that Asia is on
the rise and that a resurgent Asia will see the
return of history -- to the days when Asia
contributed its fair share to modernity and to human
civilisation.
55. We have heard ad nauseum the reasons why we are
all destined for the dustbin of history. For too
many years, the Asia-sceptics were right. What is
worse, for too many years, we deserved to go down
the tubes.
56. But for more than a generation now, the Asia-
sceptics have been proven wrong.
57. Cold water has its uses. It is necessary for
those of us whose heads are inordinately large. But
in this phase of history, we have confounded the
Asia-sceptics. May we continue to confound them and
their cynicism.
58. May we have the wisdom to avoid the pitfalls,
may we have the tenacity to sustain our development
and may we have the will to face all the challenges
and the stamina to complete the journey towards the
Asian Renaissance.
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