Oleh/By		:	DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD 
Tempat/Venue 	: 	HOTEL ISTANA, KUALA LUMPUR  
Tarikh/Date 	: 	21/11/96 
Tajuk/Title  	: 	THE THIRD PACIFIC DIALOGUE  



1.    I  would like to thank the organisers for the honour  of
addressing this distinguished gathering of business leaders of
the  Pacific Rim and others who are interested in the  affairs
of this region.

2.    This  Pacific  Dialogue  is  basically  a  gathering  of
outstanding  personalities from the  United  States  and  East
Asia.  I wonder whether I may be permitted to say a few things
to  our  American and Asian friends and to conclude with  just
one  thought  which it might be useful for us  all  to  ponder
together.

3.    To  our colleagues from across the Pacific, let me press
three  points.  First,  may  we  of  Asia  ask  for  a  little
understanding, a sense of fairness, a little time and a little
space.   By  all means, do not let anyone of us, Asians,  hide
behind  excuses.   Let  all oppressors and  despots  fear  the
conscience  of mankind to which Asia as well as  America  must
fully  contribute.  But let us be fair.  We will lose  nothing
by so doing.

4.    Second  -- and here I direct my remarks not to America`s
politicians,  media  and  NGO's but to America's  enterprising
corporations --  you have so much talent, so much  creativity.
You  have so much to give, to contribute to our future and  to
your  bottom line by coming out here to rebuild your companies
or  to  take  them  to  a  higher  level  of  performance  and
profitability. I would urge you to `Go West', go  West  beyond
the boundaries of your continent and your current imagination.
Be  our companion on our long journey to full modernity.  Help
us to build a new Asia.

5.    Third, let me speak of productive partnership.  Come and
let  us -- America, Asia and whomsoever wishes -- let us  join
hands  in  a  joint venture, to build a new  World,  a  global
commonwealth such as the world has never seen, worthy  of  the
hopes of mankind and worthy of the 21st century.

6.    We, all of us have a right to ask that we be allowed  to
earn  our daily bread the old fashioned way, through the sweat
of our brows and the hard work of billions of our people.  The
developed  among  us  have all the advantages  --  technology,
capital,  rich  domestic markets, educated  workforce,  market
savvy,  experience, organisation.  They have all the  products
to  sell.  Those of us in Asia are only beginning to learn  to
produce manufactured goods, relying only on our cheaper labour
cost,  cheap because our cost of living is still low  and  our
expectations not high.  Surely you must admit that the  threat
we  pose  is  minimal.  Yet of late  there  has  been  such  a
crusade for leveling the playing fields.  When the contest  is
between  giants  and midgets, would a level playing  field  be
enough  to  ensure a sporting chance for the  midget?   Surely
many  of the businessmen of the West and even politicians play
golf and understand the need for handicaps.

7.     Most   of   the   developing  world   have   only   the
industriousness  of their people to count on  and  the  scraps
which they can hope to pick up.  Yet even this seems to be too
much.   There are so many amongst the rich who want to  ensure
that  this single advantage, this one competitive element,  is
neutralised.   If the rich take from the poor the  only  thing
which  they have, the only means by which they can work  their
way  out of the pit of poverty, where is the justice?  Or does
it not matter?

8.    When America was young and growing, finding its way  and
working  its  way up in the world, Europe did not demand  that
European  institutions  be introduced,  that  European  labour
practices be adopted, that you don't expropriate the  land  of
the natives to grow wheat and tobacco and to rear cattle.  For
a  time  they even allowed you your slaves.  Nor did  they  or
anyone  else stop you from clearing forests because of concern
for  the  wolves  and the bears, the mountain  lions  and  the
rattle  snakes.  Europe in fact was happy to buy the  products
that  you exported with no question asked.  But of course that
was  then, not now.  Things are different now.  We are  all  a
lot wiser and perhaps a lot more humane.  But is it humane and
wise to keep so many Asians in a state of poverty for whatever
reason?

9.    I  will not defend pollution and the desecration of  the
environment,   the   theft  of  intellectual   property,   the
destruction of whole peoples, child labour.  But as  you  look
around, do you see us doing nothing else except these terrible
things?   We try, but as you may have noticed poor people  are
usually  more desperate than the rich.  They pollute and  they
chop  down  trees simply because they cannot help  themselves.
Electric  ovens and gas cookers are still luxury items  for  a
majority of Asians.  Cutting down trees for firewood or for  a
living  may  be  the  only way out.  The  alternative  may  be
uncooked  meals or unemployment.  We would like to manufacture
sophisticated products on our own and market them worlwide but
most   of  us  don't  know  how  under  environmentally  ideal
conditions  or cannot afford.  Besides, if we do  try  we  are
told that we are not treating our workers right.  Also we have
to  pay royalties or we are simply denied the technology.   To
subsist we have to chop down forests and opt for low tech, low
pay labour intensive industries.

10.   We speak of Asian values, meaning hard work, respect for
authority, discipline, submission to the interest and the good
of  the  majority and filial piety.  Suddenly  we  find  Asian
values  equated with authoritarian rule, disregard  for  human
and  workers rights, political stability and economic  success
at  all costs.  We must now discard Asian values and adopt the
so-called universal values as conceived by the West.

11.   Our American and European detractors have forgotten that
enormous  tribulation separated the clarion call of  "liberte,
egalite, fraternite" and a truly democratic France.  The First
Republic replaced the absolute monarchy of the ancient  regime
with  the  imperial  glory  of Napoleon.   The  French  saw  a
revolution  not only in 1789 but also in 1830 and  1848.   The
1848  revolution  saw the birth of the Second  Republic.   The
Third  Republic came with the overthrow of Napoleon III  after
the  Franco-Prussian War.  The Fourth Republic came to an  end
after  the Second World War and the collaboration of the Vichy
government  with Hitler.  It all took time and I  don't  think
that even now French democracy is perfect.

12.   In  the United States of America two centuries  and  one
civil   war   stood  between  the  American   Declaration   of
Independence  where you so rightly proclaimed the  virtues  of
democracy, where you so rightly proclaimed that "all  men  are
created  equal" and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Two  hundred
years.  One civil war.  And so many tribulations in between.

13.   Women  were granted the right to vote in Italy  only  in
1945, in Switzerland only a few years ago.  The aborigines  of
Australia  were granted citizenship, the right  to  vote,  and
full  recognition  as human beings only in  1967.   But  there
still  survive  a  few  who, even now  believe  that  the  new
attitude  towards the aborigines and indeed the  abolition  of
the White Australia Policy are mistakes.

14.   So  many  of  us Asians were not granted  the  right  to
democracy  or  even  the right to govern ourselves,  the  most
fundamental  of  human  rights, until  recent  years.   It  is
interesting that so many of us, who were regarded as obviously
unfit  for self rule and democracy for hundreds of years  were
required  to be good or even model practitioners of  democracy
the  moment  the colonial flag  was lowered and  the  flag  of
independence went up.  No time at all is given.  Perfection at
the  first try is required of us Asians.  Having multi-parties
and  holding  regular elections are not enough.  To  be  truly
democratic  we  must  change Governments with  each  election,
endure civil strifes and frequent disruptive demos and strikes
and  generally verge on anarchy.  We should of course  not  do
well  economically  and  challenge the  established  developed
countries.

15.   None of these means that democracy is not important  for
Asia or that human rights are of lesser relevance to Asia than
it  is in other parts of the world.  To argue the former is to
utterly  misunderstand the task at hand.  To argue the  latter
to Asians who have advanced faster and more fundamentally with
the  human rights of  hundreds of millions -- at speeds  never
before seen in human history -- is to betray incredible myopia
and to demonstrate incredible ignorance.

16.  Asia can no longer sit down and take injury and insult in
stoic  silence -- from those who think that their own complete
lack  of  knowledge should be no impediment to putting  entire
countries on trial.   We of Asia will increasingly demand  and
we have a right to demand a little maturity and sophistication
on  the part of those who wish to analyse and proselytise; who
so  easily slip into the role of policeman, prosecutor,  judge
and  jury;  who so habitually try, judge, punish and persecute
without even giving a hearing.

17.   What Asians need is not theology and the easy assumption
that we cannot think for ourselves.  Once upon a time we might
have  bought  snake  oil.   But  we  are  a  little  bit  more
sophisticated  now.   Too  much water  has  flowed  under  the
bridges of history.  To those politicians and all-knowing NGOs
who  still want to sell snake oil, we say take some yourselves
for you may need it more.  We would like to point out that the
oppression of nations by nations is no less undemocratic  than
the oppression of Governments over their citizens.  You cannot
preach one without practising the other.

18.   Let me now turn to my call to American enterprise to `Go
West',   to come out in large numbers to what so many of  you,
and  some of us, still call "the Far East".  The Far East  for
America  is  actually Europe up to Asia Minor.  The  world  is
quite round as has been confirmed by satellite pictures.   Any
place  can  be  the  central  reference  point.   Relative  to
America, Asia is the West.  Even as you left the cosy comforts
of  home a century and a half ago and built the American West,
you  should  now do the same but venture further,  across  the
Pacific  in  fact and help build Asia.  You will not  have  to
deal with marauding natives and lose your scalps.  You will be
welcomed instead and you will gain more than you ever did when
you pioneered the opening of your Wild West.

19.  In the 21st century, no corporation can be a world player
if it is not nourished by and strongly anchored in our part of
the  world.  Already, the Asia Pacific is where 60 percent  of
the  world  is.   On  this planet, at this  time,  already  60
percent of all the goods and services produced is produced  in
the  Asia Pacific.  In the decades ahead, the economic  centre
of  gravity  must shift Westwards even as it did in  America's
own history only a hundred and fifty years ago.

20.   To be sure, some of us in Asia may not want you and will
not  be prepared to ensure that you and you alone flourish and
profit  from  your enterprise and our enormous  dynamism.   We
would certainly want a share of that profit.  That apart,  let
me  say that in most of Asia Pacific and certainly in Malaysia
you are most heartily welcome.  We need you as co-builders  of
our  co-prosperity.  If you help us to prosper, then you would
be  building a great market for your goods and expertise,  for
no  matter how we try there will always be things that we will
need  from you.  No matter how much we want to be independent,
we cannot help but be inter-dependent.  We cannot only sell to
you, we must buy also, as much as we realise you must sell  in
order to be able to buy what we want to sell to you.  We  know
this and you know this.


21.   Asians  and Asian values are not identical.   We  differ
quite  a  bit.   Mostly we are polite and even  accommodating.
But  sometimes  we  are not.  So do not be  surprised  if  the
customarily  polite  becomes frank  and  the  usually  frankly
brutal becomes nice and accommodating.  If I may be allowed  I
would like to seriously advocate a joint venture between  Asia
and  America  and  others in order to create a  single  global
commonwealth.   You  see,  we  do  believe  in  good  friendly
relations for the common good of mankind even.

22.   A  single  interdependent global  commonwealth  was  not
possible in the great age of colonialism because the world was
divided  into exclusive economic blocs, each oriented  towards
its  centre  of  the imperial cosmos.  However,  it  is  today
possible  for  the first time in human history.   Imagine  the
productive  consequences of such a new economic  reality.   It
will  be  the  real mechanism which will transform  the  whole
political,  strategic and psychological make-up of the  world.
We would indeed have a new world.

23.   In a previous dialogue I suggested that we opt for  win-
win-win  solutions.  I said that we should  forever  bury  the
primeval  and  primordial beggar-thy-neighbour  reflexes  that
have  been so natural in the past.  Let us put in their  place
prosper-thy-neighbour impulses aimed at ensuring that all  our
neighbours  and  all  their neighbours,  far  and  near,  will
prosper.   Is  it wrong for everyone to be prosperous?   I  am
sure we have noticed that prosperous people have more time  to
attend  to  the well-being of human kind, their  freedoms  and
their rights.  Wouldn't a commonwealth of nations where wealth
would  really be common be better than wealth that is uncommon
for most nations of the world?

24.  There has been much talk of the 21st century becoming the
Asian Century.  I beg to differ.


25.   I  believe that the 21st century will not be  the  Asian
Century  in  the  way  that  the Nineteenth  century  was  the
European  century  and  much  of the  20th  was  the  American
century.  The 21st century will be the century when the  world
takes  precedence over the narrower interests of  nations  and
continents.   This will be best not only for the rest  of  the
world but also for Asia.

26.   But the century of the world will not happen if  we  all
talk  of  the  Asian Century.  We should downplay  this  Asian
Century  thing.   We should play up the 21st  century  as  the
Century  of  the  world,  the century  when  the  world  comes
together, to build greater prosperity not only for Asians  but
for all mankind.

27.  We Asians must forego the ego massage that so many others
seem to need.  The idea of Asians lording it over the rest  of
the  world may seem attractive and satisfying for Asians.  But
let us not be lulled by this egoistic dream.

28.   Yet we must surely want Asia to have a bigger say in the
making of the 21st century.  We cannot have a bigger say if we
mess     up    our    administrations    through    democratic
irresponsibility, if we unnecessarily confront each other over
trivialities, if we fail to seize the hour.  How can we have a
bigger say if we can't even make up our minds what to say?

29.   If  we  are to command the respect of the world,  we  do
truly   need  to  do  even  better  in  the  process   towards
modernisation.  We must be more successful in devising systems
of more democratic governance.  We must advance faster, over a
broader  front, in the struggle to ensure the dignity of  man,
the   dignity   of   all  our  citizens,  their   rights   and
responsibilities.

30.    We  have  been able to secure the greatest  advance  of
mankind  in  human history in the last generation  because  we
were  able to recognise what really counts is pragmatism,  not
ideological fervour; that the welfare of our people must  take
precedence  over the egos of the few, and that that well-being
can only come from economic growth, not jingoistic nationalism
or even continentalism.

31.   East  Asian  and  Americans share a  common  Ocean,  the
Pacific,  the Ocean of peace.  It may have distanced  us  from
each  other  in  the  past as the Atlantic never  did  between
Europe  and  America.   But that distance  is  no  longer  the
dividing  factor that it was.  Where once it  took  months  to
cross  today it takes a matter of hours.  And we can talk  and
see each other as if there is no oceanic gap between us.

32.   True, most wars have been between close neighbours.  But
neighbours  have  been  known  to  form  strong  and   lasting
alliances. Cannot we be friends, Asians and Americans?  Cannot
we  be  a  little  more tolerant of each  other's  quirks  and
foibles?   Stop  comparing.  Neither of us  are  perfect,  nor
either absolutely imperfect.

33.   During  this Pacific Dialogue you will be  concentrating
constructively  on  three  subjects:  Moving  Forward  on  the
Economic  Front,  Moving Forward on the Political  Front,  and
Moving  Forward  on the Culture/Civilisation Front.   To  move
forward  together  on  any front, we  need  understanding  and
tolerance.   Otherwise we will be moving forward against  each
other and there can only be a destructive clash in the end.

34.   Almost  one  thousand years ago, as the world  that  was
Europe then moved towards the end of the first millennium  and
the  beginning of the second millennium, there was near  panic
and  utter depression.  This was because the learned Christian
clerics of that time believed that the world would come to  an
end  exactly  one  thousand years after  the  birth  of  Jesus
Christ.  Economic  development wound  down.   Human  endeavour
petered  out. For what was the use of doing anything  positive
if the world was going to come to an abrupt end?


35.  Today, one thousand years later, we know better.  We must
seek a new beginning.  Let our uncommon sense prevail.  Let us
build as determinedly as we can destroy.

36.   If  Asia  and America can be joint venture  partners  in
prospering  each other we will surely be the  catalyst  for  a
single global commonwealth of common prosperity and this  will
surely  result  in a century that is not Asian, not  American,
nor   European,  nor  even  African,  but  a  World   Century.
Idealistic  perhaps.  But Man, working towards an  ideal  must
achieve something nearly that.