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Bush, Mahathir Differ Over Globalization
By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Correspondent in Malaysia
JAKARTA, Oct 21 (IslamOnline) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and U.S. President George W. Bush appeared to be at loggerheads on Sunday during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Shanghai over the issue of globalization.
With Pacific Rim leaders pushing for more economic globalization, Malaysia's leader delivered an alternative broadside on Saturday, arguing that Western ways were leaving too many people behind.
"The sacred truth that every globalization ideologue knew not so long ago was that globalization is always good - always good for every one, at all times, in every way," Mahathir Mohamad told business leaders gathered for the weekend summit.
"This is so contrary to the facts as they have been experienced by the countries of East Asia, Africa and Latin America," he said, adding there have been few winners and far too many losers when it came to globalization.
Mahathir Mohamad is known for his reticence for Malaysia to fully embrace globalization. He has also expressed concerns about the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Recently, Malaysia has been critical of the WTO, claiming that it allowed countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to decide on free trade pacts that could jeopardize the regional grouping.
President Bush, however, took the opposite view. The U.S. President said, "Trade is the engine of economic advancement." Bush added that "choosing globalization would bring prosperity while isolation and envy will bring poverty, stagnation and ignorance to the world."
The Malaysian leader countered, arguing that, "the US cannot impose globalization and the WTO on the world, ignoring the digital divide and the fact that rich countries would become richer and poor countries poorer under the globalization."
"The U.S. government has narrowed everything either we join war against terror or we are in the terror camps, either join globalization or we are envious," he continued.
"Bush has adopted an aggressive attitude concerning globalization too. Mahathir is right," said Mohideen Abdurrahman, a businessman involved in international trade.
Bush said expanding markets and trade have already proven their benefits. The American leader said expanded trade had helped China's per capita gross domestic product rise by 513 percent since 1975. Bush also said Malaysia has been able to cut its illiteracy rate by two-thirds and other nations have sharply reduced infant mortality.
But Mahathir said there has to be a better way than following "the principal pulpits of capitalism and the free market, including the WTO."
"If globalization is to be sustainable, there must be many more winners and many fewer losers, and they should both be a mixture of the rich and the poor," the Malaysian leader said.
"The winners must not win to an obscene extent, and the losers must not lose to an equally obscene extent."
He said he sees little chance for a worldwide push toward "a more productive, compassionate and caring globalization," so he called on East Asia nations to cooperate more closely by creating stable monetary systems and currencies.
Mahathir called on the rest of the world to be united against the dangers of globalization as it represents an opportunity for developed nations, most of them being former colonizing masters, to maintain a firmer grip on the world economy.
Those who "cannot be part of the solution...should get out of the way and not be part of the problem," Mahathir said, lambasting the "Washington consensus" and the power of U.S. currency.
"Given the mountain of money and the power that comes out of the almighty dollar, is it any surprise that global capitalism is in charge of the 'Washington consensus,' of the IMF, of the World Bank, of the WTO, of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world?" he asked.
The Malaysian Prime acknowledged that East Asia has benefited from globalization, but said it had also suffered following the 1997 regional financial crisis. Regional countries must be prepared to be pragmatic and discard some forms of globalization.
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