Moving forward to becoming a developed nation

Moving forward to becoming a developed nation

Still fresh from hosting the ASEAN summits, Malaysian Prime
Minister Abdullah Badawi met with a group of international
journalists, including The Jakarta Post's Endy M. Bayuni, at his
office in Putrajaya near Kuala Lumpur last week. He talked at
length about his vision and the challenges Malaysia faces. The
journalists were part of a visit Malaysia program organized by
the Institute for Strategic and International Studies. The
following are excerpts from the interview.

Question: When you succeeded Dr. Mahathir Muhammad in 2004,
people said you had a tough act to follow. What is the philosophy
of your leadership?

Answer: To be firm about many things and not only about
whether I am trying to be strong or trying to be weak, trying to
be soft or trying to be hard. The substance of decisions that
leaders made must be fair to all. Fairness and justice must be
the strong reasons for why you want to do certain things.

How do you distinguish yourself from Dr. Mahathir?

My emphasis has been on the development of human capital. You
can give soldiers the best weapons, but if he does not know how
to shoot, then what is the use?

Some people accuse me of taking Malaysia back by several years
by turning to agriculture. But now, with biotechnology, the
possibilities of making agriculture a fully growth sector is
there, because there, more and more people are involved.

On good governance, accountability and transparency, that's
what I am aiming at. I have already set up the National Integrity
Institute. We must battle corruption. Corruption is a disease,
like a type of cancer, that if allowed to spread, the entire
society will crumble. It's not easy to fight corruption.

Malaysians today are free to express their views and opinions.
We have a very strong majority of 90-percent plus. I have allowed
my backbenchers in parliament to ask very tough questions for
members of the government. I told them that your role is to be
constructive in your criticisms.

This nation is moving forward to becoming a developed country
by 2020. We're carrying Dr. Mahathir's vision forward. This is a
government that is a continuation of the previous one.

The style of Dr. Mahathir and mine are different. We're two
different persons. We have different ways of doing things,
different perceptions of what needs to be done and how things
should be done. I am not concerned about that. I've been given
the biggest mandate ever obtained by any Malaysian leader.

Are you reviewing the affirmative action policy of favoring
the indigenous Malay?

We introduced the New Economic Policy in 1971 with a set of
policies to help promote the Malay people who were lagging
behind, not only economically, but also in education and in many
other aspects. We don't want another problem of race riots. We
would not allow this situation (disparity) to remain permanently
because socially it is not good and politically it is going to be
destructive in the future.

There is nothing wrong with trying to strike a better balance,
there is nothing wrong with giving a handicap to those who are
lagging behind. When you play golf you have a handicap, right? So
we give them handicap.

People must have equal opportunity to do well.

Is this not discriminatory? Do you plan to end it soon?

It's a policy of expanding the cake and of distributing it
equitably. If you're giving somebody more than what they have
before, and you have to take that portion from somebody else's
share, then you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

But if you expand the cake, percentage-wise, may be you're
getting less but in reality you're getting more. Thirty percent
of a small cake is small, but 20 percent of a big cake is big,
and 10 percent of a much bigger cake is big.

The approach is to level up those who are down without forcing
the others to come down. If am able to come to a situation where
the balance is acceptable, we'll go on improving. It's just a
matter of time when this (policy) will not be important anymore.
It takes time to restructure society. This policy is supported by
the national government of the National Front, a coalition of 13
political parties representing all the races.

What are the main challenges to the Malaysian economy? How do
you see the rise of Chinese and Indian economies?

The main challenge is competitiveness, that is, the ability to
compete for everything, for the market and for the resources.

China has emerged as a competitor. Many countries see China as
a threat. We look at China as a friend and an opportunity. A good
neighbor who is doing well is an opportunity for us. We can't be
doing what China is doing. We cannot go for industries that rely
on low cost labor because we don't have that anymore. We have to
find a niche for ourselves. Something that we can do, something
we can face favorably.

We look at ASEAN as a group. Economically speaking, the
integration of ASEAN is becoming more and more intensive. ASEAN
has a population of 530 million, an area rich in natural
resources and human capital. We are among the top traders.
Malaysia is the world's 18th largest trader. Thailand and
Singapore are also world traders. This is a thriving area. We can
position ourselves favorably vis-a-vis China and India. I don't
want to say that we are powerful, but we're very viable to face
the competition.

Is Malaysia trying to become the most "Muslim" nation in the
world?

It is our duty to be a good Muslim. We work hard. When we do
the right thing, people will look at us, give us some
recognition. We have to make sure that we continue on this path.
We're happy if people say that Malaysia emerges as a model of a
very successful Muslim country with a government that pursues a
policy of national unity.