Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad gave an exclusive interview to John Pantry of London’s Premier Christian Radio after opening the WEF 11th General Assembly. In the interview, he expressed fears of the risks posed to Malaysia by large multi-nationals.
Your Excellency, after a number of recent events, the debate is underway in Britain as to how the government should best manage a multi-cultural, multi-faith and now, with immigration on the increase, a multi-racial society. I am bound to ask you what your government has learnt in this area that may help?
We have had a long experience of living in a multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious community so we find it fairly easy to reach an understanding. After the racial riots in 1969, we found that there really was no benefit in trying to grab everything for ourselves. It is far better, as we say, to grow the cake and share the bigger cake among ourselves. That helps us to accommodate each other.
Malaysia is clearly a resourceful nation whose rapid financial progress has been affected by events outside its control, as have many Eastern nations. But today, Kuala Lumpur looks as prosperous as ever with new buildings under construction across the city. Is the country now firmly back on its feet?
I think so, I think we did very well last year but this year we should do well too, excepting the downturn in the US economy affects us because the US has big trade with us. But still, I think we are better off than most countries affected by the currency crisis.
Are multi-national companies and billion dollar-investors beginning to pose a threat to democratic and sovereign states?
We have always welcomed the multi-national companies which have invested in this country, created jobs for our people and generally contributed to its growth and prosperity. But now we are seeing a new breed of multi-nationals which are so huge because of mergers and merging again. If they come in and are allowed to operate without any regulation they are likely to make our own companies go out of business. And in the end, they will all be absorbed by these huge corporations, which would be even bigger than the government. This is not something we would like to see.
Finally, as financial success in Malaysia finally eliminates poverty, what other problems will become your priority?
We have an ambition to become a developed nation. So even though we expect to eliminate poverty, we will raise the poverty line and try to keep our people's income improving all the time so that our poverty line will match those in the developed countries. We will have to work very hard towards (Vision) 2020 and the people generally accept this as they see they are contributing to their own development. |
