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Malaysian PM Calls for New Globalization in New World Order
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Monday called for a new globalization in a new world order.
"The new globalization that we must foster must rightly reward enterprise and excellence, must contribute to and not detract from a more just, more caring, kinder, gentler and more compassionate new world order," he said at an international conference on globalization here.
The new globalization must contribute to and must not detract from greater ethics and morality, greater liberty and independence, greater equality and mutual respect, greater productive democracy and comprehensive human rights, he said.
Mahathir said "We must throw off the intellectual hegemony of globalization's theologians. It is time to put people before profit to ensure that in the process of globalization there are more winners and fewer losers."
He said it was time to have a new globalization process that worked less to serve the very wealthy and worked much harder in the service of the very poor, it was time to ensure that development was brought to the very center of the global agenda as the principal objective.
Realizing that this new globalization in a new world order that he advocated is a new paradigm, Mahathir said "We must make absolutely sure that we will not swallow the absolute market fundamentalism that the globalization extremists try to ram down our throats, that the absolute capitalism that the globalization extremists want to unleash on this planet will not run riot, that the absolute globalization that the globalization extremists want to impose on the entire world will not come to pass."
Pointing out he must not be misunderstood as someone who advocated the abandonment of the market system, the rejection of capitalism and opposition to globalization, Mahathir said "I must confess to being a believer in the market system. I am a believer in the capitalist system. I am also a believer in globalization."
To emphasize on how globalized and open Malaysia was, Mahathir outlined numerous achievements attained by Malaysia through deliberate efforts for over two decades.
Cautioning however that an absolute market system untampered by responsibility and civilization was a grave threat to mankind, he said "Absolute globalization unguided by rationality and sound judgment is perhaps the greatest danger to the world at the dawn of our new century."
Soon after delivering the speech at the conference, Mahathir left for China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Hainan, China, where he told Xinhua upon his departure he will deliver a keynote address on globalization and make suggestions about what can be done in facing globalization.
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