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Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Malaysian prime minister speaks

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(Part 1)

Last week, the South China Morning Post had a long-ranging interview with newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on a number of hot button issues such as China and the South China Sea dispute, the brewing US-China trade row, war and new development models, among others. The interview was done immediately after the high-profile visit of Chinese IT/e-commerce billionaire entrepreneur, Jack Ma.

At 92, Mahathir is now the world’s oldest head of government. Returning to the national scene as the spiritual leader and PM designate of the opposition alliance Pakatan Harapan after retiring as that country’s longest serving Prime Minister, Mahathir led the unlikely grouping (ragtag party as some anti-Mahathir sectors derided it) in ousting the ruling Barisan Nasional anchored by the Malay juggernaut, UMNO, from government. That surprise victory ended Barisan’s hold on government dating back to Malaysia’s independence from British rule has been described by most analysts-on-the-scene as nothing short of a tsunami.

As usual, the blunt, hard driving Mahathir who has been credited for enhancing Malaysia’s entry into the club of modernizing “Third World countries” appeared to have regained his wit and his stride as he vowed to bring back his country’s pride and luster after what he described as the “lost years” under his predecessor, Najib Razak.

Here is part of the interview:

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Q: What do you think about China?

A: We have always been in contact with China. In fact, during my time, we developed a very good relationship with China. We sometimes become a spokesman for China, because everywhere I go, people ask me ‘What do you think about China? Aren’t you afraid?’ I say, ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of.’ We have been neighbors for 2,000 years. You haven’t conquered us yet. But the Portuguese came here in 1509. Two years later they came and conquered us. So I always tell that story whenever they ask. I have always regarded China as a good neighbor, and also as a very big market for whatever it is that we produce. Malaysia is a trading nation. We need markets, so we can’t quarrel with such a big market.

Q: Some say you’re anti-China. Are you?

A: There are certain things, of course, which were done which were not to Malaysia’s advantage or even good for Malaysia. We welcome foreign direct investment, from anywhere, certainly from China. But when it involves giving contracts to China, borrowing huge sums of money from China, and the contract goes to China, and China contractors prefer to use their own workers from China, use everything imported from China, even the payment is not made here, it’s made in China. So, we gain nothing at all. That kind of contract is not something that I welcome.

The other thing is that they develop whole cities, very sophisticated, very expensive cities, which Malaysians cannot buy. So they are going to bring foreigners to live in those cities. Now, no country in the world will accept a lot of immigrants coming into the country. You see that in America, you see that in Europe, anywhere. So we don’t want to have whole cities built in Malaysia, have them purchase a big piece of Malaysian land, and then bring in foreigners to stay there. That is what I am against. I am against it even if it is from India or from Arab countries or from Europe. Foreign immigrants in huge numbers— nobody will welcome, certainly not in Malaysia.

But otherwise, when foreign investment and the ideas that Mr. Jack Ma was talking about—he wants to train Malaysians, he wants Malaysians to do business, he wants to urge Malaysians to market in China—that’s fine. China already has 300 million middle class people. It’s a big market. He says if everything is manufactured in China, China will become polluted. So his way of talking and presenting his case is totally different from the other Chinese big contractors who want only a contract here, and are not even hiring the workers; the workers are all imported from China. That is not welcome.

Q: What specific Chinese investments will you welcome?

A: Certainly what Mr. Jack Ma was [talking about] is the kind of Chinese investment we want. And we welcome foreign investment from any country, so long as they bring in the capital, they bring in the technology, they set up plants here, and they employ Malaysians, from workers to engineers, they employ Malaysians and they produce goods for the domestic market, and for export. That we welcome, coming from anywhere, China or Russia or Britain or France or America. That is what we would like. I think Mr. Jack Ma’s idea, Alibaba’s idea, is what we want. He wants to train Malaysians to produce things to be exported to China.

Q: You masterminded Malaysia’s multimedia super corridor in the ‘90s. Is it worth revisiting?

A: I was surprised that Mr Jack Ma knows about the multimedia super corridor and he has good words to say about the multimedia super corridor. But during the last decade or so, there was no focus on fulfilling the plans for the super corridor.

We wanted to bring in IT industries. But now it has become just an ordinary development with a lot of houses and things like that. It’s no longer an IT city. We want to bring that back and, hopefully, with the help of Chinese entrepreneurs like Mr. Jack Ma, we will be able to once again go back to the idea that the multimedia super corridor will be a place where new ideas, new innovations are carried out in the fields of IT and electronics and the like. (Continued Monday)

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