Malaysia’s former PM highlights country’s economic rise

AMMAN — Recognising that the secret of Japan’s success and remarkable development lies in its labour ethics, morale and management capability, Malaysia sought to have its students learn from these practices firsthand, according to former premier Mahathir Mohamad.

The programme “Looking East” consisted of sending Malaysian students to Japanese universities to learn Japanese work ethics and technology, and of inviting Japanese professors and trainers to Malaysia to educate Malaysian trainees and businessmen, Mahathir said at a lecture on Thursday.

Both Japanese and Malaysian governments sponsored these projects.

“We wanted to change the mentality of our entrepreneurs who were more laid back in the beginning to more disciplined, efficient and ethical businessmen,” he said.

In a lecture titled “The Rise of a Nation” at the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, attended by HRH Prince Hassan, the former prime minister briefly presented how a rural and mining Malaysia gradually became industrialised and turned into one of Asia’s major economies.

Mahathir, who has been politically and socially active for seven decades, said he and other Malaysian leaders benefited from the experience of Japan and South Korea.

Instead of copying European countries which had a long history of revolutions and civil strife because of disparities in income, Malaysia sought inspiration in Far Eastern societies.

“It wasn’t easy to change the mentality of our people but we succeeded,” he remembered.

Malaysia has three major ethnic and religious communities — Malays, Chinese and Indians, he said.

“Malays were 60 per cent of the population but poor, while the wealth was concentrated in hands of the third generation of Chinese immigrants,” he added.

The idea of Malaysian founding fathers after the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1957 was to create the atmosphere of cooperation, mutual respect and trust between the three main communities.

“We decided that Malays, Indians and Chinese should share the country politically and economically,” Mahathir stressed, “it was a momentous decision by the fist prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.”

Many pundits did not predict the success of Malaysia’s political and business experiment, but after political balance was established between parties and coalitions representing all groups within society, the focus turned towards the industrialisation of the country.

One of the first steps Malaysian leadership took was to hand over 10 acres of land to landless peasants, reducing the number of unemployed people.

“We invited foreigners to invest in Malaysia and their businesses were 10 years tax free,” Mahathir said.

These measures created wealth and each group “received their share of the cake”, the statesman explained.

Malaysia invested in higher education once society acquired the wealth, he said. 

Malaysian students study in almost every country of the world. “In Jordan itself we have 3,000 students,” Mahathir said, adding that “knowledge is the key for social mobility.”

“Our long-term goal is to have Malaysia fully industrialised in 30 years,” the statesman concluded.