Changes...did we forsee this?

December 11, 2007 19:55 PM (Bernama)
Malaysia's Foreign Policy Needs To Be Re-defined, Says Syed Hamid

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 11 (Bernama) -- Changing dynamics in international relations and growing aspirations of a post-2020 Malaysia warrants a change in Malaysia's foreign policy.

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the policy needs to be re-defined and re-focused, with the fundamental guiding principles of the foreign policy remaining intact.

"We must be quick and responsive to mega trends and developments. We must be able to analyse events and overall impact on Malaysia's national interests.

"A 2020 Malaysia with a 32 million population and a projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of RM920 billion and a technology-driven economy will be a different Malaysia than we know today.

"Therefore, Malaysia's aspirations and interests will also move along with them," he said at a colloquium themed "Malaysia's Foreign Policy Towards 2020 and Beyond", organised by the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations.

For the past 50 years, Malaysia's foreign policy was single-mindedly geared towards fostering better ties with neighbouring countries and trading partners, Syed Hamid said.

He said Malaysia had built friendship across continents and had established 104 diplomatic missions worldwide.

He, however, said Malaysia's future diplomatic relations should run parallel to the increasingly complex demand of its highly-competitive economy and technologically-driven society.

Since the pronouncement of the Vision 2020 objectives, Syed Hamid said the chief driver of the future was knowledge and technology, transforming the way economic planners thought and strategised.

"(Therefore) It should prompt us to re-examine our roles in conducting the foreign policy to promote greater collaborations in applied sciences and technological innovations," he said

In the Asian context, Syed Hamid said he would expect Kuala Lumpur's foreign policy initiatives on India and China to be much more engaging with greater collaborations, particularly in the economic field.

He said more Chinese and Indian companies were expected to rise as global players and they would project a non-Western face to globalisation.

Both (China and India) would devote more resources to basic research and development and attract cutting-edge technology to move from basic assembling to higher-end products, said the minister.

Syed Hamid said the rising power of both China and India had begun to transform the geo-political landscape, and in many Western eyes, had the potential of disrupting the international political alignments.

"China and India will have a projected population of 1.4 billion and 1.3 billion, respectively, by 2020.

"The sheer size of their population, increasing economic clout and expanding military capabilities mean that they have the ability to project power beyond their shores, particularly as they compete with other industrial countries to secure access to energy and other raw materials needed to fuel their expanding industries," he said.

Due to the importance of China and India in global economy, the way Malaysia conducted businesses would also have to be re-defined and it would be necessary for Malaysia to possess experts on Indian and Chinese affairs, he said.

On Latin America where Malaysia has been actively engaged since the late 1990s, Syed Hamid said Kuala Lumpur's ties with the continent should gather greater momentum.

"Considering the current trends of uplifting the well-being of the people through an enlightened social programming and distributional policy, Malaysia is well-placed to share some of its experiences in the nation-building programme," he said.

In the context of Africa, he said Malaysia, engaged in active diplomacy with many countries in the continent, should be in a position to do more in 2020, particularly in areas it had the capacity to help.

"These include bridging the digital divide, infrastructural development, education and the commodities sector.

"The branding of Malaysia as a proven model for development can be promoted to African countries that have the potentials for harnessing their own resources towards fulfilling their national aspirations," he said.

On Asean, Syed Hamid said at the national level, there was a need to ensure synchronisation of Malaysia's regional policies in Asean and the Asean-plus process to maximise and promote the country's interests.

He stressed that environmental diplomacy would be an important area that Malaysia needed to focus on to strike a balance between the rate and level of development and its cost to the environment.

The year 2020 would continue to see deepening of the solidarity of Muslims, and Malaysia would need to continue working together, with like-minded Islamic nations and other countries to create better understanding on inter-faith and inter-civilisational issues, he added.

-- BERNAMA