08/11/2011 (Myanmar Times) - Former prime minister, medical doctor, statesman, author and plenty more, Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a legend in Asia and renowned for his straight-talking ways, especially concerning the West.

And for the crowd who arrived at Traders Hotel in Yangon to hear his business talk on November 2, Dr Mahathir did not disappoint.

“Europe is bankrupt and so is the United States. I tell you this – if you buy those US government treasury bonds you’ll never see that money again,” he said.

The discussion was jointly organised by Malaysia’s Federal Land Development Authority, the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, the Malaysian embassy in Yangon and the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Described by author and former Wall Street Journal Asia editor Barry Wain as the “Malaysian Maverick”, Dr Mahathir kept participants entertained throughout his talk with a number of enlightening stories from his 23 years in power before finishing with a question and answer session.

Dr Mahathir’s speech was preceded by an introduction by Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry president U Win Aung, a speech from the Malaysian ambassador and a video entitled “Building Bridges”, which said Dr Mahathir was known for his “unabashed criticism of the West”.

Dr Mahathir was seen as instrumental in Myanmar’s admission to ASEAN in 1997.

“Myanmar holds a special place in my heart and it was because of that that I insisted that Myanmar should be admitted to the membership of the ASEAN nations. And I was glad that the others [nations] agreed, so we have all the 10 nations of Southeast Asia in one grouping.

“It’s great to be back,” he added.

He opened his discussion by looking back on his – and Malaysia’s – experiences of globalisation and economic liberalisation.

“We all are all aware that the world has become very small, not physically of course, but in terms of travelling and communications – what would previously take days or weeks only takes hours. In terms of communications we can actually [know] what is happening as it is happening,” he said.

However, that meant there would be some “miscommunication” between neighbours.

“Whether we like it or not we have to accept that there will be miscommunication between all of the countries of the world,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said the idea of globalisation had come from Western nations as a result of the increased speed of travelling and communicating across the world.

“Now I am always suspicious of rich Western countries. Whenever something comes from them I feel the need to examine them very closely because there may be something hidden in the promises that are made as part of this new concept of globalisation,” he said, adding that the interpretation of “globalisation” also needed to be put under the spotlight.

“The rich countries’ interpretation of globalisation is easy access for them into our country … for their capital, technology and the resources of our country. That is not always good for us,” he said.

“Because sometimes they bring things that are not always good for us – such as the moral values of the West that are not good for us,” he said, adding that negative incursions should be filtered out.

Dr Mahathir said that while capital was welcomed if it went into setting up factories to manufacture goods and create jobs, speculator capital invested into the stock markets or currency markets should be carefully considered.

“So when the idea of globalisation was mooted by rich Western countries, Malaysia had to examine this idea very carefully. We feel that we need know what the benefits would be for us [because] the benefit to them was very clear,” he said.

Dr Mahathir added that the idea of open borders and open markets also warranted suspicion, citing Malaysia’s battle to have Western nations accept palm oil imports. He said that while the governments had accepted the imports, soybean oil producers had waged a “nasty propaganda campaign” to convince the public that palm oil was high in cholesterol and bad for the health.

Instead, Malaysia turned to China, with much more success, he said.

“Western nations say they like competition but I say they only like competition when they win.”

Later, Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had practiced a “Prosper Thy Neighbour” trade policy, instead of the traditional Western model of “Beggar Thy Neighbour” in the belief that it would enable those nations to buy more from Malaysia.

“But when you prosper your neighbour, don’t prosper them too much,” he said, which sent ripples of laughter through the audience.

He said ASEAN needed to band together to speak with “one voice” to counter the challenges faced by the region, just as the European Union and similar groupings had.

“Together we can become a powerful region that can stand tall and talk back to those who keep trying to tell us how to live our lives,” he said.

The discussion ended with questions, during which Professor Aung Tun Thet asked Dr Mahathir about his leadership style.

Dr Mahathir’s reply thrilled the crowd: “In Malaysia we have a saying, when everybody is unhappy you must be doing the right thing because if any one group is happy we know we are favouring that group too much.

“We have to make sure that every group missing something and has to sacrifice so that the others may get their share … Because of that Malaysia has been very stable.”