[This speech was delivered during the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) Ministerial Conference in Rome, Italy in November, 1987]
Rome, Italy
November 12, 1987.
GLOBAL WEALTH IN POVERTY
Water
Cycle
The poor in our county, who
are mainly in the rural areas, can be looked at as a class of people living on
a higher slope of an arid mountain, depending for their livelihood on rain water
that falls on the slopes. This rainfall seeps into the slopes and flows down
the rivers to the plains meandering through canals and streams, surpluses of
which go to the sea. By the process of evaporation the water, all along the way,
evaporates to form clouds in the sky. The clouds are then pushed by the wind
to break down as rain whether above the sea, on the plains or on the slope
itself.
That mountain is political
power as the majority of voters are in the rural areas and among the lesser
haves, and generally involved in agriculture.
Aridity is poverty.
The rainfall is money, coming out
of government expenditure, whether in the form of direct spending or subsidies
and other forms of aid. Through trade and business transactions, the money is
drained down the plains, which is symbolic of the cities, and surpluses go to
the seas as accumulated funds. Evaporation, like taxation, which generates a
lot of heat, causes vapour to rise upward and accumulate to form clouds which
is the Treasury. It is the political wind that blows the clouds and thereby
determines the distribution of rain or government expenditure.
On a global basis, things are
about similar.
World
Government
The majority of the world’s
population are in the poorer countries or in countries classified as poor. Should there be a voting on a one-man one-vote
basis to form a world government (God forbid), it would definitely be that
the poorer people of the world will triumph. If world peace is to be in any way
related to the development of the world economy, then the “water” cycle earlier
mentioned, should also be valid for comparison on a global basis. The riches
accumulated in the world should be made to recycle through trade in order to
have global peace.
Interdependency
In historical perspectives,
interdependency between nations is rational, relevant and the only way – for empires
and civilizations in Asia, Africa and Europe have collapsed without the leaders
of those societies ever predicting that their future citizens would be
participants in today’s FAO forum.
Balanced
Nutrition
Poverty in the Malaysian
context, has reached a stage whereby we should differentiate between having to
eat to live, without really filling the stomach, or getting the satisfaction
without taste nor balanced nutrition; or eating for balanced nutrition with
taste and satisfaction. This is probably what is meant when one talks about ‘starvation,’ ‘hunger’ and ‘malnutrition.’
Plight
of the Poor
It is rather unfortunate that
most discussions on poverty today are made by the people who have hardly been
poor. While we welcome the wealthy, more educated and prosperous individuals
for their concern in the plight of the poor, we should remind ourselves, now
and then, of the existence of the differences between the real experience of
poverty and the intellectual exercises in poverty.
Feeling
Poverty, as is love, pain,
hatred and satisfaction, needs to be experienced to understand the seriousness
of it. It is beyond literary capability to write about pain and evoking the
same feeling as cutting your fingers with a knife. It is also impossible to read
anything on love and have the same feeling as falling in love itself.
Leo
Tolstoy – Anna Karenina
No amount of discussion on
poverty is as real as to suffer poverty itself. If I remember right, it was the
Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy who wrote in ‘Anna
Karenina’ that the problems of the rich are all the same while that of the
poor differs. We should, therefore, always ask ourselves whether we are
offering the poor what they really want. For those having to eat to live, it is
not difficult to plan programmes for them as their requirements are basic and
very obvious; but the level of poverty all over the world differs.
Standard
of Living
There are those who are still
poor, but not starving, who need a better standard of living. There are other
factors beside per capita income to consider. People who are poor in monetary
terms are not necessarily deprived spiritually and emotionally; they have the
energy to spend. They are even good-looking. The resources of spirit, time and
energy of the poor should be used to improve their per capita income. After all,
high income and high ranks in society are not necessarily what the poor are
aiming for.
Happiness
We have heard of more suicides
or voluntary deaths among the rich, but the poor die involuntarily. Family disintegration
is proportionately more frequent among the high ranking. It is certainly true
that higher income and higher positions are not the only considerations that
add up to happiness (although they help), for I have seen poor farmers in the
padi fields, and in the rubber estates, much happier than salaried workers who
have nothing but money and ephemeral status as measures of their value.
Quality
of Life
We should, therefore, think of
the possibility of upgrading the level of happiness of the poor through social,
cultural and other activities that add up to the quality of life.
Indeed, it is Malaysia’s experience that the happy farmer is a more productive farmer.
We can, of course, say that this is the responsibility of the other United
Nations agencies; but I must say here that the other UN agencies must also realise
the necessity and importance of FAO.
Unending
Process
The effort at the eradication
of poverty on a global basis is an unending process. It is an irony to imagine or
even suggest that in order for FAO to continually exist, there must be a
perpetuation of poverty or of reasons for the obstruction to the solutions to
the problem of poverty.
Imports
Malaysia imports about RM3.2
billion worth of food every year from developed and developing countries. Although
the country exports huge amount of palm oil and rubber, the income derived from
the total sale of palm oil is not enough to pay for the cost of the imported
food.
We do not intend to be self-sufficient
in food production as we believe that agricultural activity which can be better
done by other nations economically, should be left to them while we concentrate
in areas that we excel. We also hope other nations will adopt the same attitude
towards us and towards other developing countries and even developed countries.
I do hope that Bismarck was wrong when he said that ‘free trade is the idea of the exporters.’
I have been taught that free
trade is the best thing that can happen to this world. I have also learnt that
trade, not aid, is the answer to economic problems of nations. But I am a
little confused when I come across unfair
‘information and propaganda’ directed against our commodities and
commodities of other nations.
Freedom
This, I perceived as against the
tolerance of science, encouraging protectionism, and therefore, contrary to the
spirit of free trade itself. I hope I am not hurting anybody by pointing this
out with the notion of free speech and all that. If one is against free trade while preaching it, one should also be
against free speech while propagating it. We should not use the world freedom
when it only benefits ourselves.
The problem of food security
and lack of technical skills are not just economic problems, they are also
scientific as well as technical problems. They are also categorised as
emotional and human problems. That is why I dwell on this subject in such a
manner.
FAO
Cannot Solve All the Food Problems
Let us look at Dr. Saoma’s
statement which reads: “FAO cannot solve all the food and agriculture problems
in the world.”
There
is enough food in the World Today
On the other hand, Mr. Jean
Meyer said:
“There is enough food in the
world today to feed adequately every person on earth, if the food were
equitably distributed (this, however, would condemn peasants in poor countries
to eternal poverty).”
This sentence, (this, however,
would condemn peasants in poor countries to eternal poverty), which is within
brackets, is even more important than the whole paragraph, as this sentence
rationalises the reluctance of the nations to sufficiently help the hungry.
Swollen
Wings
Mr. Chairman,
I remember reading somewhere
about a few philosophers, on realising that birds fly South to the
Mediterranean in late autumn to avoid the bitter winter, provided tents as
shelter and food for birds to eat. After a few years, the views of these philosophers
changed and their resources were diminished and they stopped this programme. At
the next autumn, the birds came and seeing that there was no food and no tents,
they flew away. Thousands of birds which have been eating free food for years flew back
as they could not cope with the long journey anymore.
These birds died.
The veterinarians discovered
that the joints of their wings were swollen – they had been eating free food for too
long.
Mr. Chairman,
We are not talking about
birds, but man. The philosophers and the rich were equally at fault. The birds didn’t
ask for help, they were pampered, they had nothing to thank for.
I am
against helping merely for the sake of helping. However, in the case of a
person in extreme poverty due to geographical, climatic and other reasons
beyond their control, what they need in order not to be pampered is to be in
the ‘water cycle’ that I have mentioned earlier.
I do hope that while we try to
solve the problems of the poor, we do not entertain policies that will bring
poverty to those that we are trying to help. Members of the Cairns Group should not be
pressed to take retaliatory measures.
Markets
Malaysia has seen poor nations
coming out of the Second World War as rich nations because of the markets
available to their product. We have seen rich companies in rich nations with
sophisticated marketing abilities turning management gurus and even suggesting to entrepreneurs in the then developing
countries what to grow or manufacture.
Opportunity
When there is an opportunity
for profit, more go for survival, positive response will surely come by in
developing countries. We should help to install the ‘water cycle’ on a national
and global basis. To achieve this, we have to cultivate good public relations
as all those involved in this effort are humans. We should control our
temperaments and emotions.
Efficient
I have heard of proposed
changes in the FAO. Even Dr. Saouma has suggested change. Whatever it maybe,
the spirit should be to increase productivity of the organisation. Small organisations,
like small nations, can be efficient just as big organisations and big nations
can be efficient. There are also small and inefficient nations just as there are
big and inefficient nations.
Big nations
do not just decide to split or reduce their size whenever they are efficient.
Indeed,
some of them continue being efficient. Scaling up or down the number of
personalities in an organisation should be done for greater efficiency and just
not for pride or vengeance. Those who are giving should not be too arrogant,
dictatorial and over bearing, while those who are receiving should be thankful,
and not rude – nobody owes us a living.
We should realise that to love and to hate is a matter of decision. It is in this decision that the
future of human kind depends.
Tan Sri Sanusi bin Junid,
Minister of Agriculture,
Malaysia
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