(This speech was delivered at the Conference of
Agriculture Sustainability, Growth and Poverty Alleviation – organised jointly
by ISIS, DSE and IFPRI in Kuala Lumpur on 3rd October, 1994)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
October 3, 1994
Thanks
My thanks go to ISIS Malaysia,
DSE (Deutsche Stiftung fur international Entwicklung/ German Foundation for
International Development), and IFPRI (The International Food Policy Research
Institute), who as joint organizers of this Conference, have very kindly
invited me to officiate the opening and deliver this address.
The willingness of a German
foundation and a US-based research institution to jointly organise this
conference on East Asia problems is an expression of open support for Malaysia’s
EAEC proposal which is meant to do the same thing.
As of last week, the United
States Congress has not approved the implementation of GATT because of
disagreements over agriculture subsidies and textile imports.
Why should there be a problem
over textile imports? A nation with free market economy should not have such problems.
Bismark, the German, had the answer. He said that ‘free trade is the idea of
the exporters’. When one becomes an importer, there is always an attempt to
establish direct or indirect barriers for imports.
Subsidies
Why should there be problems
over agriculture subsidies?
All of us who are taught Malthusian
theory on population know that the obsession to produce more food came after
the theory. We now have more food than people to eat them, but due to uneven
distribution, millions are dying of hunger and malnutrition. To Thomas Malthus,
famine and war are legitimate events to reduce population and, therefore, are
not things to worry about.
What is worrying is the subsidy.
But this subsidy is necessary
to encourage production, for otherwise there will be shortage of supply
resulting in the increase of food prices.
When more than 33% of the
components of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is food, we have, therefore,
created a ready criteria sandwiching food agriculture between the idea of
Thomas Malthus and the idea behind the CPI.
Growth
With political stability, the
East Asian region or the East and South-East Asian region are growing rapidly. China,
with its Communistic Capitalism is doing better than Russia with its Democratic
Capitalism. India with its Democratic Socialism is in between. Different forms
of democracies in the East and South East Asian region are making political
stability possible.
Stability makes growth
possible.
Our problem, therefore, is
inflation.
There is also the continuing
problem of uneven distribution of wealth. Adam Smith wrote in his book ‘Wealth
of Nations’ of the invisible hands which ensure the masses benefitting from the
craze of individuals to acquire wealth. People forget that Adam Smith was a
Professor of Moral Philosophy and not an economist.
His earlier book ‘A Theory of
Moral Sentiments’ must be read together with the Wealth of Nations.
In that way, greed will not be
detrimental to society.
The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) has forecasted growth averaging 7.1 per cent for ASEAN and around 10
per cent for China for the rest of the century. Vietnam is steadily integrating
into the market economy and is expected, on all counts, to do well. Buttressed by
the continuing good performance and prospects of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and
Hong Kong, it becomes blindingly clear why the East Asian region is considered
the most dynamic region in the world today. Being Asian is fast becoming a
badge of honour.
Asia
Consequently, as Asian, I
acknowledge with some pride IFPRI and DSE’s decision to focus, the first in
their series of five planned regional conferences, on the East Asia region. As a
Malaysian, I am very happy that you have decided to hold the 1st
Conference in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia has a record of sustained growth, with
redistribution, for more than two decades while being reasonably friendly with
our environment, and not overtly exploitative of our rich heritage of
agricultural resources.
Our rapid development,
population growth, structural changes, and increasing affluence have exerted
increasing strain on our environment and natural resource base, especially
those of land, water and forest. We have over time gravitated to a pragmatic
approach in reconciling the often times conflicting demands of growth, poverty
and sustainability. We have developed the discipline to recognise and accept
certain trade-off; the wisdom to reformulate policies that have been overtaken
by events; the urgency of developing and transferring the relevant agricultural
technology; the flexibility of incorporating and integrating the involvement of
public and private sector as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for
our common good; and the insights that as development is about people – it must
always start and end with them.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In East Asia we learn from our
neighbours. Through this process of learning from neighbours, the whole East
Asia appears to have made considerable economic progress. As no team abandons a
winning formula, we most certainly will not. Hence, this learning from neighbours
approach should colour the deliberations of this conference over the next four
days.
Malaysia’s Performance
According to UNCTAD, Malaysia
has become the world’s 24th largest exporting country, some say we
are the 19th largest trading nation, despite having only 0.003 per
cent of world population. Despite the increasing dominance of manufactured
products, Malaysia still ranks among the world’s largest producers and
exporters of palm oil, natural rubber, timber, and pepper.
It is also interesting to note
that apart from political stability, the IMF recently attributed the sustained
economic dynamism of Malaysia to important structural changes undertaken to
boost potential growth and strong export performance, the critical role played
by foreign direct investment and sound economic management. The World Bank has
come out with the assertion that the economic miracle of Malaysia and other
East Asian countries is due to work ethics, investment in education and high
savings rate coupled with pragmatism in policy formulation and implementation,
in taking advantage of the favourable ‘winds of change’ blowing across the
Pacific Rim.
Agriculture had since antiquity
featured strongly in Malaysia’s economy. It contributed significantly to the
expansion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment and export earnings as
well as provision of food for an increasing population and overall development
of the rural areas and other sectors of the economy through forward and
backward linkages. In retrospect, it was largely due to the productive
application of this agriculture surplus generated in the early stages of
development that fuelled the subsequent development of the other sectors.
Agriculture
The agriculture sector grew at
7 per cent per annum during the 1960s. As the economy transformed, this growth
rate declined to 5 per cent annually in the 1970s and 4.1 per cent per annum in
the 1980s. These were respectable, if not enviable, rates considering the high
base. The growth rate is expected to moderate further to 3.5 per cent per annum
in the 1990s.
Largely the result of our
industrialisation policy, the contribution of the manufacturing sector overtook
that from agriculture in 1987, and the gap has widened since. Reflecting the
overall economic transformation, the percentage contribution of the agriculture
sector to GDP, employment and export earnings have declined over the years,
despite chalking up gains in absolute terms.
This, however, should not be
taken to mean that agriculture is merely called upon to play an increasingly different
role. This is spelt out in Vision 2020 and articulated in greater detail in the
National Agriculture Policy promulgated in 1992, as an update of the NAP
formulated in 1984.
Forestry
As to forestry, 19.4 million
hectares of 59 per cent of Malaysia’s land area is under forest, and including
plantation tree crops, 71.8 per cent of land is under tree cover. About 4.6
million hectares are reserved as national parks and wildlife and bird
sanctuaries.
We do not forget that 2,400
years ago the Greek Philosopher, Plato had expressed concern over the
impoverishment of Attica, in Greece due to deforestation and soil erosion.
Malaysia’s timber exploitation
is in line with the guidelines of the International Tropical Timber
Organisation (ITTO). To promote forest conservation and ensure sustainable
yields, the Government has restricted or banned log exports as well as rattan
exports in recent years. If there had been high log output in Sarawak over the
last few years, it occurred in conjunction with new land development to
establish tree crop estates.
Malaysia also exports other
wood products including veneer, plywood, furniture and fixtures for the office,
kitchen and bedroom. To our good fortune, rubberwood makes excellent furniture
too and we have 1.8 million hectares of rubber trees which can potentially
double up as fast renewable timber resource.
Malaysia recognises that the
key actors in the agricultural sustainability arena are the farmers and farmer
groups.
Paradigm Shift
Eight years ago, we shifted our
paradigm from a product-based agriculture to human-based agriculture. We put
rubber tappers before rubber, padi planters before padi, fishermen before fish
and breeders before their animals. We believe that a happy farmer is a more
productive farmer.
Poverty
In order to widen the scope of
activity, the Ministry of Agriculture has redefined poverty or relative poverty
as not to mean poverty of income alone but inclusive of thought, health, sight,
hearing, taste, smell and emotion.
Poverty of taste resulted in
international cooking courses organised by MARDI for wives of farmers and
fishermen.
Poverty of hearing needed
music and good advice, resulting with the formation of Farmers’ Symphony.
Poverty of sight resulted in
the collection of used spectacles by WIPER – World Institute for Poverty
Eradication.
There are many people with
money and status but still unhappy. There are many poor people who have come
out of poverty but live a poor quality of life. They still do not appreciate
sports, music, recreation, good taste, flowers and beautiful landscape. We must
be careful of individuals and institutions who are interested in eradicating
poverty.
There is a scheme in a village
in Langkawi whereby the poor can borrow money to finance their small business. These
loans are not repaid from the borrowers’ income but from new and bigger loans. This
is considered as 100% repayment of such loans. The poor will be in perpetual
indebtedness under this scheme. They will remain poor.
Agriculture Park
The poor, however, do not
choose to be poor. They do not know what to choose to come out of poverty.
As the poor cannot be lectured
on poverty eradication, they need to see their choices in order to change
themselves. The government had built the Agriculture Park as a school for our
farmers. This park combines beauty and utility. Knowledge and inspiration. Poor
and non-poor farmers change their paradigm towards agriculture when they visit
the park.
It is now a tourist
attraction. In 1993, it was visited by 1.8 million people, it is the second
most visited place in Malaysia, after Kuala Lumpur. I hope you will find time to
visit the park.
The building of the
park, the ongoing “Love our Rivers” campaign and the Annual National Landscaping
Competition, which is now in its third year, will certainly improve the quality
of life for all. Besides Kuala Lumpur and the Agriculture Park, traditional and
fishing villages will soon be turned into Garden. Malaysia aims to be a garden
nation.
In 1991, we launched “Jihad
Basmi Kemiskinan” or “Holy War on Poverty”. The misinterpreted word “Jihad”,
which frightens Westerners, is now used to frighten “poverty”.
We firmly believe that in the
perennial balancing of sustainability, growth and poverty alleviation, farmers
are not the problem, far from it, and for the reasons I have presented, they
clearly are the solution.
Lastly, I would like to congratulate
DSE, IFPRI and ISIS for organising this Conference. I am sure this conference
will come up with concrete ideas and suggestions. These should be shared with
others. I hope that the proceedings will be disseminated as widely as possible.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
With these remarks, it now
gives me great pleasure to officially declare this conference open.
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing this report.
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