(This
speech was delivered during the 21st Session of the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific in
New Delhi, India, February, 1991)
New Delhi, India
February 10, 1991
Change
in Emphasis
Having been the Malaysian Minister of Agriculture for
almost six years, I have observed a glaring change in emphasis set by FAO
compared to the time I first attended its conference in Rome.
Farmers’
Interests
Malaysia, too, has changed its emphasis from commodity
oriented agriculture to farmers, breeders and fishermen oriented agriculture.
We are now more interested in the rubber tappers than
in rubber, more interested in fishermen than in fish, in padi planters than in
padi.
Moving away from colonial agricultural policy when the
colonial masters produced food for themselves and the colonies produced
commodities for their industries, independent nations are now producing food
and the commodities will only be produced so long as it is price competitive
and as long as it does not lead to the farmers remaining impoverished.
Income
In the same spirit of changing emphasis, Malaysia is
trying to reverse the approach, whereby, instead of paying attention to merely
increasing income in the hope that quality of life improves, we are trying to
improve the quality of life to generate more income.
If the quality of life is measured in the following terms:
·
tasty
and quality food,
·
sporting
activities for health and recreation,
·
clean
and beautiful environment,
·
music
and culture,
·
proper
dressing and housing.
Quality
We should try to introduce quality as a stimulant or a
motivating factor. A man with increased income will not buy a violin, but a man
who is interested in playing the violin will struggle to increase his income to
buy one. We know that married couples do not voluntarily plan their family to
improve their income, but a couple with good income will voluntarily plan the
family.
Man
before Commodity
If it is possible to change from commodity before man
to man before commodity, it should also be possible to change from income
before quality to quality before income. It is for these reasons that Malaysian
rural women are taught international cooking, sports are organized for farmers
and fishermen, landscape competition
organized nation-wide to turn villages into beautiful gardens, musicians
identified among farmers resulting in “Farmer’s
Symphony Orchestra’ and Agro-Theatre and extension work organized to
improve sewing and other skills for woman and men, resulting in better homes.
Nett
Exporter
With the above strategies coupled with the setting-up
of a model village for year 2020 at the Malaysian Agriculture Park, we have
managed to transform Malaysia from a net importer of food, though exporter of
agricultural products, into a net exporter
of food.
Dr. Eduoard Saouma has reiterated that ‘no task commanded higher priority than of
reducing poverty’ and the 80s aptly termed the lost decade for the poor. ‘Nearly one-half of the world’s poor
live in South Asia at the beginning of this decade. We must promote the
productive use of the poor’s most abundant asset: labor. The 1990s must not be
a clone of the 1980s.
‘The eradication
of penury, ‘Dr. Saoma stressed, ‘is
not a benevolent luxury. It is a condition of our continual survival as a
human community.
Recently, at the UNCTAD conference in Cartagena, The
UN secretary-general, MR. Boutros-Boutros Ghali said, “There will be no peace and stability without development…lasting
development is an essential factor in the achievement of peace and stability in
the world…zones of poverty…constitute potential areas for violence and
confrontation.”
I am glad that poverty continues to be recognized as a
serious global problem. The United Nations Development Program
(UNDP), in its report to the Regional Conference held in
Manila, the Philippines January 20, 1992 published that at least 800
million Asians are living in ‘absolute
poverty’ and seventy-five percent or the world’s poor live in Asia.
The report also noted that only four Asia nations
reached ‘high levels of human development.’ Eleven nations were in the medium
category while the rest are characterized by low human development.
Human
Development
From the report it is obvious that some countries are
better off than others and that the cure for poverty is human development. By
human development, the UNDP report referred to education, health, nutrition,
water, sanitation facilities and productive employment.
However, in Malaysia, where there is free education,
free health services, surplus food and clean water supply, poverty still exists
in its hard-core, absolute, and relative form.
Threat
I agree with the UN secretary-general that poverty is
a threat to world peace. I have observed in the bird sanctuary at the Malaysian
Agriculture Park that birds that are not hungry do sometimes sing when the
temperature is not so hot.
In Ngongoro Park in Tanzania, the wild lions did not
even look at us when they were busy devouring a zebra carcass. Without the
zebra carcass, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and I,
only a few yards away, would have been good alternative.
Special
Way
In certain places in Africa they had a special way of
catching monkeys. Knowing that monkeys would put their hands in any hole they
see, a hunter needs only to dig a small hole into a coconut to lure the monkey.
When the coconut water has dried up, the coconut would be attached to a long
rope, the end of which is held by the hunter who hides in the bushes. Into the
coconut is thrown a few peanuts as bait.
When a monkey comes by, the coconut being attractively
available within its territory, the monkey would definitely push its hand into
it. Upon touching the peanuts, the monkey would grasp it in a fist that is too
large for the hole and renders it impossible to be retracted.
That monkey will sacrifice its freedom that would have
enabled it to seek more food elsewhere, as it holds the peanut bait -- making
it easy for the hunter in the bushes to capture it.
Risks
Humans, too, often let go of small gains for greater
benefit. They would often choose to remain comfortably deprived if they are not
aware of opportunities ahead by taking some measure of risks. Any living thing
will not hesitate to jump out of a container of boiling water.
Similarly, even a water-loving creature
will not wish to stay in the water when it is heated to a temperature
unbearably high. Not so with the frog. It will stay on until it gets cooked.
We should realize that humans, too, have such
tendencies. In trying to solve the problem of poverty, there is no one solution
for all time and all places.
Proven
Wrong
Benjamin Spock once told mothers of certain ways of
raising their children. Several decades later he confessed that he was wrong.
Thomas Malthus argued that population would grow by geometrical progression and
food production would increase by arithmetical progression while humans would
die of hunger due to food shortage. He was also proven wrong. Science has made
possible the production of surplus food, although humans still succumb to
starvation.
Collapse
We have seen the collapse of the Soviet Union. There
is nothing to be excited about that for earlier than that the world had witnessed the
demise of the British Empire and the Ottoman Empire, among others. There was also
the collapses of Milken’s junk-bond empire in the US and that of Robert Maxwell’s in
Britain.
Political
Will
We should focus on poverty eradication. Can problems
of poverty be solved in countries where democracy is practiced? It is true
that in counties where democracy is practiced, government’s interest in solving
poverty problems is directly proportionate to the number of poor voters. So long as
the population of the poor is large, interest in poverty eradication will continue
to be political.
Before the Industrial Revolution in Britain, the
Church was interested in solving such a problem considering the affinity of the
scourge to income and wealth, food and health and skill and knowledge. As the
numbers of destitute citizens are reduced and the middle class grows in each
country, the political impact of the poor will also diminish.
The
Church
In the days before the Industrial Revolution in
Britain the solution to the problem of poverty also had a religious flavor; The
Church was then interested in poverty, illiteracy and diseases.
However, following the Industrial Revolution, British
politicians presumably removed the Church from its dealings with poverty, as it
was thought to be the responsibility of Governments. The Church continued to pay
attention to the construction of hospitals and schools in the colonies.
Malaysia’s
Success
Poverty was from then on, secularized – it became a
subject for politicians and academicians. However, intellectual interest in poverty
will cease with the completion of yet another thesis or working paper.
Political interest in poverty will last so long as there are sufficient poor
people to influence an election.
Malaysia’s success in poverty alleviation is recent.
Poverty is, therefore, a subject within the living memory and experience of our
leaders. Most decision makers still have poor relatives. The commitment to
poverty eradication therefore continues.
As most experience in poverty eradication has failed, the
enthusiasm of many leaders have also waned. As humans do not appreciate
failures, we have to reinstate enthusiasm by returning a religious flavour to
poverty eradication.
Holy
War
In Malaysia we have introduced Jihad or Holy War against poverty, thereby giving a divine flavour for the effort at
poverty eradication. While recognizing efforts against poverty as Holy, the
enthusiasm of leaders, intellectuals and professionals can be sustained.
Therefore, it is obvious that in developed countries
such as the US, where the voters among the more than 30 million poor people
have no impact on election results, there is a necessity for a body or
institution to continue the crusade or jihad against poverty.
It is necessary that each country, having sufficient
number of poor people have its own national institution to eradicate poverty.
Poverty being a global problem, there is a need to wipe it out with the realization
of a World Institute for Poverty Eradication (WIPER) that I have been propagating
through the years.
Habit
When I was in Vietnam in December 1989, I visited the
house where Ho Chi Minh once lived. In front of the house was a fish pond. I was
asked to clap my hands as I stood at the edge of the pond and when I did so, I saw fishes jumping from water.
I was informed that it was Ho Co Chi Minh who
practiced clapping his hands before he threw food to the fishes. After some
time the fishes realized the hand clapping was the signal for feeding time –
and they jumped. But Ho Chi Minh died in 1969 and my visit was 20 years later.
The habit of the fishes jumping still goes on as it had become a culture.
Dr.
Mahathir
In trying to build a new Malaysian society, our Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has identified and introduced five traits
for success:
· trustworthiness
·
discipline
·
courage
·
hard work
·
loyalty
These traits are prevalent in individuals,
organizations and successful nations – it is their culture. It is also these
traits that will probably make a success of our effort at eradicating poverty.
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