KARACHI: Asian states urged to invest in human capital
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 6: Asian countries can do much better if they invest in human and economic development by following in the footsteps of China, Korea, Japan and other such countries, rather than remaining buried in the past.
This was stated by the visiting Singapore diplomat and academic Kishore Mahbubani, who is also Dean of the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, during a roundtable interactive session at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) here on Thursday. The session was presided over by the PIIA chairman Fatahyab Ali Khan.
Mr Mahbubani, a former president of the UN Security Council, has served as his country’s ambassador to Cambodia, the United States and the United Nations.
A student of philosophy and history, Kishore Mahbubani, whose parents hailed from Hyderabad, was of the view that these were very defining moments for Pakistan in which the Pakistani Diaspora could play a catalyst role in transforming the country into another Japan. But he qualified his argument by saying that such an approach required very high degree of internal political consensus because violent and terrorist means would not lead to any solution.
He said that China, US, India and Japan would be the next non-European centres of power in the present century and if other countries of Asia could learn from what China was doing, they would also become a sustainable entity.
Mr Mahbubani was of the view that the capability of China and Japan to look into the future and to learn and benefit from the experiences of others had led to their rapid economic development.
Citing China’s pragmatic approach, he said that Beijing did not want to play the role of world super power like the US yet; it was keen to emerge as an economic power. India and China seemed to have reached the conclusion that they needed peaceful borders with each other in order to expand themselves internally, pursue their regional interests and fulfill their own global aspirations. The two countries also realised that their global images were boosted by adopting a cooperative approach towards one another.
Asia’s own agenda
Asked why the Asian countries were unable to set their own agenda, whether it deals with the WTO, terrorism and other economic and strategic decisions, the diplomat’s blunt reply was that “if you rely on loans and grants either from the US or the World Bank or the IMF, etc, you will have to submit to them. If Asia has to be the formidable power in the years ahead, it has to be economically strong to take its own decisions.”
The interactive session also focused on the American policies and why the world reacts to it in such a negative manner.
After referring to some of the good things the Americans had done after the World War II, Mr Mahbubani believed that the problem began when the US started to disengage from the region and walked away from Afghanistan that saw the demise of the Soviet Union and an end to the Cold War. He said the 9/11 incident and the American policies on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and the adjoining regions had generated more opposition.
Responding to a question, he said one of the problems with the US had been that its policies appeared influenced by the pro-Israel lobby. This was hurting Israel because the policies encouraged Tel Aviv to continue its confrontationist policies.
Mr Mahbubani predicted that the world community would spend most part of the 21st century handling the many problems generated by the confusing and conflicting policies of the US and the West to deal with the Islamic world.
He recalled that the US had chalked out a Marshall Plan to develop Europe and also a plan to develop Japan after the World War II. “The obvious question is why no such plan was devised for the Islamic world or, at least, for a few Islamic societies,” he said.
