| SPEECH
BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON DATO SERI DR MAHATHIR
BIN MOHAMAD AT THE SECOND WORLD KNOWLEDGE CONFERENCE
AT THE BALLROOM, MANDARIN ORIENTAL, KLCC, KUALA LUMPUR |
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| Transcending
The Divide |
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| Let
me add my sincere words of welcome to this Second World
Knowledge Conference. |
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| he
organisers have asked me to speak on "Transcending The
Divide. In thinking about what to say, I was immediately
reminded of two things. First, the story of Prophet
Moses and the Red Sea. Second, some words of Bertrand
Russell. As you all know, Prophet Moses parted the Red
Sea in order to safeguard his people and to eventually
ensure their freedom and prosperity. It required a miracle
to pull off that feat. |
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| I
believe that it will require a miracle, indeed a series
of such miracles - to pull off the feat of transcending
the present global divide between the richest developed
and the poorest developing, between those at the cutting
edge of advancement and those being crushed by the weight
of poverty, between those who have so much and those
who have practically nothing at all. I would be completely
surprised if the gap will actually be transcended in
any meaningful way. To be sure, a handful of middle
income countries can make the quantum leap to the informatised
society, thus to become developed countries. But it
would take a miracle to prevent a massive widening of
the knowledge and the economic gap between the rich
and the poor in the years ahead. |
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| s
for the words of Bertrand Russell, in his autobiography
he writes: "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly
strong, have governed my life: the longing for love,
the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the
suffering of mankind. |
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| I
do think I have a similar longing for love from my wife
and family. I cannot claim a similar thirst for knowledge
like this great philosopher of the 20th century. But
I do share his third passion, his unbearable pity for
the suffering of mankind, for the wretched of the earth. |
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| I
make no apologies for stressing before you one of the
great atrocities of the 20th century - which must not
be perpetrated in the 21st. |
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| Despite
all the progress made by mankind, the massive advances
in the liberation and empowerment of mankind, there
is no denying that never before in the history of man
do we see so many living in abject and absolute poverty.
It might not be out of place to remind ourselves, even
as we ponder the wondrous information instruments and
knowledge machines of today and next year, that vast
numbers of mankind have never opened the pages of the
humblest book, although the technology of printing is
more than a thousand years old. Vast numbers of mankind
are yet to make or receive their first telephone call
or enjoy the blessing of the electric bulb. |
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| This
morning, this afternoon and tonight, more than three
thousand million human beings on this planet have to
survive and get by on two US Dollars a day. This is
less than what you paid for your cup of coffee in the
hotel where you are staying. |
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| Many
statistics show that over the last decade especially,
the developing have begun to catch up with the developed.
In many ways, the development gap has indeed been narrowed.
In many ways, quite dramatically. But take the so-called
miracle economies of East Asia out of the equation and
you will get a different picture. |
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| As
a human being who has journeyed far and wide over highways
bustling with traffic as well as on the roads less traveled,
I have never ceased to be amazed by how very generous
poor people can be in their daily lives. I have never
ceased to be amazed by how often the poor are willing
to share what little they have. I have, at the same
time, never ceased to be amazed by how very little some
of the very rich can spare for the impoverished. I have
never ceased to be amazed by how selfish, self-centred,
greedy, avaricious, grasping and rapacious some of the
very rich are. |
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| Unfortunately,
in our world of reality, generosity is something that
no society had a right to expect in the past. It is
not something that any society can expect in the present.
No generosity can be expected in the future. Unfortunately
for the poor and the backward, in the days ahead the
cards are even more stacked against them. |
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| This
is because the information and knowledge gap between
the economic haves and have-nots is even greater than
the income and economic gaps between the backward and
the developed world. The poorest societies on earth
are even more starved of knowledge than they are of
food. Those who need it most have the least. Herein
lies the present tragedy and the making of a future
catastrophe. |
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| I
am not, in the humorous words of Oscar Wilde, young
enough to know everything; but I have no doubt whatsoever
that in the years ahead, knowledge will be, dramatically,
a much, much greater determinant of human performance
in every area than at any time in the long history of
mankind. |
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| Knowledge
has always been important, of course. The ancient Egyptians
did not raise the stones for the pyramids relying on
the incantations of their gods. The waters in the irrigation
canals of the great Indus Civilisation did not flow
according to the laws of ignorance. Knowledge has always
been power and wealth. |
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| written
400 years ago. Obviously, this great playwright was
the first multimedia master. Shakespeare wrote: "Of
his bones are coral made; those are pearls that were
his eyes; nothing of him that doth fade but doth suffer
a sea change. |
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| If
bones have turned to coral, if eyes have turned to pearls,
if we have already seen a sea change, we must now prepare
ourselves for an ocean change. Those who are strong
enough and empowered enough to sail on this vast new
ocean will reach shores never before dreamt of. Those
who are weak and infirm, who cannot safely sail on this
tumultuous ocean, will simply be left behind if they
are lucky. They will be dragged under if they are not. |
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| A
central part of the radical transformation that has
begun is the result of the ICT revolution, the dramatic
impact of information and communication technologies.
A critical reason is also the breaking down of barriers
and borders and the opening of all societies to the
fierce force of global competition and global penetration.
The first revolution, the ICT revolution, is irreversible. |
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| As
for the globalisation revolution, it is, of course,
not new. The first globalisation revolution started
more than a hundred years ago. It culminated in what
was called La Belle Epoch. It ended with the First World
War. The globalisation revolution took six decades to
make a comeback. But the comeback has been made. The
second globalisation revolution came into force by the
end of the eighties. |
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| about
"globalisation, a word we so often use because we don't
quite know what we are talking about. I have no doubt
that it will be brought to an abrupt end by the multitudes
of the world if rapacious, unbridled and unconscionable
capitalism bereft of ethics, morality and caring rides
roughshod over the welfare of people. |
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| was
the first dramatic "wake-up call to us all. Especially
those in the globalised fairy-land would do well to
wake up. Globalisation is not inevitable. But I do believe
that with cycles of ebb and flow, with the arrival of
greater sanity, balance and consideration, globalisation
will find a way to not only forge forward but also to
fast forward. |
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| Equally
clearly, in grasping the opportunities of the Information
Age and dealing with the dangers of the Information
Age, we can expect no assistance, no real helping hand
from anyone. The only helping hand we can rely on will
be the one at the end of our own arm. If we are to transcend
the great divides, we must do it ourselves. |
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| Just
as no one can do anything to us worse than what we can
do to ourselves, no one can do for us anything better
than what we can do for ourselves. This does not mean
that we turn away from the world or that we turn the
world away from us. But it means that we understand
fully that God will help those who help themselves. |
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| What
do we need to do to help ourselves? |
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| We
must be prepared to examine every sacred cow, to give
up every pre-conceived notion. In the pursuit of information,
knowledge and wisdom, we must be prepared to face reality.
We must embrace change, pursue novelty, crave innovation.
We must learn. Even harder still, we must unlearn. We
must remember to forget old ways. We must force ourselves
into new habits. We must build the new processes, institutions
and organisations that are necessary for the Information
Age. |
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| We
understood fully that "our people are our greatest resource. |
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| Great
Information Hoard" which operates within the corporation,
the university, the civil service quite understandable
in an information and accessibility poor environment,
which makes knowledge that extra important and therefore
that extra valuable, to be coveted, hidden and hoarded,
must be killed. The private and public sector will need
to operate according to new rules of transparency, new
regulations for disclosure, new processes of corporate
and public sector governance. All the while, we must
make sure that the short and long-term social effects
are fully understood and proactively responded to and
that equity and social justice are never neglected.
All this has of course to take place within a context
of massive technological innovation and expansion. At
the beginning of this address, I talked about two great
divides. The great divide between the economically rich
and the materially poor of this earth and the great
divide between the information and knowledge rich and
the information and knowledge poor of the world. Please
let me end with a few words on the third great divide:
the great divide within all our societies between those
who are information and knowledge empowered and those
who are information and knowledge disenfranchised. In
many countries this is the most urgent issue to address,
the most difficult and the most critical for no society
can move forward as a cohesive social community if the
vast majority are left behind. A country that cannot
advance the vast majority cannot sustain the welfare
of the vanguard minority, no matter how talented that
minority, no matter how brilliant their capabilities
and how great their accomplishments. We cannot afford
and we must not afford the shameful waste of the talents
and the contribution of a disenfranchised underclass.
We cannot afford and we must not afford the rage and
the social disharmony. We cannot afford and we must
not afford the political costs. In all our societies,
we must ensure not only that as many as possible get
onto the information super-highway but also that none
are left by the wayside, to throw stones or hand grenades
at the vehicles speeding past. The Information Age that
is upon us holds out the promise of a new world of shared
prosperity, a global renaissance. At the same time,
it also holds out the danger of economic exploitation,
societal devastation and a new era of imperialism and
colonialism. For the sake of the world, I pray that
we truly can bridge the economic and development gap,
the information and knowledge gap and the great divide
within. I pray that we can summon not only the information,
not only the knowledge, but also the wisdom to choose
the right road. I hope that this conference and you
who are in the forefront of our Information age will
be able to help us all to find that road and to inspire
us all into making that journey. Prime Minister's Office
PUTRAJAYA 1 |
