Malaisie Occident

 Kuala Lumpur, April 12, IRNA -- Asia, including Malaysia, has a right 
to do things their own way as long as it is approved by the majority  
of the people, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said here 
Friday.                                                               
    The Prime Minister said if proponents of democracy and human      
rights believed in what they preached, it would then be undemocratic  
to use force, including economic pressure, to gain acceptance of a    
system or policy they espoused.                                       
    Addressing prominent American and Asian leaders from the business,
government and other sectors at the 30th annual Williamsburg          
Conference in Petaling Jaya, about 20 km from here, Dr Mahathir said: 
"while what was good from Europe and America could be emulated,       
countries in the East must be given the freedom to decide what they   
should copy.                                                          
    "Those who believed in freedom, human rights and democracy must   
allow us to manage the balance between peace and prosperity that we   
have achieved on our own," he said in a speech titled "Malaysia and   
Asia: Seeking a Balance Between Peace and Prosperity" at the          
conference organized by the Malaysia-based Asian Strategy and         
Leadership Institute.                                                 
    Giving proponents of democracy and human rights a taste of their  
own medicine, Dr Mahathir said Asians wanted to be democratic, equal  
and fair but they did not see good examples of these values among the 
democrats who preached them.                                          
    In the pursuit of ideological concepts, the original reasons and  
intentions of the ideology were always forgotten. The same thing is   
happening to liberal democracy and human rights.                      
    "Be democratic and uphold human rights or else you will lose      
your rights. Is it democratic to go about promoting democracy this    
way? "It would seem that democracy is more important than human rights
and the well being of the people. It does not seem democratic," Dr    
Mahathir added.                                                       
    Taking Malaysia as an example, Dr Mahathir said the country       
wanted peace and the people freely supported the government's ways of 
achieving that end.                                                   
    He asked: "Why should there be objections by others who are not   
really affected by our ways?" Although Malaysia is an Asian country,  
Dr Mahathir said it did not reject all western values.                
     "But where we think Asian values are better, we should be        
allowed, and entitled, to retain them." The Prime Minister noted force
was being used every time to gain Asian compliance, and many of the   
things they had to accept were actually detrimental to their interest.
    Yet while force was being used to ensure human rights were        
upheld, Dr Mahathir said very little was done to help reduce poverty, 
which is noted to accompany most social ills, including human rights  
abuses.                                                               
    "It is not unreasonable to assume that the reduction of poverty   
would contribute towards reducing human rights abuses."               
    Dr Mahathir said he could not understand the suspicions towards   
Asian countries such as the reception given to Malaysia's proposed    
link-up of the Northeast Asia economies a decade ago.                 
    The idea was opposed due to the exclusion of non-Asian groups and 
anything discussed not in their interest would be subjected to        
opposition or watered down.                                           
    "Proposals for inclusion of members from competing groups in an   
Asian grouping continue to be made and pushed. If Europeans and       
mericans can be exclusive, why can't Asians have their  own group?"   
    Dismissing the objection that Asians were anti-West or            
anti-European, the premier  said this argument could not be valid as  
the Europeans and Americans never considered the non-admission of     
Asians into their groupings as being anti-Asians.                     
    The Prime Minister said it was shameful that the countries of     
ad to hide behind other names, such as ASEAN-Plus-Three in order to   
get together. (Plus-Three refers to Japan, South Korea and China).    
    He said unlike the homogeneous Europeans, Asians were             
heterogeneous and deeply divided.                                     
    "There is no way they can conspire to confront the Europeans      
or the West. Asians know they need the rich countries of Europe and   
America to grow and prosper," he added.                               
BN/NA/AR                                                              
End