Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed urged Asia's leaders yesterday to stop "kowtowing" to Westerners, warning continued subservience would lead to domestic uprisings and terrorist attacks. Mahathir, whose anti-Western rhetoric often caused controversy during his 22 years in power, told a university lecture in Singapore on democracy and Asian leadership that Asian minds were still "colonized" by Western influence. "Asian leaders and Asians in general have yet to achieve freedom of thought, freedom to look critically at the ideas and ideologies coming from outside Asia," Mahathir,79 , said. "They are still beholden to the ethnic Europeans. They are still Euro-centric. Many are apologetic because they believe they have fallen far short of the standards that the ethnic Europeans expect of them."
| I think his beef is that the ideas and ideologies come from outside Asia. If something works, what does it matter where it originated? And not all the Asian states have fallen far short of the standards that Europeans expect of them. Burma has. Cambodia and Laos have. Vietnam has. Malaysia's done very well so far, thanks to its industrious Chinese and Hindu minorities and the example of Singapore, also a Southeast Asian state. Thailand's doing very well, from what I understand. The enemy of the Philippines and Indonesia isn't foreign ideology, but native corruption. Vietnam and Laos are held in stasis by the adherence to Communism, and Cambodia will be generations recovering from its own peculiar experience with the Commies. |
Mahathir said Asians were "waiting for a leader, a credible leader from a credible nation".
| "Send us a man on horseback!" Paging General Boulanger! |
"Those who kowtow too much to the ethnic Europeans should not be surprised if their people will rise against them, will commit acts of terror, or whatever," he said. "Asian leaders have a choice. Assume and assert true leadership, seize the initiative in terms of ideas and thoughts, and restore self-respect. Or face the humiliation of foreign hegemony and the contempt of their own people."
| I'd say ASEAN's done a lot more for Asians than any number of leaders with tin hats. If Asian leaders spent less time worrying about the humiliation of foreign hegemony and more time on the provision of goods and services — and infrastructure — to their populations, they'd be better off. Like Singapore is. |
Mahathir peppered his speech and ensuing question-and-answer session with pro-Asian, anti-Western references, such as: "Asians were civilized long before Europeans were civilized. They should learn from us."
Actually, Malaysia was always pretty much a cultural backwater, much of it peopled by Negrito woods tribes that have mostly been hunted down and killed by the later arrivals. Such Asian civilizations as there were grew up in Java, Bali and Sumatra, Cambodia, present day South Vietnam, and later in Thailand and Burma. All were based on an almalgam of Vedism (predecessor to Hinduism) and Lesser Vehicle Buddhism, with their roots in India. The Javanese, Sumatran and Cham (South Vietnamese) civilizations declined dramatically when Islam was introduced, the Cham civilization actually winking out of existence. Perhaps Mahathir should take a lesson from the Asians himself.
The fact is, the Asians really weren't civilized long before Europeans were. Chinese civilization — presumably what he's referring to — arose at about the same time as civilization in Iraq and Egypt. Prior to those, and probably influencing them through trade, there were flourishing proto-civilizations in Asia Minor (Catal Huyuk, for instance) and present-day Israel (Jericho, for instance), perhaps dating as far back as 8000 BC. The roots of the Cretan civilization were probably in these areas, with influence from Egypt as well. The Cretan A culture probably dates to around the same time as the Shang and Chin dynasties. The earliest Indic states of Southeast Asia date from around the beginning of the Christian era — both the Romans and the Chinese traded with them. |
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