Dr M tells Malays to reject borderless world

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Oct 20, 2009

(The Malaysian Insider) PUTRAJAYA, Oct 19 – Beating his anti-colonialism drum again, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (picture), today warned the Malays that they stood to be “conquered” anew by the Western powers if they blindly embraced globalisation and pushed for free trade agreements.

“We live in a Euro-centric world,” Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister said in his speech titled: “Strategic Positioning of Malays in the Borderless World” at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here this morning.

“Europeans are aggressive people; people who like war and who like to acquire what belongs to other people.

“When they suggest a borderless world, perhaps their intent is to conquer us by using economic force,” Dr Mahathir told an audience of 150 alumni from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) before launching their society website.

In his address lasting well over an hour, the man who drove a “Look East” campaign to counter the onslaught of Western culture pointed out that Malaysia, which had previously been subjugated by military might, now faced a new threat in the form of economic pressure and “values-systems”.

Dr Mahathir noted that free trade agreements (FTA) were among the new weapons used by the West to push for covert conquests.

The 84-year-old, who also controlled Malaysia’s purse-strings as finance minister in the latter half of his 22-year rule, reminded his audience how the country nearly became a victim of Western conquest through a deliberate weakening of its currency in the not-too-distant past.

“We must remember this process. People who are weak will lose their land. It may happen again,” he warned.

“In order to face this, we must understand the definition of a borderless world,” the former premier said.

“We don’t want a borderless world,” he stressed.

“They do not invent a policy for our benefit. Whatever the West invents is for them. That’s their intent,” he added.