GENEVA (ILO News) - The Rt. Hon. Dato' Sei Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, the guest of honour of the 90 th Session of the International Labour Conference, today called for "globalization with a social dimension" and denounced the financial actions of the former colonial powers and current multinationals.
Saying "globalization" cannot be "the remedy for the social ills of the world", he said it could be "interpreted simply and exclusively as free capital flow."
"Globalization must be for all," he said. "Capitalists, workers and governments must benefit from globalization. If capital is to be allowed to cross borders freely, then workers too should be allowed to do the same. If free flows of workers have to be regulated in a world without borders, a globalized world, then capital flows must be regulated too."
Speaking from the rostrum of the 90 th International Labour Conference, Dr. Mahathir declared that he was not against globalization, as "correctly interpreted it can be a means of correcting the inequities in human society worldwide."
However, he said that the devaluation of the currencies of the "Asian tigers" leading to the Asian financial crisis of 1998 was due neither to "corruption, lack of transparency, cronyism" but to "the speculation, or more accurately the manipulation by currency traders."
"In one country, 20 million people lost their jobs almost overnight," he said. "There were riots, shops were ransacked and burnt, women raped and people killed. Governments fell and anarchy set in. And the international agencies which were supposed to help merely saw an opportunity to impose their rules for opening markets instead of bringing relief to the people."
The result, he said, is that "we have doubts... that globalization is the remedy for the social ills of the world."
"The poor countries are told that the inflows of capital will be good for them," he said. "There will be growth and jobs and more wealth for everyone. But they are not told what would happen when capital is pulled out, pulled out suddenly. They will not know until it happens. And then it would be too late."
"Globalization must be planned and planned carefully," he said. "The planning must involve everyone from every part of the globe. It must be for the good of everyone and it must be proven to be good for everyone. It must be implemented slowly, with the biggest effort directed at benefiting the least developed parts of the world. Globalization should not be about business only but it should be about the well being of everyone in human society worldwide. Then and then only will globalization be meaningful to the world at large."
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