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Kathmandu Wednesday February 28, 2001 Falgun 17, 2057.
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China for new global political, economic order
By Yubaraj Ghimire
BOAO, Hainan, China, Feb 27 - The People’s Republic of China threw its
weight and pledged solid backing to the Boao Forum For Asia with the President Jiang Zemin
fully endorsing the idea behind the forum.
In his brief speech, but with a powerful content, President Jiang said
"advocating the establishment of a fair and reasonable new international political
and economic order, the Chinese government has all along attached importance to and
supported multi-level and multi-channel dialogue and cooperation in various fields.
As China has been chosen to be the permanent venue for the Forum, the Chinese
government will continue to support the Forum to ensure its sound development", the
president said.
His Majesty King Birendra attended the inaugural ceremony of the Boao Forum
for Asia as the Guest of Honour with his presence warmly appreciated and noticed by the
participants.
While President Jiang’s pledge ensured a powerful voice to the newly
born Forum in the world platforms, the tone and move of the BFA was set by Dr Mohammad
Mahathir, Malaysia’s Prime Minister for nearly two decades with the credit of making
his country an example of economic prosperity.
His display of anger and bitterness towards western countries, mainly the
United States of America, transgressing Malaysia and other countries’ sovereignty and
interfering in their internal affairs, he said, called for solidarity among Asian nations.
"The international media and the foreign funded NGOs easily cross
borders and often undermine national governments to the point where they would find
themselves unable to govern, or be overthrown even," Dr Mahathir said. This, he
added, should be seen along with the hegemonistic move of the West where few
‘currency traders" manipulation has resulted in collapse of economy of Asia in
the past.
Once the international media and the NGOs have proved that independence does
not mean freedom from foreign interference, domination or hegemony, the powerful countries
felt free to ignore international niceties and interfere openly in the affairs of weak
countries, he charged.
The Western Media had openly campaigned against Dr Mahathir and most of them
predicted his defeat in the Malaysian general election last year, but he romped home with
massive support for the fourth successive term.
The Malaysian Prime Minister also criticized the United Nations and the
International Monetary Fund for not being effective in safeguarding the interest of poor
nations. Warning that globalization will accelerate the pro-rich process, he said that the
domestic banks and corporation will collapse and only a few international giant banks and
multi-national corporations will be there in the world. "They will be so highly
capitalized and powerful that the governments of the Third World countries will be totally
dominated by them."
It was in this background, Dr Mahathir, who is one of the main brains behind
the Boao Forum’s existence, said that Asians should study the possible danger ahead.
"If making available funds for loans is not productive, then the
international community should just build needed infrastructure for the poor", he
said, adding the existence of the Forum was an expression of Asian people’s right to
think collectively about themselves and act.
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