Global crisis could accelerate East Asia's rise: SM Goh

Business Times - 12 Nov 2008

Western economies can no longer afford to ignore region's rising contribution
By LEE U-WEN

THE United States will remain first among equals long after the dust from the global financial meltdown settles, but the rise of East Asia could be accelerated by crisis, according to Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

He made the point in Hong Kong last night as he argued the case that Western economies can no longer afford to ignore the growing contribution and presence of East Asian nations.

'The current crisis may well accelerate, and its aftermath will at least confirm, the fundamental changes in the international order that rapid East Asian growth has already set in motion,' Mr Goh said in a keynote address at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre's annual dinner.

Mr Goh, who is on a four-day official visit to Hong Kong and Macau, was invited to speak on the topic, 'Governance and Growth in Emerging Asia'.

'We may well be seeing the birth of a multi-polar world,' he said. 'Will the developed West admit successful East Asian economies into its exclusive club as equals? Or will it simply heighten discomfort which any change to the status quo may bring?'

He noted that 'symptoms of disquiet' are already evident, citing examples such as concern over Asian sovereign wealth funds injecting capital into foreign assets, controversies over the interpretation and implementation of human rights and debates over the reform of the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

'The list could easily be extended,' said Mr Goh. 'The proximate causes may differ, but there is a common source of discomfort. In East Asia, capitalism flourishes without Western style liberal democracy. This challenges the preferred historical narrative of the West in a fundamental way.'
Mr Goh admitted that restructuring of international order 'is never easy' and that historically, all such changes have been either the cause or result of conflicts.

To avoid history repeating itself, countries should 'not propagate simplistic ideas' about the superiority of one system or another, he said. Instead, all nations should realise that no one type of political system has a monopoly on success, and that growth can take place under different types of systems.

Mr Goh listed four main attributes a political system should have for a country to flourish: accountability and transparency; long- term planning and execution; social justice and harmony; a culture of identifying and grooming talent for public service.
'Every country must find the political system that can deliver the goods,' he said. 'And what works in one historical period may not necessarily deliver in another. But however societies evolve politically, we must never lose sight of these basic attributes if they are to continue to prosper.'