ASEAN 2016 - Unity in Diversity, Powering ASEAN's Future

hi good afternoon and welcome to a very very special session live on estro aani at channel 501 on asro in Malaysia and you can also watch us live on astro.com or you can download our app on your mobile Gadget but um I'm thankful to the world economic forum for the first time estro aani the first 24 hours news and current fast channel in Malaysia has this ability to not only develop and partner discussion but also show it to all the audience available so I would like to thank all of you in the hall today I promise you you will never regret spending one hour here because I've had a pre- talk with all five of my panelists and they are all Rebels actually despite their official designations um so my job is easy and I'll introduce them to you in Asia we have to start from the right and I only have one Rose Among the THS so I'm I'm going to start with Professor ano the Vice President Office of Business Development academic director ctor business Family Institute professor of finance and in at the Singapore management University but uh in short she's the iconic lady who's going to empower the small and medium Enterprises family owner or otherwise in asan thank you so much Professor for making time thank you and a Malayan that I myself cannot cat him so I told him that after this I'm going to sit there at the airport every time so that I can stop him there that VJ s waren um a Maverick of many things he can talk about spirituality he has built a conglomerate of companies so successful across the world and what more can I say he speaks better than I do and it's my job to speak Dr VJ thank you so much for making time thank you and when I said that uh I told my friends that I'm going to have a live show at the WF and one of my panelists was uh is going to be from Amnesty International they say that good luck to you and they will not see me anymore after this show but I know salti understand the dynamic of each country he goes through and we will have this discourse for the sake of the region and the world and it's in the interest of people everywhere from the Grassroots from the highlands of the hearts of Borneo right down to the plains of Lao and uh I would like to welcome you Mr Secretary General of Amnesty International this is the first time ever on estro awani and I'm very very honored thank you for making time and of course if you see that the design of sitting itself shows and communicate things all the Tre Mavericks are here those who have to defend their governments are on my left and Dr Paul L is the minister in the prime minister's department and he looks at governance integrity and also human rights but if you only see that line and layer of that Pao you you're going to be wrong because he has been for the longest time and sort of entrepreneurial in building corporate entities and he was in the fmm for a long time he also engages with the NOS all the time he's in politics but he's not a politician that's what he reminds me from time to time last but not least Lao I thank God to tanri uh Tony Fernandez because now I Can Fly to Your Country after meeting you before this I didn't want to go because I had no contacts but now I do have one and um the foreign minister of La you're going to thank me for this Mr suam sayas did I pronounce that right yes language is the first barrier but we're going to overcome that because asan has agreed on English as the main uh language but um I'm going to start with this unity in diversity there's a lot of talk about this what what that means for me is what that means for this small kid who barely understand the world yet at five and six years old wearing rubber slippers walking ac across a dirt track and ending up in another country but it doesn't matter to that kid because they share the same food almost they could understand one another they look almost alike and they even have the same religion I'll continue the story of that kid later but what I want to put first for all my panelist to answer in the first round is definitely we need unity in diversity but the challenge is how do you see that happening from each of your own respective areas Industries so of I say industry first so I'm going to go here so the only flower if we talk about unity in diversity there's social cultural and also economic imperative to that and you talk about it's very competitive out there so how would you have unity in diversity if I take from what you are researching and what you are propagating thank you very much good afternoon everybody I am actually going to do it slightly in Reverse I think social and cultural actually should be the glue okay rather than just the economics and I'm wearing the head as chairperson of the global agenda Council and my co-chair is right there Dr Rebecca can you please stand up Rebecca please one of Malaysia's very own talented lady yeah and the two of us actually for the last two years in uh coming together for a global agenda Council to look at southeast Asia we've actually identified that all the efforts in driving change in asan in bringing asan countries together must start at the level of having an asan identity we must have a common set of shared values and all of us actually are very linked much closer than we realize my grandparents are from Fuji and China but when they migrated they landed not in Singapore they landed in Batu pahat and malaka my father's from Mala my mom's from Baha and then the third generation which is My Generation we moved to Singapore last week I attended a wedding in Jakarta my niece is married in Jakarta and my brother-in-law is Indonesian so a at the family level all of us have connections to all parts of Asia so if you ask me it's actually not difficult for small medium Enterprises looking to grow Global to identify shared values in economics in fundamental of hardworking Integrity doing the right thing with their counterparts some some of my best business cases are actually written on small medium Enterprises familyowned that actually growing GL Global with Partners so we will talk about the identity the next round when I actually uh commission a little survey amongst the global Shapers of the Forum so thank you to the we Forum because they've actually given me the future the whole theme is about powering asan's future and we will hear from the voices of the future the next round so who owns uh CH quo and the Pam movies I'll ask you later I'll ask you later I know you're going to come there but if you look at the word cloud from the global shap it's actually about culture and diversity and they did not argue about food isn't that amazing we'll go to Food later because theyve just had lunch so I'm lucky Dr is Warren you have always been more than what you are in terms of thought even from before you've been in the company because when I read about your profile background and the interviews tons of interviews you give on YouTube that we can search and find it's always been about the key elements of an individual instead of looking at it from the top down nation states conglomerates or anything else so I think that was how you built your group group so if you can share that moment because if we were to go for Unity in diversity we've got to transcend all gaps and differences I good afternoon everyone I totally agree uh you know if at all if uh this asan identity our entity is going to be actually become reality we have going to have to start with recognizing that we are Asian and um the the one thing that uh struck me because in comparison we always look at asan and EU for instance EU is uh beginning to come together it's melding so to speak uh in Davos earlier on this year and um I had the occasion to basically address the Malaysian Swiss Chamber of Commerce and among the questions that they were asking was um we have so many Swiss companies in know in Malaysia uh do you have many Malaysian companies investing in Switzerland now that's a common question but they added and this addendum is important if not Switzerland are you at least investing in Europe now the question here that struck me is would we think that in asan would a would would an investment in Laos or investment you know in Indonesia make a difference to us in Malaysia would we even think that we are you know all part of the same ecosystem in a sense we haven't yet you know developed that sense of identity uh as a company you know we have always begun without cast color raised any kind of uh boundary so to speak we've looked upon as uh as a global village and we have always you know taken this upon ourselves to build ourselves across all regions but in asan we are truly asan you know we have our copyrighting and our uh uh uh customer support systems built out of Manila we have our product development systems out of uh Bangkok we have graphic design and so on coming out of Jakarta we have our backro operations from here we have our legal systems running from Singapore so and all of us work together because we are in virtual reality we're able to do that today in today's industry there is a whole new wave that's happening right now and we either need to join the Millennials or theill ials are going to leave us standing behind Okay so that's one question we have to deal with what is you know in terms of asan and the jobs is there is that going to be something that we're going to be looking at towards you know Asian coming together bringing our boundaries down and actually making it work so in short you're saying that asan was put together four decades ago by their grandfathers now their grandchildren has got to determine what asan will be but what asan will be I know SEL will say that we have to have adherance to Human Rights so I'll give you the chance now to give your views thank you I think that uh you know I when I was thinking about the subject as to how to even have this conversation my mind went to when we are born when we go into you know kindergarten nursery school and you're going to primary school at that stage you know we we don't differentiate between boys girls uh Color Race cast Malay Chinese Indian so it's not natural for human beings to differentiate between each other but very quickly we start creating these identities because when you're born you you're comfortable with having multiple identities you could be a you know woman and a human being or you could be a Muslim and a human being but very quickly we are being told that we are this and that and then from there on you know the corruption of the Mind begins so I would say that you know we can talk about human rights in a general sense but the foundational values of fairness Justice equality respect for the other is something which will happen it comes from parents it comes from education system and so building rights respecting societies is the challenge and for asan you know just like in India which is where I come from these are melting ports you I mean you just because you have India on one side China on the other and this is the land mass in between so you have very rich variety of people cultures languages religions we just have to come to terms with that you know we have to it doesn't matter if you're a rohinga you know youve come from one side of the border to this side you can't be treated the way of being treated today and so and who is whose job is it to protect the rights of people when you know when a religion which is based on peace like Buddhism starts attacking renas based on their origin who's going to take action you know so and what happens when the country is not taking action that's why we have asan but but asan mechanisms are so weak because everything has to be decided by consensus and everyone's got skeletons in the cupboard right every one of these governments have skeletons in the cupboard so they don't want to consensus means you look you do what you do I do what I do we'll all look the other way so it's clear what brought asan to where it is it's not the finished product it's it is work in progress so is that easy for us to talk about it you guys have to see in the counselors meetings Professor Kish Mau bani put it as one of asan because asan have more than 1,000 meetings a year so I'm going to put it to minister from Laos now how do you look at it because even in asan it's always been looked upon as the first five or the top six and the rest of the four so how do you look at that as an asan unity in diversity propelling us forward good afternoon everyone uh thank you very much for uh these questions and it is very very interesting questions I think I think uh if we look back probably three decades ago nobody is going to imagine that asan would be today uh let alone the political system among asan countries we have a different political uh system we have diverse culture background ranging from uh Muslim to Christian which this is something the unique that asan has I don't think that other other part of the world would have the same the same diversity today and next year asan would would celebrate the golden jubilee of of asan and then uh uh we can look back uh five decades ago how aan has been progressing day to day and that can tell us how we uh enhance Unity uh among asan countries which have different background consensus is is the one that govern IE all Asian countries together uh today I think this is the principle and I fully agree with you that this is asan in uh process okay we are we are not yet we have been talking what is really asan identity it is still uh uh uh contested okay idea we we don't know uh somebody would say that asan might resemble European Union but in fact that that is not that that is not the case Asian would have its own way uh of course every year aan have so many meetings uh leaders uh get together discussing um in order for us to to get a consensus on what we are going MH I think we have the uh Vision uh asan Community Vision 2025 which is uh a blueprint for for all Asian countries to to implement and I and I hope that uh uh we we get there sooner or later we'll get that but we do our on uh asan way that Paul we do not Shine from the task and responsibilities of talking about a better Society through better governance I know for a fact because I've been with you just recently we were at The Institute of Integrity Malaysia looking at the enforcement of Integrity not only through laws but as a value and a culture instilled so how would you like to take the point that s has raise because For the Longest Time asan relied on Z fund zone of peace freedom and neutrality that means we keep our region safe but we don't interfere like if it's a neighborhood I don't get involved in those IC squabbles of the neighbor's house but now those issues transcend National borders Society hope for them to be picked up and addressed at least if not soled immediately so how would you talk about what's happening in Malaysia and at the region okay if I can change the perspective a little uh because uh I'm a minister and I engage extensively with Nos and the people at the grassroot so for us whatever plan Vision you have nice sounding name the H citizens is going to say I will only have belief in the vision and values when it gives me a good future okay that's important you know and it gives hope for myself and for my children uh if asan cannot deliver those then we have to relook at it whatever that we do okay and I would would say the area of uh of of of uh shared values and rights uh doesn't just recover social Liberties or show civil rights alone uh basically asan is a very diverse economy you have both the Richer country you have both the poorer countries and their needs are all different but I I would say at the end as a citizen in Asian uh I want to see peace and political stability that's important important in fact asan was formed basically out of a political and security necessity not any economic one yes then once you have that I want to see Economic Opportunity I want to see employment no point talking about everything when I don't have food on the table when I don't have jobs and when I don't have opportunities you know so the economic development and how is asan is going to share their e economic fruits that's that's important and of course finally I know uh shaty uh that is probably your part of the area at the end these things are still not enough because we want civil liberty we want inclusiveness we want dialogue you know so that's where I think the difficult part for asan I think that part is going to be challenged the other part probably is okay but the civil liberty part the social activist uh that part and how much freedom I think is going to be a challenge okay um we have finished the first round supposed to take key highlights but I want to increase the temperature while we're settling in and trying to be coy about defining what's the identity how we get there then this is thing that Professor CLA schwar thr at the Davos Summit this year the fourth Industrial Revolution surprise surprise if I go back to my hometown and ask my pedi cousins about this they're going to laugh at me say have been corrupted by the clown Valley culture but that's the fact Mustafa Muhammad I'm glad the right hand lady is there I will go to you later um he said that there you know people have raised the point that that's that's the Malaysia of KL and that's that's the Malaysia of jelli where he come from in Clan state in Malaysia so inclusivity I think is key no matter what the disruptors and disruption is so I'm going to go to you this is the last time I'm going to give Singapore first because we tired of getting Singapore first every time so profan how do you look at that because if we were to share if we were to include then Singapore of all being the most develop of the 10 asan countries would say I I'm the one who have to share a lot because I'm in front so how do you look at that as a responsibility or is that a burden how do you see it so you know it's amazing because when when um Minister D Lo said the rich and the poor the rich he look at me and now bahin also look at me but actually it's amazing amongst the 10 countries Singapore is the tiniest and we are actually aging very fast by 2030 we will have 900,000 singaporeans above 65 so just from Pure demographics alone we really need asan to be with us and we need lots of friends and it's it's like you know we are actually looking forward to being an Asian partner and you know chti actually hit it on the nail you have India you have China and in the middle you have asan what makes asan unit is the dish called Roa okay yes cut fruits with chili paste okay Roa is important and Roa every little IND ingredient in Roa makes a difference so you actually have you know you have to have your T you have to have your pangan you have to have your you know you way all of that and then the glue the heo the sauce that glue everybody together and if there's one missing ingredient Roa cannot be Roa yes so asan to me is Roa every ingredient counts and if you would permit me all right Mr moderator I actually brought a show and tell the power of asan in the future must come from the voices of the future not that we are not young but we are young at heart on this panel I really would like to call one of my Global Shapers may I honin are you ready can I have a mic for this young man here and where are the rest of the global Shapers do I have the rest of the global Shapers here can we can we have the global Shapers kind of stand up oh right give you a clap on can we give them a clap this are the global Shapers that come from the countries in asan we cannot build a work in progress if our Legacy do not believe in what we have built so hongjun all yours okay the rest of you can sit down thank you right good afternoon everyone my name isin I'm a global shaper of the Singapore Hub and together with a group of Shapers from the asan region we have started to we have started the process of trying to understand and possibly Define what exactly the asan identity is so we started a project called we are asan which to use a term that I think one of the panelists mentioned earlier and we did a very simple survey to get a sense of what young people in asan actually taught about the region so we found that 76% of the young people in asan actually identified with being part of the region and more than 95% indicated that yes they are very interested in learning about the different cultures across the different countries and similarly more than 95% said it's very important for us to cultivate stronger relationships between the people in asan but when we got to the question of what exactly does Asian identity mean to you and if you were to suggest three words that come to mind there were a lot of words that were generated food was definitely one of them football no food food no not football not football for sure okay so food was one of them but the two most um mentioned words were actually Multicultural and diversity while on the surface it looks like a a fairly accurate representation of what it means to be asan if you look at this two words you wouldn't find it odd to use the same two words to describe any City region country that has a multitude of cultures and religions living and working in the same place so to us what we see is an exciting opportunity for the Millennials in asan to not just shape the future thank you for making us feel old here okay go ahead sorry but to also play an play a very active role okay in defining what exactly does it mean for us to be part of the you know this show is live on TV so you might want to introduce yourself again so that my team there can put your name on air sure and you know pretty young people from across 10 countries can send you emails okay okay the power of connectivity your name again uh hongin H hongin yeah yes hongin the house rule when I whenever I moderate if if you give up your ideas you must be able to answer question for them so I'm I'm going to ask you this so is the ideal picture for Millennials is that if you come from any of the 10 asan countries if I ask you oh what's your name and then naturally the next one where do you come from the answer will be I'm an asan citizen but I'm from Thailand or I'm from Malaysia is that the ideal scenario the exact nuancing in my version is like L different okay so when I first took on this project or decided to start this project I went through the process of trying to decide what exactly is that big fuzzy go that we're trying to achieve cool I think the national identity is strong and people are naturally rooted to their country of origin and the Heritage that goes into that yes so to me I'll be very satisfied if people can say yeah my name is pin I'm from Singapore but we part of asan and do you know certain facts and certain uh interesting things about asan okay so to me that would be a a win in that sense so who owns Cho Malaysia or Singapore who has the best to Singapore I bring you to e don't be so defensive Singaporean so defensive never mind thank you so much I'll come to your other friends later um I don't want to go so routine clockwise but I'm going to go to you again for the last time um you heard the voice of the young but we in inherited what we have now 550 years of the colonial period you know I was always wondering why the people in southern Thailand look more and sound more like me rather than the rest of Thailand then when you look at history you understand but um can we really surpass all these things because relatively we are all young Nations EU achieved that after many hundred of years America is where they are because they had that time I want to the factor of time now for you to factor in while the force Industrial Revolution says that disruption is going to happen everywhere we still need the sustainability of planning things long term and keeping to that path historically asan you know 500 years ago was probably a lot closer together than it is today a lot of that has to be blamed on to I mean arguably onto the EU okay because if you take a look at Indonesia right now now if they choose a place where they want to continue their tertiary education they would tend to look towards Holland yeah we and Singapore would look towards London okay you know and uh Manila would look towards the US and and so on uh and the best French coffee comes from Laos and Vietnam you know the best crossons in the world supposedly come from Hanoi today okay so we have France we have Holland we have the UK and then we have um the americ the americ and and Spaniards in between because you know it was a Spanish colony so all of this have also blended into this Ro that we have right now but they've also created divisions in the T in the sense that we have a Dutch legal system in Indonesia okay you know we have a French based legal system in running out of Vietnam and and Laos and so on into China for instance and uh we we have our British legal systems over here all of this need transition EU took a while to get together so will we but um having said that you know we have to overcome these differences because for a thousand years before that you know we were you know essentially one land okay you know I mean Anor wat was basically the largest Hindu complex of its kind bodor on it side so when we had Empires it encompasses the whole of Southeast the whole area the the divisions we have today are very different but unfortunately the the thinking needs to change I mean the every Singaporean doesn't get up you know thinking I'm going to go spend my holiday in borai or Bali or you know he thinks London you know he thinks London or Rome or wherever I mean likewise you know uh the Malaysians for that matter we don't think of Laos you know we don't think of the beauty of yenen we don't think of the beauty of Myanmar ban you know places like this I mean the connectivity between asan has to improve drastically to begin with communication is the other Factor lingua franka supposedly English we are able to communicate right now because of English so technology is on our side now you can Skype with anyone across asan countries fre almost that makes a tremendous difference yeah in terms of even business I mean with you regard to uh Dr L uh and he's right in the sense that you know our forefathers started asan primarily because of security concerns and there were there were the concerns real concerns at that point but today it is economic considerations that we need to take into account we do have India and we do have China we also have 10,000 km away the US pulling at us you know right now tppa is another point of contention I mean people want asan anyway if we don't realize what asan is if we don't come together and make asan work then we will be pulled at all around the edges because everyone else wants a piece of asan okay if I take government to government versus People to People there's a huge gap there for usan for the longest time it's been the government to government conversation but now the conversation true technology doesn't have to come from the top happens anyway they went to Bali and they're not satisfied with the normal stuff they want to go inside and Beyond not just CA and whatever else for example so my point to salil here is yes we can look at it as the government need to do something about human rights but the government here in Southeast Asia is elected by the people and the needs and wants of the people are changing and changing rapidly and they will want to vote in the government that listen and Adas and stick to all these principle that we're talking about isn't that the more sustainable way of ensuring human rights I think there's yeah for sure but you know we have um it's if you take each country in this region um you may have elections but don't equate elections with accountability M so you you you may have a government which is elected but it's not necessarily legitimate in the eyes of the people so if you want to earn the respect and Trust of the people these days you need a bit more than saying you got voted into Power because first of all you know we I also come from a country which is always claiming that it's the greatest democracy okay but in the end okay you may get voted uh but you know that the trust between ordinary citizens and the government has never been so low as it is today so and that takes us to what Minister L said you know and one of the challenges we have in the asan region is somehow from the beginning there's a separation in the understanding in the conceptual understanding that on the one side you have civil political freedoms on the other side you have stability and economic growth that somehow these two things are almost antithetical to each other and that's in my view fundamentally flow certainly in this day and age because people who are younger people you talked about it's not them looking at the future because looking at the present I mean we have in Malaysia one the minister knows very well in the last one year in 2015 Amnesty International recorded the Sedition Act has been used 91 times cartoon zunar has been charged with sedition 11 times each time he tweets so you know you can't separate out Economic Development from fundamental freedoms that's not the way people think about things anymore material success is important but respect so what is diversity diversity means that you're not you can't discriminate it's non-discrimination so I'm what I'm trying to say is that we cannot have a conversation what economics and politics separate from culture and social diversity okay I get it I'm going to give it to Dr Paul now because even since the '90s when I started being a journalist we have always been debating this how do you ensure that we don't destroy or regress on the prosperity wealth creation advancement social cohesion that we have but but at the same time improving this other side transparency respect I for one would want Freedom of Information but I don't want it to come at the cause of others so how would we balance this and it's easy to sit there from the west and say that we don't have political Freedom press Freedom or whatever but for us living here we've got to make do with what we have and if it still work in progress that Paul can you please add context to what Salan has said all right I I I think uh if you are talking about civil liberty civil rights human rights it also have to relate to the cultural attributes that existing in the society and secondly is also have uh to relate uh to uh the conditions in each uh in in this society and I know we we I discussed with MST frequently and other NGS um and also also he has to deal with the Democratic and political maturity of it his Society so first thing is I know many civil so uh Society organizations says we must have freedom in this we must have consultation in this uh we should be able to do this to do that but we have to bear in mind is that at the end for the government we want to see a progressive state that is stable and peace and in harmony because if you don't have that then you you can't talk of anything else not even not even your your your your future uh so it's a balance that every government has to to deal with and when you talk about freedom and liberality uh it always comes with a boundary okay you have to Define it because individual liberty yes you may have all you want but collectively the society may not want everything that you want you know so each of us has to operate within the boundary that is defined but I think the challenge is how do you define the boundary this is where I think the inclusiveness and engagement that is uh that is necessary if you talk to one another then you would't fight so much that's the premise so I'm going to go back to Singapore before I go to La Singapore jealously got what he has achieved since 1965 in a sense but of course time is changing and I was there at your general election so I can see um but how do you see that statement over there because for many countries around the world even developed ones it's not enough just to give material advancements anymore yeah people want self actualization even if you use the often use Ibrahim Abrahim muslo the hierarchy of needs self actualization must be there yeah and so I think we have this great opportunity today the fourth indust Industrial Revolution doesn't mean that we need to go through first second third in fact the best examples of people lip frogging are actually from The Young members of asan if you look at myar Laos Cambodia Thailand no they they actually said why do we need to follow the path of Singapore or Malaysia right why must we go through step one step two step three technology has allow us to LEAP from jump start and we now become the learning models so in fact Singapore has rightly learned from many partners and we are actually saying we need not be an EU we should create our own version of un unity in diversity so that's why I'm very interested to ask the global Shapers how do they see the role of government in all these things that we are talking right now because they might have a different expectation of government nowadays and for the future and that is very important for usan because we do not have a supranational body like the EU in Brussels and all that all the things that we agreed upon will have to go back to each respective government and their empowered institutions to carry it out so can anyal shaper take that up what do you expect from the government of yours plus the other nine in asan to make this a reality because sometimes the Gen white they don't want to talk about it they just want to do it anybody if not home you will represent them you're not in Singapore it's okay you're in Malaysia I want another young voice yeah thank you all right please introduce yourself and then hi I'm angel bombarda from the Manila Hub okay interestingly I work for the Philippine government but I'm transitioning out because we have a new Administration but I guess um what young people would like from government in the asan is for our governments to to take a stronger stand in asan issues and not you know walk on eggshells around each other and cuz we tend to be like so nice to each other during these Council meetings and we talk and we talk but we don't really see that much happening when you know these leaders go back to the home countries and we don't see um projects or programs proposed being implemented for example like we haven't I um we haven't seen our governments really focus on labor migration which you know this is a big issue for us young people cuz this poses you know both a challenge and an opportunity so really for government to take a stronger stand and for our governments to prioritize asan and prioritize our membership to this you know region because every you know every other part of the world is looking at us does that include the South China Sea that's a very controversial issue as well and we must is it for young people also um I thought you guys just assumed that the sea must be protected for you to enjoy forever it's important for it's important for the Philippines and I think that it's important for countries to not um be afraid for countries like I see the civil servant not be afraid of you know the bigger never mind there's only one person here who sits in the inter you know foreign ministerial meeting so I have to go to you Minister for that for that question at that point that she raised they want to see asan countries doing more aren't you guys doing more wellow I I I must to I must confess that uh uh the number of meeting that Asian leaders having every year does much contribute to the broad public awareness about asan the other day I attended the Asia Pacific round table which is was also on asan we were discussing uh we were asking who represent among the participant who represent the parliament from Asian countries apparently there were none so the question is how we can raise public awareness among not only general public but also among government official this is something that aan has to to do more by relevance by relevance if I give you the meong river and I'm very much in tune with sustainability discussion I just came back from London for the Malayan G Zack to talk about that water is very precious some say that the next World War if it ever happens going to come of a dispute of clean water to drink so the meon river give life and sustenance correct to not just the Flora and FAA but to the people of many countries in Nan and you have to talk to the superpower that people call China anyway so if you walk the talk that meong River jurisdiction and issues will have to be solved for the young people to enjoy the benefit of the meong river well meong River is is the what we call a a a shared River among the countries uh which are riparian to the Mong River but of course Mong Rivers is originated from from the country in the north um for meon River there is international uh River River commission it see which take carees of of the sustainability use sustain sustainable development of uh meong River and uh uh I do agree that uh if we don't uh sustainably use or manage Mong River and the river and not only Mong River but all tributory of the Manon River okay we would be uh we would be facing uh a challenge I mean just recent draw uh thanks God that just recently last week um the rain started across the riparian uh countries of the Mong River so it's not the right of the neighbor on top of you or the north of you to build a dam they must ask you first because if if affects the water flow you want to have a say right well um of course uh the north neighbors are not part of the uh River commission International River R commission orc you so of course uh uh they they they would do because uh they are not part part of of the the rule that we set among the r country I want to continue this but we are going towards the end and I want to pain for everyone including you you can put that within this round how do you see the identity of asan in the future what would be the ideal identity for you so because I've started here now I'm giving back the opportunity for the representative of the government uh you know aan is asan objective is to based on three pillar right so I would name is in a in a very two words it's Advanced civilizations that uh encompasses uh uh Economic Development which would benefit all people of asan on top of that of course uh um social and cultural developments here we are talking about not only economic devel development but we are talking about cultural social diversity among asan countries the most diverse uh uh uh culture in the world I would say so that's what would would would be an identity that I would see the ultimate objective or ultimate goal of asan when do you see that happening I cannot answer the no that's that that's that depend on on all of us sitting here than later or later sooner sooner sooner later sooner better than than PA I bought you five minutes to think okay on that question if if I can just sum up because uh you talk about the fourth Industrial Revolution uh please bear in mind that such a revolution is not just mutually exclusive it includes the first second and the third although the emphasis and all that so you must bear in mind not not every asan country has people who are able to cope with the for okay okay so so the issue is there must be a proper division of labor uh and and in that sense I believe the role of Asian can play a greater role by bringing industries that are more labor intensive to the states that needs that and of course uh singap as help us we should help the other states as as well all right so if not if we don't do that we going to find that where we have different economic growth disparity of differences become great then asan will have to deal with the migrant problem you know going to migrant problem you see so Singapore Malaysia we can't grow independently of the others so I would say one of the single most important value I would like to see in Asia is that we believe in Prosper Thy Neighbor okay all right it's prosper in the sense that uh we must walk the talk we must be able to help them with management improving their capacity uh build infrastructure for them if it's necessary uh get finances for them is necessary uh uh share with them best practices if it's necessary main thing is the values that we have is is we Prosper the neighbor okay so with that it doesn't matter to me whether CH quel is in Singapore or with us if he Prosper Singapore why not I actually ordered chako for room service last night from I for for those who are foreign you may not know what chako is it's we'll show you afterward it's it's it's it's sort of a noodle dish which we believe comes from Malaysia anyway that's why I order from here Mi is here so I'm not worried they can treat everyone that before I let you go on that thing that you have said do you see the role of the government being more or less for that to happen I more honest I I I think underlying all this uh we need to have strong institution we need to uphold integrity and governance uh you see all over the world fail State yeah Strife Civil War that you seeing now uh politically people do not want to mention people say it's political oppression and so many other things but basically underlying it it's an issue of governance okay right so I just hope that uh in the 2025 plan okay uh for the first time apart from issue of Human Rights and other things they have if two paragraph of having an Integrity dialogue and emphasis placed on good governance and integrity so the new identity of asan will have integrity assumed across yeah and and I believe that one of the shared value I think people should develop to have a high degree of intolerance okay for poor governance okay and Corruption so that's the way you answer big or small interpret it yourself I don't have time I have to move here no give me the last word let the lady have the last so that's why two first you see Singapore they would dictate me please that three well obviously chuya is is going to be up for grabs we're going to have to decide whether you knows Malaysian or Singaporean but um asan is can only work when we come together because any single one of us cannot even talking about whether it's the mikong irawadi or cha praya we cannot talk to the neighbors to the North or the neighbors to the east you know they may not be the world's greatest democracy but they're the biggest so we will however need to talk to them with some weight if Malaysia by itself goes and talks to them it's 25 30 million people they they're not even going to pay attention 630 million people with one of the fastest growing regions in the world now then we will have an international platform we will be able to go and be listened to be it you know fishing rights or be it Islands or be it you know River however you know having having said this the water problems and water issues of Tomorrow will be very different because disruption is happening as we speak and that too will change the demographics of what it what is going to take place asan however needs to recognize that if we do not actually start to talk to each other and work as a family because we have been a family for the longest time we have existed we are more alike than not alike you know you know be it from BMA all the way across to Vietnam Laos Bali you know greeting and talking and smiling and we have so many similarities it's amazing we just need to put the dots together we a lot closer to each other through rojak or chak then we are through pizza so we need to recognize that and we need to basically you know come together as one in every World Forum we may have our differences within asan within ourselves within our family and like every family we squabble we need to get back together again but to the outside world we need to be one one voice and then we will have some Credence with the world and we will be able to operate the Millennials are not going to give us another chance yes Sal thank you well said thank you nice me I think that you know the the there was a lot of wisdom in the concept of unity and diversity the pachila you know and India had very close links with this idea India cuz we are also very diverse country but the only way you're going to get Unity is by respecting diversity and respecting diversity is a fundamental human rights principle of non-discrimination and you know we talked about economic growth and political stability the reality in asan is that there is massive and growing inequality so you know some people are winning and a lot of people are losing and if you don't come to terms with that I think the the asan concept is going to be at risk but I have a lot of faith in people people are always ahead of governments so they are going to come together and they're going to fight this battle and if governments don't respond they will force them to respond that's the reality thank you very much I think you're all wonderful 1 minute 45 seconds five C's continue in this Vision please continuity in the vision in that mission next C consistency in standards and institutions third C please have a sh ing Community fourth C we are all connected the fourth Industrial Revolution is making it happen fifth C collaboration there is so much collaboration opportunities outside looking in just love asan 600 million population so much we could do together thank you there you go I have just uh one or two more minutes questions from the floor as usual please raise your hand the mic will go to you and please introduce yourself young people if there's no one else I'm going to point to you you are the millionaire herea they yes please can we get the mic here to my left at the back we have time so take on the point shti was saying about uh disparity of distribution of wealth uh right now you will see that uh as we go forward the base of the pyramid which is uh the poor poverty Marketplace actually become very sexy because the top of the pyramid is uh getting very uh slow in growth and consumption is very slow so the the way to get uh um social justice is through the marketplace and yet all the time we're talking about fighting fighting government um donate ating money to distort Marketplace because every time we donate we create a market price of zero and no entrepreneur can start jobs and then they cannot uh get out of poverty themselves this a Singapore model of turning third world to first world did not rely on charity but rely on unleashing the spirit of Enterprise of the people and their good work ethics so we could use this as a unifying Factor because all the Assan countries wants to get out of poverty and instead of fighting our government we should use the marketplace to develop local entrepreneurship jobs and all the solution has already been found somewhere around the world okay in energy in food in agriculture in sanitation water uh education everything so what we need to do is to work together to solve this T problem I'm I'm very sure that will be be a unifying factor for asan so that's a comment that you want us to concentrate more on the marketplace I I would like to uh hear what are your comment about using the uh base of the pyramid uh solution as the unifying factor for as it is the only way to go ultimately I think the ultimate human right is the right for us to be able to e out a living you know and uh the bottom of the pyramid is where the people have the strongest and most powerful full pool if asan ever gets together it will be because of the bottom of the pyramid thank you okay I I I I completely agree because uh the success of Asian is going to measured by the largess of the middle class that we create and we know with every Economic Development there is always the differences in urbanization and Rural so I I would say that the one word that we we should put in place is the empowerment of the people uh especially in terms of giving them uh all of them uh education uh all of them to upgrade their skills and to readjust and retraining and of course all of them to have the opportunity for employment yeah just to be the typical Devil's Advocate easy to say that here but infrastructure resources and money has to be used to get that there are Deep Pockets of the jungles of Malaysia where the schools their flaws are still the ground it's not cement and in La if I go there it will be more than that so would you like to give your part to that proposition of an idea well an idea of course equality equality come come as as as a must in terms of uh in terms of uh income distribution I agree uh uh with uh uh uh with what we have said here that uh there is a big gap now between the rich and the poor this this is something that we need to urgently address uh if aan really uh is to be uh a Unity a UniFi Asian any last can say again I just want to go back to the same point that we say yes there's a gap between rich and the poor but we have to understand that the inequality economic inequality is related to the inequality terms of voice and freedoms they're not twoo different things cuz those who don't have a voice are the ones who are poor and they won't be seen if there's no voice and so you know you cannot say let's have fourth Industrial Revolution that's really cool and sexy we'll all talk to each other but these people the younger people are talking to each other not just talking about the marketplace they also saying what about our government you know they're not accountable do we have a voice when they start raising that if you're a blogger in Vietnam you're going to be arrested mhm so you can't separate these things you know you can't say let's cut out economic inequality the other way around it's like a knife with two sides you can use that to voice you can use that to unravel it's a package you opened it you opened it so that's why you must speak together especially the Young Voices I'm going to let you have the last say on this so it is amazing because generally I think many corporates are actually powerful we have a session earlier about corporate social Innovation and they are engaging the Enterprises so the young people today want that voice to be heard as well so collaboration is key we actually have a a big company and they've set up something called The Silent Foundation they want to give the voice to the unheard the voices are not heard so I think corporates is a way in which we could Channel some of this collaboration in which we could meet the bottom of the pyramid you want to Ahad the only thing that I would like to add is we need our way forward is to create entrepreneurship as a way of thinking whether it's in the school systems or otherwise if you have school was coming out of say India as opposed to China the difference is the Indians are looking for jobs whereas the Chinese out there to create jobs now here in asan we need to be able to develop that kind of Entrepreneurship then we are at the bottom of the pyramid building upwards and I wish we can innovate time so many things we can do with more time but that's all the time that we have so the key takeaways for me here is this is a journey it has not end there are many Gray areas not just black and white to see things you have to look at the local context you have to respect the universality of things there's no clear answer yet but the hope lies in the Millennials the governments are trying but maybe the young ones can give Solutions better and faster that's all the time we have thank you so much to the world economic forum for partnering asro aani and making this possible for us to beam this across to all audience not just here but out there which is the grassroot and you are important I will end with the story of that kid that kid was walking in the heart of Borneo at the Highland 1,000 m above sea level right there smack in the jungle where two countries Malaysia and Indonesia the borders doesn't exist but they live as one community so hdom of uh history is already there we know we are diverse but we are not adverse yes Force Revolution or otherwise but we will not reverse for because we know in our values we will always be prosperous thank you and goodbye see you next time

Channel: World Economic Forum

Views: 20,686

Keywords: world economic forum, WEF, Davos, ASEAN 2016, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, ASEAN

Id: YIskiD7b-Dw

Length: 60min 30sec (3630 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 02 2016