KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today urged Putrajaya to maintain his nearly three-decades old “Look East Policy”, saying that Western economies were going bust and should not be emulated.“Right now, there are so many problems with Western countries. The problem in the West is that they have borrowed too much and cannot repay. You cannot have that kind of a country as a model,” the former prime minister was quoted as saying by Bernama Online today.
Dr Mahathir highlighted that, in contrast, East Asian countries enjoyed a surfeit of liquidity.
“China has US$3.2 trillion in reserves. They are swimming in money,” he said.
Introduced in 1982 following Dr Mahathir’s “Buy British Last” campaign, the “Look East” policy was designed to encourage the identification of successful Asian models — primarily Japan — for Malaysia to adopt.
Today, the ex-premier continued to heap praise on Japan, promoting the country’s industriousness as an example for Malaysia.
“Japan, as you know, is a country which lost [in World War II] ... [Parts of it were] totally destroyed but as it rebuilt itself, it become the second biggest economy in the world. If you want to copy or learn something, learn from the successful people, not from the failures,” said Dr Mahathir.
The country’s longest-serving prime minister then appeared to warn against unmitigated borrowing by governments, holding Greece’s failing economy up as proof of the follies of heavy debt.
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