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Envisioning Asia 2060
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BY
Professor Tan Sri Dat o' Dzulkifli Abd Razak
Vice-Chancellor
Universiti Sains Malaysia |
Experience has shown that countries
that grow rich are not necessarily
those well-endowed with natural
resources but those that invest wisely
in building their human capital and
allocating a reasonable percentage
of their gross domestic product to
research and development.
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A group of experts met last week
at Tamkang University Graduate
Institute of Future Studies in Taipei
to discuss "Global Transitions and
Asia 2060". The broad focus of the
meeting, co-hosted by the US-based Foundation
for the Future was on three areas — climate,
political economy and identity. The writer gave the
keynote address.
The meeting came out with four possible scenarios
for the future, ranging from a borderless Asia in a
changing world to one that is fragmented over and
above the current geopolitical boundaries. The
possibility of some of the bigger countries splitting
up into North and South, or even East and West
portions was not ruled out.
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Overall, perhaps the two most contentious ideas
in the discussions related to the issue of the
"tangibles" against the "intangibles". The former
reflected the thinking of the previous century and
was dominated by the existing Western-centric
matrixes despite the increasingly precarious
position of the so-called "Washington consensus".
The competing interests of economics and
geopolitics are still measured and characterised
by rules and procedures dictated by several
international agencies marked by their vested, if
subtle, pro-West agenda. Hence, virtually nothing
new emerges based on the "tangibles". Asia is
trailing very much behind, struggling with the
catch-up game laid out by the West.
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Experience has shown that countries that grow rich
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resources but those that invest wisely in building their
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