Final sessions of the three-day ‘Defence Seminar - 2014’ at Colombo Galadari Hotel got underway Wednesday (20) with eminent scholars from Malaysia, China and Singapore making separate presentations on different topics.
Dr Tang Siew Mun, Director of Foreign Policy and Security Studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia (Malaysia: an Epitome of Progress and Prosperity), Dr Wang Weihua, Assistant Director, Institute for Foreign Policy Studies, China (China-Sri Lanka : Four Decades of Stable Relationships) and Dr Yeo Lay Hwee, Director of the European Union Centre in Singapore (Imperatives to Prosperity of a Rising Nation) made their separate presentations as specified in the brackets above.
Here follow speeches and synopses of above scholars made to the Defence Seminar sessions.
1. Dr Tang Siew Mun (Malaysia)
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic state and has experience long periods of stability and harmony. However, this blessing is not a given had was the result of a carefully orchestrated polity that is founded on the principles of inclusion, power sharing and cooperation. When the Federation of Malaysia gained its independence in 1957, skeptics had picked the young nation to fail. The potent mix of different ethnicities, cultures and religion were deemed too incompatible to peacefully co-exist. Fifty-seven years on, Malaysia continues to confound expectations and remains a stable and vibrant polity.
A fundamental principle of the Malaysian polity is the imperative of inter-ethnic cooperation. While the major ethnic groups are politically organized along their respective groupings, there is an understanding that political power is most stable and effective shared. The ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional) had led Malaysia uninterrupted since independence. Within this formula of power sharing, there is also a strong tradition of mutual respect and elite bargaining that had effectively defused what might have been a contentious political climate if ethnic politics and politicking are allowed to be played out in the open.
Inter-ethnic cooperation is the key to Malaysia’s stability and harmonious polity, especially considering the fact that Malaysia is an “on-going project.” It is a nation that is still evolving and efforts at nation-building is as yet incomplete. The polity faces new challenges and demands that impose severe tests on inter-ethnic goodwill and cooperation. Suggestions to change Malaysia into an Islamic state, for example, will necessitate a deep and extensive society at what Malaysia means and stands for. Fundamental questions such as this will change the fundamentals of the Malaysian polity. The challenge for the successors of the independence pioneers is to find a new formula and modality to either consolidate the existing power sharing arrangement and inter-ethnic cooperation or to found a new framework to maintain a stable and harmonious society and polity.
2. Dr Wang Weihua (China)
China and Sri Lanka are friendly and close neighbors in tradition. China-Sri Lanka friendly relationship has a long historical tradition, the strong realistic dynamics and a bright future.
Historical Development of China-Sri Lanka Friendly Relationship
China-Sri Lanka friendly relationship before the independence of Sri Lanka. A long-term religious and cultural exchanges and commercial and trade exchanges laid the historical foundation for the establishment and development of a long-term friendly relations between China and Sri Lanka. China’s famous monk Faxian went to Sri Lanka to learn Buddhism in 5th century and a navigator of Chinese Ming Dynasty, Zheng He successively arrived in Sri Lanka for three times in 15th century, these are the two landmark events in the history of exchanges between the two countries.
China-Sri Lanka friendly relationship after the independence of Sri Lanka. With the guidance of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, the independent Sri Lanka and the newborn People’s Republic of China worked together to promote sustainable development of the friendly relationship between the two countries, which set up a good example for the big and small countries to deal with their relationship on the basis of equality, friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation. In January 1950, Sri Lanka acknowledged the new China. In 1952, the two sides opened a new chapter in bilateral economic and trade relationship with the signing of Sino-Lanka Rubber-Rice Pact. In 1957, the two sides formally established the diplomatic relationship.
China-Sri Lanka friendly relationship in the 21st century. Since entering the new century, the international system and the pattern of the world are undergoing profound changes, and China-Sri Lanka bilateral friendly relationship has shown increasingly prominent regional and global significance. In April 2005, when then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was paying a visit to Sri Lanka, the two countries announced to establish China-Sri Lanka All-round Cooperation Partnership of Sincere Mutual Support and Ever-lasting Friendship. In May 2013, during Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaksa’s visit to China, both sides decided to upgrade China-Sri Lanka relationship to the Strategic Cooperative Partnership of Sincere Mutual Support and Ever-lasting Friendship.
Realistic Dynamics of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership
The establishment and development of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership not only originated in the political tradition of ever-lasting friendship between the two countries, but also is closely related with the pulse of the times. China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership is provided the opportunity for in-depth development by the evolution of international configuration and regional situation as well as the sufficient realistic dynamics for all-round development by their own national strategies and development needs.
Currently, Indian Ocean’s strategic position is rising in the world politics and global trade. Indian Ocean region has become a hot area of current international politics, especially facing the increasingly serious non-traditional security challenges, such as piracy, terrorism, organized crime and so on. Indian Ocean is becoming more and more important to the world economy and global trade because that it is becoming the important energy and trade channel to connect the Asia-Pacific region which is the center of world economic growth and the Gulf and Africa region which is the energy and resource center. Indian Ocean is one of the regions with the most intensive sea trade routes in the world, the petroleum route and trade channel in Indian Ocean are many countries’ strategic lifelines including China.
With the rise of Indian Ocean’s strategic importance, the United States of America, which has been the traditional dominating hegemony both globally and regionally since the end of cold war, is gradually shrinking its strategic presence and investment in this region. Because of the shale gas exploitation, the strategic importance of the Middle East to the United States is declining. At the same time, along with the gradual implementation of the rebalancing strategy in Asia-Pacific region, America’s naval forces is in contraction world widely except in Asia-Pacific, the status of India Ocean in America’s global strategy may decline. Given this context, countries in this region would be very naturally concerned about the changes of the regional and global situation.
As an Indian Ocean country with very unique geopolitical location, Sri Lanka has a more and more important strategic status with the rise of Indian Ocean’s importance. With the improvement of port and other infrastructure, Sri Lanka’s strategic importance concerning sea-lane security and trade relations in Indian will rise further.
Enormous energy and resource requirements are raised to support China’s rapid economic development with a high speed over the past more than thirty years. The navigation safety in Indian Ocean is becoming China’s core national concern due to Indian Ocean has become the most important channel for China to import oil and resources from the Gulf and Africa. Therefore, China will definitely pay more attention to Indian Ocean. However, China’s military presence in Indian Ocean is almost zero besides the anti-piracy activity near to Somali. China does need to work together with the India Ocean countries and relevant stakeholders to ensure the peace and stability in the most busy water area in the world.
At bilateral level, there are a lot of dynamics to promote the comprehensive and in-depth development of bilateral relationship between China and Sri Lanka.
1. On the basis of strong mutual political trust between the two countries, China and Sri Lanka have the similar positions on many international issues and could benefit from the cooperation with each other to maintain their core national interests.
2. The two countries take economic development as a priority of their national strategy.
3. China-Sri Lanka bilateral economic and trade cooperation has great potential especially after the upcoming signing of the Free Trade Area Agreement.
4. The more favorable factor to the bilateral relationship is that China put forward the idea to create the 21 Century Maritime Silk Road. This is a friendly way of the economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges in the new era. There is no doubt, due to the unique geographical location, that Sri Lanka is facing an important opportunity and is able to play an important role within this framework. The comprehensive cooperation between China and Sri Lanka on the construction of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road will not only promote the bilateral economic and trade cooperation, but also make the bilateral cooperation with more regional and international significance.
Outlook of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership
Based on the analysis of the history and reality, people have reasons to be full of expectation about the future development of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership. Although Sri Lanka does not geographically share border with China, but China regards its relationship with Sri Lanka as an important part of its good neighbor policy. The two countries have the consensus to work together for a bright future of the bilateral relationship, which will not only benefits the two peoples, but also the whole region and the world at large.
First, China and Sri Lanka should further consolidate the basis of bilateral relations, and actively promote the all-round cooperation and exchanges. Politically, the two sides should continue to maintain close high-level exchanges. Economically, the two sides should achieve the bilateral FTA agreement as soon as possible, enhance the scale and level of economic and trade cooperation, change the imbalance of the trade structure, and enlarge China’s direct investment in Sri Lanka. At the same time, the two sides should actively promote and expand people to people exchanges. Especially on Chinese side, the government should encourage more Chinese tourists to go to Sri Lanka for sightseeing. In addition, the two sides should steadily push forward the pragmatic cooperation in the fields of defense and security, and also give their firm supports to each other in the fight against terrorism and three forces.
Second, China and Sri Lanka should further strengthen the regional and international significance of the bilateral relations through enriching the connotation of the strategic cooperative partnership. 1. The two sides should strengthen cooperation in regional multilateral organizations, such as SCO, SAARC and so on. 2. The two sides should strengthen the comprehensive cooperation in marine field, such as ecological protection, marine economy, marine observation and so on. 3. The two sides should strengthen coordination on multilateral issues, such as Climate Change, UN reform and so on. 4. The two sides should plan the bilateral economic and trade cooperation under the framework of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in order to constantly improve the hub status and radiation effects of Sri Lanka to the economic and trade cooperation in Indian Ocean.
Finally, China and Sri Lanka should further highlight the positive energy that China- Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership brings to the regional peace and stability as well as the regional development. China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership is helpful to the peace and stability in the region, which is not targeted at any third country. China has neither the so-called “Pearl Chain Strategy” nor the grand strategy to seek Indian Ocean into China’s sphere of influence. On the one hand, China does not have such strength because China is still a regional power rather than a global power, although apparently China’s global interests are in rapid growth. On the other hand, the more important reason is China has no intention of such a strategy. The road of peaceful development is China’s national strategy and will not be shaken easily since we believe that there is no way for China to follow the old way which the western powers have taken when they were rising in the last 400 hundreds years. What China is pursuing in Indian Ocean is the common security, comprehensive security, cooperative security and sustainable security, which is also one of the guiding principles of the development of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership. At the same time, China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership will strongly promote China’s engagement into the regional integration in South Asia, which will be helpful to the development of the whole region.
In conclusion, China and Sri Lanka are good friends and good partners with mutual trust. China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership has its own historical foundation and realistic dynamics. With deepening the bilateral pragmatic cooperation and strengthening the regional coordination, the development of China-Sri Lanka Strategic Cooperative Partnership will benefit the two countries as well as the whole region and world at large.
3. Dr Yeo Lay Hwee (Singapore)
National development and economic performance – growth, investment, poverty reduction and public service delivery – depends in large part on governance. While traditionally, the private sector is seen as the driver of economic development, it is the public sector that enables this to happen. In the past decade and a half, the notion of good governance as a necessary condition, or at the very least, as providing an enabling environment for sustainable development and growth has gained widespread currency.
Good governance, resting on the four pillars of accountability, transparency, predictability and participation, is the foundation for development. Good governance applied across the board, from the public sector to the business and corporate sector is the most important ingredient for the success of a nation. Of course, other imperatives such as innovation and diversification of the economy and an open and socially cohesive society are also important in contributing to the prosperity of a rising nation. And with interdependence and globalization, active participation in multilateral forums and international institutions and building connectivity and networks regionally and globally is also increasingly important for any nation that wants to ensure its continued prosperity.
