[asia-apec 579] THE RAG, Issue Number 2 (part2 of 3)

[PAN Asia Pacific]

*************THE RAG*************
(Resistance Against Globalisation)
The Monthly Newsletter of the Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly
Issue No.2, August 1998


Hong Kong conference responds to financial crisis 
 
NGOs from the Hong Kong region organized a conference from 15-18 June entitled "Financial 
Crisis: Our responses".  Participants stated that the crisis is "a threat to the basic right to life of 
Asian peoples".  They denounced the response of Asian governments and multilateral institutions, 
posing as "saviors", that "have resorted to the very same economic policies that have created the 
conditions leading to Asia's economic collapse." For participants, the solution to the crisis lies not in 
the hands of these saviors but in the Asian victims of development-the primary producers and 
forgers of the future.  
 
Participants defined globalisation as an "indiscriminate, unregulated, neo-liberal development model 
. . . that prioritizes the profits of the few while ignoring the livelihood of the many. This profit 
oriented, structurally inequitable system has been aggressively imposed upon the peoples in Asia.  It 
is re-colonization par excellence. We reject this model." 
 
The conference singled-out the role that poor governance and the absence of substantive 
democracy played in bringing about the crisis.  "The culture of authoritarianism, militarisation, 
violence, corruption and immorality has prevailed all over the region for decades . . . The crisis 
today exposed the reality that those outdated dictatorial regimes are no longer able to handle the 
situation. The "Asian Miracle" under undemocratic governments no longer exists." 
 
For participants, the policies that produced this crisis have brought adverse consequences to 
everyone: workers are subject to gross exploitation in wages and conditions and more than 21 
million from Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia alone, will go 
unemployed in 1998; migrant workers have moved to Asian countries en-mass and at least one 
million will be deported; people in urban areas who lose their jobs also lose "a citizen to his society" 
and many return to the rural areas that were unable to support them in housing, health facilities, 
educational facilities for children and the civil amenities that connect better times; and women, who 
occupy most of the low-paid, unskilled jobs, are the first to be retrenched and the privatization of 
public and social services has increased their domestic burden. 
 
 
Finding globalisation in Penang 
 
Last week I was speaking to an American who works for one of the world's leading information 
technology multinational companies (MNCs).  He was in Penang to help the company's Malaysian 
factories set up a tool for failure analysis.  He said that the company had been operating in 
Malaysia for thirty years.  So why, after thirty years, did the company still need to send Americans 
over here?  He said that he was here because the tool was developed in the US and only a few 
people there could train others to work it.  His answer was revealing; the company was sending 
Americans here because all of the company's research and development was done in the US.  After 
thirty years of operation in Penang's free-trade zones, the Malaysian branches had not developed 
beyond simple low-wage assembly plants.  As the American explained, the only reason the tool was 
even sent here was in case an earthquake took place in California. 
 
The next day on a bus to Kuala Lumpur, I met a gentleman from the Universiti Sains Malaysia.  
He told me about how the university faced increased enrolement and large budget cuts.  I asked 
him if the private sector was offering any financial help.  He said that national companies give 
scholarships and grants to students to study overseas but foreign MNCs do not.  "What has Coke 
ever given Malaysian students," he said.  Then he said a friend of his was just hired as a manager 
by a foreign multinational in Kuala Lumpur.  He said she was studying business in Ohio, where a 
number of Malaysians study on scholarship, when she saw the ad for the position.  The company 
was eager to cash in on Malaysia's education programmes but unwilling to invest in them.  Foreign 
MNCs are benefiting from globalisation: is Malaysia? -ed 
 
E-commerce: Who needs it? 
 
The United States surprised everybody this year at the WTO ministerial when Bill Clinton 
proposed that tariffs not be levied on electronic commerce (e-commerce involves any transaction 
done over the Internet in which no physical delivery of goods across borders takes place). Most 
countries were caught off guard by the US proposal because electronic commerce hardly appears 
on their trade statistics.  At present, few countries conduct much trade over the Internet; the US 
accounts for 85% of all revenue generated by the Internet and is probably the only net exporter of 
electronic commerce.  But electronic trade is rapidly expanding and will eventually affect all 
countries.  Estimates are that trade will balloon from $3 billion in 1997 to over $200 billion by 
2000. 
 
Free trade in e-commerce only benefits the North.   While both the South and the North give-up 
revenues from custom fees, only the North exports through e-commerce only the North gets 
something in return.  E-commerce is only for the rich; the poor, without access to the Internet, are 
left out of this telecommunications revolution and tax-break scheme.  So why would any Southern 
countries want to endorse a trade agreement that so little of their populations can ever hope to 
benefit from?  Big business wants e-commerce in a big way.  The potential for industry, primarily 
in the North, where most financial services, telecommunications, and software companies are 
located, is massive.  This month, some of the Asia-Pacific's biggest banks met in Singapore to form 
an alliance to set standards for more secure financial services and e- commerce over the Internet.  
The banks are eager to profit on bill payments, on-line sales and electronic invoicing, and a host of 
other financial and business services that can all be done over the Internet.  Not surprisingly, 
electronic commerce was one of the APEC Business Advisory Council's key areas for 
recommendation to APEC Leaders and APEC will be leading the drive in the WTO for acceptance 
of the US proposal. 
 
E-commerce and education 
 
APEC's ecotech program gives special attention to a new concept called "distance education".  
Distance education provides education or training over the Internet and across long distances.  
APEC claims that the technology will bring high-levels of training and education to areas where it 
was previously unfeasible.  Just how these areas without proper schools will be able to provide 
widespread access to the Internet isn't clear.  And whether areas with deficient education systems 
should import education instead of continuing to develop their own systems isn't debated.  But 
there's more to the story.   
 
Distance education quickly captured the attention of multinational industries, and the major 
industrial lobby groups of the North are busy promoting it.  It's easy to see why.  First, 
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members spend US$1000 
billion annually on education.  Distance education would dramatically alter how this money is 
distributed.  Less would be spent on teachers, classrooms, and the development of public education 
programs catered to local contexts; more would be spent on telecommunication services and 
infrastructure and computer software that private corporations provide.  Students would also pay 
for a greater share of their education, as the system would operate on a fee-for-service basis.  
Second, corporations spend massive amounts on training their employees; distance learning would 
shift the burden to employees, who could do the training on their own time from home or 
computer sites.  The training would be especially relevant to the growing telemarketing industry.  
Developments in distance education to date suggest that the programs offered will only cater to the 
education and training demands of industry, making education more of a business than a learning 
process. The EU is even attempting to revoke the exclusive right of nations to grant diplomas; 
distance education institutions will be able to grant "competency accreditation cards" that will read 
like CVs, describing the number of training programs that the individual has completed.     
 
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The Rag is the monthly newsletter of the Asia Pacific Peoples' Assembly (APPA).  All 
organizations and individuals from within and outside of Malaysia that are concerned about 
globalisation are encouraged to participate and join in hosting APPA.  If you or your organisation 
are interested in participating in or hosting or assisting with a Peoples' Assembly event, an issue or 
sector forum, or a cultural activity, please contact the Secretariat for more information.  The 
intention is to create a genuine space to contest crucial ideas and issues in an open and participatory 
way.  Comments about and contributions to the Rag should be addressed to the Secretariat. 
 
If you would like to receive the printed version of The Rag, please send a request by email to the 
Secretariat with your complete address. 
 
The Secretariat 
57 Lorong Kurau, 
59100 Lucky Gardens,  
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 
Email: appasec at tm.net.my 
Tel: 604-2836245 
Fax: 604-2833536 
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