Universidad y Diplomacia Magazine
February and March 2017 edition
Know more about Malaysia
Chuah Teong Ban, Ambassador of Malaysia, talks about our bilateral relations and explains how his multiethnic and pluricultural country has become one of the most competitive countries in the world.
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With the aim of serving the growing interest in East Asia, we interviewed Malaysian Ambassador Chuah Teong Ban, who explains to us the current situation of his country, a privileged enclave with 31 million people, located in the exact position of the connections in East Asia. Malaysia and Peru are both members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum and the Transpacific Partnership (TPP). Also, we are united by our excellent diplomatic and commercial relations.
How do you perceive the relations between Peru and your country during your tenure?
The relationship between Malaysia and Peru has always been good, friendly and cooperative. There is a lot of understanding at the political level. Trade relations are also improving year by year.
Culture brings people together because it helps us understand each other and broaden our knowledge. In what situation are our relations in the cultural field?
The cultural exchange between our countries help us understand each other better and promote people-to-people contact. We have promoted our culture through some events. For instance, last year in coordination with Munibecas programme of the Municipality of Lima we organised some events for young people. We taught Malaysian language to students with high academic performance. We also had classes in Malaysian gastronomy for people to offer new dishes in their business, and classes in traditional dances from Malaysia.
Malaysia is a multiracial, multicultural and multireligious country, how did you achieve national unity?
The maintenance of harmonious national unity in Malaysia has not been easy and smooth sailing. It involves a lot of close understanding and tolerance between the various ethnic and religious communities. The main instrument of national unity that bound us together is our Federal Constitution, clearly spelling out the fundamental liberties, such as equality, freedom of religion, free practice of one’s mother tongue, practice freely one’s culture heritage, right to education and also to property.
Your Government is a Constitutional Monarchy where the king alternates every five years, can you explain to us how this system works?
There are nine sultanates in Malaysia, but there is only one King position. Therefore, every five years the Council of Rulers, comprising the nine Sultans, will elect a king among themselves to head the constitutional monarchy. This system allows each sultanate an opportunity to be the Head of the State of Malaysia.
Malaysia is based on two legal systems, the Islamic law and the Common Law, how do you proceed when there is a conflict of interest?
Malaysia practices two legal systems. The Common Law is applicable to every Malaysian in criminal and civil laws. The Islamic Law is applicable only to Muslims limited to the civil codes, such as settlement of divorce, inheritance, misdemeanours related to adultery, promiscuity, etc. When there is a conflict of interest between the Common Law and the Islamic Law, the Common Law shall prevail.
Malaysia is one of the most competitive economies in the world and the safest country in South East Asia and the Asia-Pacific Region, how did you achieve this privilege?
Malaysia has become competitive because we have been an open trading nation since our independence 60 years ago. Malaysia’s economic growth is driven by the Foreign Direct Investment. In order to attract this investment, Malaysia has to be cost competitive centre, high in the ease of doing business, transparent in decision making, and a safe country for investment as well as for personal security. To maintain that privilege, Malaysia continuously upgrades its good physical infrastructure, develops an efficient banking system, and creates a liveable environment.
The sustainable growth of your country is mainly based in three pillars: productivity, accumulation of capital, and technological progress. Nonetheless, the human capital is its greatest achievement. What can you tell us about this?
I would like to thank you for that question. You are right. Human capital has been an important economic progress to Malaysia, which is a multicultural country with great diversity where the population is free to express their ideologies. In Malaysia people live in harmony. Present society has unified in its cultural diversity and this has become an asset for those companies that want to invest abroad. For example, if a Malaysian company wishes to invest in China, India or the Middle East, Malaysian people have the capacity to adapt themselves and understand the mindset of those cultures. We don’t need to be trained because we have a global understanding, it’s inherent in us and we speak the languages of those countries and know their realities. Due to our diversity and openness, human capital is one of our main development aspects.
Oil palm, minerals and chemical products are exported from Peru to your country, while we import coffee, technology, textiles, processed food and chemical products from Malaysia. It would be suitable to establish trade missions in reciprocity with a view to organising Trade Chambers in both countries. Have you consider this as a bilateral alternative of economic development?
Bilateral trade between Peru and Malaysia is growing, but the quantum is still less than USD 200 million. The prospect of increasing the total trade volume is bright in the future. Regular trade missions organised through the cooperation of trade chambers in both countries could be considered.
The world economic order forces us to make changes in different moments. However, the swearing in of President Trump in the US and his protectionist policies make us look for new avenues for understanding. What do you think of these circumstances?
There will be many differences in global trade if President Trump puts his protectionism into practice. Many countries will take the change to protect their economies. In theory, that would not be a good trend because we have worked very hard for free world trade.
What is your national vision for 2030 and 2050?
Malaysia had the long-term goal to become a developed country by 2020. This goal was known as “Vision 2020”. There are three years left and we are close to reaching our goal. Nonetheless, we need to go beyond. In fact, two years ago our Prime Minister proposed a new perspective called “National Transformation 2050”. With this, we expect the total amount of foreign trade to grow from 1.4 trillion ringgit to 2 trillion ringgit by 2050. That is in the economic aspect. As a national vision, we expect to be recognised as a top 20 country in the world in terms of GDP and purchasing power. In the next three years we want to organise discourses with young people, businessmen and shareholders working in Malaysia to collect ideas and aspirations to draft the objectives for 2050.
What is your message to young people?
I’m always happy to meet young people because I believe that they will be the leaders of tomorrow. Young people should be creative and innovative, but also respectful and disciplined.
