ASIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST: REDISCOVERING EACH OTHER

                I first visited the Middle East more than 30 years ago.  I was then working for our national shipping company.  Among the countries I visited was Egypt. I went there before the Suez Canal was reopened.  Unfortunately, I lost my luggage.  Well, not really lost because my luggage was sent to London instead of Cairo.  Cairo then did not have all the amenities it has today.  I could not even buy the essential things I needed like a toothbrush and toothpaste.

2                             Last year, I visited Cairo for the second time.  I did not lose my luggage this time.  Even if that had happened, I would have no problems getting my toiletries.  The hotel I stayed in provided them.  It was a good visit.  Cairo was where I hatched the idea of the Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED).  President Hosni Mubarak supported it and encouraged me to proceed with the initiative.

3                             The second time I lost my luggage was again in the Middle East.  It happened in 1979 when I led a Singapore business delegation to Baghdad to take part in a trade exhibition.  I was then Minister for Trade and Industry.  I saw Saddam Hussein but not my luggage.  This time it was really lost.  Not just mine, but several members of my delegation lost theirs too.  The SIA station manager in Kuwait where we transited swore that he had made sure that all the luggages were checked in.  So they must have disappeared at Baghdad Airport.  But despite losing my luggage twice in the Middle East, I have never lost my interest in the region.

4                             I resumed my Middle East explorations in earnest in the year 2000 when I visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman.  In the last 16 months alone, I have visited 10 Middle Eastern countries and the Palestinian territories.  I am not done yet.  I intend to visit more Middle Eastern countries next year.  Why my interest?  Because I find the region at the cusp of change.  It faces political, social, economic and security challenges.  But it has great developmental potential and offers abundant economic opportunities.  What happens in the Middle East will affect all of us.

5                             It therefore gives me great pleasure to welcome so many old friends and new acquaintances from countries that I have visited and those I hope to visit.   Some of you have travelled a very long way to be here.  I am grateful to all of you and heartened by your support.  I bid you a warm welcome to Singapore. 

6                             I am not an expert on the Middle East.  The more I visit the region, the more I realise how little we understand and how much more Singapore has to learn.  But what I have experienced has been enlightening and enriching.  The Middle East is very different from East and Southeast Asia.  But there are also many similarities.

7                             Let me highlight these through my personal experiences.

8                             Earlier this year, I visited Saudi Arabia.  Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud had graciously invited me to join him as his guest at the opening of the National Cultural and Heritage Festival in Janadriyah.  I saw my first camel race and was hosted to a lavish banquet.  I was told that it is an Arab custom to treat guests well by preparing more food than they could eat. This is similar to our Asian custom, where we also ensure that guests are well-fed. 

9                             Later, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al-Saud, a nephew of King Fahd, took me to his desert camp.  That night, under the light of a full desert moon, I was feted with camel meat and other Arabian delights. Well, as you may well imagine, camel meat is not a common Singapore dish.  But I ate it just the same.

10                         One of the Saudi guests asked me how many camels there were in Singapore.  I told him four, in our zoo.  I wondered why he asked.  Later, somebody explained to me that Bedouins measure their wealth by the number of camels they own.  In a sense, it is the same in Singapore.  Here we measure wealth by the number of cars a person owns.  But of course, in Bedouin culture, camels are highly-revered and much more than a means of transport. 

11                         After the dinner, Prince Alwaleed invited me to join him at his majlis or Council.  I saw more than a thousand people waiting to meet him.  They queued up to petition him for favours.  One of them wanted a loan to buy a car.  Another wanted help to send his son to university in UK.  Prince Alwaleed told me that this weekly affair enabled him to stay close to his people.  I was immediately reminded of the weekly Meet‑the‑People sessions that our Members of Parliament conduct in Singapore.  We have to listen to our residents and help them solve their problems. Fortunately, Singaporeans do not ask their Members of Parliament for money to buy cars but many do ask for money to pay their bills.

12                         Prince Alwaleed was never far from his laptop, handphone and numerous TVs switched on to CNN and other news and business information channels.  He is an urbane man well-versed in high finance and business deals.  But he is also traditional in his Bedouin ways and a religious man.  Thus, in one person, I saw two facets of the Middle East: the modern and the traditional.  He epitomises the two contrary pulls in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

13                         Such first-hand experiences are invaluable.  We in Asia get most of our information about the Middle East from the western media. I dare say that much of the information on Asia available in the Middle East also comes from the same sources.  Western media looks at the Middle East and Asia through western eyes and measures us by their standards and norms.  Generally, they only paint part of the picture about us.  And this part tends to be drama and bad news.  

14                         I was reminded of this when I visited Ramallah last month and met with President Mahmoud Abbas.  CNN had conditioned me to expect scenes of devastation, with bombed out buildings and ruins.  I was surprised to find many new buildings in Ramallah.  I was told that many were built after the Oslo Accords, almost twelve years ago.  I was cheered by President Abbas' realism and his commitment to find a way forward that would accommodate both the aspirations of his people and Israel's security concerns.  Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom I met in Tel Aviv, understood the importance of working out a deal with President Abbas.  He was determined to move forward.  I emphasised to both leaders that the present situation offered a window of opportunity which they must seize.  Miss this, and there would be no enduring peace for a long time.

15                         I am not suggesting that the Palestinian issue will be easily settled.  Far from it.  I understand how complex the issue is; I understand the gravity of the issue to the Middle East, and I understand how a fair and just settlement is central to the region's future.  My point is that television footages of Ramallah and the Israeli wall show only one piece of the complex Middle East mosaic.

16                         Unfortunately, war, terrorism and conflict are undeniably part of the Middle East today.  But then, Asia has its problems too - the North Korea nuclear issue, tensions across the Taiwan Straits, Kashmir and terrorism.  Asia is not all about the miraculous growth in China, the IT buzz of India and high growth rates generally.  We have our problems.  My point is: to understand any region, we have to see it whole and not just in parts, the challenges and the opportunities, the hopes and fears of its people, the good and the bad.

17                         My chief impression from my visits to the Middle East is that of a region at a crossroads.  It is poised for modernity and yet feels the pull of centuries-old traditions.  It is caught between the pressure to make political reforms with their uncertain consequences, and its desire to hold on to traditional and tested ways.  My conclusion is that the balance is tilted in favour of change and development.

18                         I remember visiting Kuwait in the early 1980s.  The Gulf was then just beginning to experience the oil boom.  I saw roads being built over vast expanses of sand, and many abandoned cars by the road.  The owners had simply dumped them there.  I told my friend that we should retrieve them and start a second-hand car business but he reminded me that the newly-rich Kuwaitis would only buy new cars.  When I recently met the Prime Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, he told me that times have changed.  Kuwaitis now would repair their old cars.

19                         But today, Kuwait looks even richer than in the Eighties.  It has risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the Gulf War.  Indeed, all across the Middle East, the desert is blooming.  Driven by high oil prices, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Doha, Manama and many other cities have entered the global consciousness.  They are prosperous, modern and bustling.  Seeing the large number of cars and the traffic congestion in these cities, I told myself I should start a consultancy on traffic management and car population control. 

20                         The Middle East is experiencing breathtaking development.  The new landscape of the Middle East is not typified by the date palm or the oil rig.  It is symbolised by the crane - not the bird but the construction crane.  Some of the most spectacular new architecture in the world is now in the Middle East.  Development is driven by bold and imaginative visions of the future.  Many in the Middle East are racing towards their dreams of becoming first class cities. 

21                         When I visited Dubai and Doha, I was surprised to learn that the Gulf States were reclaiming land.  I wondered why since they were not short of land.  Later, I learned that the reclamation was to create beautiful resorts in the sea like The Palm and The Pearl, designed to provide refuge for tourists from dreary western winters and vacation homes for rich Russians, Europeans, Indians and Arabs.  This is indeed clever.  Sand in the desert has little value.  Sand to form islands in the sea has great value.

22                         But even in the desert, the grass is greener, both metaphorically and literally.  Golf courses in the Middle East are greener than many elsewhere in the world because they are watered from seven at night to seven in the morning. 

23                         Of course, some changes can be wrenching.  It is always unsettling when traditional ways of life confront modernity.  The Middle East leaders I met were clearly aware of the sweeping global changes and the impact on them.  Transitions from one kind of system to another must be delicately and patiently handled.  We know this from our own experiences in Asia.

24                         Both our regions are grappling with many similar big issues.  How do we develop without losing our core values?  How do we reconcile tradition with modernity?  How do we deal with terrorism, fanaticism and extremism?  How do we educate our young boys and girls to become productive citizens and ensure that they have the skills to compete in a rapid-changing and globalising world economy?  How do we uplift the lives of all our citizens by creating opportunities for education, development and advancement?  How do we evolve a stable and responsive political system, appropriate to our specific histories, cultures and circumstances?  Is western democracy the best way to govern our countries?  I believe that we can both profit from sharing our experiences. 

25                         Post-September 11, I sense that the Middle East has become more interested in East Asia.  In the last two years, there have been about 40 Ministerial or higher level visits from Middle Eastern countries to Singapore.  This is more than double the total number of similar Middle Eastern visits in the preceding 10 years.  I am sure other countries in our region have similar experiences.

26                         The rise of China and India will inevitably bring Asia into closer contact with the Middle East.  We can no longer interact only at the margins.  The destinies of our regions will become more interdependent.  This is not just about oil or energy but also about trade, investment, business, security, tourism and services.  Globalisation means that changes in our regions will impact on each other in a variety of ways across a broad range of areas.

27                         One of my officials told me that when he visited the Pyramids, he was surprised to hear the Egyptian tourist guides speaking Chinese.  When an ulema in Saudi Arabia declared that Pokemon was haram, the share price of its Japanese manufacturer immediately fell.  I recently met a Singaporean garment buyer on board a plane to Amman.  She was visiting a garment factory in Jordan owned by her Sri Lankan vendor.  She was buying for the American company, GAP.  It is this kind of market‑driven interlocking interests that will bind our regions ever closer together.  The potential synergies of Asia-Middle East cooperation are tremendous.

28                         Relations between the Middle East and the West have been historically difficult. But there are no deep historical, cultural, religious or ideological barriers preventing better relations between the Middle East and Asia.  On the contrary, the links between our regions are ancient; the historical influences on each other profound.  It was only in the last century or so, with colonialism and the Cold War, that we neglected each other.  But the ancient links are now being re‑established.  We should encourage and facilitate this process of mutual rediscovery.  

29                         It is in our interest that the Middle East develops and prospers.  It is in the interest of Middle East countries to plug into the Asian grid.  It is in our mutual interest to help each other.  These are the simple premises on which the Asia‑Middle East Dialogue is based.  Your presence in Singapore suggests that these ideas have found a broader resonance.  I am heartened by the fact that Egypt has volunteered to host the next AMED meeting in two years’ time and that Thailand will take up the baton after that.  Saudi Arabia has offered to host the fourth meeting.  Bahrain has also indicated interest to host a future session of AMED.  The continuity of the AMED process is assured.

30                         Let us make progress steadily, rediscovering each other, one step at a time.  And the first step must be to talk to each other freely and frankly; to share our hopes and concerns as friends.  That is why we have emphasised that AMED is not an inter‑governmental forum, even if it is not exactly a private initiative.  It is somewhere in between; a track one and a half process.  I hope all of you will participate in that spirit.  Your very presence today is itself a notable achievement. All the countries represented today account for more than half of the world’s population.

31                         Singapore is indeed honoured to be able to host this inaugural AMED meeting.  We respect diversity and seek unity in diversity rather than in sterile uniformity.  This initiative is not a "greater initiative"; neither is it a "broader initiative".  It is just a “modest initiative” born out of a sincere desire to see better understanding between Asia and the Middle East.  Let me therefore conclude by setting out my four modest hopes for this inaugural AMED meeting:

(a)               I hope that we can enhance mutual awareness and understanding between our regions;

(b)               I hope we can erase negative stereotypes of each other;

(c)               I hope we can share our experiences in political, economic and social development and draw such lessons as might , be relevant to overcome the challenges we face;  and

(d)              I hope that we can come up with a few ideas for tangible and concrete collaboration for mutual benefit.

32                         I wish you every success in your discussions.  I look forward to hearing your conclusions. 

33                         Thank you.