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Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie (Cont
They are very careful not to frighten off foreign investment by programmes of nationalisation. Their great need is for employment and they are not looking for high technology.
He is now considering a change in export policy. Instead of selling highly sophisticated textiles to the developed world, where there is considerable resistance, they ought to be sending cheap and garish cottons and cheap jeans to Africa and to the Middle East.
They recognise their dependence on Thailand's success in resisting communism. If Kriangsak can hold Thailand, they can strengthen Malaysia. enough to remain secure for the next ten years. In that ten years they will build up an economy that will last for fifty.
On Brunei he said that they feared UDI by the British. He viewed this with great concern. The locals cannot manage their own security, either internally or externally. He thinks the Indonesians have the same view. Unless this is looked after, it will become a hot-bed of disaffection, threatening both their countries. They would welcome consultations with HMG on security matters prior to any settlement.
As long as Cambodia survives as an independent country, China has an area in which she can feel that her interests are represented in Indochina. If Cambodia becomes dominated by Vietnam, the whole of Indochina will be subject to Russian influence. The Chinese will then search for some other grouping to carry their flag and they are bound to be looking amongst the indigenous people of Thailand, Malaysia or one of the other ASEAN countries. The Russians will counter this by seeking a balancing voice in the same community. This will lead to further unrest. The survival of an independent Kampuchea is therefore to be hoped for.
He said that foreign countries were very quick to criticise the speed with which Malaysia withdrew democratic privileges from Kelantan Province during the recent emergency. He had felt bound in religious duty to suspend the Constitution and introduce martial law in the light of the experience of 13 May, when he had been the only person prepared to walk down the streets to keep law and order and had to be sworn in as a special constable in order to do so.
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