4/ DATE
M/' 2 0 11 February 1974.
PRIME MINISTERS ADDRESS AT STATE DINNER,
KUAL~ A LJUMPUR
The following is an amended text of an address given by the
Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam, at a State dinner in his honour in
Kuala Lumpur on 29 January 1974. This text should replace that
issued in our news release number M/ 9 of 29 January 1974:
" It is -thoroughly appropriate that I should have begun my
visit to six countries in the South-East Asian region here, in
Malaysia. I am no stranger to your country.
I come as an old friend as the guest of old friends.
I come as Prime Minister of a nation with a long and
proven friendship towards the people of Malaysia.
I come to re-affirm that friendship and to seek new ways
to strengthen the Cooperation which has existed between our twro
countries for more than two decades.
There is no country in the region which better exemplifiLes
the spirit of national independence and regional cooperation than
your own, I believe further there is no country in the region where
the policies of my own government are better understood and where
the responses and attitudes of our two governments to the changes,
challenges and opportunities in the region are more in harmony.
In this climate olf change, in seeking new solutions to new;
pblems, Malaysia has responded with vigour and imagination.
We Australians have in our own way tried to do the same.,
Our views at so many points coincide, and so do the
interest of our two nations.
In particular, we march in step on three fundamental
matters. ~ J~ WIT
WVe both believe that the detente between the great poiier,-N
can work, that it must be made to work and that the smaller pol-aers
like Malaysia. and Australia can help to make it . work.
We both believe deeply that this region should not become
the area for confrontation and comnpetition betweec-' n the great
powers. We both believe that regional cooperation and regional
associations have a vital contribution to make to the stability
and prosperity of this region.
It is against this background of shared interests, shared
attitudes and shared aspirations that I wish the policies and
actions of* -the Australian Governient to be seen.
In Australia, we have broadened the range of our international
contacts.
Ve have sought to break doiwn ideological constraints which
had for so long obstructed meaningful relationships with
countries such as China, East Germany and North Viet-Nam.
We have placed our relationships with the United States
and the United Kingdom on the basis of a more mature partnership.
We have widened our horizons and sought great cooperation
with the medium and smaller powers of Africa, Latin America and
the Pacific. We have given our ful. support to all questions of human
rights and declared our opposition to any forms of lingering
colonialism. We have sought to remove any taint of racism from our
national and international policies.
I wish to make it quite clear that our interest in
South East Asia continues undiminished.
Our genuine concern about the well-being of M~ alaysia and
our other neighbours in the region is a central and enduring
feature of Australian foreign policy.
What has changed in our attitude to South East Asia is
not the degree of our interest or of our involvement, but the
nature of that interest and that involvement.
We seek to turn away from the destructive confrontations
of the past to constructive cooperation in the future.
3.
In the context of our common view, it ' s worthwhile
recalling that some of my Government's earliest decisions brought
us even more in line with the policy of the Malaysian goverrent
After coming to office, we ended our military role in.
Viet-Nam a role which Malaysia did not undertake.
We ended our military assistance previously given to
Cambodia Malaysia had never given such military assistance.
We reduced our involvement with ASPAC an organisation
in which Malaysia no longer participates, and we sought
successfully to change the military emphasis of SEATO an
organisation of which Malaysia was never a member.
My Government has set a new course for Australia in th'is
region. We have shifted the emphasis of our continuing involvement
in South East Asia from one primarily based on ideological
considerations and military alliances to one based increasingly.
on developing trade with the countries of the region, on promoting
progress through constructive aid programs, on encouraging
security through regional cooperation, on a positive response
to the recent proposals that we should consider financial
assistance to agreed ASEAN projects, and on the development of
cultural contacts through the negotiati~ on of cultural agreements
with the countries of South East Asia.
We see in this re-orientation of our diplomatic efforts
the opportunity, which has been too often missed or ignored in
the past, to establish endu. ring relationships with the countries
of this region0
It is not our wish to forge ties based on transitory
concerns but to seek out ways of developing bonds based on an
identification of those interests -which will continue
irrespective of the governments in power in Australia. or the
region. Our main endeavours will henceforth be directed towards
expanding relations in those fields most likely to produce lasting
social and economic advantages for both us and our neighbours.
Some manifestations of this change are already evident.
In recent months we have joined IVDSEA, The Ministerial
Conference for the Economic Development of South East Asia.
Only yesterday in B3angkok we were proclaimed an associate
member of SEAYEG, The South East Asian Ministers of Education
Organisation. Earlier this month we met for the first time with the
Secretaries-General of ASEAI to discuss ways in which Australia
might assist ASEAN projects.
I stress that isolationism is not a policy option . fbr
Australia. Ve are going through a period of change and adjus-tent
which I believe will resulIt in more fruitful Australian
involvement than ever before with the countries of South East Asia.
In this re-orientation I would stress that we have not
sought to widen our interests and contacts at the expense of
older friendships. And this applies with special force to Malaysia and
the ASEAN nations.
For too long our interests in this region were seen
excessively in terms of defence.
We do not now look on the countries of South East Asia
as buffer states or as constituting some northern Military line
where some potential future enemy of Australia should be held.
Rather, we see these countries, especially Malaysia,
Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, as countries
which have a common interest with Australia and New Zealand in
consolidating the security and stability of this region as a
whole. In particular we seek close relations with the Commonwealth
nations in South East Asia and the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas.
Australia's own defence capability is enhanced by mutual
defence arrangements.
My Government gave a pledge to the Australian people to
honour the full terms of the Five Power Arrangements until a more
positive and enduring settlement is reached in establishing peace,
freedom and neutrality in this region.
I SAustralian Air Force Squadrons will. I remoin at Butterworth
as long as they r elevant to the needs of both our nations
and relevant to the realities of the region.
This is a matter which, in consultation with your
government, we shall review as appr opriate.
Our defence association is only on aspect o f the relations
between our two nations and our two peoples.
We have our longstanding common bond through our membership
of the Commonwealth.
We have increasingly fruitful cooperation at the United
Nations and the Australian Government now, as a matter of policy,
consults closely with the countries of South East Asia before
determining our position at the United Nations.
A glance at our voting patterns in the United Nations will
show that since December 1972 we have voted together to a much
greater extent than ever before.
We have at present over. 6000 Malaysian students in
Australia, many of whom have enriched our culture and widened our
perspectives. Others who have returned occupy prominent positions in
your Goverrment and Public Service.
This exchange can only strengthen the understanding of a
friendship for each country in the other.
Trade and Australian investment in Malaysia have developed
rapidly. Only a week ago I arnounced a new Australian policy on
Australian investment overseas, especially in developing
countries. We want to encourage private Australian investment on a
joint venture basis in Mlalaysia in a way which will benefit the
people of Malaysia and will be favourable to the ownership and
control of enterprises by Malaysians.
We understand and accept the wish of developing countries
to regulate foreign investment in accordance with their own
national aspiratLons and development plans.
We seek no less for ourselves and we see Australian
investment overseas in the context of mutual benefit and of
economic cooperatio~ n without exploitationø
Recently the number of Australian tourists visiting Malaysia
has increased greatly.
There has also been a rapid growth in the cultural exchanges
between our two countries.
This is a matter which I believe worthy of further active
encouragement. I believe that these programs of exchange between peoples
and cultures have an increasingly greater part to play in
developing a wider, enduring understanding between peoples and
cultures have an increasingly greater part to play in developing
a wider, enduring understanding between neighbours with different
cultural backgrounds.
Let us freely acknowledge the differences in culture, but
let us learn more about each other and from each other.
All these links have contributed to a high level of
awareness and understanding of each other.
W~ e, in Australia, have been impressed by the economic
success of Malaysia.
I note that in your recent mid-term r eview of the second
Malaysia plan you have not only achieved, but have exceeded, your
growth target. The importance of economic success is absolute because
only with economic progress will there be social advancement and
regional stability.
I do not, however, wish to comment only on Malaysia's
contribution to the economic development of the region.
If anything in the past few years we have watched with
even greater admiration the way Malaysia has evolved her foreign.
policies to match the changed realities of the area.
Malaysia has, along with Indonesia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand, established a workable, relevant and
important regional grouping ASEAN.
ASEA14 is an example to all of us of the co-operation and
understanding which can be achieved if countries with a common
interest in progress come together to promote that common interest.
Malaysia has also used that forum to advance its concept
of a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality.
Australia applauds this initiative and welcomes the
objectives which the ASEAN countries have set for themselves for
a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality in South East Asia.
It is a creative concept which, if fulfilled, will not
only benefit the nations in the zone, it will itself be a further
step towards detente, if the great powers are able to agree not to
use this region as the field for destructive rivalry.
You have acknowledgethat the zone of peace, freedom
and neutrality will not be achieved overnight.
It is evident that the great powers will need to show
more trust towards each other before they will come to a point
when they can agree mutually to accept the zone.
The search for detente has begun and I believe the
realisation will grow that it is only the imaginative farsightedness
of such new initiatives which will enable our world to
attain the peace and justice we all desire.
In the same spirit of hope but with the swuae awareness of
the difficulties in the way, my Government has suggested that
some wider' regional arrangement for information consultation
between the nations of the whole region should be established
in the future.
We consider that it is important that the countries of
the Asian and Pacific region should be able to come together to
discuss common interests in an atmosphere free of crisis, free
of pomp, free of drama, and free of excessive expectations of
any spectacular results.
I recognise that such a forum cannot be achieved quickly,
it has to evolve from withIn the region, out of the wishes of
the countries of the region.
Like the zone of peace, freedom and neutrality, it will
only come about when the countries concerned agree that it is in
their mutual interests to have such a forum.
Lest there be any misunderstandings, I want to emphasise
that we do not see such an association competing with ASEAN in
any way* On the contrary, we would see it as being complementsry to
ASEAN which has proved itself to be a close viable and natural
grouping of South East Asian states.
Malaysia and Australia are both moving in the same general
direction and, with the benefit of our long-standing friendship
and understanding, we should, by working together, make our goals
that much more capable of achievement.
1We share the same great goals.
Wie are marching together towards them.
In some matters, such as normalisation of relations with
China, Australia has been able to move more quickly than Malaysia0
In others, such as the establishment of relations with
North Korea, Mvalaysia has moved more quickly than Australia.
This has been ' because of differences in our circumstances
rather than differences in our ultimate goals.
We are each involved in our own way in an important
humanitarian experiment.
You, within Malaysia, are trying to forge a free,
prosperous and harmonious multi-racial society.
We, in AustGralia, notwithstanding our European origins,
are trying to build strong bridges and develop lasting links with
Malaysia and the countries of South East Asia.
But we both seek, I believe, the same end, namely to
cooperate closely, as good neighbours should, in a wider
effort to promote a stable, more prosperous and peaceful
multi-racial South East Asian region.
When one sees the severity of the test which the detente
much undergo, as shown so suddenly and dangerously in the
Middle East when one sees the continuing frustration. of our high
hopes just one year ago for real peace in Indo-China, it would
be an exceptionally bold or excessively naive man who declares
his unqualified optimism about the course of events and their
outcome. Yet, fundamentally, I am an optimist, certainly about the
future of our region.
Diplomacy must be based on realistic hopes rather than on
resignation and despair.
And from no country in the region, from the effectiveness
of its Government, the growing prosperity of its people, and the
imaginative policies of its leaders, do I draw more encouragement
sustain that opt~ imism and that hope than I do from Malaysia.