Our K-Competitiveness: Global Knowledge partnerships

Razali Ismail, one of Malaysia\’s most foremost ambassadors and the former President of UN general assembly and now, Special Envoy to Myanmar wrote an outstanding piece in the New Straits Times on Aug 31.

Entitled \’Marking Merdeka and our global place\’, it was on the role of Malaysia in a globalised world.

My article is a reflection on the lessons learned from our ambitious project to develop a more equitable ICT4D global agenda through the former NITC Secretariat at Mimos Bhd for nine years.

Now, why do I want to reflect on global knowledge partnerships as Malaysia\’s response to knowledge competitiveness?

Razali\’s article argued the case exactly for this kind of response in a geo-political sense of the very context of today\’s global politics. He further argued that the 1970s public policy infrastructure of Malaysia is no more relevant for the new world challenges.

\”We must work quickly to put in place a system to train and position individuals of promise -without reference to class, colour and creed – to be a part of these prized policy networks,\” he wrote.

These networks refer to \”informal networks to understand policy lessons offered by other countries\”, which were propagated and propounded by Professor Anne Marie Slaughter of Princeton University in her book, The New World Order .

Here, I will argue that we have already done it, except that it was not a mainstream public policy activity but rather an activity of non-profit organisations. Malaysian-led or Malaysia-based non-profit organisations (NPOs) like Just and Third World Network have already been doing this for years.

\’Lobal\’ concept

My article records the experience of yet another not-for-profit project in which the former NITC secretariat was directly involved.

Malaysia\’s K-Competitiveness in the next decade will define the global context of the real challenges facing us as a nation. Edmund Terence Gomez, in his malaysiakini article entitled \’Who Owns Corporate Malaysia?\’ has adequately and accurately argued this internal Malaysian story.

My attempt will be to define the global context for K-Competitiveness, in a world that has been fundamentally changed by globalisation, technology, and democratisation of the voices of marginalised peoples.

Another way to understand and appreciate the changes is through the concept of the information revolution. Let me simply articulate what our policy response can be to such competitive globalisation, within the context of our own \’technology entrepreneurs\’ who define the framework of the MSC and this ICT month which we celebrate. I will therefore reflect on the three buzz words, \’global\’, \’partnerships\’ and \’knowledge\’.

We know that today\’s world is truly a global village and a \’glokal\’ world. But, it must also become a \’lobal\’ one. The \’lobal concept\’ requires us growing local brand-names to become global companies, and not just becoming local agents for foreign brand-names. This, I believe is the spirit of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad\’s and Tengku Mahaleel Ariff\’s argument for Proton and the Malaysian automotive industry, as I have articulated before.

Malaysians can do it, and we must do it. Royal Selangor, Petronas and squash sensation Nicol David have shown us that we can do it too. But, becoming a global champion today means sustainability beyond the Malaysian borders. It is more than winning globally once, but being able to repeat it as badminton champions Tan Aik Huang and Rudy Hartono did for years.

3W model

Allow me therefore to share the experience and lessons learned at the former NITC secretariat.

When planning the Global Knowledge II (GKII) Conference in 2000, \’glokal thinking\’ wanted to reduce that event which we fought so hard to host from a 2000 person event to a 200 person event, because of the anti-Mahathir sentiment over the (sacking of ex-deputy premier) Anwar (Ibrahim) in September 1998.

But, thanks to our able Malaysian \’local to global team\’, led by none other than the former chief secretary to the government and ably assisted by the current secretary-general of the foreign affairs ministry, we were able to negotiate for a meaningful South-South partnership working together with some very sympathetic Northern allies (which is the informal policy network Razali mentions) and many NGO/NPO partners.

This bottom-to-top \’lobal\’ agenda saw 70 percent participation by two-thirds of the world at the GKII in KL. We succeeded because the two-thirds world partners were satisfied with their meaningful participation and contributions at GKII. To us, it was a truly local-to-global event, made in Malaysia and in the MSC.

The two-third world\’s needs drove the global agenda and we framed the requisite programs collaboratively with our sympathetic Northern network partners for a truly global and equitable partnership. We had claimed our global place and marked our Merdeka.

The second word I want to refer to is \’partnership\’. Corruption and cronyism are also partnerships, but ones that need to be discouraged. Premised on a new framework for partnerships, we at the former NITC secretariat always called for \’win-win-win (3W) partnerships\’. Thereby, the third \’win\’ of public interest is always protected and preserved under this model.

What does this really mean? You scratch my back, I scratch your back can also be a win-win partnership by sacrificing the public interest. But it may also remain a mutual dependency without sustainability. Real partnerships must move from dependency to independence and then towards interdependence. That is always growth to maturity in life of all organisms.

At the GKII, we helped reframe the global ICT4D Dialogue towards a real three-way partnership of mutual respect. As a concrete result of the GKII, today, the Global Knowledge Partnership secretariat was located in Malaysia and led by an outstanding Malaysian CEO (an ex-Mimos-ian at that). We believed in \’lobalisation\’, based on sincere partnerships of mutual respect and interpersonal self-regard based on the 3W model. The world and all our network partners have also recognised this success by continuing the GKP headquarters in Malaysia.

Repackage experience

The third word is the k-word or \’knowledge\’. Knowledge, is more than just information or \’head-knowledge\’. It is applied know-how which helps us solve real problems in the real world, or what I would call \’head and heart-knowledge\’. Appropriate application of head and heart knowledge for now and with eternity in mind is wisdom.

In a world torn asunder by misinformation and disinformation, my question to all is: how can we all become true partners who value knowledge and wisdom enough to apply it in new and unique ways to resolve some of the global problems we face, and especially so in and for the developing world? Like Razali, I believe that the Malaysian development experience of the last 40 years has something unique to offer, but needs to be packaged in new ways.

Let me then try to apply all of this to Malaysia first, before we sell our wares overseas. Today, in our nation we still have a serious enough problem with what we call the digital \’value\’ divide. How can we use our global knowledge partnerships model to address problems and root causes of the Malaysian value divide?

Do we have the know-how, the information, the knowledge and wisdom to really address this problem? If we do, can we, the ICT-savvy Malaysians Incorporated of the MSC competently produce a truly smart local solution? Can we do this competently, competitively, transparently and openly without any vested personal interests? If we can, maybe then we can seek to export it to the rest of the developing world, as a solution to the digital divide born and bred in the MSC. Then, we too can go global with smart local solutions and maybe become sustainable. Otherwise, it only all talk and no action.

Finally, as GKP-type networkers, we believe that Malaysia is ready for the ICT4D world, and especially from the lessons learned from our failed MSC experiments. In order to set the ball rolling, some of us former colleagues from Mimos Bhd have formed a company we call \’Knowledge Summit\’ to take the Malaysian ICT4D experience global.

We want to help frame, name and claim Global Knowledge Malaysia (or GK Malaysia) as the Malaysian network partner of the GKP-world. I sincerely hope as many of the MSC-type network partners will join us in this global @venture.