Mahathir warns of globalization dangers

Mahathir: 'God helps those who help themselves'

SHANGHAI, China (CNN) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, speaking on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shanghai, has called on developing nations to fend for themselves in an age of globalization.

He said that in many poorer areas of the world there had been many losers from globalization and very few winners and it was increasingly important for smaller nations to protect themselves.

If globalization was to be sustainable, he said, there should be "many more winners and many fewer losers, and they should both be a mixture of the rich and the poor."

"The winners must not win to an obscene extent, and the losers must not lose to an equally obscene extent," he added.

"It is true that if you open the windows to let in the air, a few flies will fly in," the Malaysian leader told regional business leaders.

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"We must open the windows -- but if you open the windows and packs of bears and tigers storm in, perhaps we should open the windows on the second floor and keep on those on the ground floor closed."

His comments elicited applause, particularly from Chinese representatives in the crowd of executives.

Malaysia is one of the most nationalistic countries in APEC, and has been one of the laggards as the group seeks to reduce trade tariffs to zero by 2010 for developed APEC countries and 2020 for developing ones.

Mahathir noted the threat that the seven million richest people in the world posed to small countries, saying they have 2.7 times the cash to invest than the total value of goods and services produced by America last year.

Rich and powerful

Malaysia has stopped its currency, the ringgit, from trading freely because it blames financier George Soros for single handedly destabilizing it during the Asian financial crisis.

Mahathir noted that of the 200 largest economic entities in the world, 51 are corporations and only 49 are countries.

He said he saw very little hope that there would be a unified move toward "enlightened globalization."

"The rich and powerful are in full command," he said. "They will concede what they must to get what they want, but they will yield very little."

He called on Asia to establish a unified currency system, and to set a new path in a world he lamented viewed greed as good and selflessness and service to the common good as mental illnesses.

"God helps those that help themselves -- this was true before the days of globalization, it is true today, and it will be in the days after."

Earlier Saturday Mahathir met with US President Bush for a bilateral session Saturday morning in which he raised concerns about the mounting civilian casualty count in Afghanistan.

Mahathir, like Indonesian counterpart Megawati, has criticized the U.S. retaliation to the September 11 attacks.