MR KIRK IN S.E. ASIA-III MATURITY OF NEW LEADERS TEMPERED IN ADVERSITY

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 12

MR KIRK IN S.E. ASIA-III MATURITY OF NEW LEADERS TEMPERED IN ADVERSITY

IBs

C.R. MBNTIPLAY,

Our Parliamentary Reporter)

The general blanket criticisms of governments and men in public life in South-East Asian countries are quite unfair, according to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk). One of his most rewarding experiences during his recent tour of the area was in meeting the men who were coming to the top jn these emerging nations. _He found talented and dedicated leaders in all these countries, even in Laos, and admits to having been reassured by the experience.

“You meet a number of people associated with Government—and I found this in ever so many places in Asia—of really first-class quality,” he told me. "Emerging in the ranks of Ministers you find people as dedicated as any you'll find anywhere in the world.” Mr Kirk visited Vientiane and other areas of Laos, and described that part of his trip as “a journey Into unreality," but added: “I had the feeling (and Laos is no exception) that it will move towards the day that these people emerge. While we are inclined to be preoccupied and concerned, and even condemn the crisis you know there’s no denying that each crisis has been a forge in which the country has tempered its maturity.”’ Effect Of Crises

Mr Kirk added that the crisis of the Malaysian emergency was a major factor in the dedication of that country to Parliamentary democracy. The crisis in Cambodia had been a major factor in creating national unity. “The crisis in Vietnam has seen some reforms attempted that it would have been

impossible to conceive even ten years ago,” Mr Kirk said. “For instance, the Land to the Tiller Bill (passed on March 26) is a use and hold bill.

“The landlord is completely eliminated at one stroke. He may not hold any land now unless he works it himself—and that is limited to about 30 acres. * “The tenant has been given the land he formerly rented, and no-one is permitted to rent farmland again. This is a fundamental reform—a land development programme that puts 800,000 farmers on the land, 5,600,000 counting the families. Here is the fruit of a crisis. “In Laos the crisis hasn't resolved into any form yet, but the pressures are building. And so, as bad as the crisis is for the nation which passes through it, the fact remains that in that crisis things are done that may well have been politically impossible in easier times.” Continent In Revolt

Mr Kirk sees the whole of Asia as being in the throes of a major industrial revolution. People are being driven out of the country by hunger in some cases, by popu-

lation pressure in others, and by the lure of the city—or by insurgency. “In the last 20 years, more people have gone to live in the larger cities and towns of Asia than went in the whole of the previous course of human history. It is becoming urbanised, and now it has to become industrialised. In two decades Asia has been trying to compress industrial and economic advancement to combat the industrial revolution. It took the United Kingdom more than two centuries.

“This is the reality of Asia. It is inevitable that in these circumstances tremendous crises will exist, and tremendous pressures. In the ultimate, it seems to me that those who think that peace will be established in IndoChina and insurgency ended everywhere by the stroke of a pen or the word of a negotiator are just not being realistic.” Mr Kirk believes that the war in Vietnam can end this way—but that the skirmishing. the harassment, and the guerrilla activities will not The industrial revolution, with all its divisive forces, its political responses, and its economic, social and political divisions, is a process of development.

“The political groups who win will be those who are able to harness the forces of industrial revolution to economic advancement and political recognition and reform,” Mr Kirk told me. “If they are the representatives of democracy, then. Asia will

become stable—but this will not be quick. “In the long term, this is the essence of the struggle. We impatient Westerners will have to recognise that there is a timelessness about Asia. Though they are pressing for advancement, it is a fact that once the goals are set, time is not necessarily a factor in achieving it” Mr Kirk believes that the Cambodian situation has left the Russians “not agreeing to what has been proposed, but not slamming the door on it either.” To him this suggests that the Russians may have been perfectly happy to have gone along with the Asian Front Conference in Indonesia, but were having some difficulty in persuading the North Vietnamese and Communist Chinese to follow suit.

“It is a matter of living with relatives,” he said. “But inside North Vietnam there is some division. There is one group that adheres to the Chinese view that the war goes on; and there is another section, perhaps a little larger, that is prepared to settle for negotiation. “I would not be surprised if de-escalation, slow but perceptible, continues. In South Vietnam this means that, rather than the war coming to an end, it will ‘grizzle away’ and slowly decline. For the South Vietnamese part, in health, agriculture and labour, important work is being done which is aimed at associating political loyalty with economic advancement

“Now things are being done in Vietnam which, if they had been done by the French 40 years ago, might have obviated the war. But anyone who thinks that the situation in Indo-China can be changed overnight by one man's word [just is not in touch with reality."

Speaking generally about the Vietnam, Mr Kirk said he believes there will be an improvement, but doubts whether all the forces engaged are sufficiently disciplined to bring this about. He thinks that the extension of law and order will continue.

“What we may well see in that area in the future is a situation in which the major areas of population, and the countryside surrounding, are firmly within the influence of constitutional government and law and order, and the rather more remote areas providing an open exchange between Government and guerrilla activity.”

There would be no reason why, in such circumstances. New Zealand teams could not go in and work on training, educational and other developmental assis- ; tance work, which would be vitally necessary.