Recently I spent a week in Korea. It was at the invitation of LG Electronics. I was really surprised and impressed by what I saw there. Of course, I knew that Korea has made spectacular progress in the industrial field. Sophisticated Korean products are all over the Kingdom including my house. Still I was not prepared for what greeted me.
It is widely believed that industrialization is a Western concept, specifically of Europe and the United States, Japan being the only Asian exception.
While in Korea, it occurred to me that Fukuyama, famous for his “end of the history” theory, was right because the free world will end up with productive capitalism and a liberal policy through which the individual and society will move forward to prosperity and freedom.
I used the word ‘Korea’ in the title of this article without indicating which one — north or south — I am referring to, because it is well-known which of the two is prosperous. The impoverished North is now shyly emerging from totalitarianism. It is doing so out of a necessity to save itself, either by opening up to the world or submitting to its sister, South Korea, in order to escape the miseries brought about by the policies of Kim Il Sung, its “eternal” leader.
Though enemies of capitalism accuse it of many evils such as savagery, narcissism and putting individual interests first, nobody has said that capitalism suppresses feelings of nationalism. Thus, I want to reassure our Arab nationalists who have been sworn enemies of capitalism since the days of Arab-Soviet friendship that a majority of South Koreans yearn for unification with the North. This in spite of the fact that they are only too well aware that the union will cost them dearly and that some will surely lose their jobs because of cheaper labor from the North. To them, however, nothing is more important than unification of the divided Korean Peninsula.
If we compare South Korea and the Arab world, we see that the Koreans owe nobody for their industrial development. There is no godfather behind the Korean economic miracle and their streets are refreshingly free of posters and statues. In contrast, many not-so-economically-advanced Arab countries still persist in glorifying and praising former leaders. We often see them pay homage and lay flowers at the tomb of some departed leader and say for journalists to record and the public to note, “Be assured we hold the same beliefs and will continue to follow in your footsteps.” Ironically, this very anti-capitalist may be driving a German or an American car! A Korean might do the same thing but at least he would drive a Korean car and refrain from placing flowers and heaping praises at the graves of departed leaders.
Korea, which is Asian to the core, has become part of the free world and is never worried about the impact of globalization or threats from multinationals. But they remain Asian in everything — their way of life, their food and drink, their sitting on floors and removing shoes before entering houses. In addition, they have a keen interest in learning English regardless of many (especially pronunciation) difficulties. Many Arabs speak excellent or even perfect English but unfortunately. Their thought patterns remain, in all essentials, that of their immediate ancestors not the bright distant ones.
Korea occupies the twelfth place in the list of world’s economic powers. It is very close to the Group of 7 to which, after all, Russia was only admitted because of its nuclear capability rather than its economic power. In my opinion, the Koreans should also be admitted in G-7; Russia’s membership results in financial burdens to other members whereas Korea’s membership would not.
I had the opportunity to visit a number of Korean factories and plants. As a Saudi, I was struck by one thing: Korean work force powers Korea’s economy. This is the case even though there is abundant cheap labor, designers, engineers and first-line managers to be found in neighboring Asian countries. When I commented on this, a senior LG executive was quick to point out, “We have regulations discouraging the recruitment of foreign labor ... and we respect labor unions and encourage harmonious relations between a company and its employees; most import, we believe that prosperity must be shared by all.”
This accounts for the high salaries and wages and other employment benefits enjoyed by the Korean workers. It makes sense for wealthy companies or organizations to give high salaries to their employees and to make them feel that they are partners in the company’s prosperity. At the same time, prosperity generates economic benefits of its own — a financially secure worker is able to spend as well as to save and his purchasing power energizes the market and spurs production. Savings can lead to major purchases — houses or cars for example — and these purchases also pump money into the market and thus strengthen the economy.
This kind of philosophy is not alien to us as Muslims. In fact we say, “from the standpoint of religion, Muslims must support each other as the bricks of a building support each other and together make the building.” But it seems many of us are not strong advocate of this. They are simply capitalists to the core in the old fashioned way; that a business venture must make money by reducing costs or by employing unskilled and the cheapest labor. This is counterproductive. There can be no serious comparison between a factory employing skilled workers who are contented and feel themselves part of the company and one employing skilled but poorly-paid foreign workers who simply feel exploited, and don’t have long term future plans in our land.
Realizing the truth of this and acting on it has been a major factor in Korea’s economic boom. There has been an ups and down in Korean economy too. But instead of importing cheap labor, Korean firms decided to go abroad and set up their own plants in such countries as the Philippines, India and Turkey; these countries, let us note, are important markets for Korean goods. These firms went straight to the economic heart of the United States and Europe and took what they wanted — high quality, fruits of the latest research and development — and what they saw was effective and productive.
We can in truth term Korea an economic miracle. The Korean executive whom I quoted earlier said that he came from a poor family in a country where, until the 1960s, much of the population had to struggle for their daily bread.
At that time, Egypt had operas, cinemas and automobile manufacturing plants. In those days, at least some of us in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, were mesmerized by and eager to follow the Egyptian example but today, we find ourselves along with our big sister looking much farther away — to Korea, the land of the morning calm.
