JEDDAH, 25 January 2004 — Lubna Al-Olayan at the Jeddah Economic Forum: “Abandon the progress without change philosophy. Without real change, there can be no progress. If we want progress, we have no choice but to embrace change.”
Japanese cars, Japanese appliances, Japanese computers, Japanese watches, Japanese gadgets of every sort and description. The Kingdom’s markets and malls are now, and have been for years, brimming with Japanese imports. Japan is seen as a country that competes successfully with the West and yet maintains its own traditions.
Recent reports in the local papers have informed us that a group of Saudis from the Ministry of Education have gone to Japan for an in-depth look at the Japanese educational curriculum, how it is utilized and whether certain aspects of the Japanese experience might not be implemented in the Kingdom. The underlying assumption seems to be that the Kingdom would like to do something similar to what Japan has done: Compete successfully in world markets but also maintain its own distinctive traditions. I wonder, however, if those distinguished gentlemen are aware of how Japan achieved its great success. What was its origin? What does its history tell us and anyone else who wants to know the secret of its success?
As late as the middle of the 19th century, Japan was a closed society. As is the case with any closed society, it was very conservative, adhering to its own traditions and living as it had done for centuries. The Japanese were in no doubt of their superiority and looked down on anyone who was not Japanese. And yet, in the middle years of the 19th century, information had penetrated the country and it puzzled those at the top who had access to it. Certain faraway countries in the barbaric — i.e. not Japanese — mists of Europe and America were doing strange things. Bits and pieces of information confirmed that things were indeed happening in those distant lands, things related to industry, science, technology and many other fields of human endeavor. Japan was not only for the most part unaware of them but also obviously unable to utilize any advances that were made.
This was not acceptable to the Japanese government who wanted their country and its people to be part of any progress being made by anyone at all anywhere in the world. What then was to be done? They looked and thought and then sweeping decisions were made and actions were taken — all in the space of three or four years.
In the late 1860s and 1870s, groups of Japanese were sent abroad to study and learn. (Exactly like the large numbers of Saudis who went abroad in the 1960s and 1970s.) They were expected to return home with knowledge, new information, new methods and ways of doing things so that Japan could benefit from what they had learned. In other words, what they saw and learned was to be put into immediate practice. And that is what happened.
In a very conservative and traditional society, change happened. It did not happen gradually and it was not left to committees to come up with ideas to be carried out at some vague and indefinite time in an equally vague and indefinite future. Changes were mandated and implemented very quickly; in some cases, they represented almost the complete opposite of what had been done before and, with hindsight, we and the Japanese themselves can say the changes were for the good of the economy, the people and of course the country itself.
That is what happened in Japan in the late 19th century and what laid the foundations for its long-lasting success. So successful were the Japanese with the changes and reforms that in the year 1905 — less than 50 years after the beginning of change — they shocked, astounded and amazed the world. They did so by going to war with a major European power, Russia, and decisively defeating it. There was, in those days, no greater measure of success.
In a nutshell then, this is how the Japanese set themselves on the path to becoming a major economic power in the 20th century and on into the 21st.
The distinguished gentlemen from the ministry will no doubt be impressed with what they see and learn in Japan but will they be aware of how it was done? Do they realize the truth and implications of what Lubna Al-Olayan said at the recent Jeddah Economic Forum: “If we want progress, we have no choice but to embrace change.” The Japanese realized that more than a century ago and acted upon the realization. Now Saudi Arabia has a chance to do the same. Without change, there can be no progress and the basis of progress lies in education.
