In Memoriam – Martin Khor (1951-2020)
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IN MEMORIAM – MARTIN KHOR (1951-2020) LEADER. THINKER. ACTIVIST. INSPIRATION. MENTOR. FRIEND. FATHER. GRANDFATHER. HUSBAND. BROTHER. SON. It is with the deepest sorrow that we share the news that Martin Khor (1951-2020), TWN's Chairman and former Director, passed away peacefully in the early hours of 1 April 2020 in his home in Penang, Malaysia. He had lived with cancer since 2015 but worked even harder as the inspiring mentor, strategic and action-oriented thinker, indefatigable advocate and wonderful husband, father and grandfather. We cannot even begin to reach out to all of Martin’s friends and supporters who over decades, young and old, have marched with him to reject injustice and inequity among peoples especially of the South, and to defend nature again and again. Let us all continue on the journey that Martin helped to chart. If you wish to remember Martin you are most welcome to send a message to [email protected] The TWN Family 1 Contents Up close & personal with Martin Khor ................................................................................................... 3 I. From the Third World Network family (past and present) ............................................................. 5 II. From Governments and International Organizations ................................................................... 10 A. General Messages ..................................................................................................................... 10 B. Macroeconomics, Trade, Investment, Finance Officials ........................................................... 22 C. Climate, Biodiversity, Environment, Agriculture Officials ......................................................... 26 1. LMDC in UNFCCC ................................................................................................................... 26 2. Other Officials ....................................................................................................................... 33 D. Health Officials .......................................................................................................................... 36 III. From Civil Society Organizations and Individuals ..................................................................... 36 A. General Messages ..................................................................................................................... 36 B. Climate Change, Biodiversity, Environment and Agriculture CSOs and Individuals ................. 51 C. Macroeconomics, Trade, Investment, and Finance CSOs and Individuals ............................... 62 D. Health CSOs and Individuals ..................................................................................................... 76 IV. Messages from Facebook Posts ................................................................................................ 81 V. From Malaysian WhatsApp Groups .............................................................................................. 95 VI. Twitter Messages ...................................................................................................................... 96 VII. Obituaries and Tributes Online ............................................................................................... 113 In Memoriam - https://youtu.be/Dkao841j-C8 SUNS South North Development Monitor, Issue No. 9100 Special Tribute Issue in honour of Martin Khor: http://www.sunsonline.org/contents.php?num=9100 2 Up close & personal with Martin Khor Saturday, 30 Jan 2010 12:00 AM MYT By SOO EWE JIN ([email protected]) The Star Online - https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2010/01/30/up-close--personal-with-martin- khor THERE is a certain small-town charm about Martin Khor CAP found that national work was not enough because that has stuck with him all these years. He is most many of the problems had their source in international comfortable in his trademark batik shirt although he has systems, and thus it established the Third World to be properly suited up these days as he interacts with Network (TWN) in November 1984 connecting NGOs in policy-makers and world leaders on the global stage. other developing countries. And home is still where the heart is. Khor initially worked at both CAP and TWN before “I am based in Geneva but due to my job, which is to becoming full time director at the latter. The understand and be involved in global issues, I travel a international secretariat is based in Penang but TWN lot, to many parts of the world. Fortunately I am able to also has regional offices worldwide, including one in come back to Penang and Malaysia at least twice a year. Geneva. It is very important for me to touch base with home and my home country,” he says. TWN’s mission is to connect the concerns of local communities and national groups in developing After all, it was in Penang that Khor’s formative career countries to the international arena and institutions as a consumer advocate and an intellectual icon for the such as the United Nations, the World Trade developing world took shape. Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which have such influence over national After graduating from Cambridge where his peers policies and the lives of people. included Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, and a three-year stint teaching economics at Universiti Sains Khor travelled extensively on this job but he still found Malaysia, Khor took up the position of research director time to write a regular column for The Star. His first at the Consumers Association of Penang. column was entitled Dollars and Sense in 1978 which focused more on local issues. The next column was It was in this organisation that he developed a keen Earth Trends (1988) where issues of the environment interest in consumer and environmental issues. Apart took prominence and his current column is Global from his research work, he edited the Utusan Konsumer, Trends (2003) which appears every Monday. which became a major alternative media that fearlessly championed the rights of consumers. Khor’s career took a paradigm shift in March 2009 when he was appointed executive director of the South Khor pays tribute to CAP president S.M. Idris, whom he Centre, an inter-governmental organisation whose says was able to connect the problems facing ordinary members are 51 governments from developing people in their daily lives to their environment and the countries. market place, and who developed the art of bringing these problems to the attention of the Government for The centre was set up after the South Commission it to solve. chaired by former Tanzanian President, Julius Nyrere, released its report on Challenges to the South in 1990. “From identifying thousands of individual problems, CAP was able to get the Government to establish new laws Malaysia had a big role in setting up the commission and even new institutions to protect the consumer and because the idea arose at a Kuala Lumpur conference on the environment. I worked with a very dedicated, the South, and the then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir idealistic and skilled team of staff and volunteers who Mohamad went to see Nyrere in Tanzania to request pioneered a lot of social work combined with advocacy, him to chair and set up the commission. public education and community organising,” says Khor. “While the developed countries have many As a consumer advocate, Khor’s views were sought after organisations like the OECD and the European by the media and even at the official level, like pre- Commission as well as national think-tanks that do Budget meetings, as he was known for his reasoned research for them on international issues, there are few arguments. His views represented the common people in the developing world. So the South Centre was set up but they were always backed by solid research. to fill in the void,” says Khor. It was through such initial work that Khor’s journey from With a small team of less than 10 professionals backed Penang to Geneva took shape. up by eight administrative staff, Khor is in charge of both the research and the management of the centre. 3 “We conduct research on economic issues like the “Change is a complex and difficult process. Moving from impact of the global crisis on developing countries and one state of knowledge, practice and structure to the reform of the international financial system, on another requires a combination of factors. climate change and sustainable development, on trade negotiations in the WTO as well as the free trade “Initially there has to be identification that there is a agreements, on intellectual property and its effects on problem, and what are its causes, and what are the development,” he says. alternatives. Then there is the action to make people aware of the problem and committed to act to find its “Our aim is to implement South-South cooperation, solutions. “I think the most important aspect is to find in especially in the area of policy formulation and oneself and in other people the desire to search for experience sharing, so that the developing countries can truth including about life and society, and to find out voice their views in a more united and effective way in where are the problems that people face, especially the international fora such as the WTO and the United poor and vulnerable people, and how to help them and Nations.” empower them to find solutions. Khor got his baptism of fire in his new position at the “It is important to have the spirit and conviction