We in Malaysia too see the need for the injection of greater assistance to the South Pacific island countries so as to enable them to build up their national resilience and independence.
The Commonwealth is now on test. If the Commonwealth countries in our region cannot actualise economic and functional cooperation, the prestige of the Commonwealth itself will go down.
Some industrially developed nations really feel free to scour and devour the developing nations by their exploitative methods and practices.
They seem incapable of realizing that such libertine activities would only lead to the destruction of the free enterprise system itself.
Our advice to these countries should be that they talk less of their generosity to provide assistance to the poor nations and instead undertake a thorough soul-searching examination.