Table of contents

I. Introduction
 Economic Globalization
 Cultural/Social Globalization
 Political Globalization
II. Globalization: Impact and Challenges on developing nations
III. Malaysia:
 Approach to globalization
 Impact of Globalization
 Making Globalization work
 Challenges to Globalization
IV. South Africa:
 Approach to Globalization
 Impact of Globalization
 Making Globalization work
 Challenges to Globalization
V. Beyond Globalization
VI. Bringing it all together : Malaysia, South Africa
VII. References

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 INTRODUCTION

In a world where country borders exist only as a physical attribute, access to information
virtually right at the click of button and communication between people in different parts of the
world being as easy as a simple phone call, the growth and spread of Globalization has become
an epidemic. From developing nations to developed nations, Globalization has had an impact.
The phenomenon comprises different dimensions and affects several areas of life particularly
economic, cultural and political. Defining Globalization has been more of a challenge depending
on who you ask and the criteria used. Some define it with an economic perspective across
country borders. This involves an export mindset, use of outsourcing/subcontracting between
nations and the usual growth of the informal sector. Political dimensions involve increased
acceptance of pluralistic systems, multiparty democracy, free elections and surprisingly the call
for human rights (Ghai 1987). It is safe to safe that political globalization has brought the
dissemination of democratic norms and pluralistic parties to nation states. Culturally defining
globalization involves development of the globe into a more homogeneous market with change
‘in lifestyles, buying patterns and social norms information is exchanged across borders. An
interesting phenomenon attributed to cultural globalization is the growth of English as a global
language. Especially in developing nations, where English was more for the educated and elite
class, it is now seen as a way of life. Whatever the case, it is harmoniously agreed that
Globalization remains an inexact term for the strong, and perhaps irreversible, changes in the
economy, labor force, technologies, communication, cultural patterns and political alliances that
is imposing on every nation. A useful definition would be a set of processes by which the world
is rapidly being integrated into one economic space via increased international trade, the
internationalization of production and financial markets, and the internationalization of a
commodity culture promoted by an increasingly networked global telecommunications system
(Gibson-Graham, 1996 p121). Setting aside controversies of period and place, social scientists
blame or credit globalization for a panoply of social ills and goods, from economic inequality to
economic growth, from political domination to democratization, from the decline of national
sovereignty to the renaissance of the state, from social engagement to xenophobia, and from
cultural homogenization to ethnic conflict. Meanwhile, others see a feeble globalization. Here,
this entry reviews some of the key arguments for what globalization does.

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 ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION

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  CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION

The role that globalization has played on cultures cannot be contested and can predominantly
be seen in developing nations. What is most obvious is a trend toward homogeneity of values
and norms. What contributes to this trend is the ease of access to information through the
internet but also mass media (TV, Social Media, Radio). Through these channels English has
developed to being a global language and a lifestyle termed as “American way of life”. As Ruth
Hill Useem terms it as a third culture kid (tck), the youth today have more in common with their
counterparts on the other side of the globe than with their parents who they live with. This is an
exclusive example of how cultural roles illustrated in media forces, alter traditional roles and
experiences in people. According to cvetkovich and Kellber 1997 old traditional ways of seeing
and being in the world are being challenged and new ways of life are being constructed out of the
“multifarious and sometimes conflicting configurations of traditional, local, national and now
global forces of the present time. Some countries like Malaysia see this as oppressive and are
against it, others like South Africa embraced the new ideas (discussed further in the paper).
Either way, globalization fosters a greater synchronization of demand as well as a greater
similiarity in taste and preferences within national markets. Realistically speaking, this
homogeneity is necessary to ensure a more standardized and thus easier to produce supply of
products and services such as leisure and foreign travel. It is creating forces that that will divide
people economomically but it might all generate forces with the potential to offer new bases for
solidarity (kenway, 1997).

A very interesting approach is acquisition of knowledge and higher learning as a result of

globalization. The way knowledge was acquired a decade ago was definitely slower than it is
today; a shift is definitely evident today in regard to access of information and the speed at which
this information is available. Globalization increases interaction and this in turn provides greater

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opportunities for learning. Globalization and its sophisticated use of technology implies a
prominent role for postsecondary education. The growth of the knowledge –based economy has
led not only to competition among employers worldwide for the best brains but also among
institutions that train the best brains. The traditional cross-border flow in higher education has
been for students to migrate from one country to another to advance their studies. Malaysia and
South Africa being two of the major players in the field. Several economic and social factors
encourage international student mobility and competition between countries for foreign students.
With such competition comes adopting to international curriculum to gain competitive advantage
(discussed further in the paper).

 POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION

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 MALAYSIA

Malaysia is no doubt one of the countries that hasn’t been shy when it comes publicly speaking
up against globalization. In a speech by the Prime Minister Dr Mohamed Mahathir he clearly
states that although Globalization may bring benefits to the country but the idea of the ideology
destroying the country should not be forgotten. He does however acknowledge the benefits that
have risen as a direct result of FDI and foreign trade but the policies that are envocked by
developed countries to developing countries in efforts to change nations may outweigh the
benefits and shift norms in these nations. Malaysia has embraced, redefined and rejected
globalization. The proof in this lays in the approaches and challenges faced by the country in
terms of cultural, political and economical aspects of globalization. In Malaysia, globalization
can explained in as the widespread use of internet, increased investment in foreign institutions of
higher education, the closer connection of muslims to mecca, increased economic expansion,
foreign immigration among many other things.

Economic Approach of globalization in Malaysia

Economic globalization generates opportunities for developed and developing countries to gain
access to foreign markets beyond their own nation’s borders. By 1990s, developing countries
including Malaysia have been liberalizing their trade policies. In many cases, financial liberalization has
been much more rapid. Privatization has also served to deepen integration of developing countries into
the global production and financial systems by encouraging capital inflows and bringing foreign ownership
of state-owned enterprises. The state implemented a series of liberalizing measures in the
country’s economy, including the privation of electricity and telephone companies. The
government also introduced sweeping changes in tax policy and reduced direct taxes. The aim
was to make Malaysia more attractive to foreign capital. In addition to this tariffs were reduced

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and a wider tax incentive for foreign investors. These changes in policy coincided with the
adoption of new, grander goals in economic development. However it is safe to note that the
government did not utilize strictly market friendly policies for developing the economy. Instead
the government chose “open policies” in certain sectors while protecting others for the sake of
national interest. In order to achieve growth, a concerted effort was made to develop the
manufacturing sector with open policies such as export and FDI promotion. This goal led to
restrictions on foreign equity ownerships in all sectors. This ultimately led to a gradual and
selective approach towards opening the economy. It would be more accurate to describe the
country’s approach as one of a selective integration.within the world economy.

With record levels of economic expansion, a labor shortage occurred in Maaysia. To

combat this the government had to come up with initiative encourage immigration into the
country particularly from neighbourly muslim countries. Immigration controls were relaxed at
borders to attract workers in industrys that the Malaysia themselves weren’t willing to work in.
These workers were mostly employed in low-paying jobs in construction and agriculture playing
a crucial role in expansion of the country. In efforts to maintain competitiveness for further
economic development and maintain its attractiveness as a magnet for foreign investment the
government liberalized the regulations governing portfolio capital and projected itself as a
financial centre.

Economic globalization has some significant impacts on the spatial economic policy of
the country. In Malaysia, development policies have undergone several phases of change. During
the past two decades after independence (1957), the government had given more emphasis on
developing the under developed regions. Rural development programme were carried out by
opening up new land for agricultural expansion and rural urbanisastion. Rural industrialization
programmes were also carried out in the less developed areas as a strategy to correct rural-urban
and regional as well as ethnic socioeconomic imbalances. These policies were spelt out in the
country’s past development policies. However, beginning 1980s the presence of such powerful
globalizing forces had liberalized the government policie

Political Approach of globalization in Malaysia

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 Malaysia has traditionally been open to international capital and allied with the west and in
1980, the government though to intensify this integration even further into the international
environment. Initially politically. Dr Mohamed Mahathir opened up the political system by
encouraging debate among groups, in forums such as budget dialogues and meetings with
Islamic groups in the country. Mahathir set in place conditions that would contribute to the rise
of a domestic NGO community and rising Islamic fundamentalism within the country. These
changes at home concided with increased environment in international organizations including
the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Politically, Malaysia became
more democratic and internationally prominent.

The Impact of this

Capital flows, labour migrations, use of information technology

Challenges

CULTURAL APPROACH TO GLOBALIZATION

Globalization as a key feature of our contemporary social world doesn’t just affect
economic and political aspects of our lives but culturally as well. The cultural aspect of
globalization is said to be both a process of change and social transformation emanating from the
spread of global culture as well as a direct consequence of nation-state embracing economic
globalization. In Malaysia the phenomena has created new social classes, lifestyles and globally
connected ICT-driven modern sub-cultures. An interesting observation in Malaysia would be the
acceptance of English as a new way of communication and the increasing investment of higher
education institutions in the country. One aspect to be noted of cultural globalization is the
widespread of religious ideas, religious inspired ideologies derived from several faith traditions,
in Malaysia most importantly Islamic globalization.

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 One of the most important developments of recent years in that governments have come
to realize the key contribution of higher education in global national positioning, creation of
national wealth and attracting significant foreign exchange, Malaysia not being far behind.
Globalization has impacted the development of education in Malaysia in 2 ways. Because
globalization intensified the economic competition among nations it has led Malaysia to
recognize the urgent need to transform itself from a production to a knowledge based economy.
This recognition has directed the state to transform the economy from a production to a
knowledge based. This has forced the state to expand the education system into a private higher
education one to order to meet the skilss demanded by the golabl economy. Secondly the
country’s effort to upgrade its human resources was assisted by the fact that globalization had
also given rise to privatisn of higher education in the country. A dramatic change in the private
higher education in Malaysia has been to adopt the higher education of foreign developed
nations. By this adaptation many foreign campuses have been set up to cater for a vast majority
of local students and international students. Malaysia is thus seen as an educational hurb by
foreign partners who are keen to work closely with private education institutions for a win-win
situation. What led to this increasing investment of higher education on the part of the
government was the increasing number of Malaysians studying abroad, this cost the country
millions of dollars. The solution was to transform the private sector thus reducing currency
outflow and eventually the country turning into a net exporter of tertiary education. The
government passed the Private Higher Educational Institution (PHEI) Act with the goal of
encouraging investment in tertiary education. The reform worked, by the end of 1999 the
proportion of young Malaysians between 17 and 23 had increased to an outstanding 22% in
enrollment in higher education. Another important factor that led to increased expenditure in
this sector was the increased need to develop a knowledge based economy to compete globally.
This required increased allocation of development allocation and expenditure on the education
sector as well.

The presence of a large number of foreign programs in Malaysia has brought trade
benefits but most importantly the countrys goal of becoming a major exporter of tertiary
education is slowly becoming a reality. Higher education in Malaysia is used as a system to

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build national unity, alleviate citizens from proverty through opportunities that may appear as a
result of new knowledge and as a bridge between social gaps. This nationhood agenda is of
paramount importance to the policymakers in light of the ethnic diversity of the country. Bearing
this in mind, the massification of higher education, the increasing cost burden, and the global
trends in restructuring higher education, the government response can be seen in various policy
initiatives that paved the way for the liberalization and privatization of the higher education
sector

Higher education systems have become sites for competition and contestations of various
kinds in various societies. The competition and contestation for access and equality has become
inevitable as there are higher levels of demand for fewer places in higher education and
employment and therefore calls for the attention of policy makers and sociologists to examine
the impacts of globalization on strategies adopted to include the hitherto historically excluded
social, ethnic and racial groups on the one hand and to achieve the requirements of the emerging
labor market, industry and the global system of higher education on the mother.

Globalization has forced Malaysia to adopt policies that will eventually achieve
excellence and reliability in the education system. On another hand, this globalization in terms
of education is seen to create pressure to produce decontextualized and human capital-oriented
knowledge. To meet the demands of the new world order, the highly globalized sectors of the
economies require that students in schools lean certain basics but also learn strategies to become
creative and innovative. To meet these demands, Malaysia is seen to be developing from a
harbor of production based economy to one that is knowledge based

Globalization pressures have forced governments to enforce policies to ensure these

institutions become more competitive in the global market. The universities and university
colleges ac of shows the way for corporatization of public institutionz and through this process
the institutions are expected to generate more of their operating sources from other soruces apart
from the government. The drive to make Malaysian institutions world class also sees the
growing emphasis on research and greater accountability of research productivity. This requires
greater liberalization of public higher education from the bureaucratic shackles of the central
administration, to allow for greater dynamism at institutional level to response to changes
quickly.

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 Despite Malaysia’s rapid and extensive integration into the world economy after the
1970’s so far pressures of economic globalization have not severely constrained the governments
freedom to establish and pursue preferred objectives. None the less, it has had considerable
influence on many apects of policy. Globalization has with no doubt improved standards in the
country with the most obvious one being rapid growth as a direct result of FDI.

Globalization and language reform is often presented as a set of practices and

relationships to which educators must adapt in order to compete or maintain relevance‘ in
contemporary society. English is claimed to be the most efficient and sensible language of trade
and communication as the world's political economy becomes truly global in its reach. The
language's rise in this regard and political transformations that discipline societies to adhere to a
utilitarian and commercial regime of global proportions. English is the discipliing language of
the transnational movement of capital, normalizing in its wake the universality of economistic
values. Globalization thus is grounded in an ideology that transforms the variety of cultural
identities in the world after its own image (Cox, 1996: 23). Proponents of English as the
language of globalization include political, business and academic leaders in both the
industrialized and industrializing countries. All of them speak the same language, its morphology
and syntax is English, but its norms and substance denote transnational capital. Nevertheless,
globalizers actively promote English as a purely functional and even neutral language that is
synonymous with economic growth, technological advancement, and modernity as a whole.
Reflecting the influence of this idea, Malaysia's political leadership actively promotes English,
quite innocent, it appears, of the deeper implications of the language's expansion in the country.
The Minister of Education thus notes with little reflection: 'It is important for Malaysians to have
a good command of English, particularly if we want to be an important global player' (quoted in
Sprague, 1999).

INTRODUCTION

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