The Prime Minister’s lecture on AI at the University of Tokyo drew headlines for its philosophical ambition. But according to UKM’s Dr Shahreen Madros, the deeper story is about Malaysia’s most fundamental economic challenge and whether it has the will to finally confront it.
BY TENGKU NOOR SHAMSIAH TENGKU ABDULLAH
KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s three-day official visit to Japan last week generated considerable commentary across the region. The programme covered a bilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, participation in the 31st Nikkei Forum: Future of Asia, and a special lecture at the University of Tokyo.
Yet beyond the carefully choreographed diplomacy, investment discussions and headline-grabbing speeches, a more fundamental question emerges: can Malaysia leverage partnerships with advanced economies such as Japan to build genuine technological sovereignty, or will it remain dependent on external innovation?
Dr Shahreen Madros, Adjunct Professor at UKM Graduate School of Business, offers a reading that is neither dismissive nor uncritical. The visit matters, he argues, but not necessarily for the reasons that dominated the headlines.
A MESSAGE ABOUT VALUES, NOT JUST TECHNOLOGY
Anwar’s lecture at the University of Tokyo, delivered on 9 June at Ito Hall before an audience of approximately 500 students, academics and policy practitioners, was titled “Humanity in a Human-Machine Civilisation.” It ranged across AI governance, digital sovereignty and the concentration of technological power in the hands of a few nations and corporations.
“While the topic on AI is not new and has been discussed by many over the last year or so, AI remains the most topical thing as far as technology and innovation are concerned,” Dr Shahreen observes. “The PM’s talk is therefore neither late nor outdated.”
What distinguished Anwar’s framing, Dr Shahreen argues, was its deliberate focus on moral architecture rather than technical capability.
“His emphasis was more on humanity and how technology should be made to improve us as human beings. Morality and values should be the paramount consideration in whatever changes come in the age of AI adoption.”
The warning at the heart of the lecture — that the concentration of AI power risks widening inequality rather than reducing it — is a political message as much as a philosophical one.
“The potential era where humans could be replaced by robots with artificial intelligence should not result in the concentration of wealth in the hands of a select few, but rather improve the quality of life of the many,” Dr Shahreen says, capturing the Prime Minister’s intent.
“This may sound utopian, but it is something that should be tackled in all seriousness by policy makers. That is what the talk was trying to target: future leaders and policy makers.”
“Japan can help us with more FDI but it will never turn us into a high-tech nation. Malaysia can forget its ambition of becoming an AI Nation by 2030 if we continue looking outwards while neglecting to build our own capabilities.”
SMART DIPLOMACY — WITH MULTIPLE AGENDAS
Beneath the philosophical register of the Tokyo lecture, Dr Shahreen identifies a very practical strategic logic. Malaysia’s economy is anchored by its electrical and electronics sector, and any credible AI strategy requires access to sophisticated technology partners.
“As a nation with direct interest in becoming a high-technology country, with the E&E sector as its biggest economic contributor, talking about AI in a country that has developed and owns sophisticated technology is very relevant,” he says.
Photo: IZZUDDIN ABD RADZAK/PMO.
The timing also reflects a risk-diversification imperative. Malaysia has welcomed substantial technology investment from China, the United States and South Korea. Japan adds a further and strategically important pillar to that mix.
“We cannot single-source our access to technology on any single country. Having Japan in the list helps us spread our risk.”
Japan occupies a unique position in Malaysia’s strategic calculus. Unlike the United States and China, whose technological rivalry increasingly forces countries to navigate competing spheres of influence, Japan remains a trusted economic partner with deep manufacturing expertise, longstanding investment commitments and relatively limited geopolitical baggage. This makes Tokyo an attractive partner for Malaysia as it seeks to diversify technology partnerships without becoming overly dependent on any single power.
Dr Shahreen sees this as genuinely astute statecraft.
“Sharing our thoughts and concerns about humanity’s future from the perspective of a small developing nation, while at the same time inviting high-technology investment – that is a smart move.”
The visit yielded tangible outcomes. Anwar held individual meetings with executives from IBM Japan, Mitsubishi Corporation, ENEOS Corporation, Shizen Energy, DENSO Corporation and Marubeni Corporation. A business roundtable at the Imperial Hotel brought together 29 senior Japanese corporate leaders across banking, semiconductors, renewable energy, infrastructure and petrochemicals.
A new collaboration in AI research was established between the University of Tokyo’s Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) and the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The two governments concluded a package of cooperation agreements under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework, spanning defence, healthcare, energy transition, environmental cooperation and education.
A WARNING SHOT AT THE EMERGING OLIGARCHY
Dr Shahreen situates the visit within a broader geopolitical realignment that he views with considerable concern. The open multilateral order that governed global trade for decades is fracturing, and AI is becoming its most contested frontier.
“It is clear that for the past few years, some discomforting trends are taking shape,” he says.
“The challenge between rising economic power from the east and the old hegemony of the west is creating enormous strains. The abandonment of multilateral trade and the rule of law, replaced by unilateral tariff impositions, is dividing nations.”
Even more alarming, in his assessment, is the emergence of a technology oligarchy.
“The rise of technology oligarchs who can easily influence global policies is perhaps the most concerning development of all. Economic survival now depends on how complete a value chain a country can control. A country with good access to and ownership of advanced technology has more chance of survival than those without.”
In this context, Anwar’s lecture reads differently: less as idealism and more as a calibrated warning.
“The PM’s talk can be perceived as a warning to the danger of AI being used to favour those that are already ahead. The rich become richer, and the strong become stronger.”
“After years of looking east and west for development, it should be more than clear by now that the only way to realise our aspirations is to look inside.”
THE 2030 AI NATION AMBITION: ASPIRATION OR ILLUSION?
Malaysia’s target of becoming an AI Nation by 2030 sits at the centre of the visit’s narrative. Japan will offer its support publicly and enthusiastically. But Dr Shahreen delivers a blunt corrective to any expectation that Tokyo’s goodwill will do the heavy lifting.
“Japan will openly say that they will help,” he acknowledges.
“The reality is, help will only come if it serves Japan’s interests more. Nobody will help us only to lose out in the global competition. It is fair to assume that they owe us nothing and vice versa. There is only what we have that they need, and what they have that we could benefit from.”
The deeper problem, he argues, is structural and self-inflicted. Malaysia has spent decades attracting foreign direct investment without building the domestic corporate champions that would make that FDI genuinely transformative.
“Japan lost the Second World War. They looked to the west but were focused on their internal strength. South Korea looked up to Japan but used their own associations to build global giants. China learned from everyone and built itself into a global manufacturing powerhouse.
“Malaysia started well in 1957. We looked to the west and invested greatly in our talents. We invited global MNCs for FDI. But instead of building our own companies into global champions, we continuously depended on FDI as a means of progress.”
PARTNERSHIP – BUT ON WHOSE TERMS?
This does not mean partnerships are worthless, Dr Shahreen is careful to clarify.
The Malaysia-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, elevated in December 2023 when Anwar and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida issued a joint statement at the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo, provides a real institutional foundation.
In a world fracturing into competing economic blocs, such bilateral relationships carry genuine strategic value.
“The world will be more divided in a world where major powers collide. What normally happens when empires fail is that they break into smaller colonies partnerships of sorts among nations with similar interests.”
Malaysia needs to build its domestic AI ecosystem: talent pipelines, research institutions, domestic enterprises and policy architecture that supports homegrown innovation.
“If the ecosystem is filled only with demand from us and supply from foreign entities, we will only become better at buying and borrowing technology,” he warns.
“Japan and others should be a partner to help build our own, so that we could be supplying our own needs, not to supply directly to meet our demand.”
The distinction is consequential: the difference between a nation that deploys AI and one that creates it, between a consumer of technology and a generator of it.
The Japan-Malaysia AI Platform announced in the June 10 joint statement, a mechanism primarily for Japanese and Malaysian AI companies, including startups, to collaborate on solving social challenges is at least a structural step in this direction. Whether it translates into genuine domestic capability-building remains to be seen.
THE ONE THING MALAYSIANS SHOULD WATCH
Asked for the single most important takeaway from the visit, Dr Shahreen returns to the theme of internal resolve.
“Is it a coincidence that the Prime Minister spoke about technology and AI while emphasising values in his talk in Tokyo?” he asks.
“I don’t think so. The message is that technological development without moral purpose leads to the concentration of power and the exclusion of the many. That applies globally and it applies internally too.”
For Malaysia, the challenge is to translate a speech about humanity into policies that genuinely build human capacity: in universities, in domestic enterprises and in the civil service, rather than simply outsourcing the technology agenda to whichever foreign investor offers the best headline figure.
Japanese investment in Malaysia already stands at RM107.9 billion through more than 2,800 manufacturing projects, supporting over 347,000 jobs. The relationship is deep and long-standing. But depth of relationship is not the same as depth of capability.
“After years of looking east and looking west, it should be more than clear by now that the only way for us to realise our aspirations is to look inside,” Dr Shahreen concludes.
“The visit to Japan was smart diplomacy. Whether Malaysia can convert diplomatic goodwill into domestic capability will determine whether it becomes a creator of technology or remains a consumer of it. That is the real test.”
- TNS NEWS
EXPERT PROFILE
Dr Shahreen Madros is an Adjunct Professor at UKM Graduate School of Business, specialising in macroeconomics, economic strategy and national development policy. He has advised government agencies and private sector institutions across Malaysia and the wider region.