AS the scale of human tragedy lifts over the self-imposed isolation in Myanmar, engineer Datuk Lee Yee Cheong cannot help but reflect over what might have been for him - and for Malaysia - were it not for the Colombo Plan.

Datuk Lee Yee Cheong is a former Colombo Plan scholar.

Not just in the loss to life and property, but also in the lack of capacity of government and people to cope in a closed society - and in the face of such calamity, continuing to shut out the world.

The Australian government has committed an immediate A$3 million (RM9 million) in humanitarian assistance, while assessing further needs, and international aid agencies in Australia have mobilised people, resources and funds.

Australians are nonplussed that the ruling junta should turn away critical international aid, even if aid representatives such as World Vision chief Tim Costello said he understood Myanmar's fears that foreigners might enter Myanmar with "a political axe to grind".

Costello is in Yangon, and was holding talks over the week with government officials to try and convince them to open the door to international aid. The tragic circumstances have added urgency to Lee's cause from Kuala Lumpur.
The retired engineer turned development advocate has long promoted the idea of partnerships to broaden the experience of country expertise, and to build confidence on motives.

Having studied in Australia on scholarship under the Colombo Plan, Lee sees much that Australia can do in partnership with a former beneficiary country such as Malaysia.

In the Myanmar context, a particular attribute of note is that emerging nations such as Malaysia do not carry the stigma of colonialism associated with countries of the West, to which Australia is linked.

Thus far, Lee had been championing his cause particularly with Africa, having been co-chairman of the Science, Technology and Innovation task force of the United Nations Millennium Project.

In that campaign, the former president of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations has drawn on his "old boys" network from his days at the University of Adelaide in the mid-1950s and as a founding director of the Malaysia-Australia Foundation in Kuala Lumpur.

Lee sent a proposal to the office of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Natural disasters such as cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia may well bring Lee's focus in closer alignment with Canberra, which sees its principal priorities in development terms in its own region.

In Australian eyes, Asia is home to two-thirds of the world's poor, for all the global attention on Africa, which Australia sees as being more Europe's responsibility.

As a universal concept - and for Australia, more within the Asia-Pacific region - the Colombo Plan remains alive and well. It inspired a proposal for Africa brought to the Australia 2020 Summit of Ideas in Canberra on April 19-20.

But as Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia Penny Williams tells the New Sunday Times, a "son or grandson" of the Colombo Plan lives within the Australian Scholarships scheme (http://tinyurl.com/64dgp8) established in 2006.

Within this scheme is a programme open to Malaysians (http://tinyurl.com/57o73q), and to Australians to study in Malaysia.

A predecessor of Williams in the early 1990s, John Dauth, had been instrumental in cultivating the goodwill among Colombo Plan alumni in Malaysia. In association with Lee, he encouraged the establishment of the Malaysia-Australia Foundation, in building on their Colombo Plan links.

Dauth is now in Wellington, as High Commissioner to New Zealand, from where he tells the New Sunday Times: "There is no question that the Colombo Plan was itself a great success and offers many pointers as we carry suggestions like the one that arose at the 2020 Summit forward."

Central to the development strategy that remains today is education, on which to build a foundation of human capital in civic administration, rule of law, and professional and managerial skills.

The strategy is not inconsistent with the benefits of trade, as Tim Harcourt, chief economist at the Australian Trade Commission, con tends, citing an international study (http://tinyurl.com/5np2a7).

The benefits are mutual, as Harcourt tells of his personal experience with Malaysian and Singaporean mates at the University of Adelaide, one generation after Lee.

Much of the benefits echo the Colombo Plan of old. As Williams puts it: "The merits include the deepening of Australia's global engagement in education and research... the enhancement of language skills..."

On the foreign policy front, it seems clear to Dauth that the government intends to have an active foreign policy, "with a particular focus on our region... but they will also have a strong global perspective and be more vigorous multilaterally".

"Programmes like the Colombo Plan, the great success of which still reverberates for us, are an obvious inspiration for such a policy approach," he says.

Lee would be encouraged by the Australian development policy initiatives. Carried out in partnership with former beneficiary countries of the Colombo Plan now in a position to make a contribution, those initiatives could reach out to more third countries.

"Australia has a solid track record in 'prospering thy neighbours'," says Lee. He cites current programmes such as the Virtual Colombo Plan and the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (Ayad).

Malaysia has its Malaysian Technical Co-operation Programme under the Economic Planning Unit, focused much on Africa. Among countries such as Myanmar, Malaysia could open doors closed to the West.

A partnership between Australia and Malaysia could enhance mutual benefits in global engagement and bilateral relationships.