Can Asians think? They've started to

My Singaporean friend, Prof Kishore Mahbubani, wrote a provoking essay in 1998, Can Asians think? I found the title rather offensive - of course we can think. But what he really meant was, "Can Asians think out of the Western intellectual box?" Most of us trained in or by the West used to think that the ideals of best practice were the wonderful theories, technologies and institutions that the West has brought to Asia.

But the global economic crisis has shocked us to the core. That the best of the West such as the iconic Wall Street firm of Goldman Sachs has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission of fraud is appalling for those who look up to them for standards of professionalism, innovation, intellectual brilliance and moral integrity. If this is what our teachers are we have to think for ourselves.

There are signs now that Asians are beginning to do so. In a new book, Nowhere to Hide: The Great Financial Crisis and Challenges for Asia, published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, authors Michael Lim Mah-Hui and Lim Chin argue that the global financial crisis should be examined from three different levels: Theory and ideology, financial industry practices, and structural imbalances in the international economy. (Michael Lim used to teach political science in the University of Malaya before becoming a banker and joining the Asian Development Bank. Lim Chin is a professor of economics at Singapore's NUS Business School.)