Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Strengthening our future Speech by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the launch of the Financial Sector Blueprint at Sasana Kijang “Strengthening Our Future”, Kuala Lumpur, 21 December 2011. *  *  *  It is my great honour to welcome you to Sasana Kijang for the launch of Bank Negara Malaysia’s Financial Sector Blueprint. On behalf of Bank Negara Malaysia and the financial services industry, Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Sri, I wish to express our appreciation to you for your presence here this afternoon to launch the Financial Sector Blueprint. This Blueprint marks a new phase in the development of the financial system. It focuses on new areas that will strengthen the competitiveness and efficiency of the financial sector and its potential role in facilitating our ongoing economic transformation and greater regional economic and financial integration and thus to enhance Malaysia’s long term economic growth potential. The Blueprint themed “Strengthening Our Future” builds on and reinforces the solid foundations that has been achieved in this decade. Malaysia has benefited from a well developed, more competitive and well regulated financial system. The financial system emerged from the global financial crisis strong and resilient, and has continued to support our domestic economy even during these most challenging of times. The recommendations in the Blueprint has taken into account the expected changes in the international and domestic environment and its consequent demands on the financial system in this next decade.
The Athenian boule was not democratic embroidery, like a modern-day focus group. It had real power. It decided which proposals were taken to the public assembly and which were lawful. Brett Hennig calls it the “nerve centre of power” in ancient Athens. 40  The boule had wide public acceptance and attendance. Participation in public life, through the boule or public assembly, was an accepted part of Athenians’ civic responsibilities. Those not taking part were termed idiotes, from which the modern word idiot derives. The infrastructure was far from perfect; the boule excluded women, slaves and non-citizens. But it was notable in seeking to strike a balance between the two features subsequent research has shown to be crucial for effective, representative decision-making in complex environments: diversity and deliberation. 41  Indeed, for that reason some have called the Athenian model of decision-making a deliberative democracy. Diversity of decision-making was achieved by calling on a rotating, randomly-selected pool of non-expert citizens, augmented by experts in a limited number of positions. Deliberation in decision-making was achieved by restricting the number of representatives, having them convene and discuss regularly and agree on a set of proposals. The Council of Five Hundred sits slap bang in the middle of the optimal range of people suggested by Wagner and Vinaimont. The Greek Empire of course did not last. Nor did its model of deliberative democracy for decision-making. In the period since, two alternative models of representative decision-making have risen to prominence.