What ails my country, Malaysia?

What ails my country, Malaysia?

A Personal Comment

By Khoo Soo Hay

Preamble

Where do I begin for those of us who were born before Independence?

For the Septuagenarians and Octogenarians, whose memories were still good, Malaya was a country ruled by the British, no doubt for their own selfish Imperialistic ends, but Malayans, indigenous and migrants were accorded a way of life, free of religious restraint, free and equal economic work opportunities and a laissez-faire entrepreneurial spirit that helps to develop the country, irrespective of race and religion. Anyone with a flair for business and prepared to work hard and use his brain could be a millionaire. There were so many real life examples among the Chinese and Indian migrants with perhaps some trading Malays.

In the history of civilizations, empires rise and fall. So it would be with the British Empire. The First World War really sapped the youth of England, with millions dying in the muddy fields of Flanders and Ypres. One such was the English Poet, Wilfred Owen, who returned to the war and was killed in 1918 at the age of 25 years. His poem, “Strange Meeting”, depicting death in the trenches, was the beginning of many to come with the Second World War later.

My father, a Khoo, of course, was born in 1906 that year in February, the British Parliament approved the principle of paying old age pensions by taxation.  Same old story, pay up first when you work by way of taxes, then you get it back by way of pensions, provided the Government ensures that the money collected are saved and available to be dispensed later as pensions. What traditionally used to be called robbing Peter to pay Paul system.

Back Pay for Municipal Workers

My father, after the end of the Japanese Occupation was the George Town Municipal Council Employees’ Union President, and he fought the Municipal Commissioners for the three and a half years of Japanese Occupation Municipal work done by the Council workers, to claim the back-pay owed to them, since Japanese banana notes were worthless, and everybody survived one way or another by dint of hard work and thrift. He was successful, and even entertained Mr Malcolm MacDonald, the British High Commissioner to an annual Union Dinner in Penang in the late 1940’s. My father was a Fabian Socialist, a great G.B. Shaw fan, a founder member of the George Town Labour Party Branch together with contemporaries like the late Mayor of George Town, C.Y. Choy and other Labour Party luminaries.

On the 12th of April 1906 in New York, American writer, Mark Twain, spoke in favour of the Russian Revolution at a dinner in honour of Maxim Gorky, the Russian writer. In those days, Americans were very supportive of the Russian revolutionaries against the Czarist regime. Forty years later, to the Americans, Russia was a Cold War adversary, no love lost then.

On 15th November 1906, the Japanese launched the biggest battleship, named the ‘Satsuma’.

This was an indication of the industrial strength and military built up of the Japanese armed forces in their attempted conquest of China and South East Asia which led to the Pacific War in the 1940’s. Yet the Western Allied nations had necessarily ignored the inferior little ‘Nips’ in the East, being preoccupied with their traditional so called arch enemy Germany. They forgot that the Japanese Navy trashed the Czarist Russian naval fleet at Port Arthur in 1904.

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When my father was six years old, the new Chinese Republic was proclaimed on 15th February 1912 with Dr Sun Yat-Sen as the new President.  As my father was born in the Straits Settlement of Penang, he was a British subject then. His school days at the Anglo Chinese

School, which was run by the Methodist Church, had its biblical influence on my father, as he was frequently quoting biblical parables. Though he never became a Christian, he stuck to his

traditional Chinese Taoist and Confucian roots all his life. One of the more familiar biblical phrases, I remember him saying, was, ‘and it shall come to pass’. That in the end must

encompass life and death, and everyone else on earth, except that a lot died unnecessarily due to violence and wars in the past century and are continuing to do so in the present one.

Penang Free School & College

 I should imagine canteen life would have been the same as when I was in the Penang Free School in the early 1950’s when there was no separation of space for religious reasons. Any

student of any religious faith could mingle, seat and eat next to each other, not to share the meal,  but to be able to converse with each other. Why must the powers that be, create such an imposition in the life of its faithful, causing such discomfort to themselves, giving the impression of their superior faith, in comparison to the others belonging to the same original Prophet, Abraham? 

The word ‘Free’ in Penang Free School refers to a school, which admits students professing any religion, irrespective of race. Hence, there was never any opening prayer before classes begun, nor at the assembly of the whole school every Monday morning in the School Hall.

Religion was to each your own self, controlled by your own parents from home. And this was the same when at the University of Malaya in Singapore then. Religion was not an issue. In campus there were religious student societies, as with other academic student societies, where students were considered as adults, to be able to think for themselves.

I recall a student from a Negri Sembilan royal family who was a member of a Christian Student Movement, actively involved in its activities, I suppose trying to learn more about Christianity from the one he was born into. Of course he was sent to Coventry by his Muslim student ummah.

Admission to the University, there was only one then in the early 1950’s, was based on meritocracy. You would need to pass the University Matriculation Examination or get through the Senior Cambridge University High School Certificate “A” levels, before you can get admitted, irrespective of race. My Malay college mates did qualify to be admitted as much as I did, without any handicap, and they did very well upon graduation. I recall the names of Elyas Omar and Hanif Omar who were in civil service, and Musa Hitam in politics later.

Early Working Life

The time in the early 1960’s when I started working in the private sector, it was still a case of the better qualified man for the job. In the Civil Service sector, after Malayanization, more openings were reserved to provide places for bumiputras, in place of the departing Europeans. Twenty years or so later, there were few non Malays in the top civil service, and not only in the Army but in our Navy, the last non Malay was Rear Admiral Thanabalasingam who went on early retirement. The same applied to our Foreign Service, where our young diplomats shied away from socializing at official cocktail functions, not because their religion forbade them to participate in drinking, but that their command of English would not take them very far in

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communicating with foreigners. One would have thought that it is at such functions that you mingle and meet and get to know the other diplomatic officials from whom you could pick up information and intelligence.  We were going backwards. We might as close our embassies,

high commissions and consulates overseas and save some money, and do away with the Minister of Foreign or External Affairs and his ministry.

Learning Curve in Work & Creative Selling.

From academic studies in Economics and English Literature and the cocoon of college life to the real life of the public economic world of business is like living on the moon and living on this tumultuous earth. It was a good learning curve when thrown into the daily life of the meaning of earning a living, amidst trying to sell a product or service that another human may require. In the

modern context of trade, you are required to create a demand among consumers for your product or service, even though your consumer may not have any need for either. That is what we call creative selling, or creating a consumer demand, through message advertising. It does not matter whether the consumer has the ability to buy or a need for it. It is your creative skill,  

to convince him that he must find the financial means to acquire the product by hook or by crook. It is like selling life insurance. You have to create the impression that death faces you every hour, every day, and remind your potential client that if you are not prepared for it, your wife and family members may suffer after you. You have to sell ‘fear’ to make financial provision for them.  It is part of the capitalist laissez-faire system.

Statutory & Government Departments Experience

One of my first working experiences was to accompany my company’s import clerk to the Customs Dept to lodge our application documents for the Customs Department office to approve them. The first thing our clerk did was to hand over one Ringgit (so called ‘kopi duit’ or coffee money, to the office-boy or what we call him, “tamby” in those days, now he is known as an ‘office assistant’.) who will then as a favour put our application file on top of the piles of others’ files, so that it will receive immediate attention when passed to the Customs officer in charge of approval. The file on the top of the pile gets taken out first. Imagine hundreds of these applications go through each day at the Customs office.  Whether there was any arrangement between the Customs officers and the office boy was anyone’s guess. The Civil Service could have saved thousands of Ringgits by not providing employees’ annual gratuities or annual bonuses to such government departments, including the Transport Department which controlled the Registrar of Vehicles which in turn conducts driving tests for all drivers of vehicles and riders of motor cycles. It was well known that one must provide a ‘red packet’ to the driving tester, to ensure that one gets to pass one’s driving test, even though one were confident of 100% pass.

To be able to be appointed a driving tester in those days was like striking a monthly lottery draw.

And when you go to see to the clearing of your imported goods in the Port Commission godown, after having paid the necessary clearing fees to the Port Commission, you are asked by the lorry transport driver who is waiting for your goods to be loaded onto his lorry, to pass an ‘ang-pow’ to the go-down store-keeper so that he could then ‘instruct’ the go-down forklift driver to move out your stock of goods before tackling others’ goods. Even the consignment of New Year calendars, especially the girly ones in those days that were so popular, would have to be given out to the Customs before you are allowed to draw them out of the Customs go-down.

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On one occasion, I had the privilege of requesting the Customs Dept chief to return one gift pack glass decanter bottle of expensive Cognac with two Cognac glass snifters, specially imported for the end year festive season, when I discovered through my go-down clerk that the Customs and Port Commission staff had each decided to take possession of the glass snifters,

on the excuse that the bottle and its expensive liquid contents would be sent to the Chemistry Dept. to check the volume of its alcohol content for tax purposes, and was not expected, that the importer would ask for it back, as it would already be uncorked, and treated as used, and unsellable. Luckily for me the Chemistry Dept. chief was a friend of mine, and when I went to claim it back, he assured me that, although it was in his DNA that Cognac was the love of his life, he only drew a centilitre or two for testing. He duly made me sign an indemnity form and assured me that he would return the bottle to me through the Customs Dept. When I went to receive the package, from the Customs chief, all the pretty frills, and box, were absent, except for the decanter bottle, its decanter glass top and the two glass snifters.

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Baksheesh Everywhere

I mention all these is to let you know that as early as in the mid 1960’s all these so called corrupt practices had been going on, on the ground so to speak, and accepted by most business men as traditional handouts, as to them, time is money! You will find ‘baksheesh’ when and where business and trade are concerned, except that in those days, when there was not much development and there was less high level corruption. Nowadays, we have what I label, ‘megaruption’, that is corruption from mega projects.

Corruption has been endemic throughout our country’s history. When caught breaking traffic rules in those days, the ordinary ‘mata mata’ was easily paid off without a ticket or fine, as their salary was so low and their educational background was just as low, that there was no moral compunction about accepting an offer of two ringgits to supplement their low salary. Now it is in the hundreds in the highways. Offering fifty ringgits to the Highway Patrol officers would only demean the fact that you are driving a BMW or Mercedes Benz 350 SL auto that was the reason for speeding, in which case, he may as well give you a summons to pay up five hundred ringgits or more to befit your status in court, in addition to the media publicity.

Even our food hawkers parking their carts illegally on the roadside to make a decent living, had to make the ‘mata mata’ patrol man happy with not only a handshake of goodwill but a Bank Negera note or two when he came cross on his patrol visit. As for the Health inspectors they know where the best hawker foods and restaurants were, and inspections of premises which house lots of rodents would be penalized by way of vocal cautions, and threats of fines, leading to the food caterers, offering profuse apologies and such suitable offerings or donations to assist with the upkeep of the health inspector’s family.

The ‘Close One Eye’ Syndrome

Talking of our police enforcement, again the degree is subject to special arrangements with those businesses which have to deal with the district police station, especially those in the traffic department. Each police district station has control over the passage of transport lorries plying the route or roads under the district station’s supervision, in respect of such lorries breaking any traffic rules, such as overloading, going against the red light, and parking in no parking zones, when unloading goods to their customers’ premises. Such special arrangements are for long

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term, by a monthly donation to the district station’s ‘endowment fund’. With such an arrangement, the company’s lorries will not be unnecessarily detained in the police station’s

compound for days on end, until a fine is settled. The transport company owner could not afford not to use its lorry, as it has to pay the driver and his assistant their wages, and not to mention                                       

the amount of road tax that it had already paid up front to the Road Transport Department. Time lost is money lost. This is business. The district station’s traffic department has the license

plate numbers of the transport company’s vehicles for easy identification when a traffic rule is breached in the covered area.

The company lorry drivers were warned that when driving in a different part of the town or state, which is not covered, any fines will be paid by the lorry drivers themselves and not by the company. This is what will be called in later years, the ‘close one eye’ syndrome, which eventually perpetuated the culture affecting all Government ministries and departments. You name it, they have it. Just ask any old and present civil servant.

Another surreptitious, if one may call it ‘traditional’ practice, with the traffic department is that for every traffic accident report lodged by the local car repair workshop, a suitable donation to the department’s so called ‘endowment fund’ must be made. Imagine the number of accidents in our cities and towns, happening each day in the hundreds, will contribute thousands of ringgits to the fund!  This has the effect of workshops overcharging and loading the claims against the insurance companies, which of course will keep on increasing the car accident insurance premiums of car owners. So if every year your insurance agent tells you that premiums will go up, apart from the increase in cost of replacement car parts, it is also this so called ‘levy’ or donation to the traffic department’s ‘endowment fund’ that adds to the higher premium to be paid. Don’t forget inflation also gets into the government departments.

With every district police station the Government had the foresight to build blocks of residential quarters for its uniformed personnel based there. In those days, TV sets were quite expensive, and these quarters did not come equipped with TV sets, free from the employer. When you could see that the majority of the flats had attached antennas to them, you wonder how the tenants of the flats, earning such low salaries could afford them.

The Invisible Cost of Doing Business

Even in the supplies of office equipment to public schools, by the private trade, a kick back based on around 10.0% of the month’s business invoice value is reserved for the school administration department. This also applied to most public banks, large corporations and government institutions and statutory bodies. There was a time when the multinational electronic factories began to be established in the Free Trade Zone in Penang island in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and there was not much internal control over local purchases, it was heyday for the procurers in charge. They were able to take their families on annual holiday overseas.  Whoever was in charge of such purchases get the monthly ‘ang-pows’. Hence the businessmen or traders have to hike up their prices by more than 10.0% to cover such invisible costs of doing business. Such values I suppose add to the GDP of our country.

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Restrictive Racial Trade Practice.

In subsequent years, the non-Malay private traders could not even deal directly with any government departments as only businesses or companies with Malay equity were allowed to sell to them. This forced established non-Malay businesses to take in Malay partners, so as to

qualify to do business with the Government departments and GLC’s. In a way it was a form of sharing profits, with unenviable partners.

Higher Level Corporate Corruption

On the higher level, of course, businessmen, when dealing with government procurers, would find out from their associates, the moral integrity and financial needs of the officer concerned as to the degree of so called ‘take’ or cost of getting the contract. In those days, it was just the top officer. Nowadays, Ministers had to be taken care of first. No wonder Government budgets just for maintenance alone are high, what more for special project developments, which are now in the billions! A Federal project that costs 100 millions can be pushed up five times, to ensure that every entitled politician and crony gets a share of our taxes, since most if not all government large projects were conducted on the basis of negotiated tenders, and not open public tenders.

All these started when the fourth P.M. took over the reins of running the country and the implementation and privatization of the North-South Express Toll Highways.

Subservience of the Judiciary

The saga of the UMNO split between Tengku Razaleigh and Dr Mahathir Mohammad factions  at the UMNO General Elections of 1987 led to the subsequent subservience of the Judiciary to the Executive while the timid legislators stood by and supported this terrible emasculation of one of our pillars of parliamentary democratic principles of the separation of powers, is too well known and recorded in our history for me to elaborate. This again was another instrument of control by the P.M. of that time. Our learned members of the Judiciary who were still seating on the Bench took the queue, pronounced their opinions accordingly, and realized their own career ambition and retired with higher pensions. Others who disagreed were sacked and deprived of their pensions and others on principle retired as soon as they reached retirement age.

Privatization Equals ‘Piratization’

The Fourth P.M.’s introduction of the “Malaysia Incorporated Policy” in 1984 led to the idea of taking government sectors, which provide services to the public, such as the supply of electricity, water, post offices, sewerage, ports, railways, airlines, private, by turning them into public corporations with Government holding either a majority or minority equity share. This was then a good idea, in that government expenditure on such public sector providers could be reduced dramatically in the national budget. It meant reducing the civil service numbers, pensions, cost of living allowances, etc. But what the public did not realize was that this was a way for those involved to find means of ‘creating’ additional income, for themselves. Creating private corporations mean they have to be registered as public companies with the Registrar of Companies, which incurred the selling of their shares to the public and reserved share participants like for the government. It was in the larger allocations of ‘pink’ application forms, which were secured for the reserved ethnic sector of the public, and the new directors and share-holders of the company, that was one way of creating additional income. But what came later was even worse, for the public and consumers. Once settled, the company would eventually realize that they need more financial resources to expand and pay for their company progress and developments, without the approval of the Government, since they are privatized economic entities with its own powers of management under its own Board of Directors. One or

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two Government representatives seating in the Board is in the minority and can be easily persuaded to go along with the rest, with true altruistic motives.

Hence the more public facilities are being privatized the way it has been done, the more the public will need to be vigilant. Important daily consumer products like rice and sugar had already been taken into semi private corporations with the result of the public having to pay higher prices for them. Of course by doing it this way, the government will give the excuse that there will be less subsidies to be provided, since these essential daily consumer products are

apparently no longer under government control and distribution. The perception of the government’s privatization policy is now seen as “piratization” policy by the public.

1985 Industrial Master Plan

The introduction of the “Industrial Master Plan” of 1985 saw a rush of development of heavy industrial projects which culminated in the establishments of the K.L. International Airport, Putra

Jaya, the Bakun Dam in Sarawak, Petronas Towers, Formula One Circuit, Perwaja Steel (registered as Perwaja Trengganu Sdn.Bhd.)

Mismanagement of G.L.Cs. – MAS example

In all the years, the public had seen the extent in which these so called ‘government local corporations’ had ripped off the public with their extravagant, unnecessary changes in their development of the products or services they were suppose to provide. Malaysian Airlines System is a classic example of exploitation of a government public service, if you can call it that. Another example is Perwaja Steel, which kept on swallowing more and more infusions of Government cash, which never reflected its product quality and quantity, and effective marketing, in spite of import restrictions and all available support from the government. It would

seem, that the industry was there just to create employment. In the words of Barry Wain, who wrote in his book, “The Malaysian Maverick”, said, “Perwaja looked like no more than a shining example of a politically conceived, commercially questionable and poorly executed enterprise that predictably failed.” Similarly the Post Office was privatized or corporatized, and postal rates just went up, in order to ensure that it would provide good annual dividends and better salaries for its employees. The other good case is our Tenaga National Berhad, where it was forced to enter into agreements with the Independent Power Producers to its disadvantage and had to buy its electricity from them at exorbitant prices, detrimental to the company and to the public. This came about because the public utility department then was not efficiently managed in that there were country-wide blackouts, which affected our emergent expanding industrial production. The government under the new P.M. took drastic action to ensure that the country will never suffer again from the lack of electricity supply, but then he went overboard by ensuring that the ‘cronies’ whom he favoured to invite them to ‘help’ out the country and government, participate in a deal which they could not turn down. It was not a deal which a genuine business man would venture into, as it meant mortgaging your future profits to your so called, ‘partner’ for a generation or so.

 Look East & Proton

In the early 1950’s and 1960’s, the war weary Malayans, especially the Chinese, immediately after the Japanese Occupation of the country, were still harbouring anti-Japanese sentiments. I remember some brave business men imported the earliest model of a Toyota car, to compete with the imported established brands of British cars. It took many years to overcome the

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sentiments, before the public began to accept Japanese products, especially the introduction of the popular Honda motorcycle, with its innovative press button starter, which came in very handy for women to use, instead having to kick start the machine. This product alone made one  

of Penang’s Chinese illiterate mechanics with an entrepreneurial flair, a billionaire when his business expanded into other economic sectors.

Proton Cars

As Malaysia developed, our new PM adopted the ‘Look East’ policy of adopting Japanese economic developments, one of which resulted in starting a car manufacturing factory.  

However, as expected, since the country did not have a proper steel industry yet, the initial output of the new Malaysian car called “Proton”, was basically unassembled parts of the

original Japanese Mitsubishi product made in Japan with a new name. With the so called ‘production’ of our national car, the government had to protect this infant industry from importation of foreign cars by levying very heavy import duties and taxes. This could not be avoided, if the country wanted such an industry to succeed. But against the wisdom and advice of economists and industrial players, there were many obstacles which eventually after 30 years, or more, had emerged to still withhold the successful implementation of the Proton project. There are many reasons for this failure.

Bumiputra National Project

Because it is a ‘bumiputra’, national project, financed by the Government, its management and business structure and manufacturing policy were strictly confined to secure employment and business benefits for ‘bumiputra’ connected companies which were encouraged to start up the manufacturing of small car parts to supply to Proton. This will then reduce the importation of these parts from the Japanese original manufacturer, and save on overseas cost of materials and foreign exchange for the country.

However, this would mean that Proton would not be able to source for competitive, perhaps better quality car parts from other unregistered local bumiputra and non-bumiputra suppliers. Proton was bound to buy parts from its registered bumiputra suppliers and no one else. This resulted in the Proton procurers not being able buy from any unregistered or unconnected supplier. He is bound to accept the parts that the registered supplier supplies. Of course the parts must meet with the necessary specifications, in order to fit into the product, and pay the cost. It could not go out of this suppliers’ loop and buy competitively from non registered suppliers. It would only mean that its assembly costs would be higher. It was nothing but an economic cartel of registered suppliers. But because it is a ‘bumiputra national project, local car buyers were expected to make a sacrifice, by buying and supporting Proton cars, since the Government had raised the prices of imported foreign cars through higher protective import duties and taxes. Initially all the local car importers and distributors were affected. With the introduction of Proton cars, it created a new group of distributors mainly confined to bumiputras, who were allotted such franchises. This is an example of a non-free trade practice interference of the market, introduced by the government.  With inflation and higher material costs, I see no way in which prices of Proton cars can come down, and so imported car prices will keep rising as global costs go up, unless the high import duties and taxes are lowered.

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“Application Permits” to Import Foreign Cars

With the implementation of the Proton car project, and the restriction affected by the higher import duties and taxes levied on imported cars, this gave rise to a brilliant idea of introducing

‘Application Permits’ to import foreign cars, especially the more well known and expensive models, which were favoured by the Chinese business community and other non-Chinese

professionals. These permits were again confined to the Governing party’s political members, officials and connected cronies. These A.P.s were worth RM10,000.00 per vehicle but in the

open market it would be worth more than twice. It was rumoured then that every UMNO division chairman was entitled to apply for 10 A.P.s each month. If they did not have the cash to apply, they could rely on their Chinese business men connection to lend them the money, in return for sharing their A Ps. This was manna from heaven, a monthly income of Ringgit Malaysia one hundred thousand without having to work for it! You would only need to ensure

that your party division members vote you in as the Chairman of the division every year. If this was not a form of political corruption, then what would you call it? A great example of ensuring that members of the favoured, privileged, ethnic sector stayed and supported the ruling ethnic political party in power forever as long as such financial and economic benefits are reserved for the members.

Ali-Baba Connections

With such a business co-operation between particularly the Chinese and the bumiputras, it was labeled, in the early days, as an ‘Ali-Baba’ arrangement. The normal modus operandi entails the

bumiputra getting the government contract to build a pass-over or a road, or a building, and as the bumiputra in the earlier days had no such experience, he had to look for a partner with such

experience to run the project on his behalf. The financial arrangement being agreed, the partner began. But many a time, such projects got delayed, because the bumiputra partner, somehow used the proceeds for other personal expenditures and did not pay the partner for the progressive completion of the project. Consequently, such projects for the public stalled for many years, when the partner stopped work because he was not being paid. His bumiputra

partner had gone to buy a Mercedes Benz, employed a chauffeur, rented the latest new air-conditioned office, employed the most pretty secretary, and other office staff, and joined an exclusive private club in the city. When a public outcry came about, and on appeal from the right political quarters, the government had no choice but to come out with more funds to get the project completed. There was no question of penalizing our friend, the bumiputra contractor. This is another classic example of a developing country wasting unnecessary financial resources for a non-economic political affirmative policy caused by delayed development through inept management and planning experience.

The Right Connections

In the decades to follow, because of the development of a ‘skewered’ business culture, the non bumiputra business sector survival depended not what you know but who you know, and in particular, connections to the ruling political elites is a necessity. It harks back to the traditional Chinese ‘guanxi’ syndrome, in effect, but with a corrupt political overtone.

Auditor General’s Report Scrapped

 I guess no one especially our Ministers care to read the annual Auditor-General’s Report for the past 20 years. I suggest that the Auditor-General’s office be scrapped and he gets a good

pension for life for doing a fantastic job for the country but of no bloody use to the Government whose Ministers could not care two hoots about it year in year out. Close the Department and

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save millions for the public. As for the old Anti-Corruption Department or Agency, it never moved until orders came down from its political masters above.

Complaint of Abuse of Implementation of Economic Ethnic Policy Politically Incorrect

What compounded this evil of public corruption is also due to the fact that as much of economic benefit or gain must be channeled to one ethnic sector as a Government policy, in which no complaint or criticism can be accepted or tolerated, which will be viewed as ‘politically incorrect’.

Hence corruption seen to be practised under such an ethnic policy cannot be criticized openly. And what do business people do, accept to go along with the culture, and ensure that what they are suppose to gain 100.0% had to be shared with others, considered under privileged and not for the reason that they had somehow contributed towards any productivity of such economic activity. It has been seen that particularly one type of ethnic business men, faced with such a

situation, simply increase their selling prices, to cover such distribution of profits to others, who by virtue of their ‘privilege’ standing according to Government policy, are entitled to the  ‘unearned’ income. It was basically political blackmail of the highest economic order, subscribed and accepted by the majority on certain conditions of time and implementation, to help raise the

economic and living status of the poorer under privileged ethnic sector of the country. It was an ‘affirmative action’ for the apparent majority of the citizens in our country’s case as compared to other countries where it applies to the minority and marginalized communal sector.

Housing Development Quota and Reserve Prices

A classic example is that of Government policy in respect of building development, where prices of houses for sale to bumiputras have to be cheaper by 5.0% and there must be a quota of

houses reserved for the privileged ethnic sector. What did the business developers do? They shifted the 5.0% to the non-ethnic sector buyer’s price. In other words the latter had to pay 5.0% more to his original price. The developer may also have to increase the prices of the non-ethnic

sector houses to include the possible delay of disposing off  the quota houses, in the eventuality of them not being able to sell them off.  When that happened, and the rest of the unsold quota ones are subsequently sold, the gain will be pure additional profits. That is why Malaysian

developers grow so large and wealthy, and the politically correct ethnic sector keeps on complaining why the non-ethnic sector is doing so well economically. In the end the traditional way of doing business is skewered. Those Havard Business School fellows should make a special study of the way our country runs its business. They may end up with a Nobel Prize for Economics in the form of a guided business model based on racially discriminative corruptive policies worse than South Africa’s Apartheid model and Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Getting the Best Brains.

In the world of business management and intellectual development, it is the principle of harnessing and capturing the best of human resources, whether biologically innate or trained, to the production process, to obtain the optimum output in creativity of a product or in its quantity. America is a good example of utilizing and empowering the best brains for such creativity of new products. Albert Einstein and his Jewish Nuclear scientists’ acceptance into America before the Second World War, helped America to become a nuclear power.  In the modern era, Steve Job’s smart phone invention is a classic example, apart from the historical Henry Ford mass car production method.  Steve Jobs’s real father was a Syrian and his mother was a White American, and he was adopted by his Caucasian parents. The American political and economic historical development starting, with its early Pilgrim Fathers’ migration in 1620, through to the 19th and 20th Centuries migration of the economically dispossessed and politically

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discriminated population of Europe and other countries have helped to advance America into a world economic and military power.

Committing Economic Hara Kiri

In this respect, no country which aspire to be a 1st world developed nation, can afford to adopt a policy of rejecting any human being, more so its own citizens, on racial, religious or political grounds, which can contribute to its development. It is like cutting one’s own throat, particularly in the current globalized world of intense economic competition. This country has lost so many and so much of its brains to our other countries when they migrate overseas which welcome them to help with their development. Examples abound in Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, and the US. No country can afford to have a singular racial policy which controls and embraces the allocation of economic resources to one ethnic sector, when there are other ethnic sectors with substantial minority intellectual and economic power that can be utilized to contribute towards

the country’s overall development, if it is given sufficient, equitable encouragement. Not to do this, is like committing economic hara kiri.

Hijacking the Malay Agenda

Over the years after the Fourth P.M. had necessarily introduced the many restrictive legislations, with the majority of Members of Parliament under his control, giving their slave-like

irrational thought-less approvals, (in the opinion of others), the country took on the perception that the Fourth P.M. had hijacked the Malay agenda, lock, stock and barrel. No bumiputra could say anything, because he had been taken care of with all sorts of support in employment, scholarship, education, housing, cost of living, health, political direction and religious guidance under the purview of the various religious departments. He has been blessed with a policy of

being looked after from cradle to grave as perceived by the non-bumiputra ethnic sector. The P.M. appeared to be Big Brother and Father to the community that he had adopted.

The P.M.’s ‘1984’

Talking of ‘Big Brother’ recalls George Orwell’s satiric novel “1984”. The Fourth P.M. with the support of his M.P.s instituted and turned the country into a ‘Ministry of Truth’ in Orwell’s

 ‘Oceania’. Restrictive legislations were approved in Parliament to put controls into the lives of the citizens, from education to political activities, to religion.

Thought Control & Education

In the late 1950’s and 1960’s due to the attempt by the Malayan Communist Party and other Socialist and trade union groupings to agitate for a leftist change in government, high school and university students were inspired to be part of that desire for change. Student protests were part and parcel of university student campus life. It was the ‘in thing’ to protest anything anti-establishment in every university campus in the Western world. When the Fourth P.M. assumed the office of P.M., he could foresee such university students giving him trouble in opposing his own political vision for the country and more so for his adopted ummah. For this I think he might have followed the Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BC) who “believed that education should be controlled by the state, and it should have as its main objective the training of citizens.”  Only for the Fourth P.M., the training is the churning out of graduates who were brainwashed not to think rationally for what is good for the country but for the P.M.’s own agenda, thought control of his ‘people’.

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University Autonomy

Our university was established, and managed under the British university model, under the University Council, independent of Government direct control. Academics were appointed on                                                                                                                        

global academic standards, and students were admitted on academic merit. In that way, our University was well recognized among Commonwealth and world academic bodies.

With the passing of the Universities & Colleges Act, while he was the Minister of Education, under Tun Hussain Onn, Dr M Mahathir put all the direction, control and policies of tertiary education in the hands of the Minister of Education, an illiterate one man show instead of a body of experienced academics sourced from all over the Commonwealth and the world. No wonder our University standards dropped like a bomb! In addition under the Act, all student campus activities were proscribed unless approval had been granted by the Vice-Chancellor, now under the direction and control of the Education Minister. Our academics were appointed on the basis of not only their academic, but also on their ethnic qualifications. Our tertiary students in one fell swoop had turned into school boys, and not young adults, to be trained to think and act rationally. Here is the classic example of thought control. The Government gives you scholarships to obtain a degree or qualification at tertiary levels, so that you will be better employed to serve the country, not to protest or to learn to think or express your own rational or intellectual opinion on what the Government is doing to you and your country. Scholarships could be withdrawn if the student were found to have breached University student regulations. In this way, the student had no choice but to concentrate on passing his examinations and getting his degree. He should not waste his time using his brain to question the political and academic powers that be.

Degree Factories

Tertiary institutions became degree factories, turning out robots. What made the development and academic progress of our universities and colleges more difficult to compete with the

world’s best universities was the necessity of introducing the national language and doing away at the beginning with English as the traditional medium of instruction since the establishment of the first University of Malaya. But the problem lay with the quality of the student intake, which by then had their basic education in the national language and consequently when in the university, where universal knowledge are to be found in the English language, communication and lack of translations cause a stumbling block in accessing knowledge in the academic world. This was

quite a setback for our students. In order to increase and provide tertiary education to as many of his ethnic community, so as to bring up the numbers, to level the playing field so to speak, the quota of students for admission had to be adjusted to a higher quantum by reducing the entry qualifications. This meant that these students would have problem making the final grade, and also because, it was necessary to ensure that as many students graduate, the passing marks had to be adjusted to meet the numbers.

Employment Opportunities

Who would have thought that 40 years later, the global competitive demand for economics and trade, coupled with the development of Intelligent Technology products, that the English language would become the almost sole ‘lingua franca’ of world commerce, medical and scientific research, economic and engineering developments, and world finance. The product of our universities in the present second decade of the 21st century has not been able find acceptance in their qualifications by the best employers not only among international corporations, but also among local ones. The exception is employment from the civil service, uniformed services, and the government G.L.C.s. Even there, the numbers are limited as to how

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many such bodies or companies can be established with the Government to provide more employment. The resulting scenario is racially lopsided, with one ethnic sector seen to monopolize the Government sectors, and the private industrial, finance and commercial sectors

reflecting the other racial sectors. No wonder that visiting foreigners were heard to have commented that the country is perceived to be governed by one racial group, and those that

make up the private sectors employees were mostly ‘migrants’ or ‘ in our language termed as ‘pendatangs’.

Civil Service Autonomy

The British when they gave this country independence left us with one of the top civil service in this part of our world. Its members were the cream of the country’s educated professionals and intellectuals, of all racial make-up, reflecting the model of the Chinese mandarinate. Its mandate is to serve the nation irrespective of political leadership, whether good or bad. Unfortunately a decade or more later, our civil service chaps were struggling against political pressure to serve, not the nation but the ruling political dictatorship in respect of economic inequality, religious, racial discrimination and political repressive laws. One would recall the BBC sitcom series called, “Yes Minister” in the 1980’s in which the number one senior civil servant, Sir Humphrey Appleby, played by the late British actor, Nigel Hawthorn, was always saying ‘nay’, to Minister Jim Hacker’s played by Paul Eddington, innocuous and dumb proposals for the country. Now in the second decade of the 21st century, the poor civil service is but an appendage of the political order, sans objectives and principles, sans independence, sans soul, surviving for the monthly salary and the final pension. A great loss for the nation.

Opportunities for Retiring Secretary-Generals to Act as Consultants/Directors to Top Private Corporations

It would appear that post retirement employment opportunities abound for those retiring Secretary-Generals of Government Departments, who had been working or co-operating with the relevant private sector corporations. Cultivating the ruling politicians or ministers while in the service of the Government will earn these Secretary-Generals a spot in the various Government Local Corporations, unless the private sector corporations made a better offer. This situation

poses a moral question, in which for such a situation to arise, there must be some ‘co-operation’ given to the private sector corporation when the Secretary-General had the power to oblige a favour, with the understanding that there will be a position in the Board of Directors when he retires from the Civil service. Perhaps Parliament should pass an Act that such high government civil servants cannot accept such positions offered by the private sector corporations. Instead they will be given special pensions for a limited period, to ensure that they will not be given such ‘favours’ by the private business corporate sector. What he knows of Government knowledge, experience and intelligence should still be considered as ‘government secrets’. But what is more important is to take away the opportunity for corruption.

Decline of Morality

In the last forty years of the country’s history under the present government management, there has been physical material development reflecting first world infrastructure accompanied by industrialization and developed economy, but our country remains in a cocoon of third world mentality. In the race to achieve, 2020 Vision, corruption has taken hold of the very soul of its citizens. In the old days, ‘face’ was the guiding principle, that you do not indulge or do anything that will bring disgrace to your family, by insulting another person, or being seen to be weak in your character, susceptible to corruption, emotionally and easily affected by racial or religious

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provocation. Regretfully, this has been brought about by a radical policy of race and political dominance culminating in a comprehensive culture, which is impervious to any criticism, religious or otherwise. It appears to have no effect or even sustain the moral fibre of our people. It is not just material or financial aspects, but also the loss of sexual control and restraints. Apparently religious edicts could not prevent incestuous relations.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Dog in the Manger Attitude.

As a result of the mono culture created, based on the idea of the special privileges reserved for one sector of the country being concretized, if not in stone, as claimed, but in perpetuity if possible, non-bumiputras came to experience when communicating with those in government and statutory bodies an arrogant attitude which implies that they are second class citizens, who

can be ignored and could wait, after coffee break for any attention. The fact that most of the government and semi-government public counters are being manned by bumiputras, gave the

impression that the country is only populated by one ethnic community, and that others are foreigners, paying for their community services. This could not engender national unity for the country. The perception is a deliberate policy of dividing the country’s multicultural communities.

This is completely anti-patriotic for any nation, a deliberate division of the people. Historians blame the British for its colonial divide and rule policy. It is the same under the present political regime.

Whither Malaysia?

We all seem to know the reasons why our country has been in such a mess. The silent majority of citizens are still waiting for our political leaders to be strong enough to move mountains and get our country out of the morass of corruption, religious and political persecution, economic inequality, racial discrimination, and all the discriminative acts against civil rights. Do we expect a Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to arise?

18.02.2014