By Michael Backman (http://www.michaelbackman.com)
November 15, 2006

Adapted-commented by Malaysia My Second Home November 23, 2006

Malaysia: peace and harmony at the outside

MALAYSIA’S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of the economy each of its two main races — the Malays and the Chinese — owns. It’s an argument that’s been running for 40 years. That wealth and race are not synonymous is important for national cohesion, but really it’s time Malaysia grew up.

It’s a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy for a country that prefers to argue about how to divide wealth rather than get on with the job of creating it.

And the more time and energy we spend on re-dividing the wealth, the less energy remains for creating more wealth. And with less wealth to go around, sooner or later somebody is going to get very angry: and we all have the racial riots at the back of our head seen in Indonesia not even 10 years ago…

Malaysia: positive discrimination for the Malays

The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.

Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese.

Another problem is lack of transparency: an issue promised to be tackled by the new PM.

We can be proud to be an example to the outside world that Malaysia is a country with different races and different religions, yet politically pretty stable and having a democracy. But if the majority starts implying that it is their right to re-distribute the wealth of Malaysia in favor of the majority, then where is the interest of ALL Malaysians? All Malaysians know the importance of "sharing", yet sharing doesn’t mean that all must be shared with the majority only.

Malaysia tourism slogan: Malaysia Boleh

"Malaysia boleh!" is Malaysia’s national catch cry. It translates to "Malaysia can!" and Malaysia certainly can. Few countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed with natural resources and the national obsession seems to be to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the proceeds up against the wall.

It is a pain in the eye to see neighbour Signapore economically reaching a "developed" stage without natural resources, where Malaysia with natural resources only aims at 2020 to reach a similar status.

Where is Malaysia?

This all happens in the context of Malaysia’s grossly inflated sense of its place in the world.

Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on their country and that their leaders are world figures. This is thanks to Malaysia’s tame media and the bravado of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a map much less name its prime minister or capital city.

As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons features a newsreader trying to announce that a tidal wave had hit some place called Kuala Lumpur. He couldn’t pronounce the city’s name and so made up one, as if no-one cared anyway. But the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is inland.

Malaysian oil

Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly when compared to the disaster that passes for a national oil company in neighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this is Malaysia’s problem. The very success of Petronas means that it is used to underwrite all manner of excess.

Yet is all this a success-story? To answer that, you should compare the figures of efficiency of treating oil by Petronas compared to other companies. It is said that Petronas is far less efficient in the cost of producing oil compared to other companies. Yet again a lack of transparency will make this just another rumour, probably said by somebody of the minority, so obvious…

Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new capital city — Petronas has paid for them all. It’s been an orgy of nonsense that Malaysia can ill afford.

Why? Because Malaysia’s oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is, Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that’s just five years away.

Kuala Lumpur

The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. It includes the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world when they were built, which was their point. (The building at the left of the Twin tower is the Maxis building: Malaysia’s first mobile phone operator)

It certainly wasn’t that there was an office shortage in Kuala Lumpur — there wasn’t.

Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. They had little to do with them. The money for them came out of the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South Korean companies.

They don’t even run the shopping centre that’s beneath them. That’s handled by Australia’s Westfield.

Malaysians in space

Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russian rocket — the first Malay in space. And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3 million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science and Technology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight. There’s no indication of what the Americans will charge for this, assuming there’s even a chance that they will consider it. But what is Malaysia getting by using the space programs of others as a taxi service? There are no obvious technical benefits, but no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that they are "boleh". The trouble is, they’re not. It’s not their space program.

Especially when the space experiment of the Malaysian astronaut will be to see if they can make our national Malaysian drink Teh Tarik in space… Please, how stupid must Malaysia look saying things like this? Yet, thanks to our new Prime Minister, so people do start opening their mouth and advising about other things to do than the things that are done now. But our newborn Malaysian freedom of speech is still a newborn. And lots of times this new criticism is not taken for what it is: trying to make a better Malaysia for all Malaysians.

Malaysians in England

Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend $RM490 million on a sports complex near the London Olympics site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and "get used to cold weather".

But the summer Olympics are held in the summer.

So what is the complex’s real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the centre’s construction and then on the athletes while they train might provide a clue.

Malaysia conclusion

So it’s in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad.

It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space when Malaysia’s inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics.

That’s not Malaysia "boleh", that’s Malaysia "bodoh" (stupid).

Like it was Malaysia Boleh to have our national Proton car produced… yet Malaysia Bodoh to sign an agreement with Mitsubishi to help manufacturing the cars yet not to do any knowledge transfer from Mitsubishi to Proton.
Or as we would say: NO BRAIN, NO GAIN (for a long term policy)

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