The Bridge Over the River Kwai

Malaysians of a certain vintage may be aware of the classic movie, The Bridge Over the River Kwai. It tells of the terrible fate of the British POWs that were interned by the Japanese in Northern Thailand. The Japanese army wanted to construct a bridge over the River Kwai to enable the invasion of Burma.

The protagonist British Colonel, played by the great thespian the late Sir Alec Guinness aka old Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, wanted to raise the poor morale of the British POWs. Thus, he did a deal with the Japanese commander to obtain better privileges for fellow prisoners in exchange for which he would inspire and cajole them to embark on the enterprise. He was very proud of the bridge when it was finally constructed and, ready for use.
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In the mean time, the Allied Forces were terribly concerned about the bridge which posed a strategic threat to their defence of Burma. A rascally American poseur, played by the late William Holden, that escaped as a POW from the Northern Thai area was conscripted into the team of commandos to blow up the bridge.

As it turned out, upon the bridge being successfully rigged with dynamite to be blown to smithereens, the river's water level started to ebb and, upon closer inspection by the Guinness character, the charge wires were spotted. Things threatened to go awry. Together with the Japanese commander, the British colonel started inspecting the river banks to discover the British commando tasked with triggering the charge.

In the struggle that ensued, the British colonel, who had developed a warm bond with the Japanese colonel, instinctively raised the alarm causing the commando to be killed after himself having killed the Japanese commander. In desperation, the Holden character swam across the river to detonate the bridge only to find a determined British colonel thwarting his efforts. The Holden character was killed. Only then did it dawn on the British colonel that he had, in his absolute commitment to the task of constructing the bridge, lost his entire perspective. There he was, a British officer, a POW, having prevented the Allied commandos from sabotaging the Japanese invasion of Burma. At that moment of realisation, he was shot and as he fell dead, his body pushed down the charge and blew up the bridge as the Japanese train carrying the first wave of Japanese soldier's crashed into the river.

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WTO and GATS
The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has worked assiduously over the past several years to protect Malaysian economic interests while having a Hobson's choice (meaning, no choice) in NOT being a part of the global economic community.

Malaysia is an open economy which exports and imports goods and services and, permits the relatively free flow of capital into and, out of the country.

I just want to focus on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) this time.

The principle behind GATS is the opening of the services sector of each member country. This will enable financial institutions, architectural firms, engineering firms, law firms and so on from other countries to set up shop in Malaysia without major restrictions.

I am not certain about the other services sector but, in the case of legal services, Malaysian lawyers appear to be relatively sanguine about the impending opening of their profession in the coming years. This attitude stems from relative ignorance about the economic impact that GATS will have on their profession. The attitude also stems from the belief that only the largest foreign law firms would bother to open shop in Kuala Lumpur. They also believe that foreign law firms will just concentrate on large infrastructure and financing contracts in which the foreign lawyers wil represent foreign contractors and investors.

But, what if lower-cost Indian and Filipino lawyers want to set up shop here to compete on land transfers, end-financing contracts and sale of property? Isn't that possible?

Inevitable outcomes
What I have said is not meant to denigrate the legal services sector. Instead, it is meant to lead to my point that even if the legal services sector had taken a hard line approach and made strong submissions to MITI that it opposes any opening up of the legal services sector, there is nary a thing that MITI can do.

Does that surprise you?

It is not that MITI is useless. Indeed, to the contrary, there is every indication that MITI has worked very hard to champion Malaysian interests. But, GATS covers all services. There cannot be any exceptions.

I am aware that while the Bar Council members were scratching their heads and nether parts, MITI fired a warning shot that if the lawyers did not give their input, MITI would still have to follow the GATS agenda with or without input from the lawyers!

Now, THAT is globalisation for you.

My question to the Malaysian government is, why couldn't MITI despatch a few economics-trained MITI boys and girls to help the hapless lawyers, not to mention other services, think through the matter of the opening up of their sectors and, the economic implications of such an opening?

And, their omission to do so lends credence to the fact that, first, MITI may be suffering from The Bridge Over the River Kwai syndrome, forgetting that the services need protection and guidance and, instead, giving more importance to the well-funded and bloated economics of the banking and financial services sector that says they are ready for globalisation. Second, the idea of Malaysia Inc is proven to be a myth since, unlike the Japanese zaibatsu and kereitsu, Malaysian economic participants in the services sector are truly orphaned in the wake of WTO and GATS.