Value chain, Knowledge capital and education

Malaysia needs to move up the value chain. The government has said it time and again.

Economists and thinkers have said it. Everyone says it.

But it's not really happening in a meaningful way. The way Malaysia has approached the business of moving up the value chain is pretty much like the way Malaysia has handled sports. We depend on the rugged individual to spark off something special. Then Malaysia embraces that individual as a hero. Think of someone like Nicol David in this context.

The role of government is to create the processes that churns out more of these individuals so that the odds of getting more of these individual sparks will improve.

Knowledge capital

When I hear our political leaders talk of knowledge capital I wonder if they really understand what it means. They talk the talk but I don't see the walk.

The creation of knowledge capital starts from the Malaysian schools. Sure, we can import knowledge. That's what Dr M tried with the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). The Silicon Valley people came. They liked the infrastructure and the ballsiness of Dr M's audacious vision.

MSC

Tentatively, they set up some R&D units in Cyberjaya. They sent one or two or, maybe three guys over. They found few Malaysian technicians with the proper calibre. There were many Malaysians who could handle the reception desk, office administration, despatch, office equipment and low-level software writing. So, they began to pinch talent from Bangalore, India.

After a while, having had their Bangalore talent harrassed by the Malaysian Immigration Department and, worse still, not uncovering any additional Malaysian software writers of any significant imagination, they surreptitiously packed their bags and either went to Bangalore or back to Silicon Valley.

Venue providing

In the 1960s, Tun Razak and his team focused on attracting manufacturing companies into designated places like Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam within the Klang Valley. This was the original and, most successful corridor. Thus, came manufacturers like Matsushita. We provided that venue. We provided the minah karan workforce to perform basic soldering, testing and assembling.

In the 1980s, Lim Chong Eu began his own corridor-type development and scored coups like getting Dell to set up a manufacturing plant in Penang. More minah karan.

Fastforward to the millenium and Malaysia is using the same playbook with the Iskandar Region and the numerous corridors. Venue providers. Landlord. And, more minah karan.

Knowledge capital (Part 2)

As I said above, the process of creating knowledge capital starts from the primary school and, then, the secondary school and, after that, at the university.

First, we must accept the fact that three-quarters of the world's knowledge is either written in or, translated into, the English language.

Second, we must accept that countries that use their own language like Japan has a one hundred-years headstart over countries like Malaysia. Japan took a fifty-year period, from the Meiji Restoration at the turn of the twentieth century to post-war Japan to industrialise. Malaysia cannot do an apple-to-apple comparison with Japan in not wanting to emphasise the English language.

So, for Malaysia to truly move up the value chain, the necessity for a good command of the English language is necessary. With the language foundation, we can then add Mathematics and Science as the next skill layer.

If this is in place from primary level to secondary level, then, at the tertiary level everything is more likely to fall into place for Malaysians to acquire skills that will, collectively, move Malaysia up the value chain.

China

Detractors may point to China. It is true that despite being set back two decades during the Cultural Revolution from the 1960s to the 1980s, China under Deng Xiao-ping could claw its way within the next two decades after that to become the third largest economy in the world. All this progress with a largely dialect-speaking and Mandarin-literate population.

But China is unique. Being a large country there is a huge disparity between the first world feel of the major cities and the backwardness of the countryside. China has completely thrown out the traditional notion that economies move from agrarian to industrial to services. China appears to be moving at three levels at the same time. It is upsetting the neat economic development theories. But, many, many Chinese are rushing to learn the English language, too.

Knowledge capital (Part 3)

We must accept that in the 1970s, Malaysia needed to overcome the throes of nationhood. Nationalism and patriotism were necessary to create a commonality and unity. So a National Language emphasis was appropriate for the ethos.

Some time in the mid-1990s, Malaysia, together with the rest of the world, began to enter the Internet Age. In the cathartic experience the world realised that it was inter-connected in so many ways and, that the multi-national companies (MNCs) from developed countries were ahead of the game.

More importantly, in Malaysia, we became aware of that there is a real chance that we can become more than mere landlords and low-level employees of the MNCs. Whereas, in the past, we had to travel overseas to obtain new books that described new ways of doing things, now, everything was literally at our fingertips. By searching and surfing the Internet the world's collected knowledge was open and accessible to us in Malaysia. And, then, Thomas Friedman described what we felt, that the world is flat, that the field has become level. Everyone has equal access to knowledge.

Beyond ethnicity

In the area of acquiring knowledge capital and, moving up the value chain, Malaysians must realise that mastering the English language will not mean that we, each, will be any less Malay, any less Chinese, any less Indian, any less ethnic or, for that matter, any less Malaysian. Nothing can change who we are in terms of our culture and identity.

But, we should not eschew the golden opportunity to acquire more skills.

Beyond our generation

Frankly, all the stuff that I have mentioned may no longer apply to those of you who are reading this. We are products of the education system from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. We can only hope to enter some training courses or, get an MBA to move up the value chain.

But, for the next generation the possibilities are endless if we start the process of building knowledge capital at the primary and secondary schools. Mastery of the English language is an important foundation. Without such a foundation acquiring knowledge capital will be limited. This, in turn, will slow down Malaysia's desire to move up the value chain.

I only wish the political leaders can have the courage to move beyond political opportunism and pandering to constituents. There needs to be real leadership on this. So far, I haven't seen any.