Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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.

10 comments:

mekyam said...

hi ctchoo!

to think that malaysia was once a country considered as having a population with one of the best commands of english outside native english-speaking countries.

how we have back-tracked!

as for many chinese rushing to learn english, i think china must have gone into warp-speed mode pre-olympics 08 to get the population speaking english.

i was in shanghai this last august (at a language conference) and was pleasantly surprised to find almost everyone i encountered eager to practice their english. not just hotel personnel and sale-assts at the malls, but cabbies and street-vendors, and even the policeman i stopped to ask for information.

this was such a change from my last visit a few years back. i speak a few languages, but mandarin isn't one of them. so communication was a major struggle. the ease of being relatively understood this time around was nothing short of amazing.

china is one pragmatic nation. but malaysia was one too, once. if a huge unwieldy country like china can do it, surely we, who only have to remaster english, can do it. we just need to accept that english is necessary to compete globally and the political will to go about it purposefully.

Anonymous said...

At least we tried with the MSC, failed, learn from mistakes and try again. ;)
So they couldn't recruit proper software engineers among Malaysians. Even from Chinese schools? OR were their language skils too poor? Hmmmm....
I think it's high time they revamped the edu system but we are a young nation and will make mistakes along the way and then learn.
I agree that English must be emphasised. Yet at the same time, many people including the Chinese hold dear to their language. ;)
Keep up the informative + educational posts.
Any comment on Selangor budget?

de minimis said...

mekyam

Yes. The educationists, Malay, Chinese and Indian, need to think beyond their communities for the sake of the children. They need to rise above it all and, take a holistic view of what is good for the next generation. Otherwise, we will continue to lose batch after batch of young Malaysians.

jed

Good to have you comment again. Thought my prolixity must have driven you away!

I'll have a look at the Selangor Budget.

myop101 said...

dear ctchoo,

i think the problem with education here in malaysia is the whole aspect of rot learning coupled with "sikap-tak-apa".

devoid of imagination and ideals, i noticed a large majority here in this country can only grudgingly afford doing the minimal required and yet with wide open palm expects maximum return due. there are lesser people each day who believes in sacrificing the short term for the sake of long term gain. it seems the ideal is only about how we can make more while jealously guard what we have / will have.

i personally believe that so long as we look at ourselves as some sort of victim of circumstances and expect handouts, our progress will be defined as how good, quick and long we stretch out our hands expecting things to fall to us.

whether it is in english, french, mandarin or bahasa malaysia, i doubt we as a nation will progress much if our psyche remain the same.

i personally don't believe in MBA or more paper qualification above what is necessary.

learning should be lifelong, a desire and everyday experience propelled by eagerness to excel would do far more than a mere certificate to say you passed the standards set by others.

perhaps we should also redefine success and whether a materialistically successful state is a happy state (i know a poor failed state is no happy state though... weird isn't it since they are not exact opposites).

Anonymous said...

The truth is that Umno has ruled supreme for the last 50 years. It always got its way because the dominant ethnic majority of the country always supported its policies.

The state of the nation is corrupt, racist, discriminatory, abusive, unjust, inefficient, and backwards. If Malaysia stinks then it is because Umno stinks.

If the "morals of the country" stinks, then it is because the morals of Umno politicians stinks.

I won’t even discuss the morality of explosives and murder of foreign nationals as most people seem to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong in this instance.

Instead, I shall talk about Umno corruption and Umno racism as the former will occasion the disastrous downfall of this nation, and the latter will be the downfall of the malays.

Umno teaches that it is just to discriminate against all non-malays and non-Muslims: jobs, education, schools, colleges, universities, business opportunities, government contracts, taxes, and even finding a cemetery to bury the dead.

Umno teaches that it is right to discriminate on the basis of a person race, culture, language or religious belief.

In front of non-malays, it speaks of tolerance and unity in diversity, and in front of malays it speaks of race, religious, cultural and language supremacy, and the glorification of power and ethnic subjugation.

Bung Mokhtar leadership role as characterised by a yobbish machismo, obscene gestures, medieval attitudes towards women and minorities, and strutting bigotry within Umno is not only not an accident of chance, but an exemplary example of Umno appeal to the baser instincts and darker fantasies of its ethnic constituency.

To the vernacular schools it gives a pittance for support, and to malay language schools, there is no need to be diplomatic and call them "national language" schools, it gives 100% support.

As for English-medium schools, the type that made Malaysian education the best in South East Asia, and our school leavers the most sought after anywhere in the civilised world, they were made extinct, courtesy of Umno language and cultural supremacist fantasies.

So we are left with unemployable graduates with deplorable job skills and prospects.

Umno policies caused a brain drain to Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada, and the US.

Umno language supremacist policies caused the extinction of the best high quality education that Malaysia and the malays would ever know.

Umno perversion of the very idea of meritocracy in favour of racist discrimination has ensured the lack of meritocractic competition for all Malaysians.

Sooner or later, the malays will realise that denying meritocracy to non-malays guarantees that there can be no meritocracy for malays even within their own community.

The fact that there is no notable inferiority complex nor entitlement complex or NEP dependence amongst the non-malays is no accident.

If the non-malays were the dominant ethnic majority, and they had an Umno-like racist party to lead them with promises of ethnic supremacy, racial discrimination and ethnic privileges, then I believe they would have lost their self-confidence, self-respect and self-belief too.

Farish Noor once said "Umno ternak melayu untuk disembelih".

I agree, and if the dominant ethnic majority fails to see past Umno seductive promises of ethnic supremacy and false gods of ethnic aggrandisement, then we are all finished.

Unknown said...

our government / politician have blown up egos and suffers from acute myopia

just becos taiwan, china and japan survived on their own languages doesnt mean msians must follow or can follow suit.

as you mentioned japan has such a long history and head start.

furthermore those countries are monoethnic (except probably for china but those dude goes way back aint it?)

if the government since TDM time is as pragmatic as his advocates say TDM shouldnt have allowed his minions to mess around with our education system.

singapore has about the same ethnic composition like malaysia - and they all uses english as the medium in business communication.

see how far ahead they are in terms of their human capital development and how high they are in terms of moving up the value chain.

the government should wake up and adopt a sensible and pragmatic change to our education system.

use english in all syllabus - made it mandatory for everyone to choose a 2nd language and an option to choose a 3rd.

Anonymous said...

Mekyam,

"to think that malaysia was once a country considered as having a population with one of the best commands of english outside native english-speaking countries.

how we have back-tracked!"

It's truly sad but we can always start again, wiser, hopefully. ;)

de minimis said...

ruyom

I think the issue is not just with one political party or one community. It is a fact that one of the key opponents of teaching subjects like Maths and science in English are the Chinese educationists. There are even Tamil educationists who are sceptical about using English as a medium of instruction. Everyone keeps thinking it's UMNO and the Malays. Not true.

That's why I emphasise "ethnicity" in the general sense. Every community needs to rise above their primordial fears about identity loss. I mean, if I met Lucy Liu the actress(who's American born and bred but ethnic Chinese) I can see her as a fellow Chinese or, I can see her as a foreigner to Malaysia. But i'm sure she understands Chinese culture as much as I do. And, she will have American values and I will have Malaysian values.

So, ethnic identity and culture will NEVER be lost. But the knowledge capital can easily be lost.

Anonymous said...

Hello CTChoo

What we see before us is the slow but surely executed murder of a nation by UMNO leaders who not only look for immediate gratification of their selfish needs but the alienation of even their own kind thus widening the disparity between the rich and poor within their community.

At the same time, many Chinese and Indian leaders work to increase their own mileage and are unable to see beyond their noses. So put them altogether and we have disaster. If only they would stop opposing to (and start supporting)the use of English as a medium of instruction, maybe, just maybe, we might be back on track again. But then again, there are other problems that come into play.

The failure of educational institutions to fulfill their sociological functions has already spelled doom for many. The inability to impart the right values, to exercise social control over students in the form of the most appropriate means of discipline, the appalling standard of English (to me, the rot set in when BM became the medium of instruction in the 1970s)and the stark absence of critical thinking skills of many today have actually undermined our ability to compete and to function in modern society.

To exacerbate matters, we have leaders who have medieval and racist policies, some of whom were educated until Form 4(*hint - refer to Ruyom's comment) and set such deplorable standards and forms of behaviour/speech for the youth. So what can we expect?

Years ago,I read an article which warned of how Malaysia will be like Indonesia in the future and the current scenario seems to point to one direction - downhill.

The sorry state of affairs in our education system where values and standards are compromised plus the warped policies of our even more warped politicians who seek self-glorification are enough to tell us what will happen to
Malaysia.

Only a complete overhaul of our government and the education system (plus many other areas!!!!)can pull us out of the doldrums. In the mean time, we can dream of a new government to alleviate our pain, disappointment and despair....

de minimis said...

masterwordsmith

For starters, we need to see political courage. It is ironic that the Minister of Education has the Dutch courage (apologies to the Dutch) of claiming heroic virtues every time the Youth branch of his party meets but when it comes to the crunch in the area of nurturing and equipping the next generation of Malaysians, he abdicates his responsibility.

A "cowardly hero", which is an oxymoron that I am coining.