Thursday, September 15, 2016

Moderates must speak up — Mohd Sheriff bin Mohd Kassim

Malaysia has non-leaders leading it nowadays. That is the root of the problem.

Whatever said and done, race relations and religion must be heavily policed in Malaysia. This is because it is so easy for incendiary talk to ignite misunderstanding.

This is where we are after decades of poor leadership, especially since 1981.

G25 is endemic of the current sick reality. It comprises Muslim Malaysians that hold sensible views. It is exclusive in its moderation. Read the report here.

It appears that if any such groupings have mixed ethnicity, their voice will be diluted.

Beggars cannot be choosers, I guess.

So, here I am. A non-Muslim Malaysian who finds peculiar and perplexed but positive ambivalence about being drawn to the category of "moderate". I guess it means that I am not "extreme" or "indifferent". But, who knows what the other categories are?

How the hell did we arrive here?

When did being "Malaysian" transform into the necessity of being a "Moderate Malaysian"?

It appears more so than ever that 1981 was a very bad year for Malaysia.

The only problem is that we didn't know it at the time.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Umno has ‘option’ to work with foes, but chose BN parties, Nazri tells MIC chief

Nazri Aziz is calling it as he sees it. Unvarnished. Brutal. What he said are facts. This is the current reality.

Other than UMNO none of the other BN components can get votes anymore. There is no ballast for the non-UMNO BN components.

UMNO is very confident that most of the Malay voters will vote UMNO regardless of all the news and information on 1MDB etc. UMNO is confident that most of the Malay voters are very clear that without UMNO the Malay race will perish from the face of this earth.

Therefore, UMNO's strategy benefits only UMNO.

The bovine motley crew of MCA, MIC, Gerakan, etc. is dead in the water. They are headed to the waterfall of ignominy without a paddle.

This is the time for timorous leaders to step aside and for leaders of courage and vision to stand up....if there are any.

A long time ago, UMNO was weak. The Independence of Malaya Party was strong under Dato' Onn Jaafar. The MCA was wealthy under Tan Cheng Lock. And, Cheng Lock and Dato' Onn had very good rapport.

But it was Ong Yoke Ling and Yahya bin Abdul Razak who decided that MCA and UMNO could work together for the first real elections in 1951. Thus, the precursor to BN, the Alliance, was born.

But, that was then. 

Times change. Circumstances change. Players change.

It is time for the non-UMNO parties to re-attach their balls of courage and set a new non-BN course.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Undermining Bank Negara's policies - Allowing developers to become moneylenders is a HUGE mistake

The move by the Malaysian Government to allow property developers to obtain moneylending licences is a HUGE mistake. There is no way to sugar coat this.

Many of us are aware of the long, long time it took for Bank Negara Malaysia to bring the non-bank financial institutions such as Bank Rakyat and the Malaysia Building Society Berhad (MBSB) into its regulatory purview. This effort was to allow the monetary authority to more efficiently manage the monetary aspects of Malaysia's economy.

The likes of Bank Rakyat and MBSB were able to implement fairly liberal and generous financial products below the radar of Bank Negara previously. 

With the onset of the Financial Services Act 2013, Bank Negara's reach over Malaysian financial-type institutions was almost complete.

This new move by the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Ministry to issue moneylending licences to property developers threatens to undermine Bank Negara's monetary management.

We thought it was clear as the light of day that Bank Negara instituted measures over the recent 2 years to cool down the overheated property market and prevent property bubbles from forming. Property bubbles that burst can have very serious implications for the country's economy.

And, moneylending, being a financial transaction has a direct causal link to the overall monetary health of the Malaysian economy. A fragmented moneylending market that is outside Bank Negara supervision is a bad thing. Worse, this fragmented moneylending market will have ZERO SUPERVISION because the Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government Ministry does not have any competency in understanding the impact of possible aggressive lending methods by desperate property developers.

This is where the nightmare scenario may happen and property bubbles start to form.

I am already so terribly annoyed with the fragmented property development sector. That is largely under the purview of local councils and state governments.

Judging from the volatility of the property sector, it is clear that there really is no national property development policy. 

Property developers appear to be no different from farmers. The supply and demand of the property market exhibits all the bad traits warned by the Cobweb Theory in economics. One basic definition can be found here and I reproduce it for you-

The cobweb theorem is an economic model used to explain how small economic shocks can become amplified by the behaviour of producers. The amplification is, essentially, the result of information failure, where producers base their current output on the average price they obtain in the market during the previous year. This is, to some extent, a non-rational decision, given that a supply side shock between planting and harvesting (such as an unexpectedly good or bad harvest) can lead to an unexpectedly lower or higher price. This results in either a higher output or a lower output in subsequent years, and moves the market into a long-term disequilibrium position.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Flying the flag

Malaysians should always raise the national flag, the Jalur Gemilang, at every opportunity. More so during the season that straddles 31st August and 16th September in every year.

Although there will be times when the mood is sombre due to political or economic challenges, raising the flag should be a matter of routine. It just shows our love of Malaysia, the country that we were born in; the country we live in; the country that we will die in.

We shouldn't NOT fly the flag just because we are angry of any transient politicians. That would be giving these people who are temporarily in the limelight too much recognition.

These nasty personalities are transitory. They will fade away and disappear. 

But, Malaysia will be around beyond our lifetime. 

We should fly the flag because of our love for Malaysia. We should fly the flag because we believe that things will turn around for the better.

I debated whether to hoist the flag this year as I have done for many, many years now. In the end, I decided to hoist the flag and see it flutter in full glory in the windy compound of my home.

I am glad I flew the flag.

It will continue to fly through to 16th September.

And, it flutters in my home compound not because I support the current crop of politicians who are in power; it flutters not because I don't support these politicians - for these people are irrelevant to my flying the flag; it flutters in my home compound because I am Malaysian.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Iconoclasm - Malaysia's Constitution, Institutions and Procedures

Just so you know, it's mostly Dr Mahathir's fault that Malaysia's constitutional system of checks and balances has gone askew. I'm being bland and circumspect. This civility is not in deference to Dr M. It is out of respect of the subject matter of discussion here.

The Federal Constitution of Malaysia must be respected by everyone. It is the supreme law of Malaysia. It has a higher place even than DYMM Yang Di Pertuan Agong. In fact, the Federal Constitution begat the position of the Agong.

The Federal Constitution created the legislative branch of the Dewan Rakyat and the Dewan Negara and the paraphernalia of membership in those august chambers.

It also created the Judiciary which is intended to be the fount from which springs justice and fairness to all; Malaysian and non-Malaysian for so long as you are stepping on Malaysian soil.

And, unfortunately, it also created the Executive branch of government.

In a corporate context, the legislature is like the meeting place for shareholders representatives; all citizens being the shareholders.

The judiciary is like the statutory auditors that all corporate entities are required to engage.

The executive branch is the management.

This triangulation is the modern idea that carries the presumption so famously summed up by Lord Acton, that power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

By a miracle, one might say, Malaysia managed to maintain the tension of constitutional audit during its many years of nationhood and, thus avoided Lord Acton's axiom.

Once, in Tun Razak's era, the precipice of tyranny was avoided when Emergency Rule of 1969 was retired and the constitutional triumvirate restored in 1971.

Then, after Tun Hussein Onn's era, came Dr M.

This fella pretty much screwed the Federal Constitution and all its institutions.

He took down the monarchy's constitutional position in the legislative process in 1983.

He screwed the Judiciary in 1987.

Throughout his interregnum, 1981 to 2003, he emasculated the Legislature by disrespecting the importance of Parliamentary Debates and Question Time. 

He enlarged the the writ and power of the Executive by stacking the Judiciary, appointing sycophantic personalities in all key positions; be it the monetary authority, the attorney-general's post and the law enforcement agencies.

From the point of view of economic development and national pride, he did reasonably well and presided over two decades of reasonable significance. I am glossing over a helluva lot of flotsam and jetsam, I know, but, let's stick to the agenda, shall we?

It is generally accepted that when one refers to a generation, it means a period of anywhere between 20 to 25 years.

So, going by that wisdom, Dr M's interregnum spanned a whole generation.

Think about it. 

An entire generation of Malaysians grew up and grew old under a regime and regimen where everything is fair game ... for the greater good ... which "greater good" is seen from the perspective of Dr M.

This generation grew up accepting that if someone stands in your way, and if you are the Prime Minister, you just neutralise and neuter that person and his personage.

And, so, a potentially difficult monarch is in process of being elevated in 1983. Poof! Emasculate the legislative procedure.

And, so, a Lord President seemed to be getting in the way in 1987. Poof! Remove him. He's gone.

And, so, a restive Legislature and Opposition is coalescing in 1987. Poof! Preventively detain them.

And, so, a conscientious Fourth Estate of print media provides firmer reportage than before in 1987. Poof! Suspend their printing privileges.

This is what a whole generation of Malaysians were entreated to.

This form of constitutional iconoclasm has now embedded itself into the value system of Dr M's successors in title.

What we witness today is the embodiment and practises that Lord Acton's axiom warned against when people in power has the ability to amass and concentrate power.

When Arthur Schlesinger wrote The Imperial Presidency he fretted over the U.S. President's self-aggrandising process of giving the office of the U.S. President increasing power to authorise military action in Vietnam and Laos in the 1970s.

In Malaysia, we have been witnessing the growth of the Imperial Prime Minister's position since 1981.

This constitutional iconoclasm will be Dr M's greatest legacy.

When Dr M's hands were at the wheel, he was an able Nakhoda. Within his own psyche he bore his own peculiar set of values which in its own peculiar way held him back from doing certain things that he had the power to do but resisted doing.

He had a set of values. It could be upbringing. It could be education. It could be the fear of the audit in his Afterlife. Whether it was Nurture or Nature, Dr M had his own internal system of checks and balances.

The same can be said with much greater strength for Pak Lah. History will look kindly on Pak Lah. I look very kindly on Pak Lah's time at the helm of Malaysia.

The question that Tun Razak failed to ask and, the same question that Dr M failed to ask was, "What if this power that I have amassed in the Office of the Prime Minister is embodied in someone with less values and scruples than I?"

But, in the absence of any constitutional checks and balances, the Ship of State that is the current constitutional ethos is moving in any which way without any restraint. There are no longer any checks and balances.

Mind you, to an untrained eye and mind, the Federal Constitution is still here. The constitutional institutions are still here. Even the constitutional procedures are still writ.

But, with persons who grew up and were fed with Mahathirist authoritarianism and his constitutional iconoclasm, can Malaysia depend on an individual leaders sense of personal values, upbringing and innate fear of the Afterlife? What if a leader has no such values or filter?

"So", asks the Minister in Malaysia's 2016 Federal Cabinet who grew up and was fed on Mahathirism, "what's the problem?"

This is why some of us are crying out for the restoration of the spirit and soul of the Federal Constitution, constitutional institutions and constitutional processes.

And, what is Dr M doing now?

Well, I can tell you that whatever it is that he is doing, he ain't hectoring for the restoration of the spirit and soul of the Federal Constitution, constitutional institutions and constitutional processes.

He's just asking for a change of personnel.

Go figure......

Friday, April 22, 2016

Foreign Workers Permits, Triple-D jobs and Market-based System

I don't really want to get into the semantics and polemics of the Triple-D jobs in Malaysia that the people in power insists, Malaysians do not want to do. The 3 "D"s in Triple-D are DIRTY, DANGEROUS and DULL.

This blog has 2 parts.

Here's Part 1. This widely held view that Malaysians eschew Triple-D jobs is too simplistic. Those of us who have traveled to more advanced economies in the Western world and East Asia will testify to have seen Caucasians, Japanese and South Koreans do Triple-D jobs in their own countries. And, you can watch a popular show hosted by Mike Rowe called Dirty Jobs to see for yourself that people in advanced economies are quite happy to do Triple-D jobs.

So, the more appropriate question would be to ask why is it that Malaysians appear not to want to do Triple-D jobs? 

When I wanted to earn some extra cash during my university student days I applied for a Triple-D job in a woodyard. This was in a Western country. Dirty jobs are dirty jobs wherever you are! I was quite happy to do the jobs for a few reasons-
  • Yes, ok, I needed the cash-la.
  • There were lots of safety equipment given. Ear plugs to protect your hearing. Safety glasses to protect your eyes. Breathing mask to protect your nose and lungs. Safety boots to protect your feet. Safety harness to protect yourself from falling. The list goes on. AND .... the boss briefed me on the do's and don't's of the work.
  • The pay was very decent.
Malaysians are not bodoh. We look at the people doing Triple-D jobs all over our country and we have all been exposed to all sorts of information and images of what people who do Triple-D jobs do in advanced economies. More often than not, we don't see similar equipment being used by people doing Triple-D jobs in Malaysia.

Even with the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), many Malaysian employers involved in Triple-D enterprises are lax and stingy. 

And the pay is usually too crappy.

These are structural issues that the people in power should be addressing in order to engender a virtuous cycle for Triple-D jobs that will attract Malaysians. 

There is no need for people in power to talk about institutionalising the importation of 1.5 million foreign workers and, then, to childishly do a volte-face when there is some push back from various segments of the Malaysian polity. People in power within a purported democratic framework should be mindful that Malaysia is an open, international and competitive economy. Arbitrariness in policies is one of the greatest sins in global competitiveness.

People in power must be big hearted and mature enough to go beyond the complacent assurance that their rural and Sabah and Sarawak vote bank will keep them in power and, that, therefore whoever is unhappy with the policies can just go and choke on their nasi lemak.

Now for Part 2.

There is a swirl of earnest discussion in the United States for the past 5 years or so, on the issue of migrant workers with low skills and those with high skills. This blog post, of course, focuses on the low-skills aspect of the matter.

The discussion focuses on the need for the U.S. to introduce a market-based system that operates like an auction system. Employers who need low-skilled foreign workers will each put in price bids based on their respective budgets. The highest bidder will secure their quota of foreign workers.

You can find one scenario for the proposed market-based system here.

Here's Adam Minter of Bloomberg's observation- A better system for Malaysia -- and other immigrant-dependent economies -- is to replace quotas altogether in favor of a market-based system in which employers in specific industries bid on permits to hire foreign workers. Permits would naturally flow to employers who need workers most, and the government could adjust the number made available based on economic circumstances. Done right, such a system would ultimately help local workers and boost wages, while demonstrating why economic immigration is so important. For now, Malaysia looks unlikely to take this path. But if its officials hope to justify their foreign-labor policies, they'd best consider letting the market do the talking for them.

Yes, the people in power should do the right thing and implement a foreign worker programme that lets the market do the talking!

As for the matter of looking into the structural issues involving getting more Malaysian involvement in the Triple-D jobs, can the people in power, especially those responsible for Human Resources, look into this a bit more.

I would like to do more studies into this matter but my day job obligations beckon and, so I have to leave it here.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

"First they came ..."

"First they came ..." is a famous statement and provocative poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazi's rise to power and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, group after group. Sourced from here.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
 -Martin Niemöller-

Friday, February 26, 2016

Singapore introduces daily cleaning duties for students

It appears that Singapore has decided to adopt the methodology similar to the Japanese educationists that will require students to be empowered with responsibilities to look after their own school environment.

I had felt that this would have been a good thing for the Khidmat Negara programme when my son was involved in it. The toilet and showers in their barracks were in a poor state and the canteen was in shambles after meal times. Each time, it was left to the contractors or administrators to deal with the matter. I felt that it would have been excellent if Khidmat Negara had modules similar to the Kemahiran Hidup or Living Skills subject taught in Malaysian schools but, this time, involving basic and useful matters such as plumbing, painting of walls, doors and windows and assorted cleaning and maintenance skills. This will foster civic mindedness and good citizenship.

Here's the BBC report for your edification.

Friday, February 12, 2016

We can do it too, if we try

Visitors to Japan are almost always amazed at the civic mindedness of the Japanese. This video documentary gives us a glimpse of how that mindset might be created.

It is not rocket science. I very much believe that it can be done in Malaysia too. We just need to try and try harder to create better citizens. We have to believe that we can do it.

So, how about it, Malaysia's educators?