By Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
(Luncheon address at ASLI Strategic Outlook Forum January 15, 2009)
RESTORING CONFIDENCE
A problem of confidence
The present financial crisis started in a speculative housing bubble in the US, inflated on greed and irrational confidence. Shady practices went mainstream under the wing of weak financial governance. When the bubble burst, gold-plated names on Wall Street were implicated. A massive loss of confidence in the financial sector has crippled credit flow worldwide. Consumption has contracted as households put off expenditure out of uncertainty. Investment has retreated. There has been a massive loss of confidence.
2. Expectations are a central factor in macroeconomic booms and busts. If a sharp loss of confidence is an endogenous part of the problem, a restoration of confidence must be the beginning of the solution. However, if we have learned anything at all from the crisis, this cannot be hollow confidence, but confidence based on a clear appreciation of our prospects. The lesson of the global economy is that false confidence based on irrational hope leads to collapse, disillusionment and pessimism.
3. We need a sound appreciation of our reality before we can dream of changing it. We need to face harsh truths before we can believe in ourselves and inspire others to believe in us. In coming to that sound appreciation here in Malaysia we have run out of time for politically manipulated messaging and sugar coated evasions.
4. Let us just begin by acknowledging that we will not be spared the effects of the global economic crisis.
5. Our leaders only undermine the government’s credibility when they paint an alternative reality for us. I understand we don’t want to frighten markets and voters unnecessarily, but we do not live in an information bubble. Only the most resolutely ignorant can now pretend that all shall be fine while the rest of the world deals with what Jeffrey Sachs has called “a world economy teetering on the brink of unprecedented catastrophe.” Leaders who deny the seriousness of the crisis only raise the suspicion that they have no ideas for coping with it. They undermine the government’s credibility when that very credibility, that confidence, is a key issue.
6. We are a trading and exporting nation. While we were relatively shielded from the first wave of financial failures there is no escape from the sharp demand slump in the global economy. The Government and Bank Negara maintain that our growth rate this year will be 3.5%. I fear it could be well under that. The latest numbers show a plunge in industrial activity, with manufacturing output in November, down 9.4 percent from a year ago. December may well be worse. Exports are down. There has been a dramatic swing in the balance of payments to a RM31 billion deficit in the third quarter, from a surplus of RM26 billion in the second. Anyone looking at the size of the downturn and at its swiftness can only wonder if we will be sailing through. This crisis really “went global” only in the final quarter of last year, but within that single quarter manufacturing both here and in Singapore contracted by more than 10 percent on the previous year. Policymakers in Singapore appear far more alarmed than our own. After having declared a recession, they found that the effects of the crisis were far worse than they thought. We are just at the beginning, and the bottom is not yet in sight.
7. Three and a half percent growth, even if we achieve it, will not create enough jobs to employ the large number who enter the workforce each year from our young population. Given our demographic profile and the fact that we are an oil exporter, our baseline do-nothing growth figure is not 0% but closer to 4%.
8. We do have a problem. Now we need to acknowledge that we are not in good shape to deal with it. After early decades of rapid progress, it looks like that economic growth has flattened, our public delivery system calcified and our economic leadership run out of ideas.
The financial crisis in the context of our developmental path
9. Malaysia is squeezed between being the low cost manufacturer we once excelled as, and the knowledge-intensive economy we are failing to become. Our years of sustained high growth ended in 1997 with the Asian Economic Crisis. With the subsequent rise of China and India as low cost producers with giant domestic markets, the manufacturing sector which propelled that growth is being hollowed out.
10. We are in the infamous “middle Income trap”. No longer cheap enough to compete with low cost producers and not advanced enough to compete with more innovative ones, we find ourselves squeezed in between with no economic story. Successful economies, like successful companies, need a compelling story, and we don’t have one. With falling communications and transport costs, the skilled engineers, managers and designers of the rich countries are pairing themselves to the cheaper labour of poor countries to extract productivity and cost benefits. The global integration of labour markets favours both rich and poor countries and stagnates the wages of those in the middle that are neither smarter nor cheaper. That means us. Our working people have suffered stagnant wages and a rising cost of living.
11. According to the World Bank, Malaysia’s share of GDP contributed by services was 46.2% in 1987. How much did you think it was twenty years later in 2007? 46.4%.
How much do you think the real wages of our workers grew between 1994 and 2007? By 2.6% in the domestic sector and by 2.8% in the export sector.
Unskilled migrant workers, documented and undocumented, make up 30-40% of our workforce. Meanwhile, alone in East Asia, the number of expatriate professionals here has decreased. Alone in East Asia, private sector wage increases follow government sector increases, not the other way around.
Did we have to learn about this from the World Bank? What has the EPU been doing? Has the cabinet pondered these numbers? Have we had a national discussion about what this?
12. The only long term path to prosperity is increased income through increased productivity. Sustained productivity growth is the engine of China’s unbroken run of high growth. Our failure to increase productivity and working incomes has been masked by an influx of cheap labour. That cheap labour has become another crutch for us.
13. Low growth
a) The other thing masking our underperformance over the last decade is the fact that in this time the world economy has experienced its biggest expansion in recorded history. We have averaged 4 to 5 percent growth throughout a historic boom over which world economic growth has averaged 4.5 percent. Meanwhile the two most populous nations in the world have been growing at or near double digit rates, multiplying per capita incomes and lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty in the greatest expansion of human welfare in history. That boom is over and we have missed it.
b) By analogy, when we view the report cards of our own children, we set our expectations against what they have been given and what they were capable of in the past. Turning to our own country, so richly endowed with natural and cultural resources, a stable society and good institutions, we see a failing report card. Instead of educating our young to be competitive we have turned out large numbers without the skills and attitudes suited for basic work, let alone for the global economy that is not out there somewhere but on our own shores.
Each decade we have discovered new ‘peer-countries’ against whom we might look decent because we have fallen out of the league of the last set of peers. We fail to notice we have been relegated. Remember that in the 60’s we were classified with Taiwan and Korea, in the eighties with Singapore and Hong Kong. Now we are less “relevant” than Vietnam as an investment destination. I remember receiving delegations from Taiwan and Hong Kong who came to learn from us.
14. Inequality
We cannot comfort ourselves that we have sacrificed growth for social equity. Despite the strong redistributive measures the government has pursued for decades, our Gini coefficient, the standard measure of inequality, has been ballooning. In this region only Papua New Guinea is more unequal. We have the most unequal income distribution in Southeast Asia. If there is supposed to be a trade-off between growth and equity, we have not made it. We are failing on both growth and equity.
15. What does it take to make the leap from middle to high income? The countries that have done it recently, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, have one feature in common: they were able to learn from previous crises. Without a buffer of natural resources, each of these economies was more exposed than we were. In relative terms, because they are even more trade oriented than we are, each may be harder hit by this downturn than we are. But we miss the picture if we stand by and comfort ourselves that we are ‘shielded’ because our capital markets have been less open. Our very problem may be that we have been shielding ourselves from learning, which requires systematic change in behaviour or knowledge informed by experience.
16. The criterion of success for making the developmental leap, the key differentiator between the leaders and the also-rans, is not immunity from economic crises (after all, if you have a Stone Age economy, you are completely immune) but the organizational capability of governments to learn and re-organize around new national economic strategies through these crises. Each major crisis is either an important opportunity to transform the economy or a major setback to our ambitions. The question is whether our policymaking and policy implementing apparatus is set up, motivated and led to learn from this crisis. It is a question of the capability of government and governance.
17. We must also retrain and re-skill those who lose their jobs because of this crisis. This cannot be done in the present ad hoc manner. It must be a coordinated program, with courses matched and tracked to learners according to a National Skills Plan which in turns supports a vision for the Economy. Those lost jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector, will not be coming back. We better have a plan and a vision.
18. What are the consequences of sailing into an economic storm in our present condition, after a decade of lacklustre performance and with no plan, no vision for sustained high growth? We can look at two scenarios: breakdown or relegation.
a) Breakdown
As a developmental state, the legitimacy of our government is based on its guarantee of social peace and economic development.
As Professor Clive Kessler has observed: “Social peace in Malaysia depends upon the continuation, and the continuing expectation, of economic growth and prosperity; while economic growth and prosperity depend upon the continuation and assurance of social peace.” This reciprocal relationship between peace and growth makes us prone to a vicious feedback cycle: if either engine were to fail, the other would fail with it, and take us down a spiral of failure with a painful end. Our margin for error is slimmer than we think. Our socio-political setup implies that we don’t have a smooth glide down to complete irrelevance. Like a bicycle or an airplane we need to be running at a certain speed to avoid falling off.
b) Relegation
On a second scenario we might just coast through the downturn. However we will emerge with an economy that has failed to gear up to the demands of the global economy, fallen yet further behind along our developmental path and locked ourselves tighter into a long term pattern of low growth. Sooner or later will come that painful reckoning described in the first scenario.
19. We should view the crisis in the context of our history as a young nation. The last time the world faced a contraction of this size Malaysia did not yet exist. The crisis is has broken out at a critical point in the development paths of our economy and our political system. Put these three factors together, and we have a perfect storm: an unprecedented need for leadership at just the moment when our system for selecting and legitimizing political leadership appears to be broken.
Where next
20. My reading of where we stand may seem harsh, but perhaps the world is harsher. I don’t wish to offend, but I believe we need to grasp the peril of our situation clearly before we know what to do next.
21. In the medium term we need to make a developmental leap. But a leap is not a straight-line projection of the present. It is not about doing more of what we have done. We are not going to get there putting up more highways, declaring more Growth Corridors or planting more oil palm. The way up is a complex achievement that in turn depends on transformative improvements in governance and a successful reform of our political system.
22. The world recession is a critical opportunity for us to re-gear and re-tool the Malaysian economy because it is a challenge to take bold, imaginative measures. It lights the fire under our feet to make transformative improvements in governance and politics. It also demands that the government spend boldly on the right things, in the right way, to stimulate demand.
23. Two criteria for ‘the right things” would be those public investments with the widest multiplier effects, over the short and the longer term. Over the short term, there are often tradeoffs between impact on demand and on improved economic capacity. Over the long term, the two are the same. The “long term multiplier” is nothing less than the improved capacity of the entire system.
24. So we must think carefully about what we spend the “fiscal stimulus” on. There is no such thing as a free lunch. We will be going into deficit to finance this stimulus, so it can’t be about just spreading money around. So far there has been no impact from the stimulus package announced in November, nor was it clear what the economic thinking was behind that measure.
25. We don’t need another stimulus “package” of spending here and there. What we need, and what the crisis gives us a chance to implement, is a set of bold projects with an economic story behind them to help Malaysia make the developmental leap we have been missing. We have a once in a lifetime economic challenge. We must meet this challenge with a historic sense of purpose. That means, not with a “stimulus” consisting of ad hoc pork barrel expenditures but a set of public investment projects guided by a vision, designed around a strategy and governed with bullet-proof integrity.
26. Let me suggest two programmes and an enabling set of reforms.
Oil and Gas Centre
27. Oil and Gas has served us well, but we have still not tapped our strategic strength in this sector despite our unmatched natural and strategic advantages:
a) Malaysia is the leading Oil and Gas producer in the region. Our proven reserves have been augmented by major discoveries in recent years.
b) More than half the world’s annual merchant fleet tonnage passes through the Straits of Malacca, with most of it continuing into the South China Sea. Oil flows through the Straits of Malacca are three times greater than that through the Suez Canal and fifteen times greater than flow through the Panama Canal. We live alongside the most important oil shipping route in the world. Our fifteenth century ancestors may have done more to tap that advantage than we.
c) We have in Petronas one of the leading oil companies in the world.
d) We have strong trade links to Middle Eastern oil producers.
28. We could do much better. Consider that despite having no oil resources, Singapore is among the top three global players in trading, refining and manufacture of oil and gas equipment.
29. Three years ago, while Malaysia still held the OIC chairmanship, I proposed a National Strategic Plan with the vision of developing Malaysia into Asia’s Oil and Gas centre, with leading capabilities in refining, shipping, distribution, storage and downstream production.
30. We should develop offshore storage facilities for other producer nations with high country risk. Oil and gas exploration, extraction and production are increasingly technology driven, high value operations in themselves as oil becomes scarcer. There will be large payoffs for having our own R&D capability in exploration, extraction and production. We should specialize in energy technology, including alternative energy sources for a carbon-constrained future.
31. We should form partnerships along the value chain. These could include a network of agreements with Gulf producers and with major consumers to improve oil security. We could form G-to-G partnerships in ASEAN, provide tax incentives and craft innovative Production Sharing Contracts,
32. Here’s the exciting thing. For all these ventures to work we need greatly improved capabilities to finance and trade oil and gas. Given our very special geographic and strategic advantages, we should build the first spot and futures Exchange for Oil and Gas in an OIC nation.
33. Whatever the government chooses to do, it should understand that for us to get on a higher growth plane we must specialize, and we must have a government capable of providing the direction, drive and executive capability to foster that specialization. Globalisation requires a relentless focus on competitive advantage. We need our own story.
Housing
34. Let’s start a program to bring home ownership to the whole country. The construction sector creates multiplier effects in more than a hundred other industries. It provides work in everything from insurance to advertising to materials supply. Of all the national projects we could undertake, few could have such a large social as well as an economic multiplier effect.
35. Housing builds powerful social capital and gives substance to citizenship. A national housing project allows us to design entire communities and townships with their transportation, communications, educational and recreational infrastructure with a strong set of standards and social objectives. It lets us plan the housing stock to cater to the lifecycle of home ownership, with a good mix of options for different localities and life-cycle requirements. It is a way to grow racial harmony, build integrated schools, and help the poor without creating a crutch.
36. Let’s commit ourselves to having each and every Malaysian family own their own home. This vision is a radical challenge to the nation to do better. It will require extraordinary improvements in our ability to design, construct and finance housing projects. It will require the setting up of a statutory board to oversee housing development, administration and management. As land governed by the State powers, the States will have to implement these projects. This will require, and hopefully force, improved coordination between the Federal and State governments, especially now that we might no longer expect that the same party is in power in both places.
37. Financing for this investment could come from modifications to EPF, with matched contributions from the government towards the value of the property. Because it comes out of savings, this spending would be non-inflationary. I can think of few better ways to get the economy humming again, give our citizens a focal point of hope and pride, and weave a safety net that also encourages savings and enterprise.
Public sector reform
38. We cannot wait till the crisis blows over to tackle the public delivery system head on. This is because we will need an upgraded public service just to implement such large public programs successfully.
39. The need for improved governance is greater, not less, in challenging economic times. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt implemented the New Deal to push America out of the Great Depression, many feared that this would present a huge opportunity for graft. Confounding these expectations, the New Deal programmes were implemented with unprecedented transparency. FDR did this by building oversight into the implementation of his rescue program.
40. Similarly, the two programmes I have suggested would come to nought if they were derailed by the corrupt practices that have become the norm in this country. Instead of rescuing our economy they would become millstones around our neck. As part of the project management of these programmes we should set up powerful, independent divisions devoted to investigating complaints of fraud.
41. Today the role of the public sector is a lot more complex than anyone could have imagined even a decade ago. A “public delivery system” that was designed for the challenges of the 1950’s cannot possibly cope with the complex demands of the globalised 21st. The current crisis propagated worldwide in internet time as regulators scrambled to catch up. Government now needs to be smarter, tougher and more responsive than before to engage on equal footing with business. We need leadership to change the operating model of the civil service from last century’s centralized planning approach, driven by budgetary plans, to a model of government as facilitator, aggregator and convener of business. Government that targets economic outcomes rather than accounting quotas.
42. We need to demand as much talent and organizational ability in our public service as the private sector does of its own people. Today the quality government is a core component of national competitiveness. However there is nothing strange about the expectation that the civil service should be a high performing organization led by an intellectual elite. It is how the Malayan Civil Service used to operate. Many of us remember it.
CONCLUSION
43. What I have outlined this afternoon are just my suggestions. I am sure there are many other ideas in this distinguished company.
44. Let me end where I began, with the question of confidence.
45. We need to restore confidence in our basic institutions, our leadership, the integrity of the Federation, the rule of law and our national Constitution. This is of a piece with the vital economic confidence needed to unleash credit, investment and consumption, and get everyone working. We need to restore confidence in Malaysia.
46. Real confidence is hope based on an apprehension of the truth. It is social capital and trust in society and its future. It is inspired by leaders willing to take us through an unflinching evaluation of where we are today to a vision of what we are capable of tomorrow. It means owning our own story and banking on it.
47. The country can no longer afford a political class out of touch with reality that trades on yesterday’s political insecurities and a government that has forgotten its purpose. We need a renewal of leadership as a first step to restoring true confidence.
48. The economic statistics are mere indicators of the activities and expectations of the unique national community we are trying to build, so that building an economy and building a nation, providing good governance and being truthful, are not things that can be achieved apart from one another. To reignite our confidence would be to revitalise the project of building Malaysia.
Such a long story, let me summarize it.
The old Chinese Proverb: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
Enough said! you know what policy must be dismantled, and what should be reformed.
Dear YB Lim
Reading this address by Tengku Razaleigh makes me worry
about the incompetence of so many of the people running our nation.
Can the PR form a \shadow cabinet\ quickly and use these shadow cabinet Ministers to prod these incompetents in the ruling regime to do something quickly about the areas under their charge?
\Brain Trusts\ of concerned experts should also be formed by the PR to propose public policies to be implemented for the good of the long-suffering Malaysian public.
Phua Kai Lit
Tunku Razaleigh is well recognised …as an excellent economist.
Honestly speaking…I just glance through the piece..focus my mind for change of government…..and let the new one digest all that.
If I am the new governor..I will focus on educations..health care and unity…using Petronas money…to buy proven quality goods from small and medium size companies….that are in trouble..to help to them grow…and be somewhat a salesman to these people. I am thinking along the line of USA buying up potatoes and corn…and ship them off to poor countries…FOC.
Malaysia is a small country…why so many problems?
Are Malaysians not willing to unite and work as one?
Sure we do.
New govt. may not do the wrong thing by employing a large force who have experiences in businesses to check out things…on the road…and guide the whole country up…through industrialization.
Razaleigh have proven ..he is capable to play dirty politic too..teaming up with Mahathir …recently.
I hope ..he has change and forget UMNO or his race…and talk as a Malaysian.
Personally…I do not care two hoots of any advises given by him….or any UMNO two timers….meaning he can be a human being and he can be a devil.
//36. Let’s commit ourselves to having each and every Malaysian family own their own home.//
He conveniently neglects to mention that a particular race will be able to purchase homes at 10% discount, even though his salary is higher than of the other races who get 0% discount
Tell it to the UMNO goons, they will have a ready answer for you.
Global financial crisis is meant for others and will not reach the shore of Bolehland.
One way to stimulate the economy is to spend more on buying helicopters, building new airport…spend, spend, spend and take, take take…..
Australia only a year ago has a booming economy. Last month alone 45,000 lost their jobs and more is predicted. The economy is going on a tail spin and recession is just around the corner. Malaysia is not the same, we have a very efficient government and uncorrupted leaders running the country, we are in safe hands!
I hope, we do not have to wake up one morning and find ourselves in the shithole!
It takes a crucial by-election where it has great difficulty in winning for umno to consider lowering electricity tariffs.
The Cabinet has directed the Economic Planning Unit, the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC), Petronas and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) to sit together and review the prices of natural gas and electricity
/// Housing
34. Let’s start a program to bring home ownership to the whole country. The construction sector creates multiplier effects in more than a hundred other industries. It provides work in everything from insurance to advertising to materials supply. Of all the national projects we could undertake, few could have such a large social as well as an economic multiplier effect.
35. Housing builds powerful social capital and gives substance to citizenship. A national housing project allows us to design entire communities and townships with their transportation, communications, educational and recreational infrastructure with a strong set of standards and social objectives. It lets us plan the housing stock to cater to the lifecycle of home ownership, with a good mix of options for different localities and life-cycle requirements. It is a way to grow racial harmony, build integrated schools, and help the poor without creating a crutch.
36. Let’s commit ourselves to having each and every Malaysian family own their own home. This vision is a radical challenge to the nation to do better. It will require extraordinary improvements in our ability to design, construct and finance housing projects. It will require the setting up of a statutory board to oversee housing development, administration and management. As land governed by the State powers, the States will have to implement these projects. This will require, and hopefully force, improved coordination between the Federal and State governments, especially now that we might no longer expect that the same party is in power in both places.
37. Financing for this investment could come from modifications to EPF, with matched contributions from the government towards the value of the property. Because it comes out of savings, this spending would be non-inflationary. I can think of few better ways to get the economy humming again, give our citizens a focal point of hope and pride, and weave a safety net that also encourages savings and enterprise. ///
These 4 paragraphs can be summarized in one phrase – Singapore’s Housing & Development Board (HDB).
Probably the government should make use of the by election to abolish IWK charges on medium and low cost high rise dwellings.Take for example many such residents in Petaling Jaya have been slapped with high and exorbitant assessment rates by MBPJ for years and they are also compelled to pay IWK charges.If the BN government knew how to make use of the oil and gas profits made by Petronas,Malaysians could have less economic woes to deal with now.
When UMNO increase oil prices by 78 sen per litre….one of the main reason Dollah gave … was to stop S’poreans and Thais to cross over and buy cheap oil.
Now oil prices to be reduced further…..with no news about S”poreans and Thais enjoying them. I guess those blockheads finally realized…those become tourists and spend off their profits in Malaysia…one way or another.
Here is a classic example..how UMNO talk with no values.
What more…reading advises by one….that try to oust Abdullah Badawi…for personal gain.
Devils fighting devils..so clear in UMNO.
MCA is also fighting each other. So is MIC.
What clearer signs Malaysian want….that present government cannot solve their own problems..and BN parties…..are catching on straws..to avoid be drowned and to be saved by UMNO…all over again….and again.
MCA and MIC are real low class politicians.
No one in UMNO respect Tunku Razaliegh…except from his kampong folks….giving him one vote…to stand for UMNO PM election..avoiding ..ZERO!!
How shameful…..and do we need to be advised by a total failure with no principles in life?
we can’t forever depend on oil revenue to fund national development……………..could we ?
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah talks about “demands of the global economy” ; that “instead of educating our young to be competitive we have turned out large numbers without the skills and attitudes suited for basic work, let alone for the global economy” ; that path to prosperity is increased income through increased productivity”; that we fail to develop “knowledge-intensive economy”; that “our failure to increase productivity and working incomes has been masked by an influx of cheap labour”; “that cheap labour has become another crutch for us”.
What about the other “crutch” (the compendium of socio/economic affirmative policies otherwise known as the NEP) that he dares not even mention by its name too loudly – in fear of its political costs of so mentioning – except for the briefest almost ephemeral allusion to “we cannot comfort ourselves that we have sacrificed growth for social equity” supposedly based on “yesterday’s political insecurities” that “the country can no longer afford”….???
Isn’t misplaced implementation of NEP (for political leverage) one of the main antithesis to the country’s climbing up the Value Added Chain, and a cause of brain drain ?
Ku Li has always been known a strong advocate of affimative policies and believes in NEP. He says NEP is “not against free market principles. NEP is a tool just to adapt and allow the Malays into the free market game.” He explains that the NEP is a structured social re-engineering package and it is actually a National Agenda (not a Malay Agenda). He even cites “the developed West also adopt ‘Affirmative Social Actions’. President Bill Clinton adopted this policy to narrow the widening gap suffered by the Black Americans”.
All these from a man who is epitome of NEP’s expansion : in the late-1960s and 1970s, he was instrumental in setting up Bank Bumiputra, and in Perbadanan Nasional Bhd (Pernas) taking control of Malayan Banking, Sime Darby and London Tin. He played major role in establishing Petronas. Also he was the finance minister from 1976 to 1984, saw through the takeover by Bumi interests of Kumpulan Guthrie and Highlands & Lowlands.
To be fair to him, once in a while (depending on audience) he did mention that whilst “the country needs the NEP to keep the people together”, “the present policies need some refining and have to be implemented fairly. “You cannot go Robin Hood-style taking from some and giving to others. That is unfair and we cannot be unfair” .(Ref: Sept 2007: Merdeka Special Interview). But even his closing quote reiterated “The NEP is going to be here for another 50 years or more. Don’t be idealistic.”
So what’s the point? One does not hear him coming out with any detailed proposals on how the NEP may be otherwise implemented justly and fairly…
umno must have got the inspiration for “ketuanan” from the Swahili term ‘bwana’ meaning “master, great man, dignitary, personage, Mr., sir, lord (God)”: (in Africa) master, boss, sir [< Swahili < Arabic abuna “our father” < abu bound form of ab “father” + -na “our”].
So this is all about a new “master race” since the old Aryan one died with Adolf Hitler in 1945.
Glad that finally global economic crisis is being highlighted. Most electronic engineers in Penang are keeping their fingers crossed that their US companies sailed thru’ the worst ever turbulence…
Tengku Razaleigh is one of the few best UMNO men to do something for the country but unfortunately he has been ‘politic’ out! Sigh.
What a refreshing change to hear an UMNO member talk sense. But then he is not a usual UMNO member. He has seen the light. I only hope that his UMNO friends are reading, and will take heed.
In a historical state, a Japanese electronic company with about 1000 workers used to export between RM5-6 millions every month. Last month there was zero sales – unbelievable! In the year 2009, the first three months have not received any orders yet. However in April, it was reported that the orders come to RM500,000.
Many other MNCs especially those in electronics and chips sectors, are giving themselves six month with a view for total shut down to cut loss.
Our government is very bullish of our economy. I don’t know to cry or to laugh.
But life goes on and let’s tighten our belt.
cheers.
http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com/
Tengku should simply quit UMNO and either stay independent or join PKR. BN is a coalition of opportunists who deny everything even when disaster looks them in the eye.
Take Nor Mohamed Yakcop. This former foreign exchange trader who lost RM 12 billion of the country’s money now says that Bolehland will be spared the recession. Take Najib, who simply awarded contracts to Class F contractors in KT without any bidding or prequalification or terms of reference. It was, according to an observer, a case of a cow gone mad.
No we cannot and we must not accept the situation as it is with BN, for it is clear that they will run the country into the ground.
We keep hearing the words “pump priming”. The BN thieves are pumping the rakyat, and are priming the UMNOputras. This is the sad story of life under BN for the past 30-odd years.
Brainstorming means coming out with new ideas.These ideas are old enough for any government to act.In reality it does not work.Perhaps our university could contribute ideas which can save the nation.We are already in recession but hopefully not the whole year as the goverment stimulus package will not work.Simple economics will show that.
///Today the quality government is a core component of national competitiveness. However there is nothing strange about the expectation that the civil service should be a high performing organization led by an intellectual elite. It is how the Malayan Civil Service used to operate. Many of us remember it.///– TRH
We also remember that civil service was not an extension of UMNO.
Ku Li is definitely a prominent champion in Developmental Economics among the few economists whom can be named in Malaysia. He really knows how economics works by pinpointing the core concept of “every economic activity revolves around confidence.” The failing of Umno division heads in nominating Ku Li to stand as a contestant for Umno Presidency clearly indicates that the corruption practices within Umno itself has rendered a regrettable miss of opportunity for Umno to elect the best to head Umno in the future.
It is a crude fact that if Ku Li has to continue his stay in Umno as simply a Division Head in Gua Musang, there will be a waste of his good talent in Public Administration skills and profound knowledge in Economics. In order for Ku Li to be able to put his talent into good use in the field of helping Malaysia to revitalise its economy, Ku Li should be giving a serious thought about quiting Umno now. It is no point for Ku Li to continue stay as an Umno member when Umno seems to have already suffered a severe political senile dementia and be incapable to rebuild Malaysian people’s confidence on its leadership quality that has been tainted with the deep-rooted corrupt vices.
If Ku Li is willing to quit Umno now and join DAP, then I wish to make appeal to all DAP members that Ku Li be generously given the nomination as the candidate of the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia when Pakatan Rakyat with the help of DAP shall manage to win the majority seats of Parliament in the next General Election of Malaysia.
“Only the most resolutely ignorant can now pretend that all shall be fine while the rest of the world deals with what Jeffrey Sachs has called “a world economy teetering on the brink of unprecedented catastrophe.” Tengku Razaleigh
Jeffrey Sachs?? Sorry, typo error. Should read Jeffery QC.
“If Ku Li is willing to quit Umno now and join DAP, then I wish to make appeal to all DAP members that Ku Li be generously given the nomination as the candidate of the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia when Pakatan Rakyat with the help of DAP shall manage to win the majority seats of Parliament in the next General Election of Malaysia.” Onlooker
Interesting thought. But then you do not know Tengku Razaliegh personally and may be excused for making the suggestion.
Leaders who deny the seriousness of the crisis only raise the suspicion that they have no ideas for coping with it. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
The reality is that nobody really knows what the heck is going on including leaders in US and other developed countries as well as all the financial wizards who are nothing more than prostitutes in three piece suits. For a long time the world just go on living on borrowed time.
We are a trading and exporting nation. While we were relatively shielded from the first wave of financial failures there is no escape from the sharp demand slump in the global economy. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Sure we are a trade dependent country. So also are many other countries in Asia, including the “old developed ones” like Japan. I think Asian countries must learn to grow their economies other than exports. In the process if were to grow a little slower, so be it. There is no need to rush when in the end what we get is a piece of waste land with extreme income disparity, polluted air and water and garbage and filth everywhere.
There has been a dramatic swing in the balance of payments to a RM31 billion deficit in the third quarter, from a surplus of RM26 billion in the second. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
The reserves we have in BNM are not “earned” reserved. Some are just foreign monies parked in Malaysia for short-term investment. Of course when confidence is shattered or when investors need to face redemption elsewhere, it is natural for them to pull out.
Three and a half percent growth, even if we achieve it, will not create enough jobs to employ the large number who enter the workforce each year from our young population. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Well talk this to our entrepreneurs and government: why are we continuing to allow indiscriminate and large influx of foreign workers (skilled and unskilled, legal and illegal into this country). Obviously, we can’t do one thing right. The culprits are not just the government. It is also the lobbyist groups and business people who benefit enormously from foreign workers at the expense of Malaysia workers, income distribution and social cohesion.
We do have a problem. Now we need to acknowledge that we are not in good shape to deal with it. After early decades of rapid progress, it looks like that economic growth has flattened, our public delivery system calcified and our economic leadership run out of ideas. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Our decades of progress were largely due to go-go capitalism – building fat and “rental” class. It is pay back time in a way – just look gross abuses, inefficiency, ill-conceived privatisation of toll roads, power and other services. Even the best of economic situation now would not be able to resuscitate the present malaise we face. All UNMO leaders past and present particularly Mahathir are responsible. They are not nationalistic and ethical enough to do the right thing for this country, let’s face it.
Did we have to learn about this from the World Bank? What has the EPU been doing? Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Do you think EPU or other government agencies do not know? The core issue confronting this nation is not because we do not know. The core issue is collusion between the civil service and politicians to suck this country dry. How can we have productivity growth when the economy is saddled with so much inefficiency particularly related haphazard infrastructure development? For example, why proposing another airport when our existing one is still grossly underutilised?
We cannot comfort ourselves that we have sacrificed growth for social equity. Despite the strong redistributive measures the government has pursued for decades, our Gini coefficient, the standard measure of inequality, has been ballooning. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Let’s face it; our redistributive and social equity policies are nothing but means by which the well connected amass wealth to themselves using racist means
The countries that have done it recently, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, have one feature in common: they were able to learn from previous crises. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Why can’t we be more honest with ourselves? We can’t make it because we do not let the more capable and honest people to manage this country.
…but the organizational capability of governments to learn and re-organize around new national economic strategies through these crises. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Sure this is the right recipe, but it will never happen so long as we have cavemen running and managing the country.
Whatever the government chooses to do, it should understand that for us to get on a higher growth plane we must specialize, and we must have a government capable of providing the direction, drive and executive capability to foster that specialization. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
I think the government will be the last to know what/how to specialise. What the government need to do is allow the private sector to thrive, ensuring enough competition in the economy. Right now, the government is doing many things it is not supposed to do and not doing lots of things it is supposed to do.
Let’s commit ourselves to having each and every Malaysian family own their own home. This vision is a radical challenge to the nation to do better. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
Well, tell this to all the developers who over priced and delivered substandard houses and apartments to all the buyers. We have a do nothing government who is essentially in the pocket of all the developers.
We need to demand as much talent and organizational ability in our public service as the private sector does of its own people. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
I generally agree with the observations made on public sector. However, as far as Malaysia is concerned, the shortcoming is not just confined within the public sector. I think Malaysia private sector is also heavily populated by crony capitalists who thrive on the largesse or the corruption of government.
How to cope -simple.
Answer = Migrate.
Both parties government and opposition since the last election GE 12 never put a full stop from talking about politic and mundane issue
Not yet behave like the government of the day and the opposition of the day
Najib should appoint Tengku Razaleigh as a senior minister to his cabinet.
Dear Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, why try to teach a dead horse? Bring in the “spirit 46” and join PK. Your dreams for the country will come true.
Whatever happens to Malaysia in this recessionary times, the group that really governs Malaysia, the UMNO extremists, will be spared because they have already stashed away hundreds of millions. Enough to feed generations. Tengku or whoever amongst them who saw the light and know the way out can shout till hoarse and it will still fall on deaf ears. Nothing will change. The UMNO extremists will see to that because anything other than the status quo will mean a reduce rate of siphoning money from the national coffer. Malaysia will continue to be run like the mafia for these group of UMNO extremists are no better than gangsters. If we don’t kick these scums out from the corridor of power we only have ourselves to blame.
Talk is cheap and the long article means nothing. Malaysia has missed the boat very long time ago and will miss the next economic cycle if the govt. don’t get rid of the stupid nep and the corruption and restore meritocracy.
Just by having a clean and efficient govt, you will have solved 80% of the problem. As long as you dare not address these important issue, I consider that you are talking just nonsense. Do you think Zambawi can use your suggestion to rebuild their country?
razaleigh is right malaysia is in a “middle income trap” – neither cheap enough to be a low cost labor source nor equipped to compete in the upper echelon of the service industries – financial, technological, and intellectual services, etc. malaysia should have seen that coming though and for the longest time, umno wisecracks were either incapable of knowing what that means or having the discipline to prep for it. cue singapore and hong kong as examples. we had, and still have, natural resources as buffer and capital, but umno airheads are idiots. sgp and hk elevated themselves to international hubs for the global digital economy. it takes a whole nation to accomplish that through foresight, planning, education, more education, and mutual trusts working together; and malaysia is doing helluva job NOT getting there.
right on, Loh.
malaysia’s civil service is a massive throwing money at a bad problem. the cycle snowballs into something someday will break under its own unwieldy weight. slash the civil workforce in half, and deal with it. sometimes it takes a secondary problem to fix a larger one. surely the better half of the remaining workforce can step up to cover the load. of course it will not be the bn who’ll be doing this.
Godfather wrote:
“The BN thieves are pumping the rakyat, and are priming the UMNOputras. This is the sad story of life under BN for the past 30-odd years.”
That is most apt.
The main reason why for the delay in the tariff reviews is that TNB has been given a raw deal with its IPP agreements that enable the latter to laugh all the way to the banks.
It is time for taxpayers to demand that no secret deals/agreements are cut with any private company.
These are some of the punches he held back:
1) Umnoputras are super greedy and power crazy.
2) Umno government’s (-)meritocracy policy resulted in the country being led and governed by incompetent and incapable people.
3) Umno government’s instigated brain-drain.
4) Umno government’s decades of inefficiency and low work productivity which led to rampant corruption.
5) NEP policy and NEP implementation are two complete halves a piece of rubbish.
6) Umno governmet’s obssession with great monuments and strange and highly questionable mega projects and mega defence purchases.
8) Umnoputras’ Tuan McBully attitude.
9) Umno government’s policy of welcoming low skilled migrants and giving them residentship and citizenship.
10) Melurian and Cintanegara.
So hei the problem aint so simple man. Building confidence alone will not be enough!
Well, public spending and oil & gas centre project, I can agree to although oil & gas project impact tend not to be quick nor wide spread.
Housing? I never liked real estate stuff as stimulus and we likely overbuilt with leakages given that labour and a lot of component actually imported.
I think we have the same problem the US has which is that its not so easy to identify public spending project. Only ones I think really worthwhile is broadband, rail projects (NOT monorails please!) and public transport.
umno’s candidate for KT will still be paid even if he lost
Barisan Nasional is wasting public funds by appointing BN candidates who lost in last year’s general election as coordinators in the constituencies where they stood.
State Education, Local Government, Housing and Public Transport Committee chairman Nga Kor Ming claimed these coordinators were given salaries of RM3,000 for a state constituency and RM4,500 for a parliamentary constituency, with annual budgets of RM300,000 and RM500,000, respectively.
So, Mr Limkamput aka Mr Know-it-all, after your long posting above, what do you suggest ? I mean you say that the world doesn’t know what to do, this government doesn’t know what to do, the wise one must share with us what he knows.
111 PAS supporters switched camps to umno on Wednesday night. Of course anyone can switch camps, especially if their palms have been greased with a few thousand ringgit each. However, I bet they will still vote for PAS, and then switch back to PAS a few days later. That’s PAS kluk klek for you. And umno dumb-dumb.
THE Selangor government has taken delivery of 15 Toyota Camry 2.4 cars bought for use as official cars for its state executive councillors and top state government officials.
The Camry cars were bought to replace the Perdana V6 which were said to have incurred very high maintenance cost.
DAP IS LIKE UMNO, EXCEPT FOR PENANG…….
BOTH DAP OF PERAK AND SELANGOR ARE ABUSING RAKYAT MONEY AND GIVE STUPID EXCUSES AS IF RAKYAT ARE SO STUPID TO ACCEPT THEIR EXCUSES……..
WILL VOTE BN INSTEAD OF DAP IN NEXT GE……..
MOST LIKELY BN WILL TAKE BACK SELANGOR AND PERAK IN NEXT ELECTION…….
LUCKY PENANG, KEDAH AND KELANTAN ARE IN GOOD HAND.
SO FAR, PAS GOVERNMENT IS THE BEST IN GUARDING RAKYAT MONEY….. NO WASTAGES OR ABUSES
I still do not know what Karpal is trying to achieve by shooting his mouth off about Hudud at this time. I think it is high time somebody take over from him if he cannot hold his guns. I do not think he is the best person in diplomacy and being brash all the time do have its price. A good leader should have the clarity of mind to know at least that such unnecessary outburst does nothing more than fall nicely into the trap MCA set for him.
During the Permatang Pauh by-election last August, a number of promises were made by umno especially pledges of aid to mosques. Folks there are now alleging that the promises remain unfulfilled.
Godfather aka thief thief thief, simple, if you want my idea, please ask nicely. Otherwise you have to wait till I become Finance Minister III. In the meantime, please go back and read line by line what I wrote. May be you will get some of my suggestions embedded in the posting. One thing probably most of you don’t get: macroeconomics is much more difficult and extract than business administration. Let me ask you a few questions. If you are able to understand and answer those questions, then we are in business, otherwise don’t irritate me further, ok?:
What is GDP growth not in line with potential? What is GDP potential? What is productivity driven growth? What conditions must exist before we can have productivity driven growth? What are economic distortions (and rent seeking) and why it is bad? Give examples of economic distortions and rent seeking activities. What is current and capital accounts of the balance payments and how they are related to change in forex reserves? Explain how infrastructure development and delivery system affect GDP growth, GDP potential and efficiency? You and many other half baked businessmen and analysts now talk about pump priming. What are the unintended consequences of pump priming? Can it always work? DO you know where and how the government get the money to pump prime? What is the difference between government spending more or taxing less? Can government “pump prime” by taxing less instead of spending more? If so, what is the difference? If the government of the day can create money at will, can you tell me whether they are still roles played by interest rates and savings?
Wah Lau Eh, Limkamput, I ask one question, and I get 35 questions in return. I don’t talk about pump priming. I only said that the government pumps us poor rakyat and primes the UMNOputras. Maybe you can understand that.
OK, OK, I will ask nicely, Mr Know It All. Limkamput Sir, what’s wrong with the world economy and hence the Malaysian economy ?
Maybe I’ll put in a good word for you, Limkamput, with the UMNO regime. Maybe they will seat you at the same table as Najis and the Foreign exchange trader extraordinaire. Maybe you can tell them they are all half baked and useless, and only Limkamput can right the ship. Finance Minister III……maybe the pingat can be upgraded to a latukship ?
Forgotten who the guy above me says he is surprise of what has come out from Ku Li (UMNO’s men) mouth, talking about the obvious needs of the people and things they should have done about 15 to 20 years ago…..anyway, credits to him! :)
But not really surprising laa, bapak borek anak rintik maa…..since AAB is PM, all goons of his now knows how to “talk the walk, walk the talk” = talk already walk away laa!!! :)
Godfather, the world does not know what to do with the problem at its hand because the greed hole it had dug itself into was unprecedented and was something unlike what man has seen before. eventually they’ll figure it out but we’re hoping armageddon does not get to us first. countries like singapore are being hit hard because its bread and butter are linked to the subprime mess. malaysia should consider itself lucky it was not capable of being a digital economy like singapore and iceland. malaysia’s problem is not of the same nature but will be magnified when the world’s shxt hits the fan. afterall we’ve been covering our asses with our oil income for the longest time n free lunch is never really free. the world’s problem has reached our shores and oil is at $35. ku li’s gloomy tune had been writings on the wall but it could have been mitigated had it not been the massive failures of the umnoputras.
Wrong answer ! Only Limkamput has the right answer. All of us are half-baked, remember ?
godfather, you are precisely right for once.
Precisely right on all three points i.e. (a) trublumsian gave a wrong answer, (b) only Limkamput has the right answer and (c) the rest of us are half-baked.
Wow ! 3 out of 3 !
right on target again, i tell you, you are fast learner my friend, but please don’t tell undergrad2. He may get jealous, knowing him.
Mr. Kit Siang can I bring to your attention 2 interesting articles I have come across.
Article 1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/10/AR2009011002236_2.html
The article above (last paragraph on the 2nd has more details), indicates there is a network of companies in Malaysia aiding Iran to get banned US technology.
Article 2
In a rather longish article in the New York Times, I came across a reference to a Malaysia company, the Malaysian Smelting Co. this is a company listed on the KLSE but it looks like the majority shareholders are Singaporeans.
The relevant page is below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/world/africa/16congo.html?pagewanted=4
on the 2nd last paragraph on this page, it implies that Malaysian Smelting Company is buying Tin from international brokers who source from the conflict zone in Congo.
the exact extract is :-
The flights land in Goma, the provincial capital, where other middlemen buy and process the ore for export. Alexis Makabuza’s Global Mining Company is one of these buyers. Amid the sorting and cleaning equipment of his rudimentary processing plant sit dozens of barrels of tin ore. On each is stenciled the address of Malaysian Smelting Company Berhad, a major tin smelter. Mr. Makabuza said he sold to the company via a minerals broker.
Further reference to Malaysian companies buying tin from warlords in the Congo is here from the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7723988.stm
The extract from the BBC article is below :-
Located predominantly in India, China, Malaysia and Thailand, these smelters sell tin to component manufacturers.
So while Malaysian Smelting Co buys from an international broker, it can request that they not source from Congo. If you read the entire article you will realise that buying these ore’s are only lining the pockets of these warlords and destabilising the country.
I e-mailed the company but they have not replied. I would have not replied too in similar circumstances.
Godfather…straight to the point…limkamput is an idiot….three times over.
He reminds me of one smart guy…studied so much…brainwaves got entangled and now at Petaling Street with his 30 years univerasity school books….still studying ….sitting alone.
He love maths and science.
Give him a drink..and ask him to explain..the forces of evil….is like listening to limkamput..giving weird and wrong conclusions.
Many pity him…giving food and money.
He will politely say…”thank you”.
He never went hungry at all….and it seems..he comes from a rich family. We call him….”professor”
Limkamput is also an adorable idiot…like him.
But once awhile….full moon time…limkamput can be nasty and sarcastic….not like that adorable professor.
UMNO is bankrupt of idea’s of what to do with Malaysia’s economy. BN was bankrupt with idea’s for the past 10 year’s hence our 10 year economic stagnation. After our fairy tale economic story ended in 1997, our leader’s have been doing nothing but day dreaming of better times.
The leaders refuse to admit that many of their policies in the past were a complete failure (policies dating back even prior to 1997). They refuse to admit so because they were the same ones who championed these policies back then claiming they alone knew what was best for the country.
I would like to add that it is the Malaysian people themselves that allowed those leaders to run wild with the country doing whatever the felt like, bending the rules to their liking without realizing that the natural laws of cause and effects would catch up to them.
“Malaysia is squeezed between being the low cost manufacturer we once excelled as, and the knowledge-intensive economy we are failing to become” – KuLi
KuLi fails (due to it being a sensitive issue) to mention to causes leading to how Malaysia got stuck in the middle, neither low cost nor hi-tech.
NEP and various discriminatory policies to ‘level the playing field’ have lead to hordes of talented Non-Malays leaving the country taking away much needed talent (on top of discouraging foreign talent from coming).
The non-malays being traditionally more affluent would naturally be more educated and therefore in the past provided the talent for much of the more skilled and professional jobs.
UMNO implemented various discriminatory policies to ‘break’ the (perceived) monopoly that the non-Malays had on such lucrative high paying jobs. Unfortunately for them, this did NOT magically translate to Malays being able to rise up to take on these jobs.
At the end of the day, proper professional education and training was the ONLY way for the Malays to rise up to such jobs. Unfortunately, UMNO again devised a crafty plan to print degrees and certificates certified by local government run universities that claimed such individuals were ‘qualified’ for such jobs.
However, private companies refused to accept the majority of such individuals. So again the crafty UMNO set up various government linked ‘private’ companies and employed these ‘professionals’. UMNO politicians (like Dr. M) then proceed to claim that their social re-engineering experiment was a complete success and the Malays had been uplifted from poverty.
And so Malaysia arrives to where it is today. If is not by a stroke of bad luck or chance that Malaysia is being squeezed in the middle. We are stuck because we have a glut of middle income citizens that are not willing to work for for abysmally low pay or do the dirtier less glamorous jobs, but yet neither do they have the true training, knowledge and professional exposure to rise out from the middle to the higher end and high tech jobs.
Many of the non-Malays (and even Malays) that had the true talent and training to rise up as great leaders in various fields had gotten tired of being held back in the name of providing ‘equal’ opportunity and ‘fair chance’ for the ‘less fortunate’ and had already decided to leave the country for greener pastures where they were allowed to develop their talent to the fullest.
Solution? There is no short term solution in sight for Malaysia. Malaysia has gained excessive flab from the various ‘grand’ (shortcut) plans of UMNO. The only way is to get back to the basics of building a strong healthy nation. To attempt another shortcut ‘grand’ plan would be disastrous.
Macroeconomics policy choice is quite similar to the dilemma in setting up an animal farm.
Some say that meat cow is a good choice of animal species because T-Bone Steak can fetch a high sales value. Others say that meat cow is not better than dairy cow because Hindu and Buddhist population don’t take beef therefore the market demand is limited. Some say that dairy cow consumes high quantity of expensive feed therefore the return on investment may not justify the heavy capital expenditure, not to mention the intense competition from Australia and New Zealand. Some recommend meat goat to be the livestock choice but others say that meat goat only gives birth to two kids at one birth on average and the meat yield of 45% is too low to justify the high feeding cost. Moreover, the farmer will most likely incur loss because the lacklustre mutton retail price usually falls below the breakeven price level.
Then comes a person who suggests pig to be the farmed animal because according to him, a mother hog can give birth to 22 heads of baby hogs at one birth. The high fertility seems to give a high productivity gain and a hopeful high value-added vision upon the harvest of the grown up hogs. However, no one will be able to get the pig rearing business kicked off because the government has made it a public policy to freeze the pig rearing license due to religious reason and hygienic reason.
In the end, all blames will be put on the government because the government rules and regulations would have killed any possibly viable economic activity right at the very beginning before the prospective investors have been given an opportunity to give it a trial. Of course, the government rules and regulations I mention here should also include the TAXATION to be imposed on the future profit of the investors!
What about giving the farmer full discretion to make his own choice of personal preference? The so-called laissez faire system should work, some say. However, there will be plenty of people of certain interested group coming up to say “No, laissez faire system is unfair to the have-nots and we want social justice and economic equality as stipulated in the New Economic Policy (NEP)!”
In the end, no one will be able to do any contribution to the grandeur of a well-written plan by truly improving the real productivity gain because everyone has been wasting time being bogged down in the argument on the preferred investment choice.
Pak Lah’s multi-corridors proposal serves as the best example of the policy choice dilemma in Malaysia.
Godfather Says:
Today at 18: 33.07 (3 hours ago)
Precisely right on all three points i.e. (a) trublumsian gave a wrong answer, (b) only Limkamput has the right answer and (c) the rest of us are half-baked.
Wow ! 3 out of 3 !
——————–
Yep. When you do not know the answer it works sometimes to tick “All of the above”.
How do you think Limkaput got his GMAT score of 720 which qualified him to apply to Harvard. But rather than rubbed shoulders with the best and the finest, it is a credit to the guy that he decided instead to apply to the nearest community college.
Godfather Says:
Today at 15: 30.20 (6 hours ago)
Wah Lau Eh, Limkamput, I ask one question, and I get 35 questions in return. I don’t talk about pump priming. I only said that the government pumps us …”
There is another kind of pumping that you don’t want to go into early in the morning. I know it is night over in Malaysia.
monsterball, in case you have not already noticed. I usually don’t talk to people i consider lesser than me. Yes, you are one of them in case you think it is godfather or undergrad2.
Yes… smart KuLi should KNOW the real UMNO devils …especially Mamak…making Malaysia a ding dong State…to have millions of donkey kongs depending on them.
He was dead set to oust Mamak out…forming “Semagat 45” party ..with millions of his own money.
He lost out…because he was suspected…a gay man…a pondan!!
We cannot have a pondan as PM…don’t we?
But Malaysian do ove and respected him….and it took another young pondan ..Hotlips..to play him out.
Pitied by Brunei Sultan who love KiLi like a father….make sure KuLi got back his money with some laNd sold to the Sultan at a price….he asked..and no haggling..Sultan just pay and bought.
As Finance Minister…all he ask us is….’Adak utong tak?”…walked fast away…never wait for an answer.
He was a racialist Finance Minister.
After 30 years…old guys like us are shocked…he teamed up with Mamak..to oust Dol this time….and as sure as the sun will shine tomorrow…he was doing that for himself….not for the country.
You see… UMNO guys..are all for self….no management experiences…always create problems to solve problems….as if Malaysia is such a problematic country….but actually..all created by them. If no problems……too good a country….voters will vote them out..which first sign.12th election.
KuLi…such a smart Kelantanese ….cannot help UMNO to win Kelantan…want to be Malaysia PM?
One vote..for him…to be PM…said it all.
I hope he has the guts like Tunku Ahmad Rithauddeen…tell and educate young Malaysians…the evils that UMNO did to stay in power. He knows all…but won’t tell.
What a masterpiece! I guess many people have the same thoughts as Ku Li, including those in power. But the key qusetion is can we act and do right? It’s all in the implementation and a truly sincere desire to improve life for all in Malaysia.
We lack one thing: POLITICAL WILL POWER! Common sense and sincerity are the two items we need. Insincere shysters likemthe Mamat-kutty, how ever brilliance but with a twisted mind is what we do not need! In fact our Asian societies to progress, this the only substance required, nothing else.
“Financial crisis? What financial crisis?” To AAB, such things are non-existent and he couldn’t care less since his disappearing act is due in two months!
I missed Phua Kai Lit’s comment earlier – the shadow cabinet seems like a genuinely good and practical idea. So when?
“monsterball, in case you have not already noticed. I usually don’t talk to people i consider lesser than me. Yes, you are one of them in case you think it is godfather or undergrad2.” Limkamput
What does this mean, wise one ? Does this mean that by engaging monsterball you have considered him to be your equal ? Or does this mean that you are making an exception to respond to him, and that you think monsterball is a lesser mortal ?
Talking to the wise one always makes my head spin, and I guess I am not worthy.
Talking of economic matters – where does the ethical advertiser place an ad in Malaysia? The obvious options all seem to directly benefit a political campaign I would rather not support. I’ve got some ads waiting to go, but worried my money will support something bad.
Before anybody gets dollar signs in their eyes, they’re just small newspaper ads!
Ai ya just do a soi lek. Ask umno gobermen to soi lek maa. Easy. Come into the open and say “oh ah all economic policies wrong and we are deep in shit” and then all will be ok again one. See like mca. All will surely support back one. Ask soi lek about it. Tell razaleigh not to talk deep deep thing. Cannot understand. We all product of no merit umno gobermen policies. We all not from MARA maa – the best varsity in the universe.