Day: October 8, 2010

I have given notice to Parliament Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin for an emergency debate in Parliament on Monday on the 57-day government inaction on racial slurs by two headmasters against students in school which make a mockery of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s international calls for moderates against extremists and his “zero tolerance for racism” and 1Malaysia policy.

The motion I have sent to the Speaker under Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders 18(2) reads:

“Bahawa Dewan mengizinkan YB Lim Kit Siang, Ahli Parlimen Ipoh Timor untuk menangguhkan Dewan mengikut Peraturan Mesyuarat 18(1) untuk merundingkan perkara tertentu berkenaan kepentingan orang ramai yang berkehendaki disegerakan, iaitu dua orang guru besar dari Kulai, Johor dan Bukit Selambau, Kedah yang melafazkan kata-kata racis dan menghina terhadap pelajar-pelajar mereka di sekolah dalam bulan Ogos tahun ini, sehingga kini tidak dikutuk atau diambil tindakan displin sekeras-kerasnya oleh pihak yang berkenaan selaras dengan semangat 1Malaysia. Continue reading “Notice for urgent parliamentary debate on racial slurs by school headmasters”

By M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 5: Understanding Globalization

Foreign Investments in the Third World

Countries like Malaysia that were once colonized are rightly sensitive about their independence. Thus they tend to look upon foreigners, including investors, with suspicion. The typical Third World initial experience with foreign investors had been with companies of imperial powers. These companies were concerned primarily with plantations and extractive industries. In Malaysia they were involved in rubber plantations and tin mining. The exploitative nature of such investments was quite obvious. Rubber, tin, and other precious commodities were exported to Britain where they were turned into high-value manufactured goods and then sold back in Malaysia and elsewhere at exorbitant prices. Meanwhile the rubber tappers and tin miners were paid pittance for their efforts. The bulk of the profits were kept in Britain with little if any repatriated to Malaysia. No wonder such investments became easy targets for the nationalists.

Even though those early investments were clearly lopsided and exploitative (asymmetric, to use a modern phrase), nonetheless Malaysia benefited immensely. First, the country would never have known that it was capable of growing rubber had the British not started the plantations. Rubber is not indigenous to the country; the British brought the seedlings from South America via London’s Kew Gardens.
Continue reading “Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #35”