Chapter Six: Malaysia: Assets and Liabilities
Bless Our Geography!
Allah has been generous to Malaysia. Malaysians are reminded of this every time they read about natural disasters occurring elsewhere. There are no earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, or devastating floods. God has spared Malaysia such natural calamities.
Then there is the climate; it is not visited by extremes of heat or cold. Whereas Californians have to pay to warm their houses in winter and cool them in summer, Malaysians are spared such expenses. And if Malaysians were to design their homes well with cross drafts and adequate natural ventilation, air conditioning would not be essential. It is only for comfort. In temperate zones heating a home is essential lest you freeze. Home designs in temperate zones must necessarily be more complex to cope with both winter and summer. Unlike Malaysians, those living in temperate zones need two sets of clothing.
Roads in temperate countries are subjected to extremes of temperatures and the consequent wide range of contraction and expansion. Thus maintenance costs are high. Malaysia is spared such added costs. Municipalities in cold countries spend substantial sums of money to keep their streets free of snow.
In Malaysia, construction work occurs year round, except for brief interruptions during rainy season. I am always astounded at how fast buildings get built in Malaysia. In America outside work is curtailed during inclement weather and shorter winter days.
Apart from the climate, Malaysia is blessed with fertile soil and abundant natural resources. Its earth supports a variety of plants. We are a major producer of rubber, palm oil, cocoa, pepper, and hosts of other agricultural products. These are all renewable resources. The country’s immense old world jungle contains a variety of valuable hardwoods. It is also a source of alkaloids and other natural products that have wide pharmaceutical applications. Carefully managed these resources could last indefinitely; unscrupulously treated they will not only be destroyed but in turn create monumental environmental disasters. Soil erosion, flooding, and smog are just some of the horrors of less-than-wise treatment of the land.
Malaysia is also blessed with deposits of valuable minerals and hydrocarbons. The old standby was tin, and just as its market dropped, the country discovered vast deposits of hydrocarbon. How blessed!
The country has vast stretches of beautiful beaches bathed by welcoming warm waters. These are prized tourist destinations. But compared to Hawaii or Cancun, Malaysia’s tourist industry is not well developed. Hawaii caters for the large mainland domestic market as well as the equally lucrative Japanese market. Visitors to Hawaii can enjoy not only the beautiful warm beaches and sunshine but also partake in other attractions that have been well developed – cruises, golfing, and aquatic activities.
Cancun prides itself in being rationally planned. In the early 1970’s the Mexican president assembled a group of professionals and asked them to design from scratch a tourist industry for what was then an impoverished fishing village. Using computer simulations they designed the entire region to cater for tourists from Europe, North America, and Latin America, all lucrative markets. They built a modern airport to accommodate jumbo jets that could fly the maximum distance. To ensure the pristine beaches and clear waters would not be polluted, they built modern central sewage and water treatment plants, and instituted strict guidelines for coastal constructions.
Today Cancun has hundreds of luxury hotels catering to millions of visitors annually. What was once a sleepy coastal village is now a world-class tourist destination. Like Hawaii, Cancan also offers many other attractions, in particular the nearby Mayan ruins. The hotels too offer a variety of options including timeshares and all-inclusive packages. Cancun is my favorite vacation destination as I can book everything with one phone call (or via the Internet). With one bill I can prepay for everything: hotel, food, airfare, and also the taxi to and from the airport! Maximum convenience! Non-Spanish speaking guests have no difficulty as most of the workers speak English. Besides, there are ample signs in English. Very convenient!
The tourist industry in Malaysia is still very much “work in progress.” There must be a full scale and comprehensive plan a la Cancun; otherwise we would squander this wonderful potential. Already we are seeing what were once premier tourist sites like Penang and Port Dickson losing their appeal because of haphazard construction and poor planning; their prime attractions – the fine beaches – soiled by pollution. When I visit Port Dickson, I dare not dip my foot in the water as it is so polluted. The stench and the litter on the beach are something else.
Malaysia’s strategic location between East and West could be leveraged to turn it into an aviation and maritime hub. Presently Singapore, only a couple hundred miles away, is capitalizing on this fortuitous geography. It is successful because of its superior services. If Malaysia can improve its services, given the markedly lower cost structure, it should be able to take business away from that republic. Already Johore’s Port of Tanjung Pelepas is siphoning traffic away from Singapore because it offers comparable services at markedly reduced prices. Malaysia’s Sepang airport could do likewise to Singapore’s Changi.
The country’s unchanging climate can be a liability. As one day merges into the next, there is no sense of urgency. It is easy to fall into the trap of continually postponing things and then suddenly, months and years have gone by. There is no tangible seasonal reminder of a deadline. As there are no obvious climatic changes to spur Malaysians to a preset timetable and deadline, these must be created artificially to avoid the manana (postpone to tomorrow) syndrome.
Lastly, it has been claimed that Malaysia’s heat and humidity are not conducive to intellectual activities. At least that is the convenient excuse. If that were true it is easily remedied. Simply air-condition our offices and colleges. Thus the only downside to Malaysia’s climate is readily solvable.
Next: Big Government, Big Problems
ALLAH is playing a game with Malaysians to see how smart we are.
Even with no natural disasters the BN leaders have mismanaged all the wealth to create a population that craves for hand-outs.
ALLAH help us but there is also the saying
“ALLAH helps those who help themselves”.
It is time to vote out this parasitic government!
No one else but voters are to be blamed for allowing this situation to continue.
I did think about this point of Allah helping us. But it is also Allah’s law not to violate the human will. If a man so chooses to disobey Allah, Allah will permit it.
Taking this point of not violating the human will, Allah alone is the answer to the problems here. The human will to wisely manage the riches of the country is another key factor.
Opps typo again. It should have been:
Taking this point of not violating the human will, Allah alone is NOT the answer to the problems here.
I just heard the interview of the Foreign Minister of Thailand on the Bloombergs and his ability to handle it in English so fluently and confidently also reflects the stage of our development in every aspect of our society and that of Thailand’s. All the writings in the internet will not resolve anything unless the people are awaken to what they want for the nation. And this is the challenge leaders from every walk of life have to face. It won’t be easy to change the many indoctrinated mind which has been taught to fear itself. Thus shutting the mind any possibility of wanting to change which may not bring immediate result. The mind has been trained and conditioned for instant rewards through the pathway of least resistance, hence we will face up-hill task even when the population is ready for change.
When one talks of heat, we have the greatest amount of sunlight all year round, our gomen sponsored researches should have put plenty into this sector. No, the Siapa-nama preferred to squander our energy resources on favourite IPPS for quick return. In this respect, e can compare ourselves with Norway which is sitting on plenty of oil/gas base revenues. My only fear is, what will happen when the ‘black gold’ runs dry? When the people have ready lost, or at laest the mjority of them, the real means of making a living.
As reported, in EU, millions are without jobs and at the same time they have to import trained brains from other countries to do the jobs. The situation is also similar in the US which produces only 10% of engineering graduate of eithr China or India. For that matter,, our educational system is also bent on the same pathway as of EU and US, no plan for the type of graduates needed, just produce them and give them clerical jobs with graduate pays. How long can we sustain such environment? Easy, to pay them just ask BN to print like the US Fedreak Reserves. At least in the US, they have Hollywood to build dreams for the rest of the world and maybe because of that the green backs seem BOLEH! What have we got to offer the world? Maids?
Our narrow and short-sighted leader/s do not see the need to compete.,,,may be after 2050 they might change their minds.
What if we ‘bankrupt’ before 2050? Then how?
Good to plot my strategy fast.
In each and every potential mentioned by Dr. Musa, Thailand has either surpass or capable of surpassing Malaysia. The reason why they will do it because they have to or there is nothing in it for everyone.
It is a fact that Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world that is blessed.
Details given by Bakri Musa is like a geography lesson to school children….and reminding adults the simple truths.
How can such a blessed country be so disunited and differences in opinions are like opposite poles repelling all year round?
It is years of sinful….cruel and UMNO B dirty politics and mind control systems to stay in power..stealing money to buy loyalties..and do not care at all.. bankrupting our rich country…to achieve their goals ….and now using money like feeding drugs.. to defend themselves being thrown out of PutraJaya with their lives..for reasons all know to well.
When race and religion politics are encouraged…how to one expect a united Malaysia?
Yes…clear signs of corruptions in constructions..are clearly seen..as the after effect results are also seen clearly.
‘It is natural” said one idiotic ex Minister of Works..from MIC.
At least he dared to speak up.
All the UMNO B corrupted and greedy crooks are silent..especially the MCA and MIC…and the usual acting shows from UMNO B crooks…start again…by being angry and demanding investigations and investigations with no results..as they know…Malaysians are unhappy ..so these crooks will say something to please voters…..and after a while….they know all will cool down and hope incidents…forgotten.
Go check out the 30 years of so many investigations…Royal Commissioners findings…and see what are the results achieved?….almost none..except finding few scapegoats to take the blames for few millions compensations to their families.
Then few scapegoats …arrested ….charged in court…released on bails…to show how serious Govt is against corruptions.
How can the corrupted leader like Najib want to get rid of corruptions?
This has always been their tricks…to use money for everything devilish..cruel and evil.
You notice none of the top UMNO B guns…like Mahathir..Rafidah…Mat bin Mat…Abdullah Badawi…ex Negri Sembilan CM..Isa….Sarawak CM Tiab..have ever been charged at all….including Najib.
They are throwing some small fishes like Ling a puppet and Toyo …..However…money is again most powerful…and Toyo have hundreds of millions. He can do wonders for himself with his own money. Just watch it.
So much have been said about Najib.. .yet these die hard pro UMNO B voters still trust him?
You can bet your life..those who support change of Govt..have no love to any PR parties..but hungry for freedom and unity..and to prove to the Govt….People’s Power is the Third Force.
Vast majority Malaysians are awakened to know how powerful their votes are.
Ans so…new methods how to hypnotized voters to trust BN..employed by Najib..with RM77 million of our money..paid for one year service..how to keep fooling Malaysians with the most up to date methods from APCO..a Jewish company…where Mahathir …for years ….kept insulting them…to the delights of weak Nations all over he world…and now..Najib is indirectly going against him..yet Mahathir is silent…just give a small hint that he disapproved.
Had it been Abdullah…this sickening big mouth hypocritical rouge …will hell like hell….non stop.
There you can see…what Mahathir’s UMNO B is..what what he Govt is too.
In terms of tourism our blessings are quite limited to scuba diving or snorkling in East Coast and parts of East Malaysia, good and varied food, weaker RM helping in shopping. Other than these? Climate is not just unchanging but its hot and enervating, not conductive for walking and sight-seeing. Disneyland & open air universal studios will not be a hit here if one has to walk under the hot sun if not tropical rain. Our architecture is either modern/contemporary or less than 20 years old nothing compared to cities in (say) Europe. Our Churches and Mosques are mot comparable at all to those in (say) Milan, Marseille, Cologne or our mosques comparable to (say) Blue Mosque of Istanabul. Cities like Istanbul, Sydney, Nice, Venice etc have beautiful sea, estuary frontages where one could see from a cruise a panorama of wonderous acrhitecture at the shores and the banks which neither PD, Telok Chempedak Batu Ferringhi Karambunai etc cannot offer… Even shopping – no doubt we have megall mall & pavilion etc but generally the shopping malls are dispersed, and tourists can’t walk from one point to the other. Our shopping street (Bukit Bintang) is absolutely nothing compared to (say) S’pore Orchard Road, Istanbul’s Istiklal Street, Shanghai 6 km long Nanjing street, HK’s Causway Bay, Tokyo’s Ginza, Seoul’s Myong-dong New York’s Madison Avenue London’s Oxford/Regent/Bond Streets…
For those who look for commercial sex, we’re underground as compared to Amsterdam’s Red Light District where throngs of tourists go just to see. Somemore sex shops/toys – zilch!
For more healthier pursuits where’s the natural hotspring spas, skiing resorts, surfing?
When hiking in Taman Negara may invite dengue mosquitoes leeches or some snakes, hiking in JB, KL may invite snatch thieves. Swimming – look at how clean Waikiki beach in Honolulu in spite of number of people compared to our Port Dickson (as Bakri said).
Somemore no river cruise except in Malacca which is nothing compared to that in Perth’s Swan River, Sydney’s Darling Harbour, Paris’s Seine or Istanbul’s Bosphorus.
Skyline with some modern architecture in KL and Twin Tower again nothing compared to Manhattan’s Hong Kong’s etc Flea and open air markets – also zilch compared to other places.
You travel out of the city and along highways see only jungles moutains, palm oil plantations which is hardly varied as those you see when derive through North South Island, Europe and even China’s Silk Road.
Gambling Casino – Genting 6ooo metres above sea level – is just about the only monolithic gaming joint that could beat London Casino or Monte Carlo or S’pore casinos indivdually but as a aggregate gambling conglomeration is nothing compared to Vegas.
So what have got to offer to tourists? 5 star hotels which other major cities in Asia can also compete favourably ?
Good points.
Sorry for following typo omissions in preceding post:
“…Our architecture is either modern or otherwise less than 200 years old – nothing compared to cities in (say) Europe..Our Churches (as tourists sites) are not comparable (in architecture) at those in (say) Milan, Marseille, Cologne or our mosques comparable to (say) Blue Mosque of Istanbul. .”
“You travel out of the city and along highways see only jungles mouNtains, palm oil plantations which is hardly varied as those you see when dRive through North South Islands (New Zealand), Europe and even China’s Silk Road. …Gambling Casino – Genting 6000 feet (not metres) above sea level…”
We are blessed? Nah. We are plainly lucky for not having to face extreme weather and natural disasters like earth quakes and volcano eruptions.
There are nothing here which tourists cannot find elsewhere. Beaches. Nature. Lakes. Shoppings (inspite of the fact that we sell more things than other countries like children, drugs, titles, degree scrolls, kereta potong, etc). Natives Art (ours are not developed and not encouraged and therefore not attractive at all).
We are blessed in many different ways.
Let it be..if you do not agree.
The fact is….many who travel overseas…feel homesick…and that is because Malaysia is blessed and what we see all the developments going on…inspite of multi billions sucked up by the rouges and thieves…massive corruptions…we are still going about our business is the fact….our rich natural resources keeps us alive.
Any other country…it would have been bankrupt by now. We still have signs and warnings…and that again shows how blessed our country is.
You need to travel all over the world to contradict me.
Have you done that before concluding?
Yes….UMNO B will kill our blessed country if we do not stop them by 13th GE.
No one need to be unhappy in a blessed country…but we do.
No one need to feel unsafe and lock all doors..but we do.
No one should feel so proud to keep indentifying what race they belong to…when all are Malaysians…but so many still do so.
No one should be confused with laws..lawyers and police officers noble professions…but we do.
No one should witness nonsense in courts and Parliament sittings..but we do.
And the list go on and on.
Most of all…no one should feel clear double standards applied..rouges and thieves are feeling roaming…feeling totally safe…while the innocents feel terrible unsafe…and in Malaysia….it is so.
All that are man made and destroying our blessed country.
Do have clear understandings on blessings given by God and taken away by devils..all due o the weakness of mankind falling into the devil’s traps.
YET…with all that going on for decades…we are still surviving out of no help.. nor we need to thanks the Govt.
Is that not a blessing in disguise to all good people?
Yet so many countries with much more good people…suffer and die for nothing.
Aren’t you all Malaysians a lucky bunch…living in Malaysia.
A blessed country is filthy rich. Are we not a filthy rich country?
Yes yes yes…all our richness given by God are stolen…taken without fear by rouges and thieves…as the welknown ..root of all evils to buy souls like feeding Malaysians with the worst drug you can think of.
Who are the victims?….the Malays.
Try to go out with a family of 5 with RM50 to enjoy in any developed country in the world.
Your happiness are still there…and given by God..because God have made Malaysia a blessed country…for all and some wants it for one race only.
Yes for that we will be like Najib..to defend our rights with our lives from traitors too.
The issue is…who are the real traitors…he is talking about?
And yes….Malaysians are feeling the country is no better than Timbuktu now…and why so?
They asked for it..and for those in this blog keep hoping and have not contribute to the present sickening condition of our country….we must unite to fight the traitors and devils…with our lives….exactly like what Najib wants to do.
but he has clearly said PR politicians are the traitors and therefore the voters voting for change of Govt. are traitors too.
Go and read his logic…not logical at all…unless he thinks Malaysia belongs to UMNO B and for that..I will lay down my life to fight him and his gang of robbers and thieves with no fear.
Enough is enough of UMNO B low class politic nonsense….killing off brains and personalities of his own race..with money…feeling absolutely no guilty conscience at all.
What kind of humans are these?
Do not be afraid to speak up your minds now.
We are so blessed as Malaysians that some have to be chased out..due to no choice and for the love of their families..to earn a living elsewhere.
For all in Malaysia…roughing it out…to make ends meet….they feel so not blessed which is exactly what Najib wants them to feel like that and get frustrated and hopefully leave or migrate to any country. This have been the on going hope of UMNO B to rule forever.
Say to yourselves…Malaysia is our blessed country with the most minorities helping to develop it to what it is today… and we will let those rouges and thieves to steal out birth rights and citizenship.
Stand united and declare …Malaysia belongs to all Malaysian..and not one race….with your voices spoken out so loudly wit your 13th GE votes.
Even now…Najib hears our voices and is afraid.
What more…if you declare Malaysia is our blessed country.
That will get him mad…for he intends to make it an UMNO B country only.
While the daily products from China maybe copies or imitations but according to the Secretary of Energy of USA, there is no doubt of China’s progress in many other more fundamentaln issues such as their improved coal fired plants are 20% more efficient and cleaner that that found in USA. And they could send electricity at 6.3 megawatt over 1,300 miles to Shanghai. Of course they are among the leaders in both wind power and solar panel. They know where their bread and butter are and they ploughed through it. Within 10 years of getting their hands on hi-speed trains and now they out bide others by 30% margin! When we wanted a rail track; it took us so long and at such a high cost to build by DIRECT Tender process! According to the ADB, in China many contractors got into trouble by underbiding just to gain experience!!! And soon India will get into such acts notwithstanding their societal differences at the moment. As said so often, we WERE ONCE RIGHT in FRONT in Asian contacts; year by year we have to concede “EXCEPTIONS” to countries passing us by. First Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, south Korea, Thailand, then China and surely Vietnam, India, Indonesia and we will left to compete with Myanmar [ who could over take us within 5 to 10 years, if the Tai Khors” allow it], Philippines and who else in Asia. So if we run of competition in Asia, we can always have the African States to compete with! Malaysia BOLEH! Even then, we have to select because a number of them have already showed their disdain to our best African partner of Zimbabwe!
Soon, we might even run out competitors to choose. Even the Afican nations are catching up.
Well, we can always position ourselves against the moon. They do barely anything there. No FDI, No GDP, no nothing.
Non-Spanish speaking guests have no difficulty as most of the workers speak English. Besides, there are ample signs in English. Very convenient! – M Bakri Musa wrote in the above article.
But the deteriorating emphasis on the importance of English in Malaysia will not help our place to more tourist friendly.
Be not be caught unaware by China’s diversity in rate of progress. The best in China is certainly world-class while the worst in China is certainly much less than developed.
Even the Chinese nationals in China are learning English. They see it as the gateway to better income.
Do you know that 1 country has Malay as the national language and English as the business language? The brightest there are given to learn 3 languages: i.e. English, Chinese and 1 other major language (e.g. German, French, Japanese).
In this globalized world, knowing more than 1 language is proving to be essential.
Opps typo, should have been:
The brightest there are given the chance to learn 3 languages: i.e. English, Chinese and 1 other major language (e.g. German, French, Japanese).
I agree 100% that we have a blessed geography. What we need are blessed individuals to run the country as well.
Well . . maybe there is no perfectly blessed place on earth.
Malaysia has the materials but not the wisdom to manage it exceedingly well. Sigh.