Something is seriously wrong!

In Malaysia, we don’t have the 4 seasons. However, certain happenings in Malaysia are as predictable as the 4 seasons in temperate countries.

Yearly we have the Auditor General’s report outlining the abuses and wastage in government spending. Yearly, there is  a big ‘hoohaa’  after the release of the AG annual report ,  with calls for reform from  NGOs and civil society and promises from the authority to tackle the problems. Two or three weeks after the release, everybody is deemed to have done their duty and everything is forgotten till the next round.

Then we have the perennial Haze problems, and the usual predictable responses from politicians across both divides asking something to be done to solve the problem permanently.  Yearly, the Indonesian authority blames the Malaysian companies. The Malaysian companies will then issue a denial, and after a few days, wind changes direction, sky becomes clear again, and everyone forgets about the issue.

Around this time of the year, another perennial problem will surface, and it does surface this week.

Many of the straight  A’s students are denied places to study the courses of their choice and these poor students have nowhere to turn to, except to the media and the politicians.

Every year, the politicians will play the role of firemen, and individual cases sometimes do get a reprieve, and after an appeal, some of these students may  get the places they wish.

What is needed is a more systematic way of tackling this problem. Why there is no comprehensive policy to solve the problem really buffers me.

To deny these creme dela creme places to study will cost the country dearly in the long run. Logic will tell us that if the best is not given the chance to develop their potentials, how are we going to face the increasingly  competitive world?

Looking at many of the advanced countries, they not only allow their best to develop their full potentials, they are also trying to do the shortcut by attracting the best brains from other countries to emigrate to their countries, so as to tap on the brains of these potentially world beaters. That is the only way to allow the country to be world class.

I suspect some  little napoleons are at play in this yearly fiasco of refusing the best their choice of study. These little napoleons use the excuse that these students did not do well in their interviews or are poor in English.

We all know that interviews are very subjective. These ‘subjectiveness’ can sometimes be manipulated into reasons to reject a student from pursuing his or her dream. But if most of the best (more than 50 straight As students) are deemed to have failed in the interviews or in their English proficiency,  then what about those who are not so good but are still given places to study in the  preferred courses in the universities? Logic will tell us that if the best don’t have good command of English, then how can the second best be better than the best?

We can understand if one or two do not perform well in the interview or stutter in their English, but if most of the cream fail to get entry because they are said to  perform poorly  in interviews, and then there must be something wrong with the methodology of the interviews or the people conducting the interviews. As simple as that!

The law of average will tell you that if the average Best is not as good as the average Second Best, then there is something wrong with the system or the people manning the system.

I strongly suggest that all future interviews be recorded. With the technology now, this can easily be done. If there is any dispute, or if there is any need to audit the interview, then the authority can go through these recordings and see for themselves whether a student fails because of poor performances at interviews, or whether he or she fails because of the subjectiveness  prejudices of the people conducting the interviews.

We can no longer afford to allow some little napoleons to deny our best a chance to develop their potentials.

Our future competitiveness is at stake.

The nation’s future is at stake.

(An edited version is published in my column in TheMalaymailonline.com )

Still at the doorway

Below is the list of  top 27 rankings of Global Competitiveness Index(2012-2013)  compiled by the World Economic Forum. For the full report, click here.

Malaysia is not doing too bad, being ranked 25 out of 144 countries. Malaysia’s GCI score remains at 5.1,  same as last year.  So in a way we did neither  regress,  nor progress,  which may seem on the surface to be not a  too bad thing . However, while our score has remained at 5.1, 4 countries has moved ahead of us, forcing us to drop  from our position of No. 21 last year.

South Korea, Luxembourg, New Zealand, United Arabs EMirates has overtaken us, to be exact. This is despite our government channelling considerable resources into transforming our economy since the present PM has taken over. We have not only not moved forward, but has remained stagnant , despite setting up various think-tank labs in Pemandu, employing many of the so-called top brains in trying to develop policies to lift us out of the middle income trap.

Perhaps it is time that we look at how other people view us, especially our weak areas, instead of just debating among ourselves how to transform our policies.

What are the problem areas in our global competitiveness, especially when compared to others?

The report by WEF in fact highlighted out problems. Look at the WEF graph below on our problematic areas:

In case the readers cannot read clearly the graph above, the top 2 problematic areas are these:

1. inefficient government bureaucracy

2. corruption

It is clear that our main problem and main impediment to our competitiveness is none other than our government. It is not only inefficient, but corrupt as well.

Then the next 2 problem areas are:

3. inadequately educated workforce

4. poor work ethic in national labour force

3 and 4 are the results of our education system. Again these 2 problems point to our government who is responsible for formulating our education policy, which has ostensibly produced  many A’s students, but many of these are not competitive once they start competing globally.

There is something  grossly wrong with our policy which has produced not only inadequately trained workforce, but work force with ‘tidak apa’ attitude, as we Malaysians know all along. Who can blame employers opting to employ foreign workers? Not only they are cheap, they are hardworking, with better work ethics, to say the least.

In a nutshell, and looking deeper, I think that if we want to become more competitive,  to make our workforce more productive with better ethics, and our civil service more efficient, we have no other choice but to introduce more liberal and broader based education system. We need to do away with affirmative-action-based policies, and curb corruption.

In September 2009, I wrote an article about this Global Competitiveness Index too, and one of my frequent commentators, klm, has made a comment  which I think  is still relevant. I would like to post his comment here:

Dr. Hsu. If you take a look at the list above  Malaysia (Editor: the list refers to the 2009 list not 2012), other than Qatar and UAE, these countries are the so called developed countries of the world, the tier 1 countries. Malaysia had done well in reaching the doorway. But crossing this door way is a very different thing from what Malaysia had done in the past. Malaysia is having great difficulties in make the crossover. The characteristics of these countries are:

1. Liberal and open economy
2. Other than a few, a vigorous and democratic government system
3. Strong governance, transparency and accountability
4. Little or no public corruption
5. Quality education system
6. Knowledge industries
Strong nurturing of talent
7. open immigration

These are many things Malaysia do not have. Without the political will to make the changes needed, Malaysia will still be at the doorway 10 years from now.

Three years from that last article on our competitiveness, we are still at the doorway, unable to move out and up into the top ranked nations.

Even though I wish my country well, I think klm may be right that Malaysia will still at the doorway 7 years from now.

Penang leads again!

In the next GE, will Penang be taken back by BN?

The big brother thinks that with it winning a few extra seats, and the little brothers winning one or 2 seats each, they can scrape through and win the next GE.  But sentiments on the grounds say otherwise.

Ask any Penangite and the answer is likely to be they would give LGE and PR another term.

Penang has done well since 308, despite the handicap it faces with an uncooperative Federal Government. This is generally the assessment by most analysts.

The latest article in the Economist says plenty about the revival of Penang.  It is now a show case state of Malaysia.

AFter 308, I have said that the most important thing facing the opposition pact is for PR to show its  ability to govern  the states that it has won, and if it can manages the states well, even non-supporters will cross over to support them.

Penang is doing exactly that.

The article in the  Economist is an acknowledgement by foreign observers on how well Penang has been doing.

Here  is the article by the Economist:

Malaysia’s Penang state

Getting back its mojo

IF YOU are going to have a heart attack, have it in Penang. So one might think, to the see the hospitals in George Town, the capital of this north-western Malaysian state. Patients are flocking in. Ted Mohr, the head of the venerable Penang Adventist Hospital says that he will admit 70,000 medical tourists this year. The hospital specialises in heart procedures and it will perform roughly 23,000 of them this year, including 550 open-heart operations. Such is the demand that the hospital is doubling its number of beds.

Mr Mohr gives two main reasons for Penang’s success with the coronary crowd. First, it is relatively cheap. Open-heart surgery that would set you back $100,000 in America costs only about $10,000 in Penang. Second, Penang’s hospitals are as well-equipped as many in the West.

The combination of low cost and high technology is the main reason why industries across the state of Penang, made up of the original island and a larger bit of the mainland, are prospering again after more than a decade of decline. Their revival is important to Malaysia’s economy—Penang and the surrounding region account for 21% of the country’s GDP. But the renaissance could also have important political consequences for the country. Since 2008 Penang has been one of only four states (out of 13) run by an opposition party. If its politicians can claim the credit for the recent success, that should greatly help the opposition in the next general election, expected within the year.

Penang was founded as a free port by the British in 1786. Occupying a position between India and East Asia, the island drew merchants and middlemen keen to make their fortunes. Chinese, Indians, Armenians, Arabs and more all traded alongside each other. With its racial and religious mix, and dedication to the pursuit of free trade, Penang was in many ways the first custom-made city of globalisation.

The island’s fortunes sank as it lost business to its arch-rival, Singapore. In the post-colonial period Penang fell victim to the rise of nationalism. The region’s freshly minted republics chose to develop their own ports. Penang enjoyed a revival during the 1970s with the setting-up of Malaysia’s first free-trade zone (a “free port” by another name); this attracted big names in electronics, like Intel and Bosch, which built some of the first offshore assembly lines. But this boom was founded on cheap labour, and as Malaysia became richer other emerging economies, such as China and Vietnam, drew the assembly work away.

To recover its prosperity, Penang has sought to reinvent itself. With the rise of India and China, Penang’s location again looks very handy to foreign companies as a place to invest, as in the 18th century. It is relatively close to both big markets—yet offers advantages that trump Asia’s giants’.

Penang’s own “Silicon Valley” companies know that the rule of law in Malaysia gives them the sort of protection for patents and intellectual property they would not enjoy in China, and an ease of doing business that they could not find in India. Wages are higher than they were, but no more so nowadays than on the Chinese seaboard. The federal government has also spent liberally on bridges and the airport, making Penang better connected to the rest of Asia. And old George Town has been smartened up, which helps to bring in foreigners to live, work—and have surgery.

The result is another boom. Last year more investment poured into the state than any other in Malaysia. Scores of new electronics firms have swooped in to join the pioneers, along with an expanding cluster of 20 or so medical-device manufacturers. Crucially, most of the new jobs are in research and development rather than assembly. An American chip-designer, Altera, has a new facility with 1,100 workers in Penang, 800 of them engineers. Its head says that almost all the engineers are locals—which is good for Malaysia.

Whom to thank?

When the Democratic Action Party won the state’s legislative assembly three years ago, it became the first opposition party to triumph in Penang in more than 40 years. The victory presented a direct challenge to the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that has ruled the country continuously since independence in 1957. Penang’s new leader, Lim Guan Eng, says that the federal government has an “ambivalent” attitude towards him, cutting off some funding but not undermining his authority. “They don’t want us to get any credit, but they can’t afford to see us fail”.

The revival of Penang was already under way in 2008, but Mr Eng’s new policies have helped it along. He has become the first governor in Malaysia to open up all state tenders to competition. This has entailed dismantling the special preferences for ethnic Malays that have underpinned the BN’s rule since the early 1970s. That was when the Malay majority institutionalised affirmative action for themselves, to the disadvantage of ethnic Chinese (a majority in Penang), who were perceived to have got unduly rich. Mr Eng claims that by reforming the system he has ended the cronyism and corruption that wasted money under previous regimes.

Adapted to the national stage, such policies could transform the way that the Malaysian federal government conducts business. Mr Eng says that the savings he has made by ending the “old systems of patronage” allow him to spend money on new social programmes instead, such as modest handouts for the elderly. These policies are popular, and the assault on corruption pleases foreign investors. Little wonder, then, that Penang has become a political weathervane as much as a lesson in economic development.

lesson from a fracture

When a doctor treats a leg fracture, he would first adjust the alignment of the fractured bone and then put a plaster cast around the leg to keep the bone in position. For the patient, he would not be able to bear weight, meaning that he can not put his weight on his fractured leg, otherwise the alignment would be affected and the fracture will not heal.

In order to help him to move, he would be given a pair of crutches to put under his armpits and together with his healthy leg, he would be able to move around like the figure below.

(courtesy of kansasbob.com)

The fracture will heal, if there is no complication, in about 12 weeks.

One effect of using the crutches and resting the fractured leg will be that the muscles of that leg would become weaker and weaker as time goes on. This is a process we call atrophy, and this comes as a result of not using the muscles of that leg to support our weight.

So after the fracture heals, the patient must undergo a period called rehabilitation, whereby, the healed leg wold be subjected to certain physio exercises. The more often this is done, the faster the patient would regain his strength of the leg muscles in about 4 to 6 weeks time, in most cases.

There are a few lessons to learn from this treatment:

1. Anything left unused will be atrophic, and become weaker. A person who seldom does calculation will not be as fast as a person who always do calculation. A badminton player who does not train for a long time would not be as good as when he plays everyday. A runner who has not run for a long period would not have the same stamina and speed as before.

2. Use of crutches is only for those who need it. It would be insane for someone who is perfectly healthy to use crutches to support his weight. It would make his muscles weaker as well as slow him down, because the use of crutches is  actually very cumbersome.

It should only be used by those who need it: those with fractures and those handicapped person with deformed and weak limbs.

In life, we should not expect everything to come easy for us. In order to succeed , we need to horn our skills. A Sushi chef’s knife needs frequent grinding to keep it in tip top condition is order to cut thin slices of tuna, salmon etc. A police officer needs frequent shooting practices for him to be remain as sharpshooter.

Using this analogy, perhaps we should rethink our strategy to help the weak. we should re-strategise our approach towards affirmative policies.

In every ethnic group, there are weak and poor people, who are not as good as those who are more fortunate to have better environment or better home background. This group  needs help and help must be given to them in order for them to keep up and not be left far behind.

But apart from this group of weak and poor, those who are born with able-body and sound mind should be encouraged to use them in order not to become weak, in order for them to become even stronger.

So by giving crutches to the able bodied is actually denying these people a chance to learn to walk properly and become competent and efficient.  The world is fast changing, and the more competent and efficient, the better we will be able to meet the challenges of globalisation as a nation.

We donate to help the needy; not to the rich and mighty.

By re-developing a policy that helps those needy ones based on social strata, the weak and poor in every group and race wold get the help they need,  while more fortunate ones would be given a chance to improve their skills and that will ensure that no one race would become an atrophic one, just like those weak muscles of a resting fractured leg.

 

Harmony brings prosperity!

A house divided against itself cannot stand..Abraham Lincoln

Many people  often wonder why there is such a discrepancy in growth rates between  ourselves and the little red dot (and for that matter, with those nations which were once called little dragons), since basically we started on the same footing, and Malaysia actually has more resources at its disposal for development and growth.

Basically, it all boils down to one reason. While others are busy expanding their cakes, we are still in the midst of deciding who gets what and how to divide our cake, which is actually not expanding much as a result of not letting the best people  bake it, and at the same time, letting too many rats eat it.

The little red dot’s founding father, MM Lee, attributed the success of the little red dot as this:   ” Singapore has been able to move forward ahead of its peers in the region despite being a tiny nation because it focused on building interracial and interreligious harmony early on, which  is crucial to create internal stability to attract investors.”

Whether you are his friends, admirers or foes, no one can doubt about his vision and his contribution to nation building of his country. Like all human, he may have his  mistakes, but no one can doubt his foresight and his analytical mind.

What he  said above hits the nail right on its head. While all the little dragons can concentrate solely on building their own industries and human resource, we are fighting to see who came first and who was last to board our own ship.

It is like a family which has half a dozen children. These children do not unite to run the family business but rather try to sabotage each other. In the end, the family business, despite started by their parents on a sound footing, can no longer compete with some of the other companies concentrating on innovation and growth. With all the back stabbing and quarrelling, everyone from the eldest to the youngest suffer.

The simple truth is ” harmony does bring prosperity”, like what the Chinese wisdom teaches us.

According to Lee, the red dot’s success is because of its interethnic and interreligious harmony.

Ask ourselves, are we now better than 53 years ago, in term of racial harmony and religious tolerance? The answer is obvious, we are now even more divided. And the more divided we are, the slower we are going to grow.

DO we still want to continue on the same path which has not allowed us to achieve our true potential?

Something is wrong somewhere

Received via email a few facts about China:

• The United States had been the leading consumer of energy on the globe for about 100 years, but this past summer China took over the number one spot.
• In 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech
  export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent
• Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is
  projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the
  U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.
• According to one recent study, China could become the global leader in patent filings by next year.
• Over the past 15 years, China has moved up from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles.

• China now has the world’s fastest train and the world’s biggest
  high-speed rail network.

• China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe.

On top of these figures, I came across a report yesterday about the succesful manufacturing and test-flight of Stealth fighters in China. These planes could evade radar and avoid missiles from the grounds and enemy’s planes. It needs very advanced technology to produce this type of plane.

I first went to China in 1994, Beijing to be exact, and at that time people were still very poor, and there were not many cars on the roads. Though people had started to wear colourful clothing in  place of the dull Mao tunic, on the whole, they were many times poorer than we Malaysians then.

Within a span of more or less 2 decades, it has progressed so much that in many of the urban areas, the standard of living is higher than us now.

When we talk to politicians about how much the ‘little Red dot’ down South  has surpassed us since Malaysia and the ‘little red dot’ separated in 1965, the standard reply from most politicians in power will be that it is much easier to govern a small city-like state than a big area like Malaysia.

But the advance and economic progress of China put an end to this line of argument. If a country about 50 times more populous (and so much worse in infrastructure to begin with) can progress so fast economically and make such big stride  in innovation and scientific research, why can’t we, especially when we have started on a better footing?

There must be something there for politicians and planners to think about.

Division Two

Malaysia retains its position (ranked No.43) in the Legatum Prosperity index.

In South east Asia, it is behind Singapore which is ranked 17. Other Asian countries such as Japan is ranked 18, HOng Kong at 20, Taiwan 22, South Korea at 27.

Being ranked No. 43 is not so bad actually. We can perhaps say that it is near the top of middle ranked countries.  But while Taiwan , South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong has moved from “division 2 ‘ to “Division one”, we are still at Division 2. It is of course better than those in Division 3 , but looking at the subindex, the picture is not so rosy. In the categories of social capital and personal freedom, it was ranked 90 (weak).

Being weak in social  capital means that our human resource development is weak.

If a soccer team wants to move from Division 2 to Divison 1, you need to have a pool of good players. It is useles to have a big group of players who cannot play well; it would be much better if you have a pool of good players .To do that, you need good coaches, you need to reward for excellence, you need good training technique.

Looking at our universities in specific and education system in general, unless drastic changes are adopted to overhaul the whole system, it is difficult to see how we can move from Division two to Division one. Here are the links for the indices for 2010 and 2009:

http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx

http://www.prosperity.com/index2009.aspx (2009 compared)

Neither here nor there

Budget 2011 is out. The most glaring point in this budget is that we are back to the so called infrastructure play. Billions will be spent on infrastructure. While this will help to push for economic growth, I have a feeling of deja vu, and a sense not unlike seeing ‘Back to the Future Past’.

This sort of spending will ensure many big companies getting billions worth  of projects, and many of the not-so-big companies getting millions worth  of subcontracts, and many of the small companies getting the crumbs.. We also need hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, since Malaysians have generally shunned being  construction workers.

In the process of awarding contracts and subcontracts and subsubcontracts, everyone will probably be happy since there will be plenty to go round, like what happened in the 90s before the Asian financial crisis. Stock market plays based on rumours of getting contracts will be back again, and again many people will be happy.

However, the budget has not addressed the problems of preparing the nation and society for innovative change nor dealt with any structural changes.

While the MRT projects are necessary, even though I have certain reservations of the costs, the 100 storey building is totally irrelevant to propel the country towards a high income nation. To think that by building tall  high rise, we can become a high income country is like thinking that a student can be a straight As one  by just shifting the marking curve.

One lady minister was quoted as saying that since other cities are building  the world tallest buildings, we should also do this. This is like after seeing people wear big hats, we also want to wear big hats, not knowing that our head may be too small for those big hats, and in the end, the big hat may even cover our eyes, making us losing our vision.

Furthermore, we already had the Petronas Twin towers , which is already among the tallest buildings in the world. We have already proven to the world that we can build high rise, why the need to do it again?

The 5 billions could have been used to build more schools and libraries , and improve on the quality of our teaching faculties in our universities, so that we can produce world class students, not graduates that cannot even write simple English letters.( I know of a 30plus dentist  from a  local U who cannot even write nor speak proper english; cannot even write a legible meeting minute).

The perennial problems of the biggest portion of the budget  going towards the operating expenses have persisted, no thanks to our bloated civil service, and too many ministries/ministers and departments. Imagine, for every dollar government spends, 75% goes to just operating expenses, and only 25% can be used for development. It is like a company spending too much on its overheads, and too little on expanding its businesses or on R & D. This type of companies will slowly lose their competitive edge.

The 6% service tax on paid tvs means that middle class in the cities will be squeezed again. Those who subscribe the complete Astro package is now paying over a hundred dollars per month, and with the tax, they will have to fork out an additional 10 dollars at least.  The 1% increase in service tax will be mainly borne by the urban folks too. It is not wrong to say tht life is really getting tougher living in the cities.

A young graduate living in urban areas now  now needs to pay for ever increasing costs of living , plus to pay for handphones bills, plus internet service, and now, even eating out or having a drink with friends will be getting more expensive, not to mention the rise in petrol bills, the need to pay extra 50 dollars just to have a credit card…. The salary for a fresh graduates has however remained stagnant at around 1500-1600. Even if they do not eat out, and just eat bread  and water at home, these 2 (bread and water) have become  more expensive now than a decade or 2 ago.

The million dollar question in the whole ETP is this: How to get the private sector to invest, given that many companies have preferred to expand overseas.. With the decrease in FDI, and the lack of confidence of the private sector, the whole picture painted by the government  is just  too rosy..

Just a thought

Just came back from a very long  New York-Frankfurt-Singapore-Kuala Lumpur flight.  Felt a little bit disorientated because of the time zone difference.

Flying through many cities this time, one of the  most striking things is that the world is now so much more cosmopolitan and smaller now. In every airport, in every street, whether it is US , Hong Kong or Germany, you see people of different cultures: Caucasians, Middle easterns, Turkishs, Indians, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese everywhere… The whole world is getting to be a big melting pot.  People of different colors and cultures were sitting side by side, whether it was in restaurants, theatres, in departure halls or inside airplanes.

It makes me wonder why are there still people who are still so extreme that they cannot accept a fellow human being as equal; people who still cannot treat fellow human beings fairly.

Without a fair society, our economy would not be able to match those outside, simply because without fairness, we are actually stifling off talents from certain groups and at the same time , we are forcing many innovative people moving overseas.

While other countries are moving ahead, we are actually dropping further and further back. What a pity!

Just a thought on home coming!

Most globalised cities

More than half of the world’s population now lives in the cities . More people will live in them in future.

Foreign Policy publishes a list of the most global cities. For the 2010 ranking, Kuala Lumpur is on the list, ranked No. 48.  It confirms that we are indeed in the middle income trap. Not a bad ranking, but not in the top either. A position sports people will term it as  ” also-run”.

The criteria used is not size  alone. Globalisation does mean global competitiveness and how attractive a city is to global businesses. The publisher suys this regading the criteria used:

.

So what makes a Global City? Not size alone, that’s for sure; many of the world’s largest megalopolises, such as Karachi (60), Lagos (59), and Kolkata (63), barely make the list. Instead, the index aims to measure how much sway a city has over what happens beyond its own borders — its influence on and integration with global markets, culture, and innovation. To create this year’s rankings, we analyzed 65 cities with more than 1 million people across every region of the globe, using definitive sources to tally everything from a city’s business activity, human capital, and information exchange to its cultural experience and political engagement. Data ranged from how many Fortune Global 500 company headquarters were in a city to the size of its capital markets and the flow of goods through its airports and ports, as well as factors such as the number of embassies, think tanks, political organizations, and museums. Taken together, a city’s performance on this slate of indicators tells us how worldly — or provincial — it really is.

The seats of traditional political power aren’t necessarily the most global. Only four of the top 10 cities are national capitals. Washington comes in at No. 13. Beijing (15) edges out Berlin (16), which trounces Moscow (25). Two of the top 10 global cities are laws unto themselves, operating outside the jurisdiction of a separate national government (Hong Kong and Singapore). The sun set a half-century ago on the British Empire, and yet London continues to shine at No. 2. For now.

Just a sideline. I am fortunate that even though I am not rich, I have been to the top five cities listed, and 13 out of the top 15 ( I have not been to Chicago and Sidney).  Not through any sponsored trips, all from my own travels… Mind you.. No one would sponsor a free trip for someone who is attacking the policies of the government– to be audited twice ( my clinic) in 2 months  is considered good treatment already;  they could have given me worse trouble. To think of it, I think I have lived a fairly good life, as a small man in the street who earns a decent living through my skill.  But I do not gamble, do not smoke, drink occasionally on social functions, and every penny is saved and used for the family. Much more fortunate than a lot of people, and I do donate to charity. So I need to pay back to society to at least speak out for the small people; that is the answer i give to my wife when she sometimes asks me not to risk myself in speaking out.  Also, my late mum always told me to ” compare with the less fortunate but do not compare with those who are wealthier than you”.. That mentality has made me a very contented person..

Please also note that Bangkok is ranked higher than us using globalisation as well as GDP; Thailand is really catching up with us, and this means that Bangkok citizens actually have a higher per capita income tha KL folks..

Jakarta also ranks higher than us using GDP. I thought we are richer than the indonesians. Maybe I am really behind time. Anyone can shed some views on this?

Rank	City	Rank by Population	Rank by GDP
1	New York	6	2
2	London	28	5
3	Tokyo	1	1
4	Paris	20	6
5	Hong Kong	31	14
6	Chicago	25	4
7	Los Angeles	12	3
8	Singapore	38	23
9	Sydney	43	24
10	Seoul	22	19
11	Brussels	54	48
12	San Francisco	46	16
13	Washington	42	10
14	Toronto	36	20
15	Beijing	13	33
16	Berlin	48	46
17	Madrid	34	22
18	Vienna	55	40
19	Boston	41	11
20	Frankfurt	64	20
20	Shanghai	7	21
22	Buenos Aires	11	12
23	Stockholm	59	52
24	Zurich	61	58
25	Moscow	19	13
26	Barcleona	37	31
27	Dubai	56	49
28	Rome	49	37
29	Amsterdam	63	60
30	Mexico City	5	8
31	Montreal	44	35
32	Geneva	65	61
33	Miami	58	54
33	Munich	35	18
35	Sao Paulo	3	9
36	Bangkok	32	42
37	Copenhagen	60	59
38	Houston	40	17
39	Taipei	53	26
40	Atlanta	39	15
41	Istanbul	21	30
42	Milan	52	39
43	Cairo	17	36
44	Dublin	62	55
45	New Delhi	2	32
46	Mumbai	4	25
47	Osaka	16	7
48	Kuala Lumpur	57	65
49	Rio de Janeiro	14	27
50	Tel Aviv	50	40
51	Manila	15	34
52	Johannesburg	45	43
53	Jakarta	24	47
54	Bogota	29	45
55	Caracas	51	62
56	Nairobi	47	64
57	Guangzhou	27	38
58	Bangalore	30	53
59	Lagos	18	63
60	Karachi	10	50
61	Ho Chi Minh City	33	56
62	Shenzhen	26	28
63	Kolkata	8	44
64	Dhaka	9	50
65	Chongqing	23	57

We are in C Class

Malaysia is the no.37th Best country to live in, according to a study done by Newsweek. Many people think that this is quite a good ranking. This also proves that we are indeed a middle ranked country.

But the best comparison as to how we have fared is not the ranking per se. It is how our contemporaries are doing. In the 60s, South Korea was a very poor country, with little resources, and harsh elements, and of course it was ravaged by a very destructive war in the early 50s. Malaysia had a GDP 4 times that of S Korea. Now they are ranked No.15.

The little red dot, as our people like to call them, was part of this country till 1965. At that time, even though it was the most urbanised part of Malaysia, the standard of living was similar to ours.  Many people had predicted that it could not even survive on its own, since it has no resources at all apart from its citizens. It has not only survive, it has gone ahead of us, and despite the lack of land, and very tight living conditions, it has a ranking of 20.

The most favourite country for Malaysians to emigrate to is probably Australia. It is ranked No. 4.

Rankings aside, we should also look at the overall score. Malaysia has a score of 69, and Australia a score of 87.9 . In our time, anything above 85 is considered A, 75 to 85 is B , and 60 to 75 is C. Anything below 60 is F (a four letter word meaning FAIL). So we are just C. Nothing to boost about. S Korea is 83.28, and the little Red dot is 80.94.

The important thing to ask is why have we gone behind our contemporaries. We were in the same class as the red dot. In fact we were in better class than S Korea. We are now in C class and they have moved to B and soon would be A. That is despite we have rubber, palm oil, tin, and black gold, and natural gas. They have nothing apart from their human resources.

2 questions I want to ask is

1. will there be a day when Malaysia moves to A class? or at least a High B like these 2  mentioned. I really hope so since I will be living here and will probably die here.

2. Are we going to drop further to D or E class ? I hope not for the same reason above.

You should be able to answer me..

I will post 2 pictures of the ranking here: (click to enlarge)

An armless pianist and philosophy of life!

For the weekend, I invite my readers to view this video , about an armless youngster who use his toes and feet to do things that you and I do with our hands and fingers. (Please do not miss this video; it is really worth watching. I am glad i watched this)

Amazingly, he plays piano with his feet too. As a self learned piano player , i know how difficult it is to play piano with fingers. To play with toes is even more difficult, and this requires tremendous will power,  determination and love for music and love for life!

A plant which has whethered through storms will grow into a strong tree, whereas those inside  greenhouse would find it difficult to survive outside. Those given crutches since birth should remember this fact of life, and they should be the ones realising that by given everything without much efforts, they will not be able to survive in this increasingly competitive  world .

Let this video serve as a reminder to this fact. Enjoy the music.

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World second largest economy

One of the events in Olympic that i like to watch is the long distance run. Usually the best runner, or rather the most enduring one, would initially stay at the background, keeping pace but not setting the pace.

The thing that i like to watch is how this person would slowly but surely overtake one by one as the final lap comes near. And then usually in the final lap, you can see him suddenly stretching himself and overtake all the competitors in front..

In the economic arena, we are now seeing this phenomenon. There is a country, the so called sleeping giant, which has overtaken Great Britain (or rather Britain now), France, and Germany. It has been running behind USA and Japan, but now, officially figures have shown that it has finally passed Japan too to become the number 2 economy in the world.  The country that I refer to is  China, in case you have no idea of who I am talking about ( very unlikely of course).

It has done well economically and this century will be the Century of China no doubt.

But with this ascendancy of economic prominence, I can’t help but notice a sense of arrogance among its people, especially the newly rich. It would do them well to learn to be a bit more humble, as it is really against the teachings of their Great Saint, Confucius, to exhibit such arrogance. There are also tales of unruly behaviour in public, pushing and jumping queues are common, just ask any visitors to China.. I once had a bad experience while awaiting to go up the Pearl Tower of Shanghai some time back. We were in a long queue going into the lifts, and then suddenly there was this groups of loud speaking men shoving and pushing when the queue started to move,  these people actually went from behind us to in front of us. When I politely told one of them that they had jumped queue, since no one else seemed to be voicing out, they just gave me a hard stare, an unpleasant look which must have meant to say ” So what!”.

As i have mentioned in the case of Malaysia, to be a first world country is not just wealth alone, but the civil behaviours and thinkings  of its people are very important. To be wealthy but with everyone acting like a goon would not make the country a good place to stay..

Perhaps, Chinese people must start to slow down a bit and ponder on these things..

I am posting part of an article from New York Times about China becoming the No.2 in the world now. Read the whole article here

China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy

On Monday August 16, 2010, 12:20 am EDT

SHANGHAI — After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.

The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

The recognition came early Monday, when Tokyo said that Japan’s economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly below China’s $1.33 trillion. Japan’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the quarter, Tokyo said, substantially less than forecast. That weakness suggests that China’s economy will race past Japan’s for the full year.

Experts say unseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China’s growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the United States as the world’s biggest economy as early as 2030. America’s gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.

“This has enormous significance,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan.”…………………………………

Slower than snail speed!

Remember Idi AMin? Younger people out there would not know who this man was. But those of us in the 50s and above would know about this person, the dictator in Uganda in the 70s, who did what a dictator in those days would do.

He fled to Saudi after an uprising , and died there in 2003.

Since those days of Idi Amin, we Malaysians have  always treated Uganda like a rogue state. Sub-Sahara Africa is supposed to be backward, and  we have always thought of Uganda as a disease-and-poverty-striken country, with children thin like skeletons and bellies big like pregnant ladies.

Now, do not look down on these countries anymore. Many of them have a broadband speed much faster than us, Yes , Malaysia — the country with the multimedia super corridor, the country that once boosted that it wanted to become a silicon valley of the East. We still wanted to become that, but we simply do not have the means to become that; just like an impotent old man, willing but not able to.

With broadband speed like snail, how are we going to compete with other countries?

What is the use of having all the modern buildings when we have a broadband speed placing of 104, according to speednet.com (below). The whole list can be viewed here. Uganda is ranked 95, Rwanda (yes Rwanda) 65, Ghana 44.

Even the country which exports maids to Malaysia, the Phillipines, is ranked 93. Your  maid  when she goes back to her home country, can assess info much faster than you. How about that!

Download Speed

1	South Korea	33.91 Mb/s
2	Latvia	24.07 Mb/s
3	Republic of Moldova	21.32 Mb/s
4	Japan	20.43 Mb/s
5	Sweden	19.83 Mb/s
6	Romania	18.69 Mb/s
7	Bulgaria	17.57 Mb/s
8	Netherlands	17.34 Mb/s
9	Andorra	17.06 Mb/s
10	Lithuania	17.04 Mb/s
11	Aland Islands	15.34 Mb/s
12	Portugal	14.71 Mb/s
13	Finland	14.17 Mb/s
14	Iceland	13.61 Mb/s
15	Switzerland	13.52 Mb/s
104	Malaysia	1.94 Mb/s

If you are in AUstralia, a movie can be downloaded in the time you go to ease yourself, take a drink and come back to your computer. here, you need your computer to stay on whole night to download the same .

How to be an innovative and knowledgeable country when we cannot access information as fast as others?

Let others come knocking at our door

This is from MalaysianInsider today:

KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today he disagrees with the Najib administration for spending a whopping RM76 million to arrange a meeting between the prime minister and US President Barack Obama earlier this week.

I understand the need of our leader to meet up with US president, but to spend 76 million just to lobby for a meeting is such a waste of money.

What can the meeting achieve? Can we be assured of more investment from US? (That actually depends more on our policies and growth than kissing Obama’s hands) or are we buying more weapons from the States?

If the answer is no, then I really do not know what the 45 minutes meeting can achieve, apart from a PR exercise aiming at telling people that only a selected few leaders get to meet up with Obama, and Najib is one of them.

I doubt whether Hu Jin Dao of China spent any money to lobby for a meeting; most probably Obama himself is seeking a meeting with Hu. I doubt too whether Singapore ‘s former PM Lee KY needed any lobby group to meet up with US presidents; more likely, the presidents themselves wanted to meet up with Lee to pick his brain and hear from Lee firsthand how he viewed global issues including Asians ones.

I doubt whether our PM needs to spend this kind of money if he has firmly established himself as a statesman of stature, like the Minister Mentor.

It is not easy to get 76 millions. How many schools or hospitals can we build with that? How many poor can we help? How many buses can we buy to relieve the traffic congestion?

I view this spending as utterly wasteful and too excessive, but this is not the first nor will it be the last time our government is wasting money on such things.

We should instead improve our economic standing and our competitiveness; if we are among the nations with the highest growth rates, I am sure instead of we seeking meetings with others, others will come knocking at our door.

*This article was published as a letter to editor in Malaysiakini (click here)

A local index to measure integrity and corruption

I had a chance to attend a discussion organised by the Institute of Integrity Malaysia, located off Jalan Persiaran Duta last month.

The session was attended by civil servants from some governments, NGOs and a few politicians like Tan S G (vp of DAP) .

This  was a nonpolitical discussion on how to improve the integrity of local councils in Malaysia.

I gave a proposal that perhaps it would be good to formulate an Index along the line of the Corruption Perception Index of Transparent International. We can call this CPI of local councils, or to make it more palatable, perhaps we can call it Performance Index of local councils , and it would be used to measure corruption, integrity and efficiency of our local councils.

I suggested that this index can be used to compare the efficiency and corruption levels of the various local council. Like the TI’s CPI, it should be made known and published in newspapers on a regular basis (once a year maybe), and let everyone in Malaysia knows about how their local council is performing, how corrupted or not corrupted are their councillors, and by having these indices, it would serve as a wakeup call for those councils that were ranked very low.  Comparison and competition will introduce motivation (to do better than others) as well as a shame factor (for those deemed very corrupted councils) , and hopefully, it would serve as an incentive for each and every council to try to compete and outdo the others.

There must be integrity at 3 levels. Macro level and that is at policies level; meso level, and that is at insitutions,  departments and councils levels,; and thirdly the micro level and that is the level of individuals – the politicians, civil servants and so on.

Only when there is integrity will there be morality, and both integrity and morality are precious commodities that are so lacking in our leaders, civil service and even many of the business people .

Most inventive nations of the world

The previous article from The Economist has shown glaringly Malaysia’s position on innovative entrepreneurship, or rahter the lask of it.

I would like to post a list  here (from one of the commentators in the enomist article) that shows how far behind we are in innovation or invention:

From an international trade perspective, patent applications are one statistical measure of a nation’s capacity to generate new ideas with potential for global success.

Top 15 International Patent Filings by Country (2005)

1. United States (46,115 international patent filings)
2. Japan (24,829)
3. Germany (16,002)
4. France (5,736)
5. United Kingdom (5,103)
6. South Korea (4,686)
7. Netherlands (4,530)
8. Switzerland (3,264)
9. Sweden (2,858)
10. China (2,501)
11. Italy (2,351)
12. Canada (2,322)
13. Australia (1,999)
14. Finland (1,890)
15. Israel (1,456)

International filings from northeast Asian countries showed robust growth in 2005. Global filings from Japan increased 22.5%, while applications from South Korea and China improved 31.7% and 46.6% respectively. The average annual increase for all countries in 2005 was 10.7%. Canada’s filings rose 10.3% while America’s increase was 6.4%

Top Resident Patent Application Filings (2004) – per million population

1. Japan (2,884 resident patent filings)
2. South Korea (2,189)
3. United States (645)
4. Germany (587)
5. Australia (479)
6. New Zealand (402)
7. Finland (385)
8. Denmark (347)
9. Norway (335)
10. United Kingdom (320)
11. Sweden (308)
12. Austria (275)
13. France (236)
14. Israel (227)
15. Switzerland (217)

These statistics show that many small industrialized countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Denmark have above average rates for filing patents. The world average was 148 patents per million inhabitants in 2004. According to this measure, Canada’s score of 125 was below average.

Top Resident Patent Application Filings (2004) – per billion $ of GDP

1. South Korea (116.2 resident patent filings)
2. Japan (107.3)
3. Germany (22.6)
4. New Zealand (18.7)
5. United States (17.7)
6. Russia (17.6)
7. Australia (17.2)
8. Belarus (16.9)
9. Ukraine (14.7)
10. Finland (14.0)
11. Denmark (11.8)
12. United Kingdom (11.3)
13. Sweden (11.3)
14. Israel (10.1)
15. Czech Republic (10.0)

The above numbers are in billion dollars of GDP, where GDP is measured in constant year 2000 U.S. currency at purchasing power parity.

Per dollar of GDP, Japan and South Korea file 5 times as many patent applications as do the industrialized nations of Europe and North America. Canada’s score of 4.3 is far behind the world average of 19.0.

The question is, is there a strict relationship between the number of patent applications and a nation’s population or GDP? And if so, how important are those relationships in helping a country improve its status in international trade?

Sources: World Intellectual Property Organization (www.wipo.int)

Read more: http://internationaltrade.suite101.com/article.cfm/most_inventive_countries#ixzz0WnjA19BP

Where is Malaysia?

Can Malaysia be a high income country? A Macro view of jobs and labour .

The following is written by our reader klm, in response to my article “Can webecome a high income country?” which can be viewed here.

………………………………………………………………………………….

Can Malaysia  be  a high income country? A Macro view of jobs and labour .

By KLM, Economist Burok.

What is a high income country?  The World Bank definition is : Income group: Economies are divided according to 2008 GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are: low income, $975 or less; lower middle income, $976 – $3,855; upper middle income, $3,856 – $11,905; and high income, $11,906 or more.

How to get  there?  Go up the value chain, knowledge industry  etc. The strategy is well known and discussed.

But what does it really mean.   One way of looking it  is  to view  from  the point of jobs   and compare it to other countries. 

Comparison of Income Groups By Countries

High income countries have a labour profile of  at least  a third of more if its population in high income jobs and a third or less in low income jobs.  Singapore is the extreme end of this profile with 51% of its population in the high income occupations.  This occupation distribution changes according to the classification of the country.

Occupational Distribution By Countries

 

  (click to enlarge)

High Income : Senior officials, Professionals, Managers,  Executives & Technical workers

Medium Income : Clerical, Sales & Service Workers

Low Income : Production & Transport Operators,  Cleaners & Labourers

	Thailand	Malaysia	Taiwan	Singapore
Classification	Lower Middle Income	Upper  Middle Income	High Income	High Income
GDP/Capita(2008)	4,400 USD	8,324  USD	18,966 USD	44,113 USD

Distribution of occupations by population

Singapore
Singapore saw a rapid change in the distribution of occupations, especially in the high income jobs, with  51% of the population in the high income job category , the highest in the developed countries.  The change is fueled by migration of knowledge workers  from Malaysia and other countries.

Malaysia

The changes in the distribution of occupations in Malaysia is moving  slowly. This is an indication of the lack of structural changes in its industries reflecting in the slow demand for  knowledge workers.  This is already well known issue.  Slow demand and low pay for knowledge workers led to migration of these workers to other countries – the Malaysian brain drain problem. 

Occupation Distribution of Employed Residents 2001 to 2008

Conclusion

It is obvious that to become a high income country, the distribution of occupations   need to  evolve with  more than  a third of the population  in high income jobs.  This requires industries that use more knowledge workers and the ability to supply high quality knowledge   labour.   It was reported that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng told Parliament recently that the state lost US$3 billion (RM10.2 billion) worth of foreign investment because it could not “commit to having 1,000 engineers”.

Recently the PM had acknowledged the fact that Malaysia had achieved success in the past by growing an industrial base and expanding its agricultural sector, he emphasised that more measures were needed to boost the economy and that the country can no longer rely on what had worked  in the past.

What  mix of high , medium and low income occupations is a question for the New Economic Model of Najib. 

……………………

An excellent article backed with facts and figures. Thanks klm. 🙂

A welcomed respite

I wish to congratulate University of Malaya (MU in short) for being able to ‘squeeze’ inside the top 200 universities ranking 2009, compiled by  Time Higher Education. MU is ranked 180 this year, up from 230 last year. The full list can be viewed here.

MU has been absent from the top 200 list for many years, and the fact that it is able to come back in should be commended.

While a lot more needs to be done, I view this as a good beginning. This is indeed one of the very rare occasions during the past few years that I have seen an improvement in a  Malaysian ranking.

Never mind that MU was once among the top universities in the region, comparable to University of Hong Kong and University of Singapore .

While National University of Singapore and University of Hong Kong  have consistently been within the top 50, MU has dropped out altogether from the list of the top 200. NUS and HKU are now at 30th and 24th position respectively.

I have a strong feeling for MU, since I was a medical student there for about 2 weeks. I went down to University of Singapore when they offered me an Asean Scholarship. I would have remained in MU had I been given a scholarship then.

I hope politicians should leave the academicians alone and let them run the university along meritocratic principles. There should not be 2 sets of standards and 2 sets of marking systems.

There is nothing like fair competition to bring excellence back to our universities.

Take an example of a hemiplegic patient after a stroke. Initially patient would have difficulty to get up and move on his own. At this stage, we normally would give him a walker to support himself and let him move slowly his own.  After some time, when he is much stronger, he should be weaned off the walker and crutches can be given to him. With the help of crutches , he would slowly regain his walking ability and slowly, with the help of physiotherapy, he can often regain 80% of his mobility and wean off the crutches.

Those stroke patients who refuse to exercise and refused to be weaned off the crutches cannot hope to get the same mobility of the group that exercises and wean off clutches.

Like stroke patients, help can and should be given to weaker students in the form of extra classes, extra tutorials, extra homework .These will help the weaker students to get up to the levels of the better students, but once there, they must be encouraged to compete fairly on an equal footing . Only in this way can they become competent graduates in their chosen fields.

What is the point of giving them good marks when at the end of the day, they cannot even perform up to the minimal standard required in their chosen fields?

I think the ‘crutch’ syndrome is the Achilles heel of the country. If this crutch mentality is not dismantled, through the dismantling of the skewed NEP and all the skewed policies under the program, then it is difficult to bring back excellence in all our fields..

Malaysia is no. 66 best place to live

UNDP Human Development report 2009 has been released.

The Human Development Index this year, based on 2007 data of each country, places Norway at NO. 1, AUstralia NO 2 and Iceland NO. 3. This index normally measures the best places to reside in the year specified.

Niger is last on the table , being ranked NO. 182.

Malaysians used to tell each other that Malaysia is the best place to stay ( I think it is because it is our homeland, and home is always sweet), but unfortunately, in the eyes of the world , we are just NO. 66, in the middle…Nothing to shout about.

The top ten countries are:

1. Norway  2. Australia  3. Iceland,  4. Canada  5. Ireland,  6. Netherlands  7. Sweden   8. France,  9. Switzerlan and 10. Japan.

Singapore is ranked NO 23, Hong Kong No 24 and South Korea NO. 26.

The whole table can be viewed here

Australia is NO. 2  NO wonder many people move there from Malaysia, and it has alway been the top country that Malaysians emigrate to .. Even the lady minister who famously said that ‘one million cannot buy us anything ‘ was said to have PR status there once upon a time ( do not know whether she still has PR there?)

I have been publishing all these rankings and looks like apart from Badminton rankings, we are nowhere near the top ten in whatever things that we do…

So, we should stop thinking that we are the centre of the world and start to buck up.