So much has happened throughout this year that it has left
quite a number of us utterly flabbergasted and with so little to say. As the
life span of “the truth” shortens with the unveiling global scenarios, making
concrete statements is rather difficult. And that is probably the reason why we
see a lot of statements being made today, revoked tomorrow or even politicians
today, layman tomorrow…. And politician again the day after… Let’s switch gears
now shall we?
About a month back, I got an invitation to attend a
programme organized by Ernst & Young Malaysia. It was called Decoding the
DNA of the ETP (Economic Transformation Programme) with the caption – Bringing
Your Idea to Fruition. With strong government support and HUGE financial allocations, it
is, I quote “ driven with the desire to create new jobs and drive GNI (Gross
National Income) growth”. But before I proceed further, please read the
following disclaimer:
Disclaimer: This article will be presenting my personal views on
several issues and is NOT written with the ideology of conforming to the
general youth fashion of scrutinizing everything that is happening.
Directly under the Prime Minister’s wing, the ETP is aimed
at putting Malaysia in the forefront of the global economic scene. Being
creative, innovative and daring does give this plan a certain edge (on paper) .
So with the 16 chapters of the booklet and handbook, plus the 54 page executive
summary read, I went to decode the DNA of this ETP with much renewed
enthusiasm! And here is my executive summary… There is much retardation in the
gene pool… To be honest, they need to decode the DNA of the ETP again… and this
time, with genetic engineers who have a business ideology, who are not just a
bunch of number crunchers!
While Dato Idris Jala was talking on stage about the ETP, I
should say, things did look very promising. Geared at promoting the local
industry while creating more job opportunities for Malaysians, the ETP did
indeed show ways of making Malaysia a high income nation by the year 2015. One of the main ways, according to Dato Idris
Jala, was to create healthy competition in the market place. Knowing that
competition in the market place is the only way to boost any economy, I was
excited that the ETP is going to be the catalyst of it. He also went on to say
that this is one of the key indicators that is going to drive Malaysia towards
the global scene, as the competition would be conducted while implementing “ceteris
peribus” in the market . The latin phrase Ceteris Peribus means “while all else
is held equal”. That’s went I went “BRAVA!” But the excitement came to a
premature end when he said that a special key indicator was created to focus on
developing the Bumi SMEs in Malaysia. And my immediate reaction was “ceteris
peri-what?!”
Don’t get me wrong by thinking I am racist in any level, but
if market competition is to be created, the idea of equality needs to be a key
player. THE MALAYSIAN RACE needs to be looked at rather than the ethnicities
when it comes to driving our economy. When
a particular group is given a certain privilege compared to other groups, it
tends to help that group for a short period of time. However, when the same
group reaches its comfort zone, productivity would reduce and by then it would
be too late for anyone to expect anything from that group. This is the same
thing that has happened in many countries around the world which has led to
quite the havoc in recent times. With so much happening in the world, I felt
rather dumb founded that Malaysia would still focus on such issues when “the
man” a.k.a the PM, is driving the 1Malaysia concept, is diligently advocating
equality in Malaysia. I bet he would not have allowed this if it was directly
under his wing… Oh wait… it is… *sigh*. Please read the following disclaimer:
Disclaimer: By the comment made above, I am NOT pledging my support to
the oppositions. I reserve my right to remain impartial. As a matter of fact, I
do not have time for parties/groups/movements that bicker on petty issues while
there is a bigger picture that needs tending to. Fecal matter, covered in
candy, is still fecal matter.
If Malaysia is aiming at becoming a high income nation, we
need to level the playing field to allow more business ideas (despite
ethnicity/class or creed) to flow through the system or basically apply liberal
scrutiny. Liberal scrutiny (a term I just coined while writing this) would mean
that the freedom of ideas is encouraged to flow through the system without
taking into consideration race, class or creed while carefully analyzing (in
this case) these ideas PURELY on the business and financial aspects. Otherwise,
we would only know that Malaysia is a high income nation when our cattle farms
are established in multimillion dollar condos and service apartments and
sending these cattle on a half a million dollar vacation to Bali in order to
increase productivity.
Anyway, back to the ETP… The event went on with an exclusive
forum with some of Malaysia’s prominent business and semi government entities.
While many were voicing their strong opinions on the ETP and how Malaysia was
conducting itself when it came to the implementation of the ETP, a particular
entity baffled my brains by the “infinite wisdom” he displayed during the
Q&A of the forum… The CEO of TALENT
CORP. Here is what happened:
He was sharing with the crowd, the ideas of Talent Corp in
addressing the issues in the workforce in Malaysia. Here is what baffled me… They
are going to spend millions and millions to bring back the Malaysian talent
working overseas. And here is how they are going to do it:
a)
Match their pay in Malaysian ringgits (obviously
it has to be more)
b)
Tax rate @ 15% (while we pay 28% personal tax or
20% company tax)
c)
2 Tax free cars / Tax reduced cars
d)
And other perks to keep them in….
And here is what I thought… While you are going to be
spending millions and millions on bringing these diasporas back to the nation,
you would be losing the many talented individuals and potentials within the
country to other nations(and trust me, there are loads of them); they are going
to be running out the back door (or if these guys are too blind, the front
door). As an individual who made a conscious decision to come back to Malaysia,
despite being offered various good positions in the US and Europe, I feel that
I (and many others like me) have been taken for granted. If there is not going
to be tax alterations and unnecessary spending of tax money, I don’t see the
need to re-print money in Malaysia anytime soon.
Here’s the thing, by reprinting money, the value of the
Malaysian ringgit will reduce as there will be more money supply. This could be
a method that Malaysia is implementing to attract foreign investors to invest
in Malaysia. One of the things they might be failing to take into consideration
is the fact that these external investors might be running out of money due to
the lack of money in the countries of the investors. Plus, the major economies
in the world like Indonesia, China and India are looking at internalizing their
markets to improve their global standing in the economy. With the “power house”
title up for grabs, all the countries are off on the global economic rat race!
(With the exception of the US as they are still deciding on who is going to run
the race, and Europe as they are still discussing on the rules with the umpire
(IMF).)
The ETP, like I first said, is an EXCELLENT plan… But the
execution is rather questionable. Malaysia has to leverage on the strength of
the MALAYSIANS as being ethnocentric
is not going to get us moving anywhere; as a matter of fact, we might still be
stuck behind at the refreshment tent, eating our santan (coconut milk) laced
snacks while the rest are running the race. And when the winners are announced,
we might just die of a heart attack – still at the refreshment tent!
By,
Ashveen Chakravarthy Sekaran
Dec 22, 2011
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