Al Jazeera news piece on Malaysia's economy 19 August
They have an optimistic view with the following stats:
Great! Err... but don't forget that there are key structural problems that are not being addressed seriously / or being addressed but not much results to show for it.
Corruption
From the little bribes to the traffic cop to the multi-million scandals in the news, Malaysians have become cynical to having a clean, meritocracy here even though we know this is what we need but with so much vested interest around, how can this be eradicated meaningfully?
On a practical view, corruption will always be around in some form or another, lets not kid ourselves that it can be stamped out completely. All we want is for it to be reduced to a minimum and those who do indulge in it will be caught and punished.
Right now, it is the whistleblowers who are victimised for "not following the proper procedure to report such activities"! Can you beat that?
Education
We have failed on 2 critical avenues: English language quality and critical thinking skills. As a hiring manager at an MNC, the amount of time spent sifting through resumes and interviews is exhausting, it's like panning for gold!! Candidates cannot communicate well, cannot think on their feet and are not confident in expressing their opinions. I'm not a mind reader (although I would like to be!) so if you don't speak up, who is going to know what your ideas are? Geez.. as my old Maths teacher used to say: "I want to vomit blood, you know, vomit blood!"
Conservatism
Raja Petra in his Malaysia Today site made an interesting comment that no one seemed to have picked up on was that by making prostitution and drugs illegal, the criminal underworld has become rich and in turn, are able to buy off the police. I would add that media censorship on so many petty things like kissing, sex, BEER (yes, you heard me, Beyonce's "If I were a Boy" with the lyric 'I'd drink beer with the guys, and chase after girls' had the word 'beer' beeped out on radio. I kid you not. Welcome to Malaysia.) has also fuelled the boom in pirated movies and porn. Who earns? The syndicates.
Makes you wonder, what IF prostitution was legalised? I'm not saying that this should be a profession of choice by any means (my personal view is that one should get it for free, not have to pay for it but not everyone is fortunate in that sense and I guess sometimes you just want it hassle free and no obligations after that..) but if it was regulated, then it can be taxed. If it was regulated, then health standards can be maintained. If it was regulated, then it can be controlled. Right now, none of the above is happening. No tax income, no health monitoring, no control. Who wins? The syndicates.
What if censorship was relaxed? I would much rather buy a movie from a legit retailer like Rock Corner or Speedy that is uncensored, instead of from some dodgy shop and who knows where your money is going to. Is it funding snakehead activities? You don't know.
Although, now with broadband downloading, this seems to have impacted this kind of business somewhat but it's still going on.. btw, there have been several reports that Malaysians are tops in surfing for sex websites and downloading porn. A direct reaction to the insensate censorship rules here, yea, Malaysia Boleh! *snark*
I'm not advocating a free-for-all love & drug fest, ok? Just apply some common sense and logic to the situation. We can take the stance vis-a-vis prostitution & drugs as: "I don't condone it, you should not indulge in it but if you insist on doing so, then the rules are - keep healthy, pay your taxes, only over 21 years old and you pay full price for government health care if your medical issues are related to these activities" , hey, should apply this for alcoholism, smoking and obesity too right?!??!!
Want Malaysia to be high income? Reduce corruption, encourage English and be more liberal. That's all.
- RM440+ billion to be spent on projects
- RM860+ million on the poor
- 5% growth year on year to 2020
Great! Err... but don't forget that there are key structural problems that are not being addressed seriously / or being addressed but not much results to show for it.
Corruption
From the little bribes to the traffic cop to the multi-million scandals in the news, Malaysians have become cynical to having a clean, meritocracy here even though we know this is what we need but with so much vested interest around, how can this be eradicated meaningfully?
On a practical view, corruption will always be around in some form or another, lets not kid ourselves that it can be stamped out completely. All we want is for it to be reduced to a minimum and those who do indulge in it will be caught and punished.
Right now, it is the whistleblowers who are victimised for "not following the proper procedure to report such activities"! Can you beat that?
Education
We have failed on 2 critical avenues: English language quality and critical thinking skills. As a hiring manager at an MNC, the amount of time spent sifting through resumes and interviews is exhausting, it's like panning for gold!! Candidates cannot communicate well, cannot think on their feet and are not confident in expressing their opinions. I'm not a mind reader (although I would like to be!) so if you don't speak up, who is going to know what your ideas are? Geez.. as my old Maths teacher used to say: "I want to vomit blood, you know, vomit blood!"
Conservatism
Raja Petra in his Malaysia Today site made an interesting comment that no one seemed to have picked up on was that by making prostitution and drugs illegal, the criminal underworld has become rich and in turn, are able to buy off the police. I would add that media censorship on so many petty things like kissing, sex, BEER (yes, you heard me, Beyonce's "If I were a Boy" with the lyric 'I'd drink beer with the guys, and chase after girls' had the word 'beer' beeped out on radio. I kid you not. Welcome to Malaysia.) has also fuelled the boom in pirated movies and porn. Who earns? The syndicates.
Makes you wonder, what IF prostitution was legalised? I'm not saying that this should be a profession of choice by any means (my personal view is that one should get it for free, not have to pay for it but not everyone is fortunate in that sense and I guess sometimes you just want it hassle free and no obligations after that..) but if it was regulated, then it can be taxed. If it was regulated, then health standards can be maintained. If it was regulated, then it can be controlled. Right now, none of the above is happening. No tax income, no health monitoring, no control. Who wins? The syndicates.
What if censorship was relaxed? I would much rather buy a movie from a legit retailer like Rock Corner or Speedy that is uncensored, instead of from some dodgy shop and who knows where your money is going to. Is it funding snakehead activities? You don't know.
Although, now with broadband downloading, this seems to have impacted this kind of business somewhat but it's still going on.. btw, there have been several reports that Malaysians are tops in surfing for sex websites and downloading porn. A direct reaction to the insensate censorship rules here, yea, Malaysia Boleh! *snark*
I'm not advocating a free-for-all love & drug fest, ok? Just apply some common sense and logic to the situation. We can take the stance vis-a-vis prostitution & drugs as: "I don't condone it, you should not indulge in it but if you insist on doing so, then the rules are - keep healthy, pay your taxes, only over 21 years old and you pay full price for government health care if your medical issues are related to these activities" , hey, should apply this for alcoholism, smoking and obesity too right?!??!!
Want Malaysia to be high income? Reduce corruption, encourage English and be more liberal. That's all.
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