Thinking Allowed
Mahanomics
Early in the days of his premiership, he tilted the country Eastwards with the policy called �Look East�. He even succeeded in marrying Japanese work ethics with Islamic economics, as witnessed by the setting up of the Islamic Bank and various other Islamic institutions, under his tutelage. Mahathir is also among the foremost proponents of �Asian values� in which the economics pertain to a rejection of Western institutions such as the IMF. Wasn�t it Mahathir who has taken up the cudgels against the imposition of excessive IMF conditionalities in the Asian financial crisis and spurred the movement toward a new financial architecture for the world economy.
Yes, Malaysians, it�s time to honour our premier with the creation and anointment of a new academic discipline of Mahanomics! We should also have Universiti Malaya�s economics faculty confer an economics prize for Mahanomics every year. Perhaps we could make it attractive enough for renown foreign economists from abroad to compete for the award and in time to come it would rival the Nobel Prize. We�ll call it the Maha Prize for economics.
Let me now proceed to show you how Mahanomics continues to reign supreme in the manner in which Malaysia deals with economic problems today.
Private Profits, Public Debt - All Over Again!
The new plan would result in the Ministry of Finance (MOF) owning 100% equity in MAS, from 29% now. The other prominent shareholders, Pension Fund, EPF and the public will now hold 51% of shares to be issued to a new company (Newco) yet to be given a definite name. The new �private limited� will be given MAS� profitable undertakings and will instantly be relieved of its debts, to be fully taken over by MOF. Wouldn�t one call this a masterstroke of Mahanomics? You may want to ask, who eventually pays for the RM9.2 billion? Surely not Tajuddin Ramli or anyone currently responsible for MAS, like CEO Md. Nor Yusof. Instead, the MOF is supposed to buy the carrier's properties and aircraft and lease them back to the airline. It�ll be a huge debt that will stay with you and me � the Malaysian taxpayer � for life and beyond. If you were smart, you�d line up for a stake in the Newco, the alleged money-making arm of MAS. But then again, who�s to know it won�t go down the tubes like before?
Guest Workers - Use Them, Expel Them!
Malaysia�s copious employment of foreign labour can also be seen as an important aspect of Mahanomics. For a relatively small country of some 23 million, we now have guest workers (a wonderful euphemism!) numbering anywhere upwards to 2 million, legal and illegal. Latest statistics show that foreign residents now exceed the Indian minority in Malaysia. And now, with a declining Chinese population to others (only some 26%), it may well be that in the future, non-Indian and non-Chinese minorities of larger number will come to populate Malaysia.
Be that as it may, we now seem to have a �problem� of foreign labour blown up daily in our media. Moves to revoke the PR status of Indonesian workers in particular have become a hot issue after incidents where rioting broke out in a textile factory in Nilai. Another incident supposedly involved Achehnese at an Indonesian bazaar at Kampung Manis in Sepang.
The fact of the matter is that the recent prosperity of Malaysia has been due to the influx of guest workers.
Let me try to apply a bit of Mahanomics here. In the boom years of the nineties just prior to 1997, guest workers came by the droves especially from Indonesians because we had a labour shortage or full employment situation in the Malaysian economy. These workers filled the vacancies in the industrial and plantation sectors, while allowing Malaysians to move up the scale into the service sector and to continue increasing their numbers in the professions. Domestic helpers or maids freed many a housewife from the chores of homemaking and allowed for the ballooning of double-income families. A figure of 567,000 was cited in a local daily as the total number of Indonesian guest workers currently, down from about 900,000 in boom days. To cut a long story short, all of this meant that the GDP grew by leaps and bounds. By the look of things even post 1997-crisis, Malaysia continues to employ large numbers of guest workers to keep its economy bubbling, if not really growing. This is the plus side of Mahanomics � keep foreign workers when you need them, retrench them when you don�t.
But there�s a downside. When times are bad or economic conditions decline as they have today, the first people to lose their jobs and what little security they have will be guest workers. Could one blame these workers for feeling totally exploited? And now it seems all too convenient to expel foreign labour on the grounds of minor incidents of protest and unrest, some of which could well be justified given the shoddy treatment of many of these workers by Malaysian employers. A more ethical Mahanomics would require strict adherence to legal contracts for guest workers where the obligations of both parties are clearly spelled out. Malaysia has yet to develop a proper overall scheme for guest workers, allowing for basic labour rights. Do we see a prospective Maha Prize winner here, soon?
Team A/Team B Political Syndrome
Moving on, we notice recently how the political disease of Team A versus Team B has infected virtually all Malaysian political parties, be they in the government or opposition. The syndrome had its genesis in the mid-eighties when UMNO provided us with the mother of all Team A �Team B conflicts. This was when Ku Li challenged Che Det and was defeated by a razor-thin vote for presidency which wags till today argue was �manipulated�. Team B became Semangat 46 and the rest is history � sort of.
The syndrome has continued into the nineties and manifested itself in the Anwar episode and the formation of Parti KeADILan. PKN itself seems to now have a Team A-Team B problem with the suggestion that the ABIM group has been marginalized in the latest episode of internal bickering. The DAP has also similar problems up till today basically revolving around the dominant personality of Lim Kit Siang.
However, the party that has emulated UMNO par excellence is the MCA. Problems have been brewing at the top levels of leadership since Ling Liong Sik�s ruse of briefly withdrawing as party leader not so long ago and his bouncing back since then. In any case, the lines have now been clearly drawn between the Ling Team A and its factions and the Lim-Chua-Chan Team B. In a move clearly orchestrated by Team A in the run-up to the party congress in June this year, members' lists have been vetted and scrutinised to prepare all and sundry for a Battle Royale. If you�re a punter, put your bet on Team A. The reasoning is simple, UMNO is MCA�s role model.
In the most recent episode of Team A /Team B outbursts, east of the Peninsula, we have two �chiefs� declaring themselves as president of the Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), Joseph Kurup, the incumbent, and Jeffrey Kitingan, the allegedly aggrieved, deposed deputy leader. The party congress turned into a fiasco when Kitingan�s group took over the meeting and elected him as president. Meanwhile, assemblymen aligned to Kurup re-elected him in their own meeting. A royal mess!! Needless to say the matter will have to be resolved in the courts. This reminds me of an old Malaysian ditty:
Tu dung or not tu dung?
The controversy raging across the Straits of Johor over the Singapore government�s ban on the tudung in schools has clearly irked many Muslims on this side of the Straits. The issue has become public because four Muslim primary schoolgirls opted to don the tudung to school. At the time of writing three girls (or could we say, their parents) continue to defy the ruling. They are being persuaded to follow the ruling or abandon formal schooling. One may opt for home schooling.
Muslim groups are perhaps justified in criticising the imposition of a �secular� dress code on those who would for religious reasons prefer a �non-secular� dress code. One could argue that it�s everyone�s right to choose their own form of dress as long as this does not obstruct the process of learning or education. However, one does have to make a distinction between public and private schools. Public schools are administered by the government of the day which in practice can and will introduce various regulations with regard to dress code and other matters. The Singapore state, having a multicultural population (and presumably multicultural policies) has chosen to impose such a ruling on public schools and this is clearly within its jurisdiction.
Malaysian Minister for Women and Social Development Shahrizat Jalil grudgingly accepted the right of the Singapore authorities to make such a ruling though she disagrees with it. Logically for Muslims in Singapore who dislike such a dress code, they should then opt for private or home schooling.
But let me now turn to Malaysia. Isn�t it a practice in all public schools today that Muslim girls should also be free to choose whether they don the tudung or not? However, Muslim girls generally have to dress in a baju kurung. Increasingly of course social pressure has meant that most Muslim girls will don the tudung as well. Even though we don�t impose absolute rules, society, such as it is, tends to do the needful. Thus the freedom of most Muslim girls or their parents to choose a more �secular� dress form has virtually disappeared in these days of high religiosity.
Would it be too much to ask for a free choice of dressing with some reasonable guidelines as is practised in many liberal countries now? That way, those want to don tudung can do so and those who don�t, do not. The current fetish for uniforms is indicative of a rigid uniformity with little room for flexibility.
D.L. Daun.
Akujanji
Looks like the big guns in the government sector were very much in a hurry to pledge their loyalty to the government of the day by signing their Akujanji. Recently, we saw on TV heads of departments signing their pledge without batting an eye. Worse still, the top brass of the armed forces were also seen signing their pledge.
As if not to be outdone, the vice Chancellors of the country's public universities hurriedly assembled in KL to sign their pledges in the presence of the Education Minister. Of course, subsequently this pledge will have to be forced on the lecturers as well as students.
What has become the bone of contention here is whether the pledge of loyalty should be made to the government of the day, or in the name of the King and country? After all, governments come and go (at least in the cases of Kelantan and Terengganu). And governments can also do things that run against the collective interests of the rakyat and of the country.
But why this Akujanji business? Well, it boils down to a government that feels insecure in the face of growing resentment among the people, especially after the Anwar saga. So this is a mechanism that it intends to use to force a pledge of loyalty to the government, no matter how contrived the janji is. This also explains the promise of UMNO Youth to come up with a list of `naughty' lecturers and students. It even suggested, as concurred by certain vice chancellors, that students should spy on their lecturers and that these `loyal' students would be assured of their confidentiality and safety. Boy, what a way to run universities. Academic excellence anyone?
A Whiff of Fresh Air
Have you sensed that whiff of fresh air amidst us? Have you watched your TV and noticed the difference? And have you been reading your newspapers with perhaps a little more interest since it's a little less predictable?
Yes, he's on leave. And for a whole month. Turn on the TV chances are nobody will be lecturing us tonight. Yes, Rais is trying hard to imitate his master's voice but he's a poor imitation.
Why you might be able to catch Najib over the air. Wonder what's become of him. Maybe they'll give us a dose of Samy? Or KY Lim? Better them for a change I reckon.
So no holiday for you Pak Lah. Be on guard if you know what's good for you.
Now tell us what you think. E-mail us.
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In not so many years past, we have seen the emergence of �Reaganomics� associated with former American president Ronald Reagan while the Iron Lady across the Atlantic those days gave birth to �Thatcherism�. Here in Malaysia, a professor of economics at a local university, with no hint of irony, proposed the new field of �Mahathirnomics�. This is quite well taken except I would suggest the more mnemonic term Mahanomics. Truly, the Malaysian premier has over the years through sheer constancy of thought, perseverance of purpose and steadfastness of practice crafted a species of Malaysian economics that bears a uniqueness which can only be associated with the man.
The first matter that springs to mind is the protean MAS rescue efforts. The latest move is a classic maneuver of Mahanomics. Many, many moons ago the government rescued MAS from its erstwhile CEO Tajudin Ramli by buying his RM3-plus shares at RM8. Since that rescue and all the restructuring and hiking up of airfares, et cetera, we are now told that the MAS debt has ballooned to some RM9.2 billion! Note, my dear reader, that�s some nine thousand million Ringgit. Hardly anyone bats an eyelid now when astronomical debt figures are revealed. What is the difference between 3 or 9 billions � same number of zeros! I recall that when Tajuddin unloaded MAS on the Government, the debt stood only around M2.7 million. So what�s the plan, now?
But Pak Lah had better watch his steps and what he says. The last three deputies were also given a chance to act PM and look what has become of all of them? In this regard, Pak Lah should keep in mind the advice Musa offered him when he first assumed the deputy's post. Remember, Musa declared, that you're just "number two", not the incoming "number one" and never ever part of a two-some as in "the 2-M government". At some point Musa had thought he was one of the 2-Ms and he couldn't have fallen faster.