YBM Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah on Ibrahim Ali’s stage.

The much respected Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah will have a speaking engagement tomorrow. He will speak about Malay economics in the age of globalisation. The principal organizer of the forum is Ibrahim Ali. It is called Wacana Perkasa.

Ibrahim Ali is a character who defies description as far as political beliefs are concerned. He has shown himself to be too ultra Malay at times. He has crossed boundaries many times so much so he has been enthroned as the frog king. That description hasn't fazed him as he continues to be as unpredictable like nobody's business.

Hence his choice of Tengku Razalegh as a main speaker to speak about Malay economics in the age of globalisation serves to further compound our estimation of him. We have on one side, the organiser who is as right wing as can be. On the other side, we have the gentleman prince of politics, who is known for his progressive political and economic ideas. Maybe I should meet Brahim or stopa, on a face to face encounter to measure the man.

The only thread that connects Ibrahim and his opponents perhaps is the deep and profound respect Ibrahim has for Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. There is arguably an almost universal acceptance that Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is a statesman deserving of impeachable respect.

I have no inkling as to what TRH wants to speak about. I would like to take this opportunity to give some opinions on the thinking about Malay economics.

One line of thought deduced from the behaviour of people like Ibrahim Ali for example (hence the paragraphs about him above) holds that Malays are backward because some other races have taken more than they should. We are thus poor, because others have taken more of this fixed pie.

In Malaysia for example, the most prosperous group is the Chinese. There is no need to amplify this statement. Everyone knows it. In the present day political and ideological climate, those who are prosperous are looked at with unconcealed envy and perhaps even hatred. Hence we hear statements like the Chinese owned this country. They are the real power in this country. How do we correct this wrong?

Suddenly all Malays, the plebeians and the patricians become one homogenous group. Those inhabitants on Snob Hill are the same as inhabitants of the plains. Suddenly we become the common man, facing one common greedy enemy. Things can only be equalised if the government, which is ours for the time being, carries out confiscatory corrective policies.

No costs are too high to pursue this corrective strategy. If we have to continue shoring up the share offerings till kingdom come, as long as we can deliver above market dividends year after year, that should be good. If we have to implement extra assertive economic policies, breaking up monopolies, forcing big greedy companies to hand over to our select 30 percenters, so be it.

The prevailing pedestrian thinking is we are like this because people have exploited us. The fact that we remain less prosperous defies divine and natural law. Everyone must be equal. If we cant share in prosperity, let's share the misery.

Sober minded individuals and Malays (lets not use the term liberal because Minister Rais dislikes it) are worried. We want to expose the fallacies of the thinking of people such as Ibrahim Ali wants to propagate. The thinking is that man's penury is due to the fact that some people have appropriated too much of the wealth of this country. That translates into: Malay penury is due to the fact that non Malays have appropriated too much.

Hence to these people like Ibrahim, the only efficacious remedy is to insist on more governmental interference to correct the imbalance. For as long as we have the idea, that out own shortcomings are caused by the other people; we can never have economic liberation on whose foundation, real prosperity lie.

That is why I find the fact that TRH has been invited to speak at a forum organised by Ibrahim Ali as incongruent. It would be interesting to hear what TRH says on Malay economics in the age of globalisation and its reception thereafter by the NGO led by YB Ibrahim Ali.