Wednesday 3 June 2009

Short Questions, Long Answers Needed.


 

Just as point of discussion, let us imagine, the whole efforts to preserve the NEP are nothing more than the organised effort by the ruling elite, to preserve itself. Imagine further, that the ideals and aims of the NEP were already adulterated, violated and debased, that the original intentions have all vanished. They are replaced by pure rapacious economic interests of the ruling elite.

Now, imagine in turn, you are part of the ruling class. How do you ensure your class centric philosophy continues to dominate the minds of the majority? By class centric we mean, you are part of the ruling elite that seeks ways to ensure your dominance over the masses is self perpetuating. Incarcerating the masses is in your best interest.

One, you use the repressive organs of the state- the police, the army, the schools, universities, pulpit and mimbars and the retinue of ustaz and so forth. You realise these are never enough. You will eventually realise that people, the masses can endure physical repression.

You use a second means- control and dominance over the mind.

You smother society with the dominant philosophy- which is actually nothing more that the philosophy of the ruling elite. You employ for example this nebulous idea of special rights of the Malays. This is nothing more than rights for Special Malays. You will scare the wits out of the masses, telling them, if these rights are compromised, the Malays have no future. Then, special rights of the Malays- become a powerful element of the philosophy of dominance by the elite over the masses.

Suppose we the majority have not attained social consciousness. We tend to accept things- explanations given by the ruing elite as gospel truths. Without our own social consciousness, we will inevitably adopt the dominant philosophy of the ruling class and the prejudices of the society in which we live. "Things will never change" is a common refrain, reflecting the futility of changing things and of the need to accept our lot in life. There are other such proverbs as "There is nothing new under the sun", and "History always repeats itself", which reflect the same conservative outlook.

Such ideas form a crushing weight on the consciousness of men and women.

The most insidious that hinder the emancipation of our consciousness are the mouthing of doomsayers. If this and that are disturbed, it will cause social upheavals. If the philosophy of the NEP is questioned for example, it will result in social unrest. If we forget history, history will punish us. The effect of the sum total of all this weight of conventional and historically proven ways is what? It is actually nothing but a big lie to preserve the status quo.

There was a comment in my blog by an anonymous commentator. Our country is subject to the rule of the 20:80. 20 percent enjoys 80% of the benefits from this country while 80% share the 20% balance.

Suppose this observation is also applicable to the NEP. Apply this to the NEP. 20% enjoy the privileges under the NEP while the rest, i.e. 80% compete to get a share from the remaining 20% of the NEP cake. My question is this: if 20% of the Malay elite sapu 80% of the benefits and the rest of us have to compete by our wits, intelligence, hard work and what not- why are we lending our support to retain a system that forms nothing, but a crushing weight on our emancipation?

Illustration:

Mega-Wan Corporate Services Sdn Bhd- a company formed of course by an elite group has billed the Port Klang Free Trade Zone a bill amounting to RM 140 million. What services did they provide? Maybe nothing more other than just being the gendarmes and brownshirts enforcing NEP rules. For a more explosive expose, read here.

13 comments:

  1. Dato,

    About propaganda, UMNO can actually learn a lot from North Korea.
    Doesn't matter what outsiders believe in but more important their masses believe that Kim Ill Sung & Kim Jong Ill etc are almost divine. So KETUANAN MELAYU is kacanglah.....so easy to sell to the Malays and it is happening. Use non-malays as the bogeyman.

    UMNO can also learn a lot from Mugabe too...just keep printing money to give out freely to the Malays...it may happen when the people that provide the economic backbone of this country vote with their feet, mostly to Singapore, then the spineless leaders will print the money just to hold on to whatever power that remains.

    Anyway, if I recall correctly, the former MAS boss has very expensive tastes and will not hesitate to spend millions on art pieces while MAS was bleeding red. Hence this WAN company's billing.

    It should be normal right? After all, the submarine commission is HALAL as far as Najib is concern. Saya tak nampak pun Awang Selamat/Utusan Malaysia buat bising berkenaan dengannya. Memanglah, saya duga Awang pun 2 kali 5 dengan Selamat.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "....let us imagine, the whole efforts to preserve the NEP are nothing more than the organised effort by the ruling elite, to preserve itself. Imagine further, that the ideals and aims of the NEP were already adulterated, violated and debased, that the original intentions have all vanished."

    the above are not imaginations sir

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can we blame Tun Razak for it?

    Maybe he could see that it would be abused and hence put 1990 (?) an expiry date for it.

    Maybe TDM and the latter leaders just could not resists the temptations and prolong the NEP passed it use-by-date!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dato,

    The 20/80 rule applies through out the current world economy, developed, developing or under-developed.

    It's a economic reality under the current capitalist ideology, pseudo or true schools.

    In US of A, economic data points to the same phenomenon. The 20% richest American do own 80% of the wealth.

    Same thing in M'sia.

    But, in USA this phenomenon comes about through open competitions. Race, religion r of NO major contributing factors.

    Minor blurrings do occur, as in Jewish American's hold on Financial services & Catholic American's transient control of the politics. But, by & large, they r just a minor diversion. This can be seen from the fact that Bill Gate can be one of the richest American & Black Obama now sits in White House.

    Within M'sia, the economic blurrings r controlled via the form of NEP.

    Somehow, the controls r not working, as reflected that the 'known' richest M'sians r still the non-Bumi! The non-Bumi still control the economy, superficailly!

    What takes?

    Perhaps, some light can be seen from this quote from Aspan Alias;

    'The Bumiputra equity went up to 18.2 % in 1984 from 2.7% in 1970. The jump was tremendous and we were quite positive to achieve the target.

    But personal politics was above everything as such that this statistics became stagnant and circumvented the effort to achieve the target.

    When somebody else came in to take charge of the economy the statistic became so blunted and the reality came to the open just a day before Mahathir stepped down when he gave his parting speech in Parliament.

    You and me heard it very clearly that the Bumiputra participation was just at 18.6%; meaning that Mahathir and Daim had only succeeded in adding a fractional percentage to the statistics of 0.4 % in almost 20 years."

    So, Mahathir has pulled woods over the eyes of all the Malays, during his 22 years of 'reign'.

    Exactly; 'gaya mesti ada, duit ta'dak'.

    Superficially the Malays have arrived, but look deeper, most of them r just the same economically. The only difference is the cronies have millions (billions?) stacked outside M'sia!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Are You Gonna Go My Way3 June 2009 at 14:02

    NEP has it flaws...human made flaws. But why burn the mosquito net when u should bygon the mosquito...

    The problem is the ruling elite syndrome can effect anybody including those from DAP, PKR and PAS... talk is cheap but once you got hold of power...you'll do your best to manipulate the power at hand.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's not uncommon in private companies to budget 5%-10% of project cost for consultancy and professional fees.

    However, in the case of PKFZ and Mega Wan, the signed contract of appointment and agreement with terms and conditions and scope of work spelled out clearly have not surfaced. MSM reports seem to suggest PKFZ's CEO has no clue to this Consultant's claim of $147 million!

    Curioser and curioser!

    But this is not uncommon where massive fraud is implied!

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  7. Dato'

    If we are to work out on Monthly Basis, PKFZ and PKA can be considered have charged Professional Fees of:

    RM4.85 Million Dollars PER MONTH between Jan 2006 to August 2007

    RM190,000.00 PER MONTH between August 2007 to May 2008

    What kind of work would a Consultant Charge RM4.85 million per month for services to a company that eventually lost money in Malaysia??!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Bumiputeras have to learn to earn their keep, show that they are fit for the positions they vie for, and for the slices of the economic cake that they are seeking. The Bumiputera community has gained a large measure of confidence in its ability to be successful in economic ventures and is quickly shedding any vestiges of the insecurity
    complex that pervaded it in the years after independence. The wide array of institutional and other support facilities created to boost Bumiputera participation in the economy have also served as confidence-building tools. The need for these structural aids remain for the moment but it is heartening that a small but growing number of Bumiputeras are demonstrating that they are able to come up even without these crutches.

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  9. Dato,

    My 20:80 % comment refers to NEP/Bumiputeras...because of the 20% who keeps harping and getting the NEP benefits>>>the other 80% who gets little or nothing are branded as incapable of doing a good job or to be competitive.

    And the 20% who gets easy money have no motivation or interest to build long lasting competitive "real"business.As long as there is the golden goose....

    Thus,govt have to give opportunities to real hands on,competitive and knowledgeable Malays.make it more equitable..unleash the real potential.
    No more cronies, pseudo intellectuals marauding as businessmen>>lets identify the real entrepreneurs.

    But,apart from commenting on blogs..hoping that the message gets thru to someone in authority...is there anything else that we can do?

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  10. Anon 03 June 2009 21:14

    If you have any good ideas,business proposals.. talk to the big bumi tycoons like Naza Group,Syed Mokhtar,Kencana Group;people with money that can invest with you.But you must be willing to have only a small share because they are taking the bigger risk.

    Its not only money of course: their involvement will give access to their network,provide greater credibility and also impart their business wisdom.

    I think the Chinese have been practising this type of "venture capital" for decades.If you look at IJM for instance you can see linkages to IGB,ICP,Mudajaya and many many more unlisted companies.I am sure our own successful Bumi businessman will look for expansion through similar networking.

    Thats a win:win after all.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dato'

    Correction...
    PKFZ and PKA WERE Charged...RM4.85Million per month..

    ReplyDelete
  12. Non Bumis been in business for generations..so its perfectly natural that they have valuable assets all paid for,they have almost all the distributorships of key products and services,have better supply chain,stronger business cultures and most of all;a strong network.

    Bumis..baru belajar business and more often than not the business is thrust upon those least ready to grow the business.Thus they look for quick exits to provide the security or squander sudden wealth on glamorous pursuits.

    Affirmative action does not necessarily work to create a Bumi business community on a national scale but it certainly can change lifes of some individuals.

    And not all non Bumis are rich or with the business orientation.And a lot of Bumis and non Bumis just want to be employees with good career prospects and a decent wage.

    Thus,lets get the entrepreneurs Bumis or otherwise to create and grow businesses..and assist them to provide cheaper goods and services as well as emoloyment opportunities.The savings that the government can achieve through proper and competitive procurement,efficient outsourcing etc...can then be used to help all rakyat in education,health,cheaper utilities,efficient public transportation..

    Its not rocket science.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dato'

    On a Daily Basis from Jan to Aug 2007, PKFZ and PKA can be considered to have been charged Professional Fees of:

    RM160,000.00 Dollars PER DAY
    i.e.
    RM20,000.00 Dollars PER HOUR for an 8 Hr Day



    A company used to charge Esso RM5,000 PER DAY for A Single Specialised Service...And we thought it was too High!

    ReplyDelete