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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Wednesday 17 March 2010

NEM=NEP plus other things?


So when our leaders say, we move from now and here to a high income economy, what do they mean? Was it just a term of art without reading into it, the real technical meaning? That is, you want to move from an average income economy to a high income economy involves a sea change in a lot of things.
Such as: Debunking old age myths, detaching from old school ways, acknowledging that its very difficult to change things from inside( which means PM Najib must institute radical reforms if whatever he said loudly were to move from beyond theatrics. If he wants action he must have a new team.
Would PM Najib be able to shed his play safe and I have never had to challenge anybody to get I am image? He now has to challenge every settled ideas and habits of the past.
He has to contend with human nature. More precisely he has to contend with Malay nature. Malays don't need an overdose of affirmative action anymore. What they need most of all is a hard knock on their senses that in life there is no such thing as free lunch. Why should we believe Ibrahim Ali who promises to have more free lunches? We have free lunches so that he can have grand feasts?
Just as an aside, I like Mat Sabu. I was listening to one of his speeches of  longtime ago. He was warming up to the crowd, working up their appetite and one of the menu items was Ibrahim Ali. He declared- I know I am ugly, but I am little bit handsomer than Ibrahim Ali. Ibrahim Ali he says has the face wonderfully useful to scare birds away! That threw the crowd into fits of giggles and primal laughs.
I am moving ahead of myself first. He is even reluctant to change his team of advisers and retinue of officers who are seen by the public and conveyed to the Oracle, as being more adroit at playing golf and not up to the mark. If he is reluctant in these basic things, then it would be safe to assume like Nazri said, the NEM is just another re-packaged NEP plus more. That his procrastination in announcing the NEM is just a stalling tactic to accommodate the Malay hawks in his party and out there.
By an indirect way, it proves that what Ibrahim Ali and his Perkasa and MPM were doing was just a rearguard maneuver supplying PM Najib's economic planners with the justification of heeding public opinion. Which public opinion? That convulsed by MPM and Perkasa in a moment's fit of temporary insanity?
They're probably using the term high-income in a non-technical way, otherwise how can we get from per capita GNI of USD3,300 at present to USD12,000, almost fourfold, in order to qualify as a high-income economy?' They must have felt the nation needs to be galvanized into confidence and activity, hope and aspirations. New generations are coming on-board and they will be the ones to push ahead. That's why a general target is put up consistent with the past 2020 vision but re-draped.' The only way is to avoid the inanities and insanities of the past. To continue using the same half-baked methods will be disastrous. We have to unmask all the mistakes made in the past three decades. We have lost not only time but our high ground and first-mover advantage of the past. Other countries have sprinted from behind and are now ahead. No assumptions must be held sacred. We have to bite the bullet, admit our miscalculations, understand where we have become irrelevant, and brave the future now.
PM Najib must now be aware that our compulsion to keep doing what we have always done is very strong. Would the economic planners used to planning life for rent seekers come up with radical plan which will see life as they have always known it, will be killed off? We are driven to remain consistent with our past decisions and actions even when they are obviously wrong.
By stalling with the announcement and looking irresolute, PM Najib and his administration will show that they are influenced by the factor known as social proof. That term means that being collectively wrong is better than individually wrong.
Is PM Najib and his team looking for safety in numbers?

18 comments:

Richard Cranium 17 March 2010 at 18:12  

"There are some men of infirmed of purpose that they always require direction from others, and this is not on account of any perplexity, for they judge correctly, but from sheer incapacity for action." Balthasar Gracian

Khoo Kheng-Hor,  17 March 2010 at 20:37  

Dear Dato',

We're like re-enacting Hans Christian Andersen's fable, "The Emperor's New Clothes" where everyone (almost everyone) sychophantically pandered to the Emperor's preference to listen to flatteries and lies.

In the end, you are that little boy who exclaimed: "But the Emperor isn't wearing any clothe."

Donplaypuks® 17 March 2010 at 20:54  

I doubt NEM will be materially different from NEP, perhaps just substituting 'M' for 'P' with dollops of waffle about tolerance, acceptance and performance now beautifully packaged by APCO with our money!

At this juncture, PM Najib is NOT going to come up with anything revolutionary that may lose UMNO more Malay votes at the GE. See how he finaly U-turned on GST? Why? It was clearly a vote loser!

Next U-turn? $50 levy on credit cards!! We live in hope and are thankful for small mercies.

dpp
We are all of 1 race, the Human Race

Anonymous,  17 March 2010 at 22:23  

Dato'

Donplaypuks said;

"See how he finaly U-turned on GST? Why? It was clearly a vote loser!"

OK, Let's see what he will do to the Oil Subsidy....when we get to be Net Importer of Oil which should be soon!

Hmmmm also what's he going to do about the Kelantan Oil Revenue Demand and Action Against Tengku Razaleigh...

When Under Pressure..... Shout 1Malaysia!




Joe Black

kuldeep 17 March 2010 at 23:33  

Before drawing up new plans,its usual to analyse the failures/achievements of the previous plans.
Presumably the team entrusted to develop the new plans being competent and able managers have done the rigorous and thorough analysis...

That analysis should be the first to be publicized and preferably by end of this month.

I am indeed keen to know how and where I have failed.

Anonymous,  18 March 2010 at 02:27  

Salam Dato Sak,

Aiyo~yo~yo Mr. PM why la the pussyfooting? as everyone knows, time is not on UMNO side anymore the clock is ticking!

I reckon i'll be the first to do the Futterwacken dance as portrayed
best by the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.

Hoping for something explosive happening in the next few weeks in Parliament!

-Ikan Tongkol-

Anonymous,  18 March 2010 at 02:46  

We better get used to the fact that we shall be continously falling. Such macroeconomics cannot just turn overnight. It takes years or even decades to right 5 decades of wrongs even you start corrective measures now.

The people's mindset had been "hard coded" into their mindset with people like Brehim Ali talking and demanding nonsense beyond belief.

Such mindsets are like spoit children brought up for decades they get what they want and the parents gave in. The compliant MCAs and MICs etc were just too scared for decades to stop it. They joined in the "fun".

One needs only to try to stop the rot, would get to be blamed as taking away their "rights". So most of the good ones just move away.

They now say the Chinese of today is not the same kind of Chinese before March 2008. They are more daring. Daring of what? Just to say, be fair in your use of public money to all. You can sense the "tuanness" in these fellas. Really sickening.

Talking of wanting to be high income country is one thing, to achieve it is entirely a different kettle of fish. So far no actions as far as we can see, is being done to get us into higher income country. We should be lucky just to maintain our standards of living before we would be behind even Indonesia.

The real high income guys are just going away because most countries welcome them to make theirs high income countries while rent seekers here continue to call the shots and make sickening statements everyday.

The double standards are no secrets anymore.... it is in the open and openly displayed by our leaders.

Got hope? Nay...

Anonymous,  18 March 2010 at 08:00  

greetings dato
UMNO only listens to and answers to UMNO.Since you are UMNO urself and nobobody seems to listening to or answering to you, why waste time and talk about all this?
Is there any remote chance at all of a change taking place for the benefit of the long forgotten rakyat malaysia?

Suci Dalam Debu 18 March 2010 at 11:41  

All these U-turns are hallmarks of people shallow on thinking but shouts the loudest.

Scary isn't it to know that most of our leaders are like that?

Anonymous,  18 March 2010 at 17:20  

Dato,

I've not been commenting on yr blog for quite some time now.

Part of it is due to the fact that I cannot see a splinter of hope growing out from a 'new Malay' who can support the rebirth of a bribe-given umnoputra. Some more when the distinction of putra & bumi is so often quoted in yr writings!

Second I've decided to move outward after years of business merry-go-round bolihland-style. The final decision comes when a Scandinavian investor bought out my company & asked me to run the new set-up in China.

This write-up happened when I'm back here to finalise the business clean-up & I met up some of my old business contacts just for networking. One of my foreign business contacts echoed the following headline that the local newspapers currently tagged.

‘Japan envoy cautions Malaysia over manpower shortage, impact on FDI’

Then come some ivory-tower commentator’s three sen;

Kalau kerja di sektor pembinaan tu bayar RM10,000, saya pun hendak, walau kerja panas terik (Tak kena matahari pun, kulit aku dah hitam).
Tapi kalau setakat gaji RM1,000-RM2,000, baik aku jadi wartawan - sama gaji dan duduk dalam bilik aircon. Atau baik aku jadi security guard, kerja rilek, gaji sama.

See anything wrong here?

Somehow the tower dweller forgot to digest the following explanation given by the ambassador;

"These processes will always be manually operated as it requires patience as the work is mostly repetitive and relatively low-wage income.

"However, these processes are indispensable and without this part of manufacturing, no company can achieve production of first-class high precision products," he added.


I would like to raise my experience from my years of business hard-knockings in M’sia. Not the political aspect. Neither the race &/or religious one. These are the supplements to what Walla has so eloquently written in his theoretical comments in the previous post.

Everything boils down to education.

Our education system besides produce unemployable graduates has also produced a falsified 'raised expectation' for the school leavers at the same time.

Nothing wrong with raised expectation. Everyone should strike for it – with honest efforts. It’s a privilege, not a right with tongkat in tows!

What’s wrong is the falsified part. And that’s where that tower dweller got the wrong turn!

Let’s be honest - NOT everybody can be cut out to do what’s been expected. This happened across RACE, RELIGIONS & GENDER. And this cannot be focified too! Just imagine forcing a light-weight to fight a heavy-weight Muay Thai match.

anomie

cont 1/2

Anonymous,  18 March 2010 at 17:21  

cont 2/2

Our current school system has put a lot of under-qualified students into the universities, purely with the aim of increasing the numbers of 'graduate' within that certain community.

The prices that the joe M’sians paid for this game-pit r well documented!

It has another less well observed side-effect, especially among the lower achiever.

First - now that I’m a degree/diploma holder (irrespective of the applicability/relevancy of the degree), I’m entitled to better pay package! Second, I'm in demand now (for whatever the reasons), I must be paid more even though I only know how to jaga pintu!

See the resonance with that tower dweller’s logic!

What about work dexterity (don’t confused with work experiences)? What about achieving walking before thinking about sprinting? What about those special inputs that make you stand out from the crowd? What about your learning attitude?

This could be the glorified reason that we spent million to send a space tourist to inspire our kids. Role model indeed - for doing something grand at zero effort, some more at other’s expenses, too.

And this is the expectation that most of the M’sian workers r hoping to achieve – less work more pay. Thus outcome a high income society!

Think – how long it took England to achieve that. US of A? Closer to home, Japan? & even closer, S’pore?

What’s working for them that we cannot learn from? What do we missed? What r the stages that these countries have gone through that we r trying to side-stepped & side-stepped at what costs to the nation & those tongkat-ali-infested people (note – not only the Malay)?

During our moving oversea study, Indonesia, China & Vietnam were under consideration. At the end we choose China, even though it’s the most expensive choice among the three.

The only thing that works strongly in favour of China is the attitude of their workers – both low & mid-level personnel. They r eager, either to get their hand dirty or at longer working hour, just to get a chance to learn something extra & beyond their current knowledge. This can mean languages &/or extra technical skills. They don’t complaint much about the working environment, not that we don’t provide the best as dictated by the HQ to follow ISO.

Today, some of the industrial zones in China r no longer low wage operation sites. Some of the skilled workers around these specialized economic zones can average RMB 2500 per month. Coupled with low cost of living, their standard of living is better in term of Purchasing Power Disparity with M’sian earning RM5000. And there r still shortage of workers with a population of over 1.2B!

So the quest toward a high income economy is the attitude of the workers. That’s mean education with a true intention of learning something – anything. Not just to fill up the quota – not a zero sum game. That means the govt of the day must bite the bullet where it matters most, so that the future generation’s hope is been germinated now.

The current lot is the lost hope, at best!

anomie

Anonymous,  18 March 2010 at 21:53  

Old wine in new skin. That will be the NEM.
I think you being an UMNO man will know for a fact that every decision/policy made by any UMNO government will have an eye on the vote banks... in other words Malay votes.
National interest is secondary.
Ibrahim Ali, (his face is as ugly as his convoluted and deranged mind) will stand tall and say "You see, I was able to twist the PM's arms".

flyer168 19 March 2010 at 00:29  

Just to share with you a portion of Lee Kuan Yew's Speech at the S Rajaratnam Lecture on 9th April 2009...

"Singaporeans must always be prepared to maximise our opportunities and manage the challenges. In an era of increasing rapid and convenient transportation and communications, political leaders frequently meet each other at bilateral and multilateral summits; and they become comfortable to phone each other through secure lines.

Ambassadors do not influence foreign policy so significantly.

Sound foreign policy requires a prime minister and a foreign minister who are able to discern future trends in the international political, security and economic environment and position ourselves bilaterally or multilaterally to grasp the opportunities ahead of the others. Able foreign ministry officers and diplomats who give insightful recommendations based on dealing with their counterparts and assessments on the ground can greatly assist the Foreign Minister and his cabinet colleagues towards this end.

But ultimately, it is the Prime Minister and other key ministers who decide on changes in policies. At face-to-face meetings over long hours they can sense each other’s thinking and leanings before their officials are privy to them. Hence, our foreign policy from 1965 was settled by the PM and his key ministers.

A mediocre PM and cabinet will decline our standing with other countries and we will lose opportunities like the lead we enjoy in Free Trade Agreements or Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with the US, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and our close relations with the oil states of the Gulf.

Let me return to the complexities of Singapore’s relations with our neighbours. The events that led to our independence are receding into history. These different complexities are not the result of historical baggage, but of basic differences in political and social systems.

Baggage is something we can discard. Political and social systems we cannot change so easily.

Singapore is a multi-racial meritocracy.

Our neighbours organise their societies on the supremacy of the indigenous peoples, Bumiputras in Malaysia and Pribumis in Indonesia. Though our neighbours have accepted us as a sovereign and independent nation, they have a tendency to externalise towards us their internal anxieties and angst against their own minorities. This is unlikely to go away.

Time has worn down many of the sharper edges in our relations with our immediate neighbours. A habit of working together in ASEAN has also helped. Singapore is now more established, internationally and regionally. Forty years ago, many did not believe Singapore would survive, let alone prosper.

We have a strong economy, accumulated robust reserves, developed a civil service of integrity and ability, a mature and capable foreign policy team, and institutionalised our systems.

We have strategic relationships with the major powers. We have a credible defence capability. The SAF is an insurance in an uncertain world.

Each successor generation of Singaporeans must build on these assets and work out their solutions to new problems, seize new opportunities and avoid impending disasters in an ever changing world. The perennial challenge is to remain competitive.

To be competitive, we must remain a cohesive, multi-racial, multi-religious nation based on meritocracy. We have to strengthen our national consciousness at a time when the forces of globalisation are deconstructing the very notion of nationhood.
All countries face this challenge. A country like America has over 200 years of history to bond its citizens.

We have only 40 years. But so long as the succeeding generations of Singaporeans do not forget the fundamentals of our vulnerabilities, and not delude themselves that we can behave as if our neighbours are Europeans or North Americans, and remain alert, cohesive and realistic, Singapore will survive and prosper."

Now how does our PM compare with LKY?

Anonymous,  19 March 2010 at 10:24  

Salam Dato Sak,

As for some people know, Orang Pahang tak semua takde tulang belakang(Spineless)

However, day in & day out why are those people in power are indeed stupid and beyond mind boggling idiotic level as a Mule!

Melayu nowdays are so full of themselves (Syiok Sendiri) gone are the days - proper protocol and not (Boot-Licking for $$) + to achieve Higher-Income for their Own respective gains & Aristocracy(Cronism)

I don't know about the rest here, but I already smelled the stench in the air of comparing "one blog" to another "blog" who got the Earliest Dato' or who are not?

Itu lah Orang Melayu-UMNO, when we need a proper / called out for Input, brain-storming how to achieve higher income nation semua panas bontot , some even digressed from the main topic.

Islam Hadhari tido syndrome is it?

The recent Parliament antics by Dato Zahrain is sure another those many pathetic attempts by UMNO.

Apa ni? Apa sudah jadi?

On a lighter note, as some other I caught quoting:

"When under Pressure, shout 1Malaysia,or Hidup Melayu, or even best, Allah-O-Akbar!"

Itu je lah Modal.

I feel so sad being born in
MALAYSIA.

-Ikan Tongkol-

Have a great Weekend Dato,

Anonymous,  19 March 2010 at 10:47  

This is how it (NEP) was done all the while? (picked up from Msia Today)

PARAMESWARA

Tan Kay Hock is the Chairman of Johan Holdings Berhad and George Kent (M) Bhd. Well, so was I back in the 1980s. I was a director of Johan Holdings and the Deputy Chairman of George Kent plus director of ‘Special Operations’ -- meaning covert operations. So what I am going to reveal is ‘insider’ information, not something that I heard, but something that I was involved in back in my ‘jahiliyah’ days.

Najib was then the Menteri Besar of Pahang while the then Menteri Besar of Johor was Ajib. Remember Ajib, Musa Hitam’s man? He was the man who called Tun Dr Mahathir a mamak during a Malay Chamber of Commerce meeting and was soon after removed as Menteri Besar and replaced by Muhyiddin Yassin, the present Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. At that time Muhyiddin was the Deputy Minister of Trade.

Anyway, Muhyiddin met Datuk Andrew Leong, one of the Johan Holdings directors and the man associated with Deepak Jaikishan (ah, yes, another ‘association’ -- remember Deepak, Rosmah's carpetman cum bagman cum toyboy?), in Singapore to plan how to give George Kent a RM32 million ductile iron pipe contract. Muhyiddin was representing MB Ajib, who Andrew had met a day earlier in his office in Johor Baru.

The deal was: Johor would give George Kent the RM32 million contract on condition that George Kent paid Umno Johor RM1 million. Now, this was more than 25 years ago so imagine what RM32 million and RM1 million were worth then? Today, you could probably multiply that by five times or more.

But Johor could not sign a contract for RM32 million because any contract above RM20 million must first obtain the approval of the Minister of Finance. So they broke the contract into two, which was illegal. Each contract would be worth RM16 million. Then, with 'Variation Orders' included, each contract can be inflated to RM19 million, just below RM20 million where the Ministry of Finance would become involved. So it would finally come to RM38 million, but in two contracts. That would bypass the Minister of Finance.

They had one problem, though. Johor had used up its budget for the year and if they requested more money from the federal government then the Ministry of Finance would get to know about the contract.

So they contacted the Menteri Besar of Pahang, Najib, and they were told that Pahang had some unused budget. Pahang did not manage to spend all the money allocated to them for that year (what can they spend it on in Pahang anyway?)

Najib agreed to transfer Pahang’s money to Johor, but on the sly of course because this was not legal. Then, the following year, when Johor receives its next budget, it would return the money to Pahang. It was a sort of loan from Pahang to Johor. And the Ministry of Finance would not know about it. It was an MB to MB arrangement.

George Kent got its two contracts of RM16 million each. It also got its Variation Orders of another few million. Pahang transferred the money to Johor so that Johor could pay George Kent. And Umno Johor got its RM1 million, payable in cash in small bills so that it was untraceable.

So, Anuar Shaari, if you want an explanation about the association between businessmen and politicians, get your teeth into that story which I just revealed. This is not an innocent association. This is an association that smacks of corruption, abuse of power, and whatnot. And it involves both the current Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.

Is there a statute of limitation on corruption and abuse of power? Damn, that means Najib and Muhyiddin will be able to get away scot-free.

So please don’t talk about the association between businessmen and the opposition politicians. There is no crime in that. But there are many elements of crime in the association between businessmen and those who walk in the corridors of power.

Come on Najib and Muhyiddin. Please deny the story I just told. Call me a liar. Make a police report against me. Say this is not true.

Anonymous,  19 March 2010 at 15:38  

flyer168. Our PM have 1Malaysia and NEM. 1Malaysia can fix all political problems and NEM can fix the economy and education problem. Of,course he is better than LKY.

Anonymous,  19 March 2010 at 23:51  

With so much brahuha happening in Parliament, do we honestly believe the elected MPs are capable of discussing intelligently, honestly, collectively on major policies such as NEM, GST and many others complex issues? I wouldn't hold my breath.

I think the monkeys are probably laughing at us human for acting like a fool.

Red Alfa 21 March 2010 at 03:10  

Dear Dato

Love this blog. You have got everyone wanting to wrestle this high income economy to the ground, here!... "they" will be looking this way soon enough or "they' will be missing much on the action.

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