Calibrating My Personal Charter

PERSONAL CHARTER



April 5, 2011

Realising that secular objectives, no matter how interim, is both misplaced and destructive, that I shall strive insyaAllah and with Allah’s guidance, to fulfill my fullest potential, and also to bear responsibility of realising the potential of those under my care, which includes my wife and children, and be the most positive influence I can be to others that I come into contact with, to benefit the purpose that Allah has given to His creation.


September 18, 2009; 28 Ramadhan 1430H

For the next 5 years, my financial planning mission shall be:

• Benefactor to others
• Work only for a worthy cause
• Secure dependents

1 Jan 2007


I will ensure my life and my family will live a life of integrity according to values approved by Islam and social order

I will be determined in ensuring we reach that goal while at the same time ensuring my parents are safeguarded;
including my wife and children; and our relations



I will have determination that I build up through persistence and tenacity;

I will pursue those goals with bravery and courage, and not be stopped by fear


I will pray that Allah protects my objective and makes it easy

I will also have understanding and tolerance for other people's viewpoints, perspectives, problems, concerns, and make it my own

I will use my rational thought coupled with hope and prayer to its fullest ability and find the opportunities that life brings for the betterment of this life

Migration is a realistic option

Malaysia is going down the failed nation route

1. This country is eroding.
2. Utusan is a joke of a newspaper who thinks their agenda of helping malays by continuing unquestioning loyalty to UMNO will perpetuate the malays survival, even at the expense of dumbing down the malays. Their overzealousness to prove Anwar as the protagonist of all evil in the world is made with the assumption that the malays are emotional and unthinking, and by goign through the moral high ground they can guarantee Anwar's destruction. I'm no big fan of Anwar post-2008 after all the miscalculated political missteps, but when Wan Azizah says it isn't Anwar, that's good enough for me. I trust Wan Azizah understands the concept of loyalty, as it is taught in Islam, is predicated upon truth and goodness, not upon deception and political calculation. So Utusan - may your editors find peace in themselves, and may the once-proud newspaper forever die a slow, painful death through making themselves an irrelevant space filler in dirty drains. The expected reaction to this is that this is a treacherous thought to allow a powerful symbol of Malay power, but in truth, Utusan has been a traitor to the malay agenda by ensuring the continued ignorance, prejudiced, unprincipled and emotional views to be propagated to unthinking malays.
3. Seeing Tun's blog on how to develop a university town today is another revolting idea. Tun is brilliant, but a supernormal Einsteinic, Alexander the Great he is not. His brilliance should have been focused on institutional building for continued malay development, not for short-cut, original but ultimately untested ideas. Instead, he cultivated a sycophantic following forever asking his ideas on development and regarding it as unquestionable truth. Malays will only progress once they start taking responsibility for themselves, and not waiting for a supreme feudalistic ruler to bring them to success. The sooner Tun really retires, the better for the malays. Najib should outflank him, and outflank him now.

Return to the origins

1. Bahasa has this nice proverb saying "kembali ke pangkal jalan" to signify life's typical journey of returning to fundamentals whenever we veer away from where we intend to go.
2. I've always had this feeling of chasing after money, no matter how interim, that objective becomes a domineering overwhelming instinct that eats up all our efforts, time and resources. No matter how noble the intent can be, ie looking after my family's interests and financial demands, it then becomes the mechanism where the original direction will be lost. There will be no balance, no proportion, and looking for proportion no matter how clearly it resides outside of the workplace now, it would be imbalanced when we lose the sense that Allah is the overriding, primary aim of life.
3. It has taken Sarah's leaving to ignite that need, now becoming a temporary single parent would naturally increase that reliance on Allah which I had quite conveniently left it by the wayside. It is time to return.
4. Just to add to the sense of unrealness, RTC has now initiated a video screening of proof that Anwar cannot control his Thamby. Talk of the inadequacy of someone raising libel on others. I cant visualise any other person with this kind of background displaying such a disregard of personal embarassment and shame, inability to find remorse and accountability, and no feeling of political responsibility to chase a personal vendetta. Society needs clean, clear-thinking, above this dirty politics that UMNO has become so synonymous with. I do feel a personal calling in this regard, and the call of money seems to be the only obstacle holding me back.
5. Elsewhere, Fukushima will result in a much increased cost of nuclear generation, and it remains to be seen if coupled with variability of oil price whether this could really push the envelope for RE generation, no matter how un prepared it is to become mainstream currently and the demands of subsidies to get it up. Certainly a business opportunity.
6. Wifey is overseas for the next 2 weeks - I'm bearing the brunt of the work at office and home in that period. I'll have to decide if this is worthwhile as a full-fledged career. Nevertheless, the demands of a PIBG Secretary, a business matching organiser, a scientific advisory technopreneur and a trainer could certainly be a productive alternative. 

What's right with Malaysia

Previous entry(ies) here referred:
http://flinflan.blogspot.com/2010/09/to-address-whats-right-with-malaysia-we.html

So, where to Malaysia?
Essentially looking forward, the debate can simplistically be said to be status quo, ie Malay political dominance (rather than hegemony) vs goign to the far extreme of harsh Islamic Taliban-style state or the other harsh-extreme of laissez-faire secular-liberal valueless 'Western model', the type that Islamists of the 60s fight hard against.

To be fair, the two extremes dont appear likely. Islamists have veered to the centre now, as evidenced with Ikhwan's positioning in the Egyptian crisis and Rashid Ghannouchi's in Tunisia. What could have been seen as the right opportunity to stake a claim for Islamic statism, was forgone for a centralist position. Islamists political stance has matured. Abu Iman even goes so far as to say impossible for this to take place (although this may have been a misreported quote) and incited the ire of his party members.

Liberal and secular leaders know there's no way they can get support of the Malays, because of the imagery of Chinese chavs or purely against Islamic principle. Status quo appears to be more likely in the long-run, and that is without factoring in PKR's desperate and confusing positioning ever since Anwar becomes so embroiled in his sodomy trial that his deputies just cant help shooting themselves everywhere. UMNO needs to reform itself, but without full support from their non-malay partners who cant save themselves either, look like they too will have problems. Malay society will continue to be split for some time.

On the other hand, as the stand-off continues on the political ideologies of the 2 biggest malay parties, and I would think an integration is a viable outcome if the threat of backstabbing can be mitigated ie certain personalities were to change,then debate will occur on administrative policies.

So here I list certain debates I'd like to occur and see some strong willed opinion-shapers emerge to lead this to the best possible solutions:
1. Administration of Justice, restoration of impartiality
- removal of scent of partiality
- removal of threat of abuse, fear and insecurity
- justice and fairness in policy application to all cultures, religions and social classes
- inculclating meritocracy and removal of cronyism, including open tender systems and such
- stengthening institutional independence

2. strengthening economic growth
- creating a vibrant wide-based economic base, that adds value to commodity resources we are currently very strong in
- fulfilling social welfare needs, esp urban living. ie transportation - get this MRT project right the first time - where's the bloody masterplan. Then improving infrastructure connectivity throughout Peninsular, (what about East Coast) and East Malaysia. develop fairly.
- emphasise old, weak, infirm, handicapped etc. Why is Bersamamu so dependent on society? where is government role in supporting this?
- emphasise innovation
- reduce frivolous govt spending

3. Social reformation
- masyarakat madani - for the malay-muslim society. Esp for UMNO
- incorruptible
- respectful
- harmonious
- allow social mobility - support, but only for the deserving
- low crime rates - stop this silly buang anak, zina, kicking of cats / dogs

4. Education
- respect for all cultures
- language development for everyone
- academic emphasis but competitive sports and extracurricular portion

Looking at the above criteria, I can give my KPIs to the following Ministries and the PM now.
1. Justice - PM - 2/10
2. Economy - PM/MOF, EPU, other large ministries- 2/10
3. Social reformation - PM 1/10 (Permata program is barking up the wrong tree)
4. Education - 1/10

I'm sorry if I'm too harsh in my assessment, but there is an appeal process possible. It's called political will for policy change.

Organic growth of innovation vs Centralisation of institutions, MRT

Innovation

1. Malaysian Government under Najib has a funny way of doing things. When things dont work, they undermine the whole system by duplicating the role. Take EPU. Planning without execution, botched megaprojects etc.. create PEMANDU.. hooray lots of megaprojects and EPPs for all ETP, which will meet the NKEAs being tracked by NKRAs. RMK10 throw in the dustbin. MOSTI not paying attention to the I, fine - create UNIK.
2. Leadership is about getting the right people on the bus, and making sure the wrong people gets off the bus. Especially in situation requiring hard decisions. Constrained resources. People respect you for doing the hard decisions, but you must explain yourself. The waffling, flip-flopping nature of Pak Lah's administration is now replaced by waffling, you-can-get-away-with-anything administration of Najib. At least, there are decisions. Wrong, but decisions nonetheless.
3. Now this creature of UNIK. What does it do first? Come up with an Akta that centralises innovation powers in its hand. The la-la hypothesis is that the Chief UNIK is a know-it-all and a snap of his fingers will cause the whole of Malaysia to tremble in fear and be innovative. Sounds like a Stalinist / Hitlerist maneouvre to me.
4. Why cant ppl in Malaysia be trusted to do the right things through incentivising innovative practices, and then discouraging stupid acts of giving some inflated contracts to unqualified people? Why cant the best global talents be facilitated into the country and lead and mould best practice entities, and hoping there is enough tech absorption by creating the environment for people to accept best practices? Why cant we do away with just giving some pieces of the cake to people we know who can talk their way out of trouble but probably lacks the competence and gumption to make a difference? Where are the innovative entrepreneurs (not the innovative rentiers) that the country has produced so far, and give them a free and facilitating hand to expand? What are incentives to offer to private capital to come in?
5. Instead, UNIK will have powers to 'streamline' existing funds and appoint innovation ambassadors. Fine, there are opportunities to improve, but these are incremental improvements, not game-changers as those outlined in Item 4. If UNIK can only do incremental stuff so that the game-changer explodes, I'm afraid innovation will still occur in Malaysia, but it will be inspite of UNIK not because of it.
6. Innovation will thrive when the environment allows it to. Lifelong education, primary, secondary, tertiary. Entrepreneurial training - engaging Entrepreneurs in Residence to mentor successful ventures. VCs and PEs need the deal pipelines in place, and this can be done by co-locating them into major innovation centers - and sorry, but somehow that means not in KL. Target sectors should be able to access global markets, but sorry, knowing a couple of MNCs may not be sufficient. Someone needs to tap local agencies with global reach, and large MNCs to open up market access. And this is no small matter if we look at some of the areas that we are interested in - large pharmas - US, Europe and India, industrial biotech - US, China, Europe, Brazil, ICT - mainly emerging markets, other sectors as relevant.  
7. If after no 6, what we do is centralisation, I'm afraid someone is hopelessly deluded. Innovation ecosystem and culture - and centralised in one single agency because the multi-agency committee / ministry failed to execute its function before. Perhaps this can be dismissed as just another Malaysian cynic. Maybe so. But if people up there are serious to do good, Rakyat Didahulukan and all that stuff, this is one hell of a strange way to carry out your functions - relying on one smartarse to perform what a ministry has failed to do.

MRT

1. It's shameful that the absurd costings and silly alignment that the EPP for MRT as shown in their open day kind of shows the shallowness of the proposal. The project feels and looks rushed. Accepting an unsolicited proposal from the private sector and after protests appointing the same company as a project manager, and then promising a Swiss Challenge is merely an afterthought. Just one question. Where is the bloody masterplan incorporating the whole transport planning for the Klang Vally and its adjacent satellite towns. If there isnt one, shame on PEMANDU, SPAD and everyone related to this proposal! Federal Highway will still be jammed because Subang Jaya isnt part of this planning. Where are the traffic forecasts? Where is the costing? Where is the inputs from the planning agencies from all the local authorities? Who is driving this - SPAD, PEMANDU, or GAMUDA? Who bloody cares about the increased property prices?
2. Worst thing (or Best of all) about all of this is a Citizen-watchgroup calling themselves TRANSIT has a proper masterplan and proposal to do this. Malu weh.

Malays, Chinese and other non-Malays II

10. Another day, another flip-flop. Or perhaps, a recalibrated and elaborated comment. At the end of the day, where is my position on issues? Do I trust or do I mistrust?

11. At the end of the day, we the Muslims, the Malays, the Malay-muslims, individuals, need to build our internal capabilities. We should not be dependent on handouts from the government, which equates to a handicap, not a permanent handicap but one we should grow out of. The Malays cannot be perpetual children depending on handouts and protection from parents, but slowly building up its own capabilities and maturity to take over the role of protectors.

12. Coming from that point of view, we should be wary. We shouldnt be naive. The Chinese has enormous organisational capability, so should we. The fact that we dont, the fact that we are so divided is the crux of the issue. The Chinese can sit down and agree on issues of common benefit to the community, like Chinese education. Even if there are disagreements, it is self-suppressed for the greater good. We should learn from this, not envy this unnecessarily, and invoke the fear that they will overcome and dominate us.

13. At the moment, many Malays are cowed into supporting UMNO. See Tun M's rant about Nik Aziz, deliberately pointing fingers at the inadequacies of his rival, exaggerating some of the views held by the some strains within PAS instead of looking at his strengths, not that I'm expecting him to do that. Tun understands the Malay psyche perfectly, that they sit back and look to see the winner in a duel, and then herd unthinking to the winner's camp. It's the classic feudalistic viewpoint. Deliberately sidesteps the fact that UMNO kicked PAS out of BN when they were already united back in the 70s. Ridiculing the Islamic state as a mindless cutting off hands brand of Islam without elaborating on the distributive justice, and therefore equating PAS's orthodoxy as some form of Talibanism.

14. I want the best for the Malays, the Muslims. It's not good to distinguish this identity, although in certain situations it needs to be done. But the best is for people to be educated, to be strong, to have convictions and to be firm. Not cower in fear.

15. For that to happen, people like Tun must be relegated to the background. His comments only inflame PAS's supporters, and further drive the wedge into the fractures. UMNO cannot continue in this 80s mode. If Tun really says he wants unity, it is by appealing to common interests. Economic strength, yes, but morality, justice and other human capital aspects are just as urgent and important, if not more. The common interests are that wealth is redistributed to middle-class and lower-class malays. The scholarships given out to outstanding students is the start of a dedicated, intensive program for the development of the malays - which perhaps must be a mandate for Teraju. No giving out of freebies to buy silence. Silly, crap cronistic businesses which drain life out of the community and the nation is killed off ruthlessly. No selective decisions based on you-know-who, but purely based on merit., starting with the malay community first if the political will is not there to implement it within the NEM.

16. Tun has done wonderful things as a PM. At the same time, the nation disintegrating in front of our very eyes cannot be rehabilitated with the same dosage that Tun has been dishing out. I am ashamed of the DSAI trials in 1999 as it is now. It is a sham trial, especially when RTC and CSL is walking around freely. This is gross injustice. Tun M doesnt recognise the damage this is doing to the nation, and insists that procedurally this was correct. If he cannot / will not recognise this as a defect, he cannot rectify it, and the damage to institutions and the national psyche this causes far outweighs his contributions. He should remain silent and let Najib do damage limitation, not that Najib doesnt have enough problems with models, NEM or Mongolian.

17. Malaysian politics is described as sham, colourful, interesting etc. In fact, it's a lie. It's too dishonest and it overshadows all the good work the government could have done. If Tun desists, PKR will probably shoot itself in its foot, femur and face. But right now, it's a reminder of how bad things were before in Tun's time. Probably, he is in fear of being painted in the same colours as Mubarak, Gaddafi and Ben Ali.

Malays, Chinese and other non-malays

1. Utusan went to town Saturday on PAS back-tracking and giving support to the Malay agenda. TERAS Chairman (?) said that the Malay economic issues must be addressed satisfactorily and not be glossed over by Pakatan Rakyat. In Primaya, there was this CNY celebration which was quite strange as it was the first time a Chinese celebration was held there after 3 years. Reading MI makes you want to knock your head against a wall when Chinese chauvinists go over the top in their criticisms of anything UMNO. (and you can sort of visualise the kid gloves when talking about MCA or other non-Malay partners in the BN)
2. There is truly a need to go to a common concensus on upholding basic principles. Addressing the truth for instance is a good start. So, call a spade a spade if you must, no covering up. (what was the word scully used again? obfuscation?) That goes not just to Chinese chavs, but also the more blinkered of all politicians.
3. Let's start by listing too many of the contentios issues and try to lay it down to rest once and for all. First, is UMNO a British stooge who won independence? To my knowledge, this is not true. Looking from the British perspective, once decolonisation became a policy due to the burden of maintaining far-flung colonies, there was only the question of who their preferred partner will be. Regardless of the fact that their insistence on the Alliance arose from the fear of "islamist" / left-leaning elements in Hizbul Muslimin or other less savoury alternatives, the due process was accorded and recognition must be given when there was support to the Alliance from the populace (through democratic elections) as well as the monarchs of the federated states. In the end, the federation model and its subsequent Constitution became the de facto model of the state. The question of a British stooge does not arise.
4. Social contract - citizenship in return for power, and later on the acceptance of Malay dominance through its monarchs and special position. That remains, and should not be questioned.
5. NEP was introduced, and was the right prescription for the issues of economic disparity amongst the races in the 60s. (It should have brought about greater social cohesion. The fact it does not means that the pendulum has swung too much the other way)
6. So now that I have affirmed UMNO's position, there is no issue right? Wrong. UMNO has made major mistakes - the vasectomy of judiciary prime amongst the loss of confidence in public policies. Malays are angry that the Malay-centric policies do not benefit the general classes, the non-Malays are angry at continued marginalisation due to the ineffective execution of Malay-centric policies as a whole. in 3/08, the Opposition made massive political inroads.
7. Then they started making a mess of things. Instead of taking on issues they were mandated to do, like becoming a more effective public administrator, they started to act like UMNO 2.0 and BN 2.0. Politicking about taking over the federal govt through the backdoor. Acting like schoolkids on the Perak takeover. Bleeding elected reps, members and supporters - no signs of coagulation yet. Talking daft things on changing State constitution, not recognising a Federally appointed State Sec, even when procedures have been followed etc. Token support for justice in the form of ISA etc, but full-blooded support when one of their own is "unjustly treated' - DSAI, TBH etc. If BN thot the voters are daft, PR acted like the voters are daft. At least, BN is actively wooing neutrals and fencesitters. PR acts as if the votes they gained in 2008 are their perennial property.
8. In the end, here we are. The Chinese electorate are invigorated. They are sophisticated, socially instinctive to safeguard their own interests and unwilling to take risks as regards to their self-interest. The Indians are too fragmented to impact on the political scene, so the stakes are between the large Malay electorate and the solid Chinese king-makers.
9. What of my personal view? The need to always speak the truth, stand up for truth. If anything, the issues are still issues of what people will bring to eat at the table. Looming global challenges are looming. Our politicians continue to squabble about the arrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic after crashing into the iceberg. Chinese issues and Malay issues are different, but the solution is the same. Return to the needs of social justice and equality. The same concepts that Islam came to enforce. Let us not be too defined by the colour of our skin. Malays have progressed since 1969, we are no longer a race of fishermen and farmers. Many are now professionals. Unfortunately, the continued awkward execution of NEP means that we are now a race of government officers, GLC professionals, toll booth operators, bank tellers, and others. Create a level playing field. Let the Malays compete. Let them find the solutions. Let the government step back. Allow Islamists to dominate Malay society. At least we wont be reading daily news items of abandoned babies.