I remember an email exchange back at the time when emails are still a novelty, in the early 90s when I was a still a student. We were discussing student activism and what Malaysia needs to move forward. My email correspondent who has had a large degree of success since then, is seen now as a public figure CEO, responded to my negativism-laced comment that this is so typical of the Malaysian attitude of "This is M.A.L.A.Y.S.I.A" and paraphrasing liberally as it's been over a couple of decades since that exchange, reforms are hard.
Since then, we had the Anwar Ibrahim sacking and conviction - gory in all its lurid detail, (celebrated by gays though as a victory!), the gaping holes in the investigation, prosecution and court handling. Most disappointing of all was the polarized voting patterns, the Malays who now dared to break ranks with UMNO for what is seen as an unethical breach of maligning a pious leader were outflanked by the block Chinese votes backing the ruling party (mainly due to stabilizing the economy, and a cynical mind will mischievously include especially as there was a tax exemption due to the falling economy). The effect was a silenced UMNO, a lackey Deputy (relative to Anwar as a deputy) and a spineless coalition ruling the party.
Now we have a financial scandal brewing, social media (who let's face it are not the best witnesses for major rulings) amplifying reports, comments, investigations made by foreign countries. No satisfactory answer has been forthcoming, and as a result a silenced UMNO, a lackey Deputy and a spineless opposition. In the meantime, all the national issues and challenges are swept under the carpet. Oh, and worsening polarization. And I can see manifestations of this in real-time.
So, how do we resolve the 1MDB issue?
First, work on the basis of principles. If we demand transparency on our leaders when there's a charge of impropriety in financial transactions, so must we on purchase of high-value properties.
If a coalition partner are diametrically opposed in an issue, resolve this on the basis of what works for the rakyat. Look at the demographics. Lets not import wholesale ideas, outdated or sometimes ideologically incompatible. If there's good in the ruling party, government, security services, oil and gas and others like.. (uh, say where the Malays are successful at), here's an idea, why not complement them instead of tearing them down. If there's bad, offer constructive criticism.
Second, replace the outdated politicians. Especially the ones who play victims all the time. Aiyah.. penat tengok la.. you know who you are.
Third, strengthen the institutions. Put some really strong, successful, charismatic business leaders and then leave them alone. Stop interfering. At the end of the day, accountability is the first rule for all. There must be still a few out there who are from a neutral, apolitical, non-sycopanthic pool of people. (I hope).
Now - coming back to the beginning. At the end of the day, how is this major impropriety and four letter word likely to be closed? That's right, push it under the carpet, put it into the closet and lock the door.
Next GE, status quo. Minority opposition leaders happy with their outsized voice as a minority opposition leader of a minority race and a large segment of unhappy people from the majority race.
If that be the case of these unhappy times, the conclusion for Malaysia is dark. No principles, no benefit, no use.
You throw stones, we'll send the tanks.
You resist bring evicted from your homes, we'll create endless settlements on your lands.
You stab our soldiers, we'll shoot your injured men.
Are the young overindulged and mollycoddled to the extent that they lack maturity and personal character? Or, are the economic models we have presently accentuating the heavily stacked odds preventing them from succeeding, like their elders did within a more supporting and simpler economic environment?
In Malaysia, the scholarship situation for the Malays are gradually changing, but the attitudes of society may not have changed in tandem. How will the Malays handle being on the periphery of educated society in the next generation?
Interesting article below from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/07/revealed-30-year-economic-betrayal-dragging-down-generation-y-income
The full scale of the financial rout facing millennials is revealed
today in exclusive new data that points to a perfect storm of factors
besetting an entire generation of young adults around the world.
A combination of debt, joblessness, globalisation, demographics and
rising house prices is depressing the incomes and prospects of millions
of young people across the developed world, resulting in unprecedented
inequality between generations.
A Guardian investigation into the prospects of millennials – those
born between 1980 and the mid-90s, and often otherwise known as
Generation Y – has found they are increasingly being cut out of the
wealth generated in western societies.
Where 30 years ago young adults used to earn more than national
averages, now in many countries they have slumped to earning as much as
20% below their average compatriot. Pensioners by comparison have seen
income soar.
In seven major economies in North America and Europe,
the growth in income of the average young couple and families in their
20s has lagged dramatically behind national averages over the past 30
years.
In two of these countries – the US and Italy
– disposable incomes for millennials are scarcely higher in real terms
than they were 30 years ago, while the rest of the population has
experienced handsome gains.
It is likely to be the first time in industrialised history, save for
periods of war or natural disaster, that the incomes of young adults
have fallen so far when compared with the rest of society.
Experts are warning that this unfair settlement will have grave
implications for everything from social cohesion to family formation.
A two-week Guardian project, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, aims to explore this predicament in depth and ask what can be done.
Using exclusive data from the largest database of international incomes in the world, at LIS (Luxembourg Income Study): Cross-National Data Center,
the investigation into the situation in Australia, Britain, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US has also established that:
Prosperity has plummeted for young adults in the rich world.
In the US, under-30s are now poorer than retired people.
In the UK, pensioner disposable income has grown prodigiously – three times as fast as the income of young people.
Millennials have suffered real terms losses in wages in the US,
Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Canada and in some countries this was
underway even before the 2008 financial crisis.
“The situation is tough for young people,” said Angel Gurría,
secretary general of the west’s leading thinktank, the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). “They were hit hard by the
Great Recession, and their labour market situation has improved only little since.
“This is a problem we must address now urgently. Kicking it down the road will hurt our children and society as a whole.”
Gurría said there had been a shift since the mid-80s in poverty
rates, which started to rise among younger cohorts while falling among
pensioners. However, the world of barren opportunities facing today’s
young people should be of concern to all age groups, he added.
“Current working-age, middle-class groups are increasingly concerned
with their and their children’s job prospects. An increasing number of
people think children in their country will be worse off financially
than their parents,” he said.
Using LIS’s household survey data,
the Guardian examined the disposable incomes and wages of young
families in eight of the 15 largest developed economies in the world.
Together these countries made up 43% of the world’s GDP in 2014.
These surveys, carried out over decades, are intended to pick up what
is happening on the ground in people’s homes, and are the best way of
distilling domestic realities from governmental level data.
The data accessed by the Guardian found that in the US, France, Germany, Italy and Canada the average disposable income of people in their early 20s is more than 20% below national averages.
For the first time in France,
recent pensioners generated more disposable income than families headed
by a person under 50. In Italy the average under-35 became poorer than
average pensioners under 80. Using the most recent US data, in the midst
of the downturn in 2013, average under-30s had less income than those
aged 65-79. This is the first time that has happened as far back as the
data goes.
Millennials interviewed by the Guardian said they felt their
generation was facing far greater hurdles to establish themselves as
independent adults than previous generations did.
Fiona Pattison, a 30-year-old accounts director at a fundraising
agency, said that despite pay rises and promotions her lifestyle hadn’t
changed in six years. “Everything I’ve made in terms of a pay rise has
gone into living and saving. My lifestyle has remained exactly the same.
Any dent in employment or income would mean I’d have to go back to
sharing again.”
Londoner Tanaka Mhishi, who works in a bookshop, adds: “I definitely
think in a lot of ways my parents’ generation was luckier. They had a
lot more freedom to do things younger: they were able to go straight
from university and move to London and afford their own flat.
“We definitely have to make more compromises. Compromises like if I
want to have kids by the time I’m 30, or even 40, can I still have the
career I want to do?”
Tanaka Mhishi: ‘My parent’s generation had more freedom ... to go
straight from university, move to London and afford their own flat.’
Photograph: Tom Silverstone/Guardian
Several economists told the Guardian that policymakers should do more
to even up the balance between young and old to avoid economic
stagnation. Paul Johnson,
director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, said he feared
intergenerational inequality would fuel wider inequality in society
because youngsters with rich parents would retain such an unfair
advantage in the important years of early adulthood.
Johnson said: “I think the real unfairness issue comes in the sense
that it’s become more and more important whether your parents happen to
have a house.”
For the next fortnight the Guardian will delve into the fortunes,
feelings and finances of the developed world’s young adults, as well as
looking at fallacies surrounding them.
In our series, we will reveal that today’s young people are not
delaying adulthood because they are – as the New Yorker once put it – “the most indulged young people in the history of the world”.
Instead, it appears they are not hitting the basic stages of adulthood
at the same time as previous generations because such milestones are so
much more costly and in some cases they are even being paid less than
their parents were at the same age.
In Australia, millennials are being inched out of the housing market.
In the UK, new figures will show the notion of a property-owning
democracy has already been terminated. In the US, debt is the millennial
millstone – young people are sitting on $1.3tn of student debt.
Across Europe, the issue centres more around jobs – and the lack of
them. The numbers of thirtysomethings still living with their parents is
stubbornly high in countries such as Italy and Spain,
with grave implications for birthrates and family formation in places
whose demographics are already badly skewed towards elderly people.
“We’ve never had, since the dawn of capitalism really, this situation
of a population that is ageing so much and in some countries also
shrinking, and we just don’t know whether we can continue growing the
economy in the same way we once have,” said Prof Diane Coyle, an economist and former UK Treasury adviser.
When will we learn that ethics, truth and keeping to the letter of the law is non-negotiable? The "tolong melayu" mentality, when it helps crass, money-driven characters sets us back as a community. Internationally, the perception of a community that's without principles sticks. Time to change this.
Here's an Australian broadsheet(?) commentary on the MARA transaction. Wondering why AMANAH / PAN / Pakatan Harapan isn't pushing this issue louder that it should be. Guess too busy bickering amongst themselves first, huh?
Incidentally, came across the following link whilst looking up inflating S&P agreements - doesn't seem to be a legal issue here in Malaysia. Wondering if there's an ethical implication to this?
1. Comments made that the seeds of the present development began during Tun's time is off-tangent and irrelevant. What is needed is an unflinching focus to the issues at hand.
2. The developments show who the real power brokers are in Malaysia:
UMNO warlords - and as PM, the incumbent with tentacles of the multiple levers of power, the UMNO president is extremely powerful.
3. Government machinery and the legislative is demonstrated that it can be (mis)directed at the PM's (or voluntarily and independently by his lackeys's) orchestration, supported by a minimal number of compliant ministers. Constitutional monarchy limits the monarchy's role to pre-defined mandates.
4. Within a democracy, that leaves civil society. That implies an informed, rational public, not wont to flipflopping on the basis of old fears. All democracies have the same risk limitations of an irresponsible leadership playing on perceptions and fears - all prone to power hungry leadership. See the US.
1MDB
5. It appears as if there is a governance mechanism failure. Investment failures, excessively incurred fees to bankers, overvalued asset purchase, failure to adjust for risks (eg what if Edra fails to list?).
6. Separating incompetence to outright corruption is a separate matter. What then if there are evidences of moneys transferred to personal accounts, or if there are missing unaccounted for billions given that government assets were transferred to 1MDB at horrendously low valuations?
7. Other items of TH / TNB purchases of 1MDB assets are less clear-cut as each has its own Board with their own fiduciary duties to carry out, and we hope they are given the strength of their souls to take the most conscionable action.
8. The defence of Item 6 have been that: not for personal gain, not taxpayer's money, presumably then taken at face value will be for political funding. And there is no law to regulate political funding. Obvious benefactor of this political funding is the President of the ruling party so no leg for the first comment, and if we consider undervaluing of government assets transferred to 1MDB as taxpayer funding through "opportunity cost", there is basis for grossly incompetent mismanagement rather than outright corruption. The personal account under own name is pure stupidity though if true and for this alone is worth a sacking… What is also of interest is the ultimate destination of the funds, and every single RM must be accounted for, and every single overnight interest receipts of that account clearly recorded. There should not be any deliberate overlooking of facts in favour or fear of the incumbent.
Political reform
9. Possible sidetracking that questions may even be asked of DAP's (others too but the more controversial ones will probably be DAP's) funds. Is DAP funded by these agencies - foreign "democratic" lobby groups, external "Chinese" diaspora groups, mainland China interests, foreign missionary groups - in addition to DAP's admission of funding from small traders, and if they do receive some from the above listed groups, how much?
Democratic representation of Islamic interests
10. For so long, PAS has been the face of political Islam. The tension between ulama and the progressives have been going on for some time now and been cyclical. To note, when the ulamas lost they did not leave the party.
11. Let's leave aside the "I am more Ikhwan than you" which is non-beneficial in the wider picture. Morsi's experience is also worth reflecting on to learn from.
12. Now the progressives lost and there is a purge. So a splinter group - GHB- has emerged as counterbalance to PAS in case PAS joins UMNO. New dynamics have emerged. Islamic NGOs have been quick to declare support.
13. How effective are the NGOs from the politics? From the perspective of mass mobilisation, not so much on a national scale, but there has never been an Islamist progressive party before. Assuming they are able to win and secure a commanding voice in lawmaking and enabling an influence in the socio-political-economic sphere, then there is good in this. Otherwise, major resources are wasted and there will be a missed opportunity in escalating the benefits of the NGOs in the social development of the Malays, very apparent in providing alternatives to education from preschool all the way to diploma levels, and in healthcare. Other successes have been sporadic.
Personal character of a leader
14. Shame that people will bow so low. Even if it's a donation, even if it's for the party, come clean. Deal with the ramifications. That's a leader.
15. Hiding, political machination, yet gob firing off on supra-ideals of character - talk of ayam berkokok keliling kampung.
16. Note to self - in matters of public interest, the need to act more in accordance with a democratically elected representative of the people rather than a priviledged patrilineal blue-blood is an accepted normality, lest you run foul of moral legitimacy of your seat. Cos this isn't a corporate appointment, you are the leader of a nation encompassing morality, values, and not just the mean average paycheck of your "subjects" (in reality, your bosses).
