Recently, Malaysia has turn from a openly neutral country in its foreign policy to an openly Pro-Washington. What Bush has failed to do was achieved brilliantly by Obama's "Soft-Diplomacy".
The one-year old administration of Najib has laid out strong foundation in its domestic policy such as forming labs through the Government Transformation Programme to solve the never ending problems of goverment delivery system as well as wooing the disillusioned voters through the "1Malaysia" concept. It has stop short in introducing Goods and Services Tax (GST)this year lest Barisan Nasional would like to lose the next general election.
Based on the "People first, Performance Now" dogma, a recent poll by the Merdeka Foundation has shown that the ra'yat were responding favourably towards Najib and based on this "good-factor", the next GE will probably going to be held ASAP, i.e. 2011. And based on his performance on the domestic front, I am openly supporting Barisan Nasional in the next GE. The mood is there and BN will win big (I mean better than 2008).
However, an issue that might changed my mind whether to vote Barisan or Pakatan would be about his foreign policy. Malaysia's "default" foreign policy since Mahathir is for Malaysia to be neutral at all cost. In other words, Malaysia should never ever openly pro-US.
But the recent news report of Petronas cutting gas supplies to Iran has suggest otherwise. Najib has confirmed this and coupled with his recent meeting with Obama in Washington on Iran nuclear issue etc, has made Najib's credibility to champion the rights of Islamic countries being QUESTIONABLE.
Najib must clarify and discuss this issue openly (if possible go live on TV) because Malaysians are personally proud to be neutral on our foreign policy and our neutrality has made Malaysia a respectable country. And currently, his ministers have kept mummed on this issue altogether.
At the time of the writing, Najib had responded "glibly" on Malaysia's sudden foreign policy u-turn on Iran as reported in the Staronline, April 18 2010:
"The Prime Minister said Petronas was involved in a spot sale to Iran in mid-March through a third-party deal but there had been no requests since.
The transaction, he added, was a commercial deal and it was up to the parties involved to decide on the supply if there were further requests for spot sales."
If Malaysia has turned its back on Iran, it would be his worst political error. I predict the Malay voters will be the most agitated and banking on his "1Malaysia", GTP or whatever of his domestic policies would not be of any help.
Never in my life history has foreign policy was made such an issue during the GE, and it would be played to the greatest extent by Anwar and his colleagues in the running towards the next GE in 2011 (?).
"Hail Obama!" and "Salam Satu Malaysia!!!"
Showing posts with label Malaysians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malaysians. Show all posts
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Why we are "poor" and How you can make a change
The world has changed rapidly after the industrial revolution in the 19th century. Since then, people are no more working for themselves but for others. Instead of working day and night toiling the land or some other works, the economics of the industrial revolution dictated that people should work on things that they are best at, for others and get a paycheck at the end of the month. The money then should be used to buy food, clothing and some form of entertainment or if there's some more left, it's in the bank (if they got a bank).
SOME HISTORY
This happened about 100 years ago in Europe. While our forefathers (the Asians) were still in the field, kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang. The Europeans came to South East Asia, bringing along their "laissez-faire" economics and Walah! They changed the region, especially Malaya (modern day West Malaysia).
The British reorganised the Malayan economy to serve the economic needs of the British Empire. First they placed British-style administration in Malay states and the Malays were the first choice to fill the bureaucracy. Secondly, they opened up new tin mines, and allowed Chinese from China to migrate to Malaya to work for these tin mines. Thirdly, they opened up new roads and railways to connect these tin mines with the seaports, whereby the Brits culled some South Indians to built them.
After a few years, the Malayan socio-economic were dogmatised, the Malays "must" work in the kampongs or work as "British government servants"; the Chinese "must" work in tin mines or live in the city to sell things or whatever; while the Indians "must" stay and work in the estates, in case the His-Highness Government needs some roads to somewhere in the jungle.
THE AFTER EFFECTS
Somehow, when the British left Malaya in 1957 and East Malaysia in 1963, the economic thoughts that they brought along did not. This peculiar economic thought is that we must work for someone such as a government, a company or someone. One not supposed to be a "Boss" or a "Taukeh" or whatever. This create "dependency" of government/company aids and at the same time created a comfort zone for the group of people which subscribed to this economic thought.
What happened when one stay too long in a comfort zone? They become zombies.
These zombies are relatively poor due their low paychecks. Most of them have high hopes at earlier stage of their "career" and hoping that they will drive nice cars and live in huge houses if they work hard. They believed totally that a university education can save them from the clutches of poverty. Oh boy, they are just damned wrong. Totally wrong.
After 40 years of working, punch-in & punch out as they say, they still living in a meager state and on later years they depended solely on the EPF and some savings that they have made. This group of people paid the most in taxes and still they live just above the poverty line. And who are these zombies anyway? It's you my friend.
My answer: Our education today is not tailored to the new world but instead based on the 19th century model. This must change and don't wait for the government to change it for you. Change now.Take care of your financial education and it will set you free.
SOME HISTORY
This happened about 100 years ago in Europe. While our forefathers (the Asians) were still in the field, kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang. The Europeans came to South East Asia, bringing along their "laissez-faire" economics and Walah! They changed the region, especially Malaya (modern day West Malaysia).
The British reorganised the Malayan economy to serve the economic needs of the British Empire. First they placed British-style administration in Malay states and the Malays were the first choice to fill the bureaucracy. Secondly, they opened up new tin mines, and allowed Chinese from China to migrate to Malaya to work for these tin mines. Thirdly, they opened up new roads and railways to connect these tin mines with the seaports, whereby the Brits culled some South Indians to built them.
After a few years, the Malayan socio-economic were dogmatised, the Malays "must" work in the kampongs or work as "British government servants"; the Chinese "must" work in tin mines or live in the city to sell things or whatever; while the Indians "must" stay and work in the estates, in case the His-Highness Government needs some roads to somewhere in the jungle.
THE AFTER EFFECTS
Somehow, when the British left Malaya in 1957 and East Malaysia in 1963, the economic thoughts that they brought along did not. This peculiar economic thought is that we must work for someone such as a government, a company or someone. One not supposed to be a "Boss" or a "Taukeh" or whatever. This create "dependency" of government/company aids and at the same time created a comfort zone for the group of people which subscribed to this economic thought.
What happened when one stay too long in a comfort zone? They become zombies.
These zombies are relatively poor due their low paychecks. Most of them have high hopes at earlier stage of their "career" and hoping that they will drive nice cars and live in huge houses if they work hard. They believed totally that a university education can save them from the clutches of poverty. Oh boy, they are just damned wrong. Totally wrong.
After 40 years of working, punch-in & punch out as they say, they still living in a meager state and on later years they depended solely on the EPF and some savings that they have made. This group of people paid the most in taxes and still they live just above the poverty line. And who are these zombies anyway? It's you my friend.
My answer: Our education today is not tailored to the new world but instead based on the 19th century model. This must change and don't wait for the government to change it for you. Change now.Take care of your financial education and it will set you free.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Why play Facebook?
As I could remember, Friendster was the top social website and Malaysians were recorded as the largest group of people using it (kira syok2 sendiri la ni).
And now that has changed. In Malaysia these days, another social website named Facebook rules the internet. Almost everybody especially the youngsters, would have a Facebook account and they will "poke" each other, post on the "walls", chit chatting using a built-in messenger, "tagging" pictures, playing "Mafia Wars" and "Farmville" and obviously taking endless numbers of quizzes (and posting quiz results on the "wall", so that "other" people can see).
All of these extra feature made Facebook indispensable (you can't throw it away) to its users and also made its competitors popularity going way-way down.
But there's one feature that made me think. That feature is the NOTIFICATION thingy, for the benefit of non-Facebook users, it's a red-colored bubble at the bottom right of the window with the number of notifications in the middle of it.
The first thing a Facebook user would do as he/she opens the website is to click on this red bubble before anything else. And why is that?
To some effect, users will keep on thinking about this red bubbles even after they have closed the Facebook website. They will think about "who will be commenting on my post" or "Am I going to be tagged today?" and so on and so forth.
I think it shows that:
i. we are still humans, as human must have some sense of curiosity. That's why we click the red bubble before anything else.
ii. we are in need of feedbacks to survive mentally (that's why criminals are being sent to the prison, so that they can be "tortured mentally")
And I'm sure that there's a bit feeling of "keghairahan" as we click on the red bubble. And why is that? Which part of the brain cause us to feel that? Is that part of the brain made us curious for other things, such as the question on religion, history, biology, chemistry, physics, cookings, writings, football etc?
What a difference has a small, red, simply-made bubble made on our minds by playing on us psychologically by which the fact remains: Facebook is one of the most visited website in the world. The red bubble did it's job very very well.
And now that has changed. In Malaysia these days, another social website named Facebook rules the internet. Almost everybody especially the youngsters, would have a Facebook account and they will "poke" each other, post on the "walls", chit chatting using a built-in messenger, "tagging" pictures, playing "Mafia Wars" and "Farmville" and obviously taking endless numbers of quizzes (and posting quiz results on the "wall", so that "other" people can see).
All of these extra feature made Facebook indispensable (you can't throw it away) to its users and also made its competitors popularity going way-way down.
But there's one feature that made me think. That feature is the NOTIFICATION thingy, for the benefit of non-Facebook users, it's a red-colored bubble at the bottom right of the window with the number of notifications in the middle of it.
The first thing a Facebook user would do as he/she opens the website is to click on this red bubble before anything else. And why is that?
To some effect, users will keep on thinking about this red bubbles even after they have closed the Facebook website. They will think about "who will be commenting on my post" or "Am I going to be tagged today?" and so on and so forth.
I think it shows that:
i. we are still humans, as human must have some sense of curiosity. That's why we click the red bubble before anything else.
ii. we are in need of feedbacks to survive mentally (that's why criminals are being sent to the prison, so that they can be "tortured mentally")
And I'm sure that there's a bit feeling of "keghairahan" as we click on the red bubble. And why is that? Which part of the brain cause us to feel that? Is that part of the brain made us curious for other things, such as the question on religion, history, biology, chemistry, physics, cookings, writings, football etc?
What a difference has a small, red, simply-made bubble made on our minds by playing on us psychologically by which the fact remains: Facebook is one of the most visited website in the world. The red bubble did it's job very very well.
