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Globalisation is a word that does not exist in any vocabulary in any language in Malaysia. All we have is 'Glokalisation' penned by our beloved DPM, Najib 'Change Lifestyle' Abd Razak.

What Shaukat Aziz retorts in response to the final question hits home, strong and hard. I think it deserves another mention : "Globalization is like a tidal wave. If you ride it, you will go far. If you try to stop it, you will be blown away." Our leaders will do well to learn from this. Whilst Shaukat Aziz has doubled his country's income per capita, I believe that Pak Lah has ensured that ours goes south.

Samarium,
please don't repeat that phrase about going SOUTH. Some people here are sensitive to it.

"Globalization is like a tidal wave. If you ride it, you will go far. If you try to stop it, you will be blown away."

That has been my worry all the while :(

Unfortunately, with the AP system up until 2009(which, we may assume that protection given to national car up until then) and many other issue will be the barrier to globalisation.

We know all these thanks to the Globalisation (internet)

Now, we have to act.

As long as NEP remain (I hope it will be remain) as it is, SOME will be pampered and some,some,some will be and always be forced to survive on their own until globalisation hit the shore. The inevitable event will ensure who die and who is staying. It's just a matter of time.

Yep, call me a sadistic but I hope they die.

LC Teh, what to do? I'm an insentive bastard ;)

It seems that almost everybody is embracing globalisation with open arms. Several decades ago, communism was embraced likewise. It is still too early to gauge globalisation.
Shaukat Ali is correct about the government should not be in business.In the early 90's Malaysia, stance was in this direction.Government owned companies were quickly privatised and got listed on KLSE.there was govenment budget surpluses, as is happening in Pakistan presently, foreign investors were into emerging markets,ringgit was stated to be undervalued (even then). But it all came back to square one after 1997 meltdown. First area to be hit was South East Asia, then it was Argentina (Latin America), Russia. I will not be surprise if Pakistan and India is on the hedge funds radar screen as their next lucrative target.After all Mumbai's stock market has risen to unbeleivable heights.You must remember that while long term investors such as product manufacturers require stability in order to make profit, hedge funds require volativity to make theirs. If there is no volatile environment, they will try to create one, through their friends in the print media, like economist/time or such like. Hence due to hedge funds presence in the commodities market (as stcok markets in the US and european stocks capital gains are not lucrative-hedge funds do not make money from dividends) we now have volatile commodity prices, from Oil to gold. Globalisation will benefit these funds the most, as they can go in and out of a country (legally or otherwise) and make a killing and earn their managers billions in fees.

I don't think that it's about embracing globalisation. When you say 'embracing', it's like you have a choice. But like it or not, globalisation is inevitable. It is affecting the way everything works, everyone's lifes and how things are being done. Like what the Borg of Star Trek fame says, resistance is futile.

So Malaysia must learn to cope with it and to take advantage of it. Instead certain industries choose to cower behind Govt protection leading to ineffiencies and complacency, all the while playing the cards of 'national interests', 'national pride', 'patriotism' and what not, in constant pursuance of continued protection. That's why you get jaguh kampungs like Proton and MAS. That's why you always get MAS asking for bail outs and Govt hand outs, which unfortunately are mostly taxpayers' (that's all of us here) monies. We know for a fact that Proton can NEVER, EVER survive if not for Govt support. How to survive solely in the local market of 500k cars? In order for this Govt support to end, they have to export. However since Proton is extremely happy and complacent milking its own rakyat, there is no drive to be a truly competitive and global company. To me, protectionish only breeds complacency.

yeah..
we did the same things...under boleh Inc..
but solds to medicrative cronies... remembered MAS to Taju Taiko" etc...

This is a sensitiv issue indeed ....Well malaysia is different compared to Pakistan or any other nation for that matter. Most countries look at all their citizens as their countrymen, in Malaysian, race matter! And because of this, its hard for the Government to be fair and do tha right thing for the economy. they have to continue feeding prefered races as previliedged under the constitution!

In pakistan, everyone is regarded as pakistani's. in malaysia, no one is regarded as malaysians, you're either Malay, chinese, or indian! So the G has to continue medalling with business to keep the special treatment going and to make sure only malays run important businesses!

Untill the folks that keep getting the handouts are mature enough to stop receiving it, then one can do the right thing to the economy. Malaysia runs it's economy with full of emotions, rather then purely intelligence!

It's a bigger problem then just the economy. Socially, racial identity is also being lost. A reason for this if very well said in this article by Dr. Farish noor. A must read!

http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/people/MDA5Mg.html

If we can have fair treatment to all races, and run business without politics, i think we'll be way ahead of where we are!

okay, did i go overboard?

Looks like Shaukat Aziz is a fan of Britain's Margaret Thatcher.

I believe Malaysia was there doing similar privatization process but that wasn't the hard part. Malaysia couldn't sustain the momentum and still can't. Where's the average 7-8% growth that was supposed to be achievable as promised decades ago to reach Vision 2020? We need the best of Malaysians to reach there but there're just too many short sighted policies. Let all the races flourish to their best ability and the government can still gain from taxes and the like. Isn't this partly how Kesultanan Melaka flourished? Let the saudagars' entrepeneurship and craftsmen skill be attracted from all over the region by a freer enterprise here. We cannot stop globalization but we can certainly ride the waves. Didn't we experience that 5 centuries ago? Learn to let go ...

Shaukat Aziz didn't micro-manage his country. But in Bolehland, everything involve PM.

Our privatization efforts are half-hearted. For example, the British govt sold 51% of British Telekom to the public in 1974. And by 1984, they own nothing in BT. Judging by Shaukat Aziz's total privatization plans for Pakistan Telekom, their approach seems full-hearted.

Central planning and partially-free markets (i.e. selective price controls) is not the way to confront globalization.

The problem this country faces is the inability to rid itself the denial mode. Everything that happens, the immediate action is to look for a reason. The advent of globalization does not happen just now, it has been there for as long as can be remembered. But then,time was good. The government has put in place the NEP to put right the wrong as alleged and then it went overboard. Everything seems to be guided by this affirmative policy. A policy of 20 years has stretched longer and longer and recently, we have young upstarts trying to revive the tenets of the NEP all over again. Yes, go ahead and see how far will you be left behind. It is like an addiction, the more you have it the more you are addicted. Do not blame globalization for your woes. More will be coming if you do not wake up. This mentality of denials must be got rid off and start afresh. Put actual meritocracy into forefront and you will see how this country will once again take off.

The problem is to come to realization that we cannot live in isolation but must be fully integrated into the world community. We have to accept that we are here to stay and no one is more special than the others. Can first start off on this basis?

"It is not the business of government to be in business. We decided to open everything up. We just sold 26 percent of Pakistan Telecom — which was overstaffed and inefficient — for $2.6 billion. We eventually want nothing in the public sector".

Adey! Wonder how they reward their cronies and get rich-ah?

9MP needs the best people to win the world. The plan without the best people is useless but with them, at least there's a real fighting chance. There'll be a time when the benefits of NEP (the current implementation methods) will be overall more negative than positive even for the bumiputra. We need to think for our children and theirs. What's the use of owning a larger or largest portion of an ailing country? Why not let all flourish with their best abilities without hindrance and in the long run, a more progressive and prosperous country will flow to all its rakyat. The decision is in the hands of the majority race in Malaysia. The rise and fall of this nation is in your hands. I will either share the joy or sorrow with the decision but of course that doesn't stop me from doing what's best for my family.

GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE RELIGION
POLITICIAN SHOULD NOT BE IN BUSINESS
BUSINESSMAN SHOULD NOT BE IN POLITICS

This is the CORRECT way!

Someone said that everything in life ultimately finds its own level. So too with countries. Perhaps it is Malaysia's destiny to become another Indonesia or Philippines or Myanmar. Some segments may find comfort in that because they think their way of life and heritage would be saved. Then when they also realize their children and their children will not be having enough to survive because the country's largesse of natural resources has suddenly dried up, they'll finally wake up, only to be left with useless regrets traceable to short-sightedness.

No one will deny that any government of this country will have to juggle differences in priorities. But that challenge shouldn't be taken as an excuse to become squandering squids with national and state funds on the one hand, and to literally drain out the brains from the country on the other.

In the latter case, more than just bodies leave. They take with them the potential of creating investments. What could have become an attractive force becomes instead a repulsive force. One smart guy with a lightbulb idea whose time has come can equal a battalion of bullshitting bodekakis.

Soon this government will be crowing again through th e 9MP, despite the polite comments of a navaratnam here, a wong chun wai there, even a haniff omar or a farish noor. You comb the job ads and your eyes latch on to something curious: experienced civil engineer needed, 3K/month. What's this? a tier-1 post in 2006 to draw a tier-2 salary pegged to 1993 wages? Even if you hammer inflation down through the floorboards, the earning power less the value of the ringgit seems to have collapsed, and if the new generations don't complain too much, it must be because the situation's really tight but no one's saying out because the historicity of Malaysia's evolution towards developed status has been severed by the maelstorm of downdrift degradations these so many years. Something's just not right, don't you agree?

It's very easy for a country of 26 million to disappear into the twilight. Unless this government and all who care enough for Malaysia stand up for once and admit that status quo is completely unacceptable, we'll only be kidding ourselves that somehow we'll get by. Day after day we haven't. We have no buffer, only denials heaped one on the next. Today it's a water-crisis revelation. Tomorrow it may be some other revelation, perhaps the writeoffs of bad investments in overseas oilfield explorations. Who knows?

While the rest of the more mature-thinking world moves on and up, we're here still playing the zero-sum game - less for you more for me. If you keep on cutting a shrinking pie, everybody starves in the end.

They're all just going through the motions, waiting in the calm before the storm, despite so many things they can do and i don't want to repeat my suggestions in a single post some months back. Try the simplest - how to delight an investor that he can register an international business here in 1 day, complete with seal, account, telco, website etc.

And why aren't such things being done? Is it because the size of the cabinet or any related entity overwhelms itself to sheer paralysis if not cluelessness?

The people who enact policies don't know what's happening where those policies are supposed to be applied. And the people who apply those policies don't know or care a hoot about quality service or situational imperatives.

Not being able to see the larger picture, they think the problem is small. Thinking the problem is small, they think it is isolated. Until the accumulated problems start to take a life of their own and come hurling back, connected one to the other.

This poweroot teh tarik 4-in-one (with tongkat ali) is not going in well tonight.

good morning.

Shaukat Ali might just succeed simply because he was in Malaysia long enough to know and learn first hand how NOT TO DO it!

Problem is his ideals might be fine...but he is trying to implement it in Pakistan! Will they let him? Or have the other Pakistanis been closely watching how things work in Malaysia and how to profit from this personally and then to screw big time Shaukat Ali's ideals!

call me a bastard, but i will still say that the one who promised vision 2020 was DAMN smart becos he knew he won't live to see that.

In NST Biznews Page 48/49 dated 27th.March,2006 'Running Away From The Pack In Japan" is good to read---'...as a wave of corporate revamping and innovation breaths new life into Japan's long-moribund economy."

It easy to achieve everything, just declare, declare and declare. If you want proof, just compare Malaysia with Burma and some of the poorest Africa country and declare "look, we are more advance than them - on xxx poll recently release, we are top 1000 country on the list!!!!" Malaysia BOLEH.

GLC not working? Well, G will be there to help you - NO PROBLEM-lah! Not only that, we will put the best CEO for the job. One that can best follow orders - YES SIR! Need more money, well IRB is doing a good job in taxing certain groups of people....they will supply us with all the money need to bail bail bail bail companies in trouble. Don't like it ? Well, then as one MP has said - GET OUT, but please leave your money on the way out. It's called an exit tax.

Guys,

Please compare apple to apple. Pakistan is not in the same stage of development. The privatisation process that Pakistan is going through now, we have gone through it the late 80's early 90's. Malaysia deserves a lot of credit.If you are fortunate enough to do transactions across the region, you'll appreciate the legislative and regulatory infra that we have in place. We are far more advance than our neighbours in that respect including Thailand. Take, Telco for example, Thailand does not even have proper regulator in place. The IPP process that Indonesia & Thailand is going through right now we have done that in the early 90's. Stop being an armchair critic and criticise everything that is Malaysia

JEFF OOI says: The common platform for this intellectual discourse, by comparing apple to apple so to say, is the the issue of EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL WEALTH. It's wehther you want it managed by a paramount government agency and much of the fats got trapped and evades into systemic leakages or otherwise. Take it from there folks.

Second that, zagato.

Tun Mahathir was a PM for like what, 1000 years? I'm pretty sure the first few years of his reign were crappy, like now.

Also it'll just be a matter of time before people will start noticing how a lot of their lives - food, water, electricity, telecommunication, etc - depends on the Brits. Cue old-India sentiment, and you got yourself another Brit collonial era. I'm prolly stretching it up a bit, but history does tend to repeat itself.

zagato, agreed that Pakistan is in a different stage of development. However what we need to grasp and understand from what Shaukat Aziz says are the concepts and how he has fine-tuned Pakistan's policies to 'ride the wave of globalisation'. When Malaysia was at this stage, globalisation is non-existent. If a 3rd world country like Pakistan can think and act like that, why can't relatively more advanced Malaysia adopt similar thinking? Instead we continue to breed jaguh kampungs. The recent statements of our local mobile phone manufacturer seeking the Govt's aid to curb phone imports to help it to compete, comes to mind. It makes my blood boil merely thinking of what was said. See what 3rd world mentality exists amongst our so-called business elite?

I traverse the region and for that matter the globe. So I have been able to see with my very own eyes as to what goes around. So what if proper regulations are not in place? This doesn't necessarily mean that the current system by which it is operating on is not good. Other countries may be playing catch-up in certain aspects but what I don't understand is why compare ourselves to 'poorer' countries. To strive to be the best means that you have to compare yourself to the best. Not take pride in saying that you are the best amongst the worst.

In this case, it seems that Malaysia is worst off in terms of mentality even when compared to that of Pakistan, a country which you acknowledge to be lagging far behind. So it seems that the last statement in the paragraph above can be thrown out the window too.

Oh sorry double post

I was referring to this news, about the whole old-India thing

Agreed with Samarium.
I agree that Malaysia had gone through a good privatization process during the late 80s and 90s. But after that, where are we heading even after the 8MP? We are back to the old ways, G controlling and influences businesses, bailing out GLCs that are not profitable for many years and protecting their cronies so that they could continue making lots of money out of the rakyat.

What's the point of having good legislations and regulations when there is no transparency within the G?
Without continuing reforms, Malaysian will be the ones who suffer. By 2020, I believe Thailand and Pakistan will be far ahead of us. Let's not look far, China now is already well ahead of us.. Even Singapore says that they need to quickly reforms if they are to stay competitive in this changing world.

Alright to give credit where it is due. But the 'half-full bottle' thinking; the 'we are still ahead of some countries' thinking can't tally with the signs of the times. The countries who're supposedly behind us are now passing us while we try to ignore and deny the fact. We keep reading almost all bad news about GLCs, about unfinished or collapsing infrastructure, flooding in the city where it shouldn't, lack of drinking water in a country that rains almost all year round, uncontrolled pollution, corruption, daylight robberies, rapes, etc... count the blessings ok, but look at the weather, the rising flood waters, and prepare the sandbags. Neil, just keep telling it like it is.

Shaukat should go even further. Abolish corporate taxes, abolish tax on dividends, cause with globlisation comes financial fluidity. Small countries will have to merge, or form monetary union, hence Shaukat and his cuntrymen may end up being part of India, the gulf between the rich and the poor will wide widen(Already happening in industrialised coutries such as japan, Europe, US and china).Despite the failings of Malaysia, wealth is evenly distributed, hence we have outside the Klang valley, other business hubs such as Penang, JB and Kuching and kota Kinabalu (Second busiest international airport in Malaysia). Compare this with thailand, where everything is centred in Bangkok,Indonesia and even South Korea, where seoul dominates everything.Once globlisation is on the roll, corporations will dominate your lives, not the state. You get to elect your government, but who elects the corporations.

JEFF OOI says: Make sure you elect the government that does not kowtow to corporations.

Jeff,
It's difficult but not impossible to elect a G that won't kow tow to the corporation. We all know how "seductive" a power can be and those who have tasted it will be very reluctant to let it go! Corporations will always find ways to wrap the G around their little finger, to do their bidding coz they know life will be hard in a country where the G is not "Business friendly". But to what extent should the "Friendly" part go? Big corporations here in Bolehland are geniuses when it comes to protecting their interests.
I too sensed that something is not right in Bolehland. We are indeed in denial mode. We are afraid to call a spade...a spade. We want the best brains but if the cost of living is like s***, discriminatory policies remain and diligently enforced and dissent is taboo eventually Pakistan will overtake us in terms of economic development e.g. per capita income, GDP etc. Then the trend will be reversed - Malaysians emigrating to Pakistan to work!!! How mortifying and at the same time humbling for us IF it happens.