The Malaysian Paradox

Malaysia is probably the only country in the world where the govt openly admits that the bumiputras are of lesser talent than the other minorities. And after 40 years of NEP, affirmative actions and handouts, they have proven that this theory is true. They are still behind the other minority races. And giving up special privileges will mean that they will fall further behind again. Either way, like Mahathir said, they will fall behind. But Malaysia has high ambition to be a developed country. How then can Malaysia ever make it when the people are so untalented? To achieve a developed country status, the people must be as talented as the people in developed countries. But in Malaysia, the bumiputras are even behind the Chinese and Indians, who are far from being first world countries. And if they cannot even keep up with them, how to ever dream of being like the Europeans or the Japanese? Or perhaps Malaysia can become a first world country without having to work for it, just depend on NEP? This is the greatest Malaysian Paradox. The bumiputras believe themselves that they will never make it, that they are by nature slow. Why don’t the bumiputras stand up and prove that they are not really a backward people? That they can compete with other people on the same level playing field, domestically and internationally. Or they still need more weaning time? If it is true that they are backward, then their dream of being a first world country will forever be a dream. Now, is their assumption of being backward true or real?

The last hurrah

In a couple of weeks we will be celebrating our National Day in big time. Two months to rejoice. With so many people making so much money and many more to come, it is timely to make this a big bang. On the other extreme, with all the costs shooting up, not just 2% more because of GST, but many times more, many people have already used up their GST rebates and their savings are running dry again. It had been reported that the first thing some of these people did when they received their rebates was to pay off all their debts and mortgage payments which they have not paid for months. So the windfall of a few hundred bucks disappeared quickly, though a temporary relief. How could these people go on before the next rebate kicks in? And this time round, with practically every little thing up, and the rebate gone, it is going to be a last hurrah. It is going to be tougher, no doubt about that.

Spreading a second wing

The news of Temasek's investment in Barclay's Bank and $3 billion should greet Singaporeans as good news though there will be sceptics wondering whether we will lose the money if it does not turn out well. All investment comes with risk especially in foreign land where we have very little control over their political and legal systems. Such investments are welcome as there is really very little room to grow in our little corner. The world must be our oyster. Having said that, as a citizen who is seeing his CPF money being deferred from withdrawal till dunno when, I have my own concerns. I hope some parliamentarians will raise some questions in Parliament to comfort the people on their CPF money and that there is no relation between foreign investment and the deferment of the withdrawal of their CPF. The question is to clarify that people are not planning their big investments with the expectation that there is a cheap CPF fund available and that the money in the CPF should be kept as long as possible for their investment plans. Any CPF fund available should be incidental and be used only because it happens to be there and not the other way round, that the CPF fund must be made available for foreign investment. The CPF money is the people's money and must be quickly returned to their owners without anyone harbouring any strange ideas on how to hold them back and use them. The assurance that this is not the case is welcomed.

We are first world, we believe in the tooth

If we cannot believe in tooth, or if we believe in tooth, or we don't care even if it is tooth? How far down the abyss are we prepared to go as a first world country to allow ourselves to be so deceived? It is so ridiculous for anyone to believe in untooth. It is a different matter for a nation to believe in untooth or let the people believe in untooth and do nothing about it. Are we saying that some people are allowed to propagate untooth? Or have we degenerated to the level of the third world intelligence? Uniquely Singapore

The pincer squeeze

Singaporeans are just like a nut in between two pincers, the rising cost of living that makes us less competitive and Sing $ that gets to buy lesser things at home. People who think that their salaries are going up, if not in big percentages are actually getting a pay cut. How far can this go on before we wake up and say shit, what is happening? The next round of retrenchment when companies start to move out of Singapore, when jobs are gone, will be very serious when there is no income and prices of everything at sky high.