We used to be the largest rubber, tin and palm oil producers in the world and post independence we were amongst the largest producers of semiconductors and the largest producer of domestic air conditioners and all these were then labour intensive industries and the Malaysian worker stood out, because of the contribution of our efficient and dedicated workers we the world's largest producers of these products and in turn they were amongst the most productive workforce in the world.
One man who thought he was a maverick wrecked our position in time by trying to corner the tin market, his stupidity caused the country a great deal ruined the prosperity of the Kinta Valley and brought the price of tin tumbling down forcing most of Malaysia's tin mines to close down. We lost our position in tin as a result and the effects of this was felt very badly all over the country, especially in Perak - the Kinta Valley.
Since that fateful day when tin came crashing down in the London Metal Exchange, the state of Perak became a failed state, from one fo the richest states in the federation to a failed state, and all that thanks to one man Mahathir Mohammed, the state is yet to recover from that disaster, and its workers have to go elsewhere in search of a decent living today.
Until today Mahathir has not acknowledged his part in this stupid scheme that caused the country billions in revenue, shut down mines, sent many miners into desperation and rendered thousands of mine workers unemployed.
He wasn't in the least bit concerned, like a poker player losing a round he just let it be, to him after all it was mainly the Chinese who will suffer. That has always been his attitude even till today it surfaces time and time again.
In the eighties after what was so famously called the "dawn raid" engineered by Mahahtir's brother in law Tun Ismail Ali, which saw Pernas and later PNB control of Sime Darby and subsequently the rest of the plantation industry one would have expected that the estate worker would have a got a better deal, but instead the estate worker continued to be exploited, and as workers began demanding more, the government introduced foreign workers.
In 1973 when the semiconductor industry first came to Malaysia they paid their workers a meager RM2.40 per day, much less then what the Estate worker was making at that time, but by the late eighties the semiconductor industry workers were paid as much as RM35 ringgit a day much higher than the estate worker who today makes an average of about RM700/- and that too most of the original Malaysians in that industry have left to be replaced by cheaper foreign workers.
The construction industry suffered a similar fate, the introduction of foreign labour undermined our own skilled workforce so much so today if the illegal foreign workers are tracked down and detained the construction industry will grind to a halt there are hardly any Malaysians in that industry.
With the type of foreign policy that Mahahtir preached many of the huge electronics giants left the country, why even in his famed MSC Microsoft that once was his most ardent supporter is now quiet and have decided to play it cool.
The Palm Oil, Rubber and manufacturing industries today have lost their clout, they have lost their productivity rankings, they have lost their leadership positions and all because of this stupid government and its stupid policies all headed and thought out by Mahahtir Mohammed.
The Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia was rated the foremost Rubber Research centre in the world during the days of Mr. B. C. Shekar, it is not even heard of today, what achievements have they come out with since we really do not know.
In the eighties when the Corn, Soya bean and Sunflower seed oil lobbies managed to successfully discredit our Palm oil and Coconut oil as hazardous to heart and health it was the likes of our researches in the Oil palm Industry who came out fighting to reestablish Palm Oil as the choice Oil for the Confectionery and food industries.
I remember as plant manager of a confectionery plant, Dr. Anthony Wong of lam Soon Oil and Fats and Dr. Chua of Yee Lee Oil Mills giving me the facts that in fact Palm Oil was the better and safer choice. The industry fought back both on the home and international fronts with facts and they won.
Today if we re boycotted because of discrimination, deforestation, destruction of natural habitats of people (tribes and animals) this government will not have material facts like we had in those days to fight a lobby. In fact we are already experiencing this with the sale of our Palm Oil to China today I am told.
India was always ourlargest importer of Plam Oil, but under Mahahtir to distance himself from his Indian heritage he had little or nothing to do with one of his biggest trading partners, he treated them with least interest and I believe they returned the compliment too these actions have affected our Palm Oil industry.
Indonesia is fast becoming a leader in Palm Oil and Rubber, our experts are there teaching them how to become the world's best, do not blame them, blame the Barisan and its policies, these people were forced out to make a living the only way they know how.
This man Mahathir Mohammed almost singlehandedly destroyed the entire tin, rubber and palm oil industries in this country.
The biggest deterrent to productivity is corruption.
Nepotism and cronyism is corruption too, do not treat these two elements as different and coupled with these ills this country suffered, its workforce lost out not because they were not productive but because by these actions they were rendered unproductive.
I remember one Japanese CEO addressing us at the Selangor Vocational Guidance Conference in Klang in 1992. He had this to say, "In 1973 when we set up plant in Telok Panglima Garang, we were so proud of our workforce, even the Malay girls who studied in Malay medium schools could speak fairly good English leave alone the those who passed their SPM and other qualifications, these were form 3 dropouts mostly, but today even your univeristy graduates can't speak English, " then he went on to ask, "what happened."
He went on to give us an example of what Malaysia is now famous for, and he called in sloganeering. "You are famous for saying, 'Malaysia Boleh!' for almost anything, and I ask," he said, "Siapa boleh, Apa boleh and mana boleh."
There was a good turnout at the conference and we were really dumbfounded, yes this man was revealing to us what had happened, he said our education system had failed us, we were turning out people who were not as good as those he had seen in 1973 and the early years in the industry, productivity suffered, and although new technology was being introduced to keep our workforce competitive, the education system was not churning out students who were competent enough to cope with the changes in technology to be able to embrace new methods and means and remain competitive.
The lower end operations of the industry were being moved out to other countries where labour was cheaper, but our education system failed us we could not churn out graduates to cope with demands of the technological advances that were taking place in manufacturing in industry.
Not that they had to know rocket science, but the lack of English made it almost impossible to teach our local workers now graduates new technological stuff. The result most of these industries down sized and moved out to China where the Chinese have embraced English and are coping so well that almost everything we use today is made in China.
Mahahtir Mohammed was once described as a visionary, yes his vision is seen all through the nation, in the roads we build, by the time the road is completed it is still jammed, because the growth and developmental factors and other bigger issues are not looked into. We build roads for today without looking at what tomorrow will bring, and yet we pay road tax, road toll, petrol duties etc. this is daylight robbery.
We talk about vision 2020, of becoming a fully developed nation by then, and the former Selangor MB Khir Toyo tried to fool the whole world by proclaiming Selangor was already a developed sate during his tenure, but take a look at the waste disposal in the Klang Valley alone and let that speak for what he has said, take a look a the congestion of the Klang General Hospital and let them talk about Selangor's developed status, take a look at the fact that the Shah Alam Hospital the Hospital in the State's capital that remains unbuilt from pre-2008 in a contract awarded and paid for by the BN Government is yet to be realised and ask what is happening, is this a fully developed Selangor?
Shah Alam is the nations industrial capital, and the State capital of Selangor the most developed state in the country and yet in this state capital we are yet to see a government hospital built, the workers of Shah Alam are sent to Klang in emergencies and they do not like it because the congestion in that hospital is terrible and it looks more like a death house than a hospital. That is how much the BN government thinks about the Malaysian worker. Go take a look at the death knell called ward 8 in the Klang General Hospital.
In Singapore a normal general worker, unskilled is paid about Singapore $1000/- that is about MYR 2400
and yet he is sufficiently productive,why? Well simple if there is little or no corruption your productivity is well grounded, once corruption creeps in no matter how hard a man works he will be rendered unproductive and that is the fate of our Malaysian workers, corruption jsut negates all their productive efforts till they get fed up and just give up and that is what has just happened in this country.
In the academic front what kinds of students did we churn out, how many of them got a CGPA of 4 who were streamed in the arts and with religious studies included? How many of them were from the science, mathematics and other engineering and streams and were those from those streams really required in this country.
Out of the blue the government comes out and says we have too many doctors, we do not have sufficient specialists to train them. we have had a lot of doctors but this government refused to send these doctors for postgraduate training to be prepared for the more medical student s graduating.As a result this country that is supposed to be fully developed in 8 years from now has a very low doctor to population ratio, the doctors we have in government hospitals are overworked, whilst the health minister is busy politicking.
What kind of results are we seeing against our needs in industry is there a match? Do we have students who will fit into industry in the first place? Is our Education planned in tandem with our developmental needs.
We will land up with more Abduallh Badawis and Mahahtirs, to lead us the way the system is set up. Probably more religious scholars, and yes maybe we may need that considering the number of Churches, Temples and Mosques we build today.
Forget the weaknesses in our education system, our workers and our students have the capability to learn and be productive, it is in their genes, their parents proved that time and time again, but the biggest deterrent to productivity is corruption.
It is corruption, cronyism and nepotism that were the major factors in Malaysia losing its competitiveness.
Imagine the contracts that are given to shell companies like the Rosmah Company in the Scorpene issue. That consultancy was just set up to receive a kick back and nothing less.
There are numerous such cases, even the latest NFC case there would not have been so much waste if not for the cronyism practiced in this case the whole Company has been rendered unproductive by the thousands that were poured on the Ministers Children in the form of salaries when the were incapable of running the company, it was blatant and wilfull waste of public money and when the Malaysian worker is less productive we blame him. That was public money and that is how they the BN treat Public funds.
Even though the Auditor General highlighted these nothing was done by the Government to investigate the case till it was brought up by the opposition.
Those who suffer most are the Malaysian workers, they - the one time most productive workforce in the world has been rendered ineffective. This corrupt government has used cheap foreign labour to undrmine Malaysia's productive workforce, the corruption that is the norm has deprived us the opportunity to pay those (our workers) decent wages to put them on par with workers in Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In 1977 just five years after the semiconductor industry came into this country our workers were paid more than the Korean, Taiwanese and Hong Kong workers, today workers in these countries earn so much more than Malaysian workers and we have the Barisan government and the corruption that they have bred to thank for it.
Our graduates are wondering around thinking of what to do, MBA degrees are flouted like nobody's business, so much so industry does is not interested if you have an MBA unless it is obtained from a reputable University and that you went to the campus of that University to obtain it. "The MBAs offered here by most foreign universities is not even worth the paper it is printed on," said one executive director of a large MNC here.
In every nook and corner there is a "Univeristy" being opened, it offers degree programmes, they are called Univeristy Colleges, when I ask the students which University the University College is affiliated to they look and me bewildered and say, "no, we are a University, and the degree I have is issued by the University College."
So in Malaysia you now get a full fledged degree from a University that is called a "University College."
Aren't University colleges supposed to be affiliated to established Universities, and aren't those degrees supposed to be issued by the the University rather than the University college?
The aim of the Barisan is to breed a less educated population that way they can rob us all of our heritage, our natural resources and everything else till there is nothing else to steal than leave us high and dry and move to those countries where they own so much property.
This is clearly seen in the way they run the government, since Mahahtir 's time he ensured that there was no intelligent successor in his cabinet, when he found one he charged him with sodomy, and that became the order of the day.
Mahahtir's successor was Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, I will refrain form talking about him and let you draw your won conclusions about that man, today it is Najib running this country with his wife, and his deputy is the man who said, "I am Malay first and Malaysian second," the Deputy Prime Minisiter of Malaysia.
I do not have to talk about the mental capacity of Hishamuddin Hussein Onn and Nazri the defacto law minister, you draw your own conclusions.
So what are we left with nothing believe me nothing and they care two hoots. They will hang you up high and dry and feel nothing about it they have been doing this time and time again. Whilst they rob the country of billions they give us handouts for RM500 and opposition supporters are not allowed to receive it - Government money, people's money and the only way people get their money back is to support this corrupt regime. Political prostitution that is what it is and that is what they demand.
If we take the sum total of all the money lost by way of corruption in Malaysia we will realise that every Malaysian would have been able to get one million ringgit each if we recoup all the money that we lost to these corrupt people. Yes!! Yes!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! one million ringgit each, but all that money is in the hands of few people a very few people so imagine what we have lost and how much they have accumulated.
Still thinking of voting the BN?
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