Saturday, October 14, 2006

The Malaysian Failure Code

One thing I am sure to say about Malaysia is that we have all failed . We here are not the youths - us . But I put the blame on our founding fathers .

They have failed miserably in incorporating the most expensive trait in the world - nationalism .

This particular 'gene' did not appear strong enough in Malaysian . In other words , it is a dominated gene , not a dominating one .

Proton's birth on 7th May 1983 was a marvel to Malaysia . At that point of time , Malaysia was at a tender age of 26 years with about 3 months to go . Many belittled Proton but it ended up successful and shocked the pessimists of the country's ability and visions .

The 'gag' on a large population of Malaysians' criticisms and sceptical views of Proton was mere temporary . Proton had a rocky ride all the way till today , accepting dirty slings and shots from the general public and international viewers .

The age of Proton today ? 23 years .
The age of Toyota today ? 73 years .
The age of Ford today ? 103 years .

The last figure '3' is just a mere coincidence by the way . But the truth does not lie on the figures .

We all know how loyal Japanese are . At times , we think they are an extreme civilization that places their country above their own lives . Or should I say placed and still place ?

Take a look down the history of Japanese . Due to war and the style of governance in Japan during the Ages of Dynasties , Japanese are a population of nationalists . Their love for their country , if measurable , can sink or even bury the whole South East Asians' with lots to spare .

From this factor , I would like to link it back to the automobile industry .

One reason why Japanese carmakers are so successful today was because of substantial and solid support initially .

'Japanese babies' that were learning to walk had support from their countrymen . That factor contributed to a tremendous flourishing automobile industry in Japan that soon expanded overseas . And today ? They are giants in the automobile industry , statistically surpassing many top companies in the world , if not ranked the best .

The Japanese since ages ago till today are well known to be nationalists and they have a huge chunk of patriotism running in their blood . Because of that , many Japanese people are successful in developing their industries and corporations . Undeniably , the automobile industry was one of the main benefactors of the 'Japanese nationalism gene' .

Proton ? People are critical . And just critical . People ? What people ? Malaysians to be exact . We go around critisizing Proton and comparing Proton with many other companies in the world like Mercedes , Toyota , Ford .

But again , look at some facts . The most glaring one would be their ages .

Do you expect a high school kid to be comparable with a Postgraduate student in University of London ?

Do you honestly expect that ?

The same lies with Proton . Give it some time . But you keep arguing . Give it some support . But you keep critisizing .

A baby born in Malaysia is fast dying . It is on the fast track in search of Death .

Why ? All because of nationalism genes . We are having a lack of this particular gene . And this gene's abscence are causing us to bleed in shame and might die a shameful death soon in the name of Proton .

Why ? It is because we do not give Proton a chance . Imagine that the high school kid was knocked down .

What would be the case ? Well , we would prefer to let a high school kid die without medical support and let the university lecturer continue feeding us with information , knowledge .

Why ? Why the poor kid must be sacrificed ? Because the cost of bringing the high school kid up is too high ?

Yes . The high school kid requires extremely high expenses with tuition fees and consumption expenses daily . And he doesn't earn any revenue . Thus he is in the red in accounting terms .

Yes . The university lecturer is earning money , his accounts are in the black , and he is contributing to the society . Perfect .

But then again , are we to kill of that high school kid ?

Many will say "No , we won't . It is not the same as letting Proton shut down and praise the heroes of Toyota and BMW . IT IS NOT THE SAME !!!" .

Does that high school kid sound like Proton ? The university lecturer can be any of those car companies you compare with - Toyota , Honda etc .

Whatever you say , it is the same . We are no different than the murderers of the high school kid character that I had just created a moment ago .


We are indeed no different .

Simply because we were born without the nationalism genes .

Congratulations . That is all for today's class on The Malaysian Failure Code .

By now , we will all be clearer with the analogy drawn and the Code on Proton interpreted .

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, indeed, nationalism..

But the failure of Proton can also be related to that

It's the "nationalism" of certain parties which would rather put a less competant person to manage the company than allowing someone from other races who are more competant to take the job

I'm not trying to play the racial card here, but this is a fact for almost all if not all GLC in Malaysia. They complain about brain drain, but are unwilling to let the better ones to do their job. You yourself are a student of economics, so you know the problem from trying to intervene in a market, inefficiencies. Although I acknowledge that the role of govt is important in the economy, it is this type of intervention that we do not need.

Another thing, the age of car manufacturers do not matter at all. If you can, try providing how many years it took for car manufacturers such as Toyota, BMW to become efficient, succesful manufacturers. That would be a more accurate and relevant number to take into account. I'm not that sure bout this since I am not really that into cars, but Korea Manufactured cars are gaining popularity internationally, how long has they been in the industry? Not to mention that China is another new player in the car market, and with the current trend, I don't think they need 23 years to reach what we achieved today.

Anyway, I do not object to the existance of Proton, but major changes in mindset and management is required to justified it's existance, to be a asset to the country, not a drain for tax revenue.

Ps I remember reading somewhere that Proton Saga model is still being manufactured. If this is true, we would probably be a joke in the industry :(

Anonymous said...

Hi there, I guess the question of who is competent and who is not do not arise here, and cy is living in an romanticised imagination of the Chinese superiority, far from the reality of Malaysian social norm and political balance. In a society where the majority ethnic rules, it is reasonable that national strategic interests are placed in the hands of the majority. It is the same in multiethnic countries anywhere, be it Singapore, Iraq, Afghanistan or even the States. The proposition of which Malays are incompetent is not more than a lame old excuse to justify the old myth of Malay laziness and the so called Chinese cultural superiority.

I shall not dwell in that topic any longer.

I do not agree with manifestogwl's hypothesis that says that Malaysians are cynical about national cars. We are not cynical, we supported it. Look around, most of the cars on the Malaysian roads are national cars. Probably it is because that's the only cars that an average Mamat, Ah Beng or Muthu are able to afford either.

I don't think that in the 1900s the Japanese bought their own cars out of pure nationalism alone. I would suspect that it is the lack of foreign supply of cars (due to transportation cost from Europe to Japan)and the low buying power (post WW2 economy)that forced the Japanese to buy what they can afford: Local made cars! It is practical to spend our hard earned money for a reasonable mode of transportation.

If manifesto and cy would care enough to look around in the villages and smaller towns, you will see that the average civil servants, the local grocer, the penghulu kampung, the primary school teachers are big fans of Iswara and Kancil. Probably rich people like us tend to mingle around cynical unnationalistic rich people around us, and tend to believe that every Malaysian hates national cars.

There are still thousands still dribble their saliva just to get a sit from a run down secondhand Kancil.

Wake up from the socioeconomic luxury that you enjoy! Let the working class rule!

Anonymous said...

Hi there, I guess the question of who is competent and who is not do not arise here, and cy is living in an romanticised imagination of the Chinese superiority, far from the reality of Malaysian social norm and political balance. In a society where the majority ethnic rules, it is reasonable that national strategic interests are placed in the hands of the majority. It is the same in multiethnic countries anywhere, be it Singapore, Iraq, Afghanistan or even the States. The proposition of which Malays are incompetent is not more than a lame old excuse to justify the old myth of Malay laziness and the so called Chinese cultural superiority.

I shall not dwell in that topic any longer.

I do not agree with manifestogwl's hypothesis that says that Malaysians are cynical about national cars. We are not cynical, we supported it. Look around, most of the cars on the Malaysian roads are national cars. Probably it is because that's the only cars that an average Mamat, Ah Beng or Muthu are able to afford either.

I don't think that in the 1900s the Japanese bought their own cars out of pure nationalism alone. I would suspect that it is the lack of foreign supply of cars (due to transportation cost from Europe to Japan)and the low buying power (post WW2 economy)that forced the Japanese to buy what they can afford: Local made cars! It is practical to spend our hard earned money for a reasonable mode of transportation.

If manifesto and cy would care enough to look around in the villages and smaller towns, you will see that the average civil servants, the local grocer, the penghulu kampung, the primary school teachers are big fans of Iswara and Kancil. Probably rich people like us tend to mingle around cynical unnationalistic rich people around us, and tend to believe that every Malaysian hates national cars.

There are still thousands still dribble their saliva just to get a sit from a run down secondhand Kancil.

Wake up from the socioeconomic luxury that you enjoy! Let the working class rule!

Anonymous said...

Em, Anonymous, I don't know bout u but I didn't mention Chinese at all in my comment, did I?

I just said that the better candidate should be given the job, not matter who or what they are, be it Indian, Malays, CHinese, Ibans.... I don't mind at all if it's all in the hand of the Malays, even though we as Malaysians can't claim that Proton or Petronas are bumiputera-owned companies. But more than often you gotta wonder how some people are getting jobs they know almost nothing about. It's bad enough when you have a limited pool of human assets to pick from, but it becomes worse when you don't select from the best. Also, you seem to have the impression that all Chinese thinks that Malays are incompetant, and I don't blame you considering the the level of racism in our so-called leaders. But I hope you are clear about something, generalisation is a very naughty thing to do >_< I am please, however, that at last someone think I am romantic in something ;)

Competency does not matter? This kind of statement is just irresponsible. We are living in a new century where everything is rapidly advancing. And in this rat race, competency doesn't matter? If there are more people who thinks like you, then Malaysia will be going down like a brick. Thailand, in spite of the coup lately, is gathering speed in improving its economy. Singapore, everyone knows. Even Indonesia is picking up its pace, which recently beat us in attracting FDI, while our AP queen can still boldly ask foreign investors to pick up and go. Makes you wonder eh? Take our country infamous unique production, the horde of unemployable "graduates". Give a moment to think that if there were competant education system and lecturers, would this happen in the first place..

About your argument about people buying Proton cars, totally "male-cow poop". It is not a "hypothesis", as claimed by you. Do you know why manifestogwl says that people are cylinical about it? Simple, because we are taxed 300% on imported cars. Taxes distort economics decisions, and taxes that size have a big impact on general population. Take an example, in NZ, I can get a 1990 Toyota with bout 150k millege for about average 1.5k, and hell no, I am not kidding. The minimum wage in NZ is bout $10. I can get a damn car for working 150 hours for MINIMUM WAGE, which probably run better than a 6 years old Proton model. How long do you need to work at minimum wage to be able to get that second hand kancil that you and all your "ppl" are drooling about? That's is exactly where some people think Proton are just a waste of taxpayers money while on the same time increasing rakyat's burden through higher car prices. Think about this, it is ok for our "patriotic", "un-nationalistic" leader to complain about certain model of Mercedes being not good enough for em, but the common rakyat are not allowed to be skeptical about the system? How many of our leaders really do own only proton cars?

In contrary to what you assumed, I am not rich, I do not hate Proton, my father was born in a small remote kampung so I have been to those places and had a look, I mixed with uncyinical, un-unnationalistic "poor" people like me, but I do hate generalisation by people who don't even try to get their facts straight.

So wake up from YOUR socioeconomic luxury that YOU enjoy! If you want the working class to rule, either improve Proton as mentioned or go work with those cynical unnationalistic rich people that YOU mingle with to pull down Proton..

Anonymous said...

You said, "It's the "nationalism" of certain parties which would rather put a less competant person to manage the company than allowing someone from other races who are more competant to take the job."

You are assuming that all this while Proton has been employing incompetent people (read, Malay.) Are you not having your facts right? Since when Tengku Mahleel is deemed incompetent?

What's wrong about protecting the local industry? Even the European Countries and the US protect their agriculture industry from agriculture products from Third World countries from entering their market.

What's to be blamed is not the government, nor the company, nor any particular race. What's to be blamed is our inability to master technology to produce better cars with lower costs.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I did say that, but what I was trying to EMPHASISE is that irregardless of race or ethnicity, the better candidate should be given the equal chances to improve our once pride of the country, never was this a racial attack.

You know, you guys are just sad and pathetic, really. I, a "Chinese", as some people always like to put it, never ever look down on Malays, and don't think I ever will. BUT, you, this I can safely assume is a Malay, have no shame in relating incompetence with your own ethnic. Really, it can't be more pathetic than that.

Again, I did not assume that "all this while Proton has been employing incompetent people", you assume that I do. READ.. "less". You know what that means? Let me explain to you if you don't get it, it means that there are more capable people out there who can do a better job with probably less pay. Can you be absolutely certain that there isn't anyone better than Tengku Mahleel who applied for the job?

Besides, Tengku Mahleel proves my point exactly, is his replacement ability even better than him? So why was he replaced? Is it anything to do with ability? Or is it because his new boss don't like the shape of his @$$?

I know that sometimes people can't control what they blurt out of their mouth, but at least try to read and make sense of what other people wrote and what you are about to post before you do so. Really getting tired with people doing this.

Since when did I say it's wrong to protect Proton? I didn't even mention about it. I said, quoted "I do not object to the existance of Proton, but major changes in mindset and management is required to justified it's existance, to be a asset to the country, not a drain for tax revenue." Although I acknowledge that currently that is protection on the car industry, did I even mention about removing it? How do you even come to that conclusion? I stressed and I will stressed again, I am not against Proton. Is it that hard for you to swallow?

Also, agriculture industry protection cannot be used to compare with a car industry protection. Protecting the agriculture industry is partially to protect nation security. Imagine, if there is a war, all they need is to attack and secure all trade routes, and leave the whole country that depends heaviliyon imported food to starve to death or half-death before even attacking the country. Are you suggesting we start eating cars by then? I don't know about you, but I sure can't eat metal and drink oil.

"What's to be blamed is our inability to master technology to produce better cars with lower costs.", read IMPROVE EFFICIENCY, which is what I am stressing. And why can't we do that, well, I explained part of the cause, so please read carefully my previous post, instead of just trying to find statement that you can twist into other meanings to suit your purpose, whatever that is.

Anonymous said...

PROTON IS BASED ON FALSE ECONOMY.CONSUMER OF MALAYSIA BULLIED TO PURCHASE PROTON BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO CHOICE.THATS WHY PROTON PRICE NOT ACCEPTABLE OVERSEA...FALSE ECONOMY WONT LAST..