From: othman@ntrc25.ntrc.ntu.ac.sg (othman (EEE/Div 4))
Subject: Will Malaysia be DEVELOPED? NO
Organization: Nanyang Technological University - Singapore
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 07:21:55 GMT


I wish it were not true but my observations on official policies had not
shown otherwise.

The simplest reason is that Malaysia's government had never wanted to be
developed. Vision 2020 is not for development, it is more for industrialisation.

We may be as industrialised as India, China but we will never achieve the
development status of even Singapore.
	In contrast, Singapore aims to be developed. The target is Switzerland.
They even have specific plans for improving the quality of life of Singaporeans
by giving them better housing in terms of size of housing, quality of housing
(even have space for gardens), good seaside views, and better communication
(better roads).

As for Malaysian's Wawasan 2020(Vision 2020), the only things that I hear is
the ability to build another small car(1000cc class), more electronics
industry. Better highways which are more for industries than for housing
estates. There is little talk about the quality of life of the people.

To debate this issue constructively, readers should consider the topics that
 I'd introduced earlier:

i)What is development?
Per capita income is the most reliable form of measurement for development but
it must be in a world-recognised currency, not in almost useless currency such
as rubles.

ii)What is productivity?
Productivity is based on value per person, not just quantity per group of
people. Productivity is up to the employer who will bring in better productivity
tools/machines.
	Cheap labour provided by immigrant labour will not encourage employer
to increase the productivity of an employee.

iii)VAlue of money.
There is no point in measuring productivity in a valueless currency or when the
currency drops in value in the world market.


There are also speeches by Dr. Mahathir which indicates that developement
measured in terms of per capita income is not what he wants?

i)He did not want per capita income to exceed US$10,000 so that Malaysia will
lose the tax exemption from US,

ii)He disaggreed that per capita income is the real measure of development.
He claimed that the US just put the figure at US$10,000 based on their whims.
They can change it any time they want. 
	Of course the value of US currency also
drops so in the course of time, to be developed it will be increased to 
US$15,000. If US try to be nasty, they will maintain it at US$10,000 so that
less countries were elligible for tax exemption.

iii) He complained that salaries in Malaysia increase rapidly. The normal
advise of "salary increases must increase with productivity" is widely quoted,
I believe he just quote the advise given to him by managers in Malaysia.


It is not just the leadership that do not want development, it is also the
Malaysians.

If you monitor the usenet discussion you will notice the following consensus:

i) bus fares must not increase because they are making enough profit. The fare
is RM$0.50 for a journey up to 10 miles or RM$0.10 per mile( for bigger busses).Taxis should be RM$0.25/km. Yes they can make money but only if the buses 
remain the same(old buses), salary of workers remain low at RM300/month.
	In contrast, In Singapore it is S$0.25 /mile for buses and $1 /mile for
taxis. Income of $1000 per person. 

ii) widespread complains of cost of living especially the price of services.
Prices of food and other essentials remain the same because they are controlled.

iii) widespread support for giving only 15 acres for land so that a family
will have an income of RM600/month,

iv) support for devaluation while keeping salaries the same, effectively 
reducing the per capita income of Malaysians in real terms.

If you interview Malaysians, they will definitely support all these policies,
without realising that the price of imported goods will rise if their per 
capita income were to be reduced in world currency, but they accept it in the
belief that goods made in Malaysia will remain priced in RM(ringgit Malaysia).

Towns can be made clean without paying much tax, or even none at all. It is due
to the inefficiency of the town council but strange thing is that there is no
support for privatisation of the cleaning jobs for fear that it will cost them
more. That is why the rates in Malaysia is among the lowest, of course it is
not as low as India, Indonesia, China or other even less developed nations.
	I do not think that Malaysians will ever consider paying RM1000 to a
cleaner. 

So Malaysians are supporting the lowering of salaries for every one, and 
the devaluing of their salaries, in return for no increase in basic food
prices which must be subsidised when the value of RM were to drop even further.

So they are in favour of Malaysians working hard at anything even at low 
wages. Even at RM6/day in plantations or at factories, even if you have 
graduate degree in Engineering. Malaysians are not supposed to be choosy.
In fact warong businesses are highly encouraged to even break the law and sell
anywhere. 
	It reminds me of the hawkers in Indonesia who have extremely low
hygiene conditions. Of course the price of almost everything in Indonesia
is very low because no-one can afford to pay more. And they have little
overhead.

Of course they are not aiming for high per capita income. What they want is
better roads, taller buildings. No inflation but the ringgit can be devalued
further to increase exports. Exports is paramount. Import is secondary, after
all we are supposed to be self-sufficient, just as Russia and China were
self-sufficient. Because by devaluing the ringgit, the price of land may be
the same if no foreigners were allowed to buy them.

For those people who work overseas, like me, I'm fearful that the value of the
ringgit will be high because it will mean that the price of land/house will be
higher for me. If I were to work in Malaysia, it will not matter much because
I'll be paid in ringgit. In places where there is rapid contact with outside
investors like Johor, Penang, KL, the price of land/services had increased
tremendously so that those who work for the government/national companies
like TELEKOM, will suffer.

In fact I fear that Malaysia be developed, because the cost of house will be
high. Cost of services will be high as well, services such as hair-cut, car
repair etc. after all the workers will need to be paid more. Imagine the cost
of car mechanic's labour is RM1 /hour now, but surely will increase to RM10/hr
if we were to achieve high per capita income(remember that to increase this
figure, we have to increase everyone's salary, or are we supporting that
only a few people, the owners were to have such high salary?). Remember that
the amount of work remain the same.
	The other alternative is to increase the value of the ringgit to such
a figure that RM1 is equvalent to RM10 now.

We are suppose to increase productivity. But how can a Mc Donald waiter 
increase his productivity much higher than now? By talking faster like those
in Hong Kong? By running instead of walking? Or how about the car mechanics?

Or should we build more proton sagas at the same salary, but how? Ask them to
work 12 hours per day? But it only increases productivity by 2 times and it is
not enough to support the rest of the Malaysians?
	Or are Malaysians supposed to work 12 hour day producing what? What if
what we produce nobody else in the world wants? Like the soviets. No doubt they
produce a lot but nobody want their products because they are of low quality/
or not marketed enough.

--
Othman bin Ahmad, School of EEE,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 2263.
Internet Email: eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg
Bitnet Email: eoahmad@ntuvax.bitnet