The Abacus Vol.
Compassion is a commodity that is in short supply in much of East Asia.
The devastating economic crisis that has engulfed the region has brought with it increasing poverty, unemployment, and social despair that governments in the region are unwilling or unable to deal with. For the many victims of the crisis compassion has been hard to come by. Compassion', it seems, has been given in bucket loads to a privileged few, e.g., the creditors as well as the foreign investors bailed out by the IMF rescue packages. Malaysian bailout of the UMNO-linked firm, Renong, is perhaps one glaring example of this misplaced exercise of 'compassion' for some to the exclusion of others. Indeed, some of these governments are well on the way to creating a welfare state for capitalists where profits are privatized and losses are socialized.