We've all been brainwashed..

hmm... i believe that all of us malaysians have been brainwashed.. seriously, what's the big deal with the article in "theage" today.. about malaysia twiddling around missing opportunities... seriously... but i think as malaysians, we're tuned into anything about malaysia... especially how random foreign people think about our country... sounds like massive brainwashing to me... yes, we made it in a foreign paper... and it was a fairly controversial article.. controversy always attracts attention.. however, does it really matter?? let me see..

1) issue of wealth division..

the article quoted two figures... 18.9% and 45%... big deal... as any scientist should know... these figures mean nothing at all.. the real figure probably lies somewhere in between those two.. say 32%.. let's just take that as the real figure... so there.. that's MY research conclusion...

but seriously... why bother arguing about it?? the larger issue is with the NEP.. the target set out is 30%.. the question is, if we've hit the target already, what's the NEP still doing there... hence, there is a need to identify the "real" figure... the real problem lies with the fact that the metric wasn't clearly defined in the original contract... any engineer knows that you need to have a clear metric for comparison, else it's like comparing apples and cats.. what's the point.. really, engineers should run the country.. at least we know how to measure + build REAL stuff..

but yes, what about the NEP... should it stay?? should it go?? will it make ANY difference if it goes?? will ANYTHING change if it goes?? that should be the true topic of debate.. not whether or not we have reached 30%, or whether or not the NEP should stay/go.. "identify the problem".. that's always step #1 in solving it... has the NEP delivered on it's promise?? i can't really say... the NEP was more a "spirit" rather than an economic target... so, how do you define the "spirit" it was supposed to deliver?? (bring in the psychics!!)

2) issue with m'sia boleh spirit..

what's wrong with the can do spirit?? it serves several functions... (1) it's fairly interesting to watch (2) it takes away eyes from internal problems... nothing wrong with #1.. we'd always liked our little sandiwaras... now, with #2, most random m'sians cannot really see the problems anyway... so, what's the big deal... in m'sia, we're still in the mode of "kais pagi makan pagi" for most of us... so, macro level politics/economics doesn't really matter much to the random m'sian... seriously... people shouldn't peg their lives to the current status of the country... they should go about their lives the
best way they can, whatever happens...

as to the quote that a random londoner/newyorker wouldn't be able to identify m'sia in a map... well, i don't think any random londoner/newyorker would be able to identify almost any random country on the map... try asking them
where say kazakhstan (borat's made it hugely popular here) is.. or even where afghanistan/iraq is... that's a different issue altogether... not one about m'sia boleh... we can't help it if the geography education isn't quite top
notch..

however, if you ask any random person in the world who has met m'sians.. they can tell you this... (1) m'sians are very friendly people.. well, we're quite tolerant and accommodating... comes from living in a true ethnic/religious/cultural hotpot.. so, we make good neighbours... (2) m'sian food is GOOD... hehe... well, that comes from the hotpot as well.. we love our food.. and everyone else's food... it's just the way that we are... and i do think that this is more important than anything else... what we as individuals, show to the world...

3) misusing oil revenues...

the article quotes many projects that have been funded by PETRONAS... the individual projects are not important.. and it warns that m'sias oil reserves are running out in about 2 decades time... the real issue is whether or not, we get any benefit from the current expenditure?? if we do gain something, then, isn't it money well spent??

well, all i can say is that the government is at least spending money in the right way for one aspect.. and that's education... there are tonnes of educational scholarships to go around, for both local/overseas education... half the m'sians here wouldn't be here without the government scholarships.. many other nations in the world do not have government scholarships... so, in that respect, the government is spending money correctly to develop human capital..

how about the "mega projects"?? well... we would really need to ask the question on what's the objective... if KLCC was supposed to put m'sia on the map... it did.. although any random londoner cannot identify m'sia on a map... they could probably identify KLCC (it's quite distinctive)... like how we can identify any other landmark... but can we actually pin where the cities are on a map either?? 10 points to anyone who can pin where Giza is!! or even Egypt!!

as to whether or not it was money well spent?? i'll leave that question to the economists... and the article failed to mention that the other tower was built by the japanese... we didn't trust the south koreans enough to build both towers.. and of course, it was actually physically built by the foreign workers (mostly from indonesia + bangladesh) in m'sia.. so, there you have it... a truly international project...

so, finally, i put it... the article does stir controversy.. but it doesn't really say much at all.. what the "real" problems are have not been identified... and i doubt anyone who isn't m'sian can properly identify the real problems... as m'sians, we should look at our country, and ask ourselves what we want to do with it... let others deal with their own problems... our
real problems have nothing to do with the random stuff mentioned in the article... our real problems are not on the surface... they run deep...