This Is Malaysia, Bukan Amerika Atau Ostolia Atau London

OK here is something about the Budget.

We have seven years before 2020. Tun Dr Mahathir targeted 2020 for Malaysia to be a 'negara maju' - an advanced and modern nation. Yesterday the PM said that we will become a 'negara maju' even before 2020. Fuiyyo !

He was referring to a purely economic yardstick ie the per capita income of Malaysians will exceed RM48,000 per annum (or something) even before 2020. That is just not going to happen. I think the PM has been sharing a pipe again. 

Folks we need the racial breakdown. 

What is the per capita income of Malays? 

What is the per capita income of Chinese? 

What is the per capita income of Tamils? 

What is the per capita income of the Bajaus?
What is the per capita income of the Bidayuhs?
What is the per capita income of the Dusuns?
What is the per capita income of Ceylon Tamils? 

What is the per capita income of Punjabis? 

Does the RM48,000 per capita GDP include Syed Mokhtar Bukhari's portion? 
Or Jamaludin Jarjis' portion? 

Please do not talk to the people as though they are stupid. That is what is tiring about the sort of things that is given to the PM to simply "read out". 

Please do not generalise. This is Malaysia. There is no such thing as one size fits all. Everything is race, race and more race. 

In America, Australia, Europe or Japan they have more homogeneity in the economy. Economic class standing is less differentiated by race.  Economic class is differentiated by ability and willingness to work hard - you dont necessarily need the former too much but you certainly need the latter ie hard work.  So we cannot compare ourselves to America, Australia or Japan just yet. 

Yes we want to be like them. But we have to get there first. 

And the per capita GDP is not a measure of an advanced nation (negara maju). If that were the case Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brunei must all be considered negara termaju or super advanced nations. Well they certainly are not. 

What is the purpose of having an RM48,000 annual income if you still spit in the streets, throw rubbish everywhere, curse your neighbours according to their language, race and religion and think that stoning people to death is somehow a good thing to do? That is not 'negara maju'. It is closer to 'mental asylum'. 

Today the Star's front page summary of the Budget said this :  "It is proposed that employers implement the Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA) to give flexibility in terms of duration, place and working hours at the workplace".

You mean you are going to give your Bangla and Indon slave labourers flexi hours? Or flexi work place? 

Imagine this : "Abdoool take the raw materials home to your kongsi and finish the work there and bring it back safely ok??" Or wait a minute - Banglas and Indons are not humans. These 'flexi hours' are only reserved for lazy Malaysians - while the Bangla and Indon slaves do our bidding. 

Haiyya folks. This will not work in Malaysia at this point in time. We are not there yet. We are NOT a negara maju yet. 

After we become a negara maju, where our people are more mature, more responsible and more economically and socially developed, we can ponder these fancy suggestions. Right now we have to work harder. 

How do we achieve Wawasan 2020 and become a 'negara maju'? Learn from Dr Mahathir. 

When he became PM, Dr Mahathir realised that Civil Servants were coming to work late and leaving early. That is why we were poor and backward. 

Our people did not and still do not work hard enough. Orang kita tak suka kerja keras. That is why we have invented the word 'lepak'. Lepak means to bum around, to shoot the breeze, to hang around doing nothing, just sit and listen to the grass growing. 

So Dr Mahathir started the 'Clock In' procedure. Every morning every Civil Servant must clock in to work and he made sure that every Civil Servant worked an eight hour day.   You must come to work on time. You must work hard. If you dont work hard we will remain poor and in the Third World.  

As a result Dr Mahathir transformed Malaysia in just 22 years from an agricultural nation into an economic powerhouse in this region. During Dr Mahathir's time we had super high growth rates of 8% and 9% on a regular basis - when oil was less than US40 per barrel. Now we can hardly manage 5% growth per year even though oil is US100 per barrel. 

Dr Mahathir said 'Clock in and work hard'. Now they want 'flexi hours'? 

Why do you think China is kicking the butts of the Europeans and the US? Is it because the Chinese work hard or they play-play with flexi hours?

Ask any supermarket or hypermarket operator in Malaysia. It is not unheard of for 25% of their "local" workforce NOT to turn up for work on any given day. 25% can ponteng kerja on the same day.

This is why the supermarkets, hypermarkets and nasi kandar shops like to employ foreign labour. It is not because foreign labour is cheap or foreign workers are highly intelligent. 

Employers - me included - crave for foreign labour and are prepared to pay foreign labourers higher wages than domestic workers. Why? Because foreign workers come to work - everyday and on time. And they work very hard. In the development business we depend almost entirely on foreign labour.

Did you know that Indonesian 'construction supervisors' are paid up to RM4000 a month with a car provided (2nd hand) to supervise construction sites? They can complete an entire building project with minimum supervision. And they work really hard. No such thing as flexi hours. Try asking our local boys to work a straight eight hour day on a construction site. They will run away.

Folks, we need more discipline and stricter working rules in Malaysia. Our people dont like to work too hard. Yes you can say they are lazy. Why else do you think they remain poor?  Because they work hard or because they dont work hard? 

So if you are going to give your workers flexi hours, flexi work place and stuff, better watch out. First they will not do any work and then they will disappear from the workplace. 

Someone said the PM is a person who has possibly never lifted anything that weighs more than five kilos in his entire life. (Cats weigh about two kilos).  He does not understand working life or what it is to work for a living. So again I dont think the PM knows what he is talking about when he speaks about flexi hours. He was just reading a script prepared by someone. 

This is Malaysia. Not Ostolia or Amerika. We are not there yet. We have to work hard to become a developed and modern society. If we dont work hard, we will remain poor. Its as simple as that.