Dr M, before you look East, you should have looked after your backside first!

Todak

To begin with, Mahathir did not make a voluntary decision in introducing his Look East policy; it was a vindictive decision specifically directed against England that denied him a university education due to his own lacking in the required qualifications. So he adopted his “Buy British Last” policy when he became PM of Malaysia to teach the Brits a lesson.

An old friend of mine told me that when Mahathir looked east, he was looking atthe Land of the Rising Sun, so much so his eyes were blinded by the sun rays that he could not see the huge land mass lying there as the sleeping Chinese Dragon. He had one eye on Japan and the other on Korea.

Not only was Mahathir a bad doctor (his private clinic in Alor Setar failed, so he turned to easy hoodwinking politics with his Malay Dilemma), he was also a bad historian. The origin of most Japanese (except some in the Southern part) and Koreans were Chinese. Both these countries used the Chinese written language in the beginning. The Japanese then “invented” the present Hiragana and Katakana writings first, to have their own identity and second, to deprive the Chinese of this coded knowledge, while the Korean King Sejong Daewang, King of Joseon invented the present Korean written language in the 15^th century, also for the same reasons as the Japanese. I would advise Mahathir to go to TV channels KBS and NHK and he will no doubt see that the Koreans and the Japanese still cannot totally get rid off the Chinese script (Kanji in Japanese), used in between.

But we must admit that your entry in Malayan University did land you in good company of one Singaporean Rin Kin Mei whose residence then was in Watten Estate close by to Dunearn Road, Bukit Timah. This was the Chinaman together with a Japanese Kumei who spearheaded at least 7 major “Heavy Industry” projects the moment you became PM.

Now, please do not say the West has failed. In the Hicom Perwaja project, the Japanese giant Nippon Steel Corporation failed miserably in their Direct Reduction plant, and had to be rescued by German Ferrostaal using Mexican HYL technology, for which Malaysia had to pay some RM800 million while receiving RM400 million as compensation from NSC whose President resigned as the result of this failure.

As for your national car project, you picked the wrong partner Mitsubishi when you should have chosen Toyota or Honda, both of which are flourishing in Thailand. Because of Proton, all Malaysians are forced to buy this make, otherwise pay the super high duties they cannot afford. To get into overseas markets, Proton is selling cars at prices lower than locally, again forcing Malaysians to subsidize exports and pay for the survival of Proton. For years now, Proton has been looking for a foreign partner such as Volkswagen, but when the foreign party had studied the complete profile of Proton, they politely declined. If we go by the AFTA ruling, Proton will have to close shop as the whole country will be flooded with Toyotas from Thailand.

You are saying China has USD3.2 trillion in reserves and the Chinese are swimming in money. Please bear in mind that before you can swim in money, you have to learn to survive swimming in the bitterest seas. The Chinese did, and now even the 2 countries you admired and told us to emulate, are looking to China for their future growth.

You have the most Chinese population in Malaysia outside China and Taiwan, more than in Singapore. Your very own Chinese citizens have said you did not treat them well with your racist policies and many have migrated. I cannot tell you what you should do now, as it might be too late and you are old and the young Malays will not listen to you even though I know you are daily shouting aloud your outdated advices to all and sundry.

When you looked East, your one eye was on Japan and the other Korea. Therefore it was not surprising that the Petronas Twin Towers were contracted to one each Japanese and Korean company. Now, you are sitting pretty in one of these ivory towers as Petronas Advisor.

A few days ago, there was short-lived joy among foreign companies in upstream Oil and Gas activities when it was announced that Petronas license was not mandatory to register as a bidder. Two days later, Petronas came up with a statement that it was still the policy of the national oil company to invite only Petronas licensed companies, overseas or local.

The Petronas license is nothing but a license for Bumiputras to be the middlemen in all Petronas projects. It is about time the Petronas Advisor wakes up and acts to change this policy before other countries start making retaliatory rulings against Malaysian companies operating in foreign lands. What are you going to say if for example, China says to do any business with them, Malaysian companies must be registered with their Central Bureau, and your Malaysian companies must have local Chinese Malaysian majority shareholding? Come on, Mahathir you often talk about fair playing field; now show us your sincerity and stop bull shitting.