Emulate Japanese sense of shame, says Dr M

In his first visit abroad since becoming prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the Japanese succeeded in rebuilding their country due to their work ethics and value system.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad greeted by Malaysians in Tokyo last night. (Bernama pic)

TOKYO: Dr Mahathir Mohamad says Malaysia will be successful like Japan if Malaysians possess the same work ethics, thinking and value systems as well as a sense of shame if they fail to deliver or do well in undertaking the task at hand.

He said when the Look East policy was formulated during his first tenure as prime minister in the 80s, it was not just about drawing investments from Japan or coming to study in the country.

“It’s also about acquiring the Japanese work ethics, the Japanese sense of shame whenever they fail to deliver what they have promised to deliver,” he said at a dinner with Malaysians in Japan last night.

Mahathir is here for a three-day working visit where he will also attend the 24th International Conference on the Future of Asia, or Nikkei conference. This is his first trip overseas since becoming Malaysia’s seventh prime minister last month in a stunning election victory.

The prime minister also shared with some 250 people present at the dinner about what the government was doing to rehabilitate Malaysia from the damages inflicted by the previous government, including the debt of some RM1 trillion.

Mahathir recalled what he had seen of Japan during his first visit in 1961, saying it had been a country destroyed by war.

“I watched the Japanese people work, and work very hard to rebuild their country, and sure enough the result was that Japan very quickly became one of the biggest economies in the world. From a defeated country, a destroyed country, Japan was able to rebuild itself at a fast rate and effectively.

“I found that the Japanese had succeeded in rebuilding their country due to their work ethics and their value system. If you have the wrong way of working, if you are not hardworking and you don’t take pride in your work, you will fail,” he said.

He said the Japanese took pride in making high quality products that were able to compete with those produced by other countries.

“But in Malaysia, we don’t have this value system. We don’t feel ashamed if we come up with sloppy products which are of poor quality… whether what you do is good or not does not seem to matter.”

Mahathir also said the government appreciated Malaysians’ gesture to help it reduce the debt level through the special fund set up for this purpose.

He added that the government would do its best to resolve the financial situation without hurting the country. He said this would take some time as it was not an easy task.

Unlike before, he said, money would not simply be disbursed to everybody. Instead, he added, financial assistance would be given to those who were eligible.

“We don’t want to inherit bad habits,” he said, adding that there was no room for abuse including in the private sector under his administration.

He also said the government was prioritising efforts to eradicate graft.

“If corruption is eliminated, we can save some 30% of our money with which we can do many other things.” -FMT