Seems like tomorrow’s fuel-hike demo is going ahead in Kelana Jaya; hope that there won’t be any violent crash during the rally, and I hope that the protestors are fighting on the right cause and not for political reasons.
There is no point protesting against the petrol hike… the fuel subsidy was wrong and should have been gone long ago. It there is anything to complain about… it’s about corruption, poor public transportation and the government failure in improving our living standard for the past decade.
Inflation is something inevitable; what really strike Malaysians these days is the failure to improve our earning-capability since the 1997 economic crisis. With exceptions of a few professions, the salary and income levels of most jobs are not on par with inflation rate for the past decade… some sectors are actually falling behind the pre-1997 era.
Singaporeans are paying a despatch boy RM2500 a month while most fresh graduates won’t be getting that much in Malaysia. Off course there are arguments that the cost of living would be higher in Singapore, but their definite advantage is that their overall standard of living would not be affected as much by global effects because of their higher earning power.
The effect of globalisation has become more apparent these days; inflations and cost of living is not something that we can control alone unless the country is self-sufficient in everything. The logical option to keeping our living sustainable is to increase our production level, and thus the income level of general citizens… and it’s something that the government has to think and work on.
We need to have a plan, a solid idea of what we want our country to be in the next 5, 10 or 20 years. One of the reasons why I am not against removing the petrol subsidy is that the money could be better spent (set aside the corruption issue first) on other development instead of protection policies. It’s better to teach people to fish than to give them fishes.
What the lower income group should fight for are policies that could increase their income level and a fair distribution of wealth. It’s unthinkable that some working classes are earning less than RM500 a month; that’s an exploitation to our labour forces. It’s a fair thing that skillful workers or educated peope should earn more than those who are not… but surely the hardwork itself could be rewarded better.
Malaysia need to rebrand ourselves; we are branded as a cheap and resourceful place for foreign investors in late 80s and the 90s, but with the rising of China, India and Vietnam etc… we are not having the advantage we used to have. Malaysia need to learn to stop relying heavily on FDI and create our own branding… we need to optimise our profit levels and minimise wastage, and the government needs to lead by example and Malaysians should work hard on improving ourselves.
Finally, instead of blaming solely on the government for the hardship these days, some Malaysians need to reflect on ourselves too… some of us have been too complacent with ourselves for the past decade or two; some of us have been taking too many things for granted; some of us have been living inside caves for failing to realise what’s going around; some of us have been mere fools to think that government has to be responsible to spoon feed them forever.
good post. it sucks when the big companies are making huge profit but the workers are not getting pay rise deservingly. we read of palm oil and plantation companies making big bucks, but why are estate workers still so lowly paid?
we need to create value. westerners are selling gucci bags for hundreds and thousands of dollars when the cost is lower than a hundred, but malaysians are still far behind in our own branding. we make peanuts producing the goods that are then sold for high price in the market, with most money going to foreigners.
the economic state in malaysia is delusional, if foreign companies decided to move out in numbers, our economy will crash in no time. more than half large manufacturers in malaysia are foreign brands, we need to reinvent ourselves to build value.
malaysians should stop whinning. some malaysians complain too mcuh but never try to work out their own plans in improving their life. protest protest protest, protest for what? it won’t change a shit.. waste petrol some more.
i like yr part where you mention we need to create an image & a brand. actually, we can learn a lot from the north asia countries from japan, korea… and even china, taiwan & hong kong.
they have succeeded in branding themselves well internationally. eg. japan - modern, technology, creative, hardworking, animation, quality
korea - cool.. the film industry helps. and quality products with cutting edge designs eg. samsung
china - upcoming, modern, big way
hk - global financial hub, vibrant
taiwan - music entertainment hub of the east
actually, i can also add thailand here - for tourism purposes. from vibrant bangkok to beautiful beaches.
for msia… msia companies need to think global. and once ppl think msia, they think “something unique”. for me, so far i find msians very good - usually are humble, friendly, skilfull and hardworking… and ability to connect with many countries because of our language skills & tolerence for each other.
next we need to work on this & create a brand for malaysia.
Not just a brand, but something profitable and marketable.
“Malaysia Truly Asia” is a successful campaign, lots of foreigners know about that… some can even hum the tune. Thing is, what can we market about Malaysia being Asia (added that it’s not really so)… the image itself can’t bring in money. How many people would visit a country just because the people is unique and friendly?
Anon#1 gave a good example on Gucci, those are the brands that we need to creates, or something else with tangible values.
Technology, entertainment, tourism and lots of other stuff, we are falling behind for the past decade… and we can certainly learn from other countries how things can be done, and most importantly, we need to take action to make the difference… from top to bottom, from the government leaders to common citizens.