It is an
old Chinese proverb ‘the fish rots from
the head’. You can get the best- selling
book with the same title at the amazon
. The subject on transformation has made headlines these days. Sometime
ago a reality show Akademi Fantasia which was a hit among the Malay viewers push forward the slogan ‘Tranformasi’. Everyday the slogan
was played in and out of Astro Channels to
catch viewers attention. At the end the show I doubt everybody
really knew what was the ‘transformasi’
all about or what had been transformed or was
it just a catchy slogan.
Now the Malaysian government has
embarked on the Economic Transformation Programme. The bold initiative is good
for the country as the target is to achieve a high income nation by the year
2020.The billion dollar development will definitely increase the GDP growth in
spite of weakness in the external demand.
The development will create jobs and increase the income of the urban people
whereas the rural people like the fishermen, rubber-tappers and the farmers
will not be affected. Hence this will increase the disparity of income between
urban and rural people. One can see that the city people are enjoying the city life but a few kilometres outside these towns the
condition of the household are deplorable such as in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. The one- off BR1M receivers (income
below Rm 3000) are made up of about 60% of the total population and those
income below Rm1500 is about 40%. Now
how do the government want to reduce this disparity? If this is not done I
don’t think the future generation will be peaceful.
A complete overhaul in transformation
programme encompassing unity, education,
judiciary, government service and the cabinet itself is what we really need. I
remember one day Marina Mahathir did tweet
that the new leaders should have talent.
Do we have one? The Talent Corporation is headed by a Cambridge graduate and so
some of the GLC’s CEO’s are from prestigious universities but is this enough? Now what about the cabinet members ,do we have
talented people? They are the one who make the policies and to chart the direction for the country. So if
we have a rotten head where will our country stands? In the past we did not see the so called
talented one in the cabinet. We have one or two with a doctorate but
unfortunately their brain usage was restricted. Good education is pre-
requisite like Mr. Obama from Havard and
David Cameroon from Oxford. Some of our leaders tend to overdo it. In the last
election a few candidates with dubious qualification were exposed. Let me put
this way if one is smart he is smart and should have a Havard, Cambridge or
Oxford qualification and not masters from unknown universities.
Now look at these people like
Khairy Jamaluddin, Nurul Izzah, Rafizi
Ramli, Nik Nazmi and Dr.Dzulkefly. They are the one frequently interviewed by CNBC, Al Jazeera and
BBC for one reason is that they are smart individual and communicate well. Khairy
was an Oxford graduate,Dr Dzulkefly was from Imperial College, Nurul Izzah had her Master from
Princeton University, Nik Nazmi was from Kings College and Rafizi Ramli was an outstanding
MCKK scholar who have an engineering and
professional accounting education from the UK. Khairy was not a minister before ( he
was appointed as Youth and Sport Minister recently) but he gave his views on
behalf of the ruling party. Now where are the rest? One former minister spoke to Al Jazeera in broken English and the
other cannot expressed himself and uttered the word ‘shit’ a
few times. Are these the type of people capable of steering our country to be at par with Singapore or
Korea? In the early seventies we are at par with them.
In order for our country to be at par with Singapore or
Korea the whole system in the country need to be transformed. Like I say the
fish rots from the head , so the head must be talented and effective people.
The policymakers must be the one who can think effectively and not just signing
papers and to read a written text or hiring
foreign consultants to do the thinking.
Let us look at our nearest neighbour ,Singapore and how they do it. Indeed if the head is good you get a good
body. The Prime Minister was a Cambridge graduate in Mathematics and Computer
Science and a Master from Havard. The
two deputies were either from Imperial College or Cambridge and Master from
Havard. The rest of cabinet members are mostly from Cambridge with Master from
Havard and some are from prestigious universities with First Class Honours. They
have three Indian ministers and one Malay minister. The Malay minister has a
doctorate in structural engineering from Stanford University, one of the
prestigious university in the US. The Chief of Defence, Naval, Air Force and Police Force are also graduates from Oxford
and Havard. You know what a graduate from Cambridge, Oxford and Havard means, a highly
intelligent and persons with high IQ. Most of the ministers are relatively
young and had many years working experience either from the private or
government sectors. They are the people of high integrity and not apple
polishers or ‘looking after rice bowl’ types. They are paid with high salaries
and even if they quit the cabinet they are marketable because they are talented.
Now you can know why we lost our fight to claim Pulau Batu Putih from them?
One may see quite a number of
graduates from our own University of
Malaya in the cabinet. However where do it stand in the world, not even in the
top 150 and not even in the top 30 in Asia. The Singapore Cabinet did not pick
any from their own University of Singapore although it ranked number 25 in the
world and no 2 in Asia!
Looking at the current Malaysian Cabinet ,
I don’t think ours is as near the
Singapore Cabinet. One is for sure that the good MP’s are from the urban and they are mostly from the
opposition parties. So the PM is left with a few choice. Marina Mahathir
tweeted that the latest cabinet is not creative, nor talent- based and totally unimpressive! So the present government must
try hard to get the private sectors assistance to steer the Economic Transformation
Programme to success.
All I can see
there will be a dynamic transformation
in the Youth and Sport sector but I can
see little changes in the future in other ministries. I am not being sceptical
or looking lowly on our current leaders
but this has been going on for years and we have to live with a mundane
government for the next five years. To catch up with Singapore or South Korea
is a long way indeed, sad to say the
selected head have to prove they are not rot. Malaysian should be open minded
and not thinking of their race, colour
or creed but to work with our leaders and transform to a better Malaysia.
Ir. GHAZALI IBRAHIM
The article is the writer’s view
and with no malicious intent whatsoever.
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