OF COLONIAL MINDSET

The Star (Fintan Ng - StarBiz 14, June) A really interesting article featured. It reported that the editor of China Economic Quarterly, Joe Studwell has said that Malaysia and other South-East Asian nations had fundamentally failed to escape from the shackles of colonialism because their political and economic elites continued to work together in a relationship that did not engender entrepreneurship and innovation.

Excerpts of Joe Studwell’s in full (with blessing from The Star, I hope) – “In these countries, the post-independent period saw a shift in the ties between indigenous political elites to their non-indigenous largely Chinese economic elites from largely European economic elites before. Indigenous elites such, as Suharto, Ferdinand Marcos and Mahathir Mohamad, have also perpetrated the Victorian belief that their non-Chinese citizens do nor possess the experience or entrepreneurial spirit to run successful businesses. Studwell also said that this had led to a lower growth trajectory compared with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In South-East Asia, economic elites are distributed economic rents in which the conditionality is not there, such as how these rents can contribute to the meaningful development of a country’s economy via export or the creation of global companies. Japan South Korea and Taiwan, in which there were also family-run business, had done much better than South-East Asia’s economies in terms of gross domestic product per capita due to their much clearer industrial policies and emphasis on export-oriented industries. In instances where preferences or subsidies have been given, it was with conditions attached, such as building up industries that are export-oriented or technologically innovative. Japan and South Korea had many companies whose names and products were well-known the world over, which was not the case in South-East Asia. The future for South-East Asia was bleak due to the entrenched interests and the way it had become an obstacle to the future growth of the region. South-East Asia may just wallow in the lower to medium –income bracket going forward due to this essentially political failure.”

My concern is more towards the Malaysian “political elites” – both the political masters as well as the bureaucrats (the public servants). Forget about the political masters, they come and go every 5 years, some are able to retain their seats for years to come some do not. My definition of public servants – government officials of every levels providing government services to the general public like you and me. Some, if not most, the so-called public “servants” that we face daily to obtain services act as if they are our masters; acting to their own whims and fancies. Even the “budak pejabat” to a certain extent acted like lords and masters. These can be seen daily especially at Land Offices and certain other government offices throughout the country. Of course, over the years we have seen changes for the better in some of these departments providing counter services; but alas ……………………….

I fully agree with Studwell, not so much on the macro-economic aspects as he had pointed above, but more on the mindset of most of our “public servants” and “political elites” that my colleagues and I have encountered over the years. They not only have failed to escape from shackles of colonialism, worst still they are acting as if they are the colonial masters of the general public. And we have just celebrated our nation’s 50th independence. How pathetic it is. Sigh !!!

Studwell’s book, Asian Godfathers : Money and Power in Hong Kong & South-East Asia should be a good read not only to Malaysian CEO’s at large but more so to Malaysian public servants alike. His book covers the often-complex world and relationships of tycoons with the political elites of Indonesia, Malaysia the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.