AUSTRALIA CRITISIZING MALAYSIAThis is what i found in the internet about an austalian newspaper critisizing malaysia:~Subject: Malaysia Appears in Australian Newspaper While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry Michael BackmanNovember 15, 2006MALAYSIA'S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of the economy each of its two main races
— the Malays and the Chinese — owns. It's an argument that's been running for 40 years. That wealth and race are not synonymous is important for national cohesion, but really it's time Malaysia grew up. It's a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy for a country that prefers to argue about how to divide wealth rather than get on with the job of creating it. The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value. Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese. "Malaysia boleh!" is Malaysia's national catch cry. It translates to "Malaysia can!" and Malaysia certainly can. Few countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed with natural resources and the national obsession seems to be to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the proceeds up against the wall.This all happens in the context of Malaysia's grossly inflated sense of its place in the world. Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on their country and that their leaders are world figures. This is thanks toMalaysia's tame media and the bravado of former prime ministerMahathir Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a map much less name its primeminister or capital city. As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons features anewsreader trying to announce that a tidal wave had hit some placecalled Kuala Lumpur. He couldn't pronounce the city's name and so madeup one, as if no-one cared anyway. But the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is inland. Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly whencompared to the disaster that passes for a national oil company inneighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this is Malaysia'sproblem. The very success of Petronas means that it is used to underwrite all manner of excess. The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. Itincludes the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world when theywere built, which was their point. It certainly wasn't that there was an office shortage in Kuala Lumpur— there wasn't. Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. Theyhad little to do with them. The money for them came out of the groundand the engineering was contracted out to South Korean companies.They don't even run the shopping centre that's beneath them. That'shandled by Australia's Westfield. Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russianrocket — the first Malay in space. And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science andTechnology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight. There's no indication of what theAmericans will charge for this, assuming there's even a chance thatthey will consider it. But what is Malaysia getting by using the spaceprograms of others as a taxi service? There are no obvious technical benefits, but no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that theyare "boleh". The trouble is, they're not. It's not their spaceprogram. Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend $RM490million on a sports complex near the London Olympics site so thatMalaysian athletes can train there and "get used to cold weather".But the summer Olympics are held in the summer. So what is the complex's real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the centre'sconstruction and then on the athletes while they train might provide aclue. Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new capital city— Petronas has paid for them all. It's been an orgy of nonsense thatMalaysia can ill afford. Why? Because Malaysia's oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is,Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that's just five years away. So it's in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad. It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil.But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space whenMalaysia's inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics. That's not Malaysia "boleh", that's Malaysia "bodoh" (stupid). ~
Damn, you. How dare u call Malaysians bodoh. U are not that smart either, damn u. You lucky i have STPM now, after the 5th of december, i wont let u go. I promise u. You bloody nosehole.REMEMBER, MALAYSIA WILL NOT LET YOU GO JUST LIKE THAT
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Sunday, November 26, 2006
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