Malaysia's Look East Policy - 30 Years Already?

The History

I was still in my high school when this policy was first mooted in 1982 by our Prime Minister then, Tun Dr. Mahathir. I couldn't really understand or even bother about it then as it did not have any impact on me. The impression given some thirty (30) years ago was that, we must follow the Japanese, Taiwanese and Koreans. They had succeeded economically because of their positive attitude towards hard work, discipline and excellent ethics.

I was also given the impression then that the west had lost their ability and capacity in the economy. They prioritized quality and comfort of life rather than capability to work.

Morning Exercise and Punch Card - The Japanese Ways

I remembered everybody seems to be talking about it. My Dad too, who was a government officer talked about morning exercise, punch card and name tags being implemented in all government offices. All these I believe to instill the personal values and work culture of the Japanese.  We even got a song titled Punch Card by Sudirman.

Little that I knew that this policy was also part of  the nation building exercise which suppose to be translated it into Malaysia's development plan.  We've seen co-operative projects were in place to ensure a "transfer of technology and knowledge" to Malaysians. Our national car project, Proton and the Korean Hyundai Engineering technology in constructing the Penang bridge were some of these projects.

There are many literature that talks about the Look East Policy which outline the various objectives and action plans took by the Government to realize this policy. However, I sum up the objectives to only two, namely:- 

1. To increase productivity and quality of work through instillation of positive values and work culture
2. To speed up in becoming net producing country through knowledge and technology transfer 

The East and West After 30 Years

Now after 30 years, I wonder if some of the statements made still stand? First, is about the Japanese, Taiwanese and Koreans...Over the past 30 years, we've seen economic domination by these countries. I don't want to go into detail economic figures but merely observation where Japanese, Koreans and Taiwanese products had dominated the household brand itself is a world economic domination.

Prior to mid 80's, Japanese cars and electronic products were still perceived as sub standards. The body of a Toyota car for example was perceived to be of poor quality, soft and being equated with "tin Milo". Japanese electronic products were not household brands then. Brands like Electrolux and Philips among those popular middle upper class household brands instead. Today we have the Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Panasonic, Samsung etc. Even the Samsung Android is making its way replacing the Iphone....Is it?? :-)

Shift of Household Brands over 30 Years

Another form of domination by the east are the massive corporate mergers and acquisition ( M&A) in the 80's and 90's by Japanese corporations into USA based companies. Although these M&A spree had been debated for its success and failure, they are still phenomenal to me. Phenomenal because I simply could not imagine how can a bunch of people who can't even speak English could negotiate multi millions or even billion dollar deal or merger and yet manage to acquire these English speaking dominated companies..Among those I can recall - Sony/Columbia Picture/TriStar, Matsushita/MCA, Mitsubishi/Rockfeller, Minoru/Pebble Beach Golf and many others...

Yes, the east did expanded and spread its wing globally. However, not much of new invention or innovation in any of these expansion activities. Basically the east too took what's already in the west, improvise and market them better. On another front, the east bought the west....

Now, what about the west over the past 30 years? Despite their focus in quality of life rather than hard work, there have been quite a number phenomenal development too in the west. Again, I don't wanna go into the detail economic cycle, numbers and drivers, among the obvious ones - world domination by Microsoft in the 90s, Yahoo in late 90s early 2000  and later Google, Nokia and today we have Iphone, Ipads and the social media spree namely Facebook, Bloggers, Twitters and many others... 

Unlike the east, the west domination were predominantly through creation and innovation.

Malaysia after 30 Years? 

I don't really know how was the work culture in the public and private sectors 30 years ago, but I can vouch that there are many Malaysians today who are hardworking, committal to their job and are willing to work really long hours. Some floors in Putrajaya offices too are "lights on" till late night. However I could not really link it to the Look East Policy. Having said that, long hour and hard work do not correlate with productivity which is debatable.

What about the second objective of becoming a net producing country through knowledge and technology transfer? Over the past 30 years, we have seen various cooperative projects, expanded bilateral relationship, exchange visits between public and private companies, student sponsorship to Japan, student exchange program and many others...

Question is how much knowledge and technology had really been transferred to Malaysian so that we could independently create, innovate and produce our own? After 30 years we still predominantly rely on foreign technology, knowledge and know-how even in building some of our major infrastructure. 

I'm not denying that we have tremendously progressed since then..perhaps 10 or even 20 times but looking at Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the westerns, we are still perhaps 5 to 10 times behind these countries. I guess as we move 2 steps forward, they too move another 5  steps forward...

Corporations and Brands During Look East Policy

Malaysia Airlines, Petronas and Proton are among the corporations prior or during the time of Look East Policy. How far has Malaysia Airlines really fly since? In oil exploration, we predominantly rely on foreign technology still. Proton, our first "made in Malaysia" car until today will have to very much rely on Mitsubishi's technology. Mitsubishi Japan had already commercialized its hybrid and full electric car but Proton has yet to realized its almost RM300 mill R&D on "green technology" car announced some 2 years ago...

If technology and knowledge are just too far fetch for us, what about market domination?

MSC a Gift to the World

I believe that would probably the reason why the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was established in the mid 90s. Knowing the fact it was not easy for us to create, innovate, produce and compete on existing sectors of the economy, MSC was to prepare a totally new platform where Malaysian could dominate the world through level playing field with the rest of the world, hence innovate, create, produce and compete internationally. This platform was known as the Multimedia and ICT which fit into the service industry where there were still vacuum to be filled.

MSC has been around for more than 15 years now. Although we have yet to produce ICT or technology local hero in the international arena, we do have brand like Upin Ipin that has gone international through Disney Channel and become a household brand in countries like Indonesia..

Upin Ipin - A Household Brand in Indonesia

Nowadays, despite various sensational issues being raised, whenever I traveled and landed in most Asian countries, I would still feel proud to be a Malaysia when I look out the window of the landing plane and saw Malaysian brands all over the plane parking bays - the Air Asia. As I walked through the airport of these countries, more Malaysian brands be seen at the airport itself. Brands like CIMB and Axiata are quite common that sometimes we forgot that those are Malaysian brands..

Glocal Brands - Corporations 20 Decade after Look East Policy

So, what really makes the Ipin Upin, Air Asia, CIMB and Axiata different?  I don't have the right answer but i believe leadership is definitely one of the reason. I also believe instillation of some form of entrepreneurial values and culture which blend passion, vision and action into the organization do play some role too in this.

Anyway,  question goes back to whether does the Look East Policy has anything to do with how AirAsia, CIMB, Axiata, UpinIpin or even Giant Hypermarket manage to spread its market internationally? Personally, I don't think so. My wild guess, leaders of these companies had only minimal exposure to the Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese work culture and values...But that's just my guess...

Cosplay of Japan and K-Pop of Korea seems to be getting its place in the heart of the new generation

Teenagers today on the other hand are exposed to different sort of eastern influence and values. These are the generations of tomorrow. The generation of red and green hair and K-pops. Would it do any harm? Nobody knows really. I wasn't a perfect teenager myself then...or perfect man now either...:-)

Me in my Own version of K-Pops

I truly believe Malaysia has huge potential to be the next super power like the once upon a time, the Rome Empire, Otoman Empire, the Great Britain (that is no longer great) and the existing Israel state through its alliance with the United States of America, UK, Australia, the Emirate, Saudi's, Japan and others...
 
Perhaps it's not even the east or the west we should be looking at. What about looking around instead? What about looking at ourselves instead?...less the K-Pop look of course..:-)...

The Japanese, Koreans and Taiwanese or even the Westerners are very proud people. They believe in themselves. They believe what they invented, innovated and produced are the best and gifts to the world. They speak of great passion of their nations, their companies, their people, their tradition and everything they do...Until we as ONE nation called Malaysia and Malaysians carry the same passion and pride, we will continue to be a follower not a leader, a buyer not a seller, a user not an inventor and a developing nation and not a fully developed nation. Until that day, our minds are still being colonized and yet to be a truly "independence"..My 2 cents thoughts....sorait..

The Arts of Selling - Convince, Confuse or Scare The.....

I was at The Curve recently and made a quick tour at the exhibition area. A typical sight there was, where bunch of salesman and ladies talking to some potential customers which i presume trying to convince them to buy some overprice massage seat, vacuum cleaner and other stuff which can be bought elsewhere at perhaps only 10-30% of the selling price.

Amazing!!....Three (3) to ten (10) times more expensive and yet many still subscribe to them. I guess no matter how expensive a product is, there are always some suckers out there.....and I'm probably one of them too....in some isolated cases of course.:-)...

A typical sight at the Mall

I've always wanted to share this thoughts which I've somehow done in brief in some of my seminar talks. Very brief because I'm not really a known Sales or Marketing guru. Therefore, most of the topics of seminar /forum that I spoke were not directly related to Sales or Marketing. 

Anyway, Marketing and sales are two different things which require different set of strategies, different set of disciplines and skills. Marketing is the act to reach and persuade your prospects that you are the company or product for them. Sales on the other hand is the act of persuading your marketed prospects to engage directly by purchasing or subscribing to your products or services. Marketing is cost while sales is revenue.

If we ask any marketing people or students graduated in marketing degrees, they will know the 3 Ps in marketing : Price, Product and Place. Peter Drucker added another P - "Promotion". However, when we talk about Sales or Selling strategy, there are various versions. I learned some of these in 2 weeks intensive sales course by Dale Carnegie Training Malaysia.

Even then, nobody talks about the C C S art of selling..which stands for CONVINCE, CONFUSE AND SCARE them. This too I believe you won't get in any text books or sales literature in colleges and universities..or perhaps if any, would come in different terminology instead.

Basically in selling one would typically try to CONVINCE, failing which will then try to CONFUSE the potential customers, and if still fail to sell will SCARE them instead. Of course these strategies or arts of selling can come in  combination, sequel or just merely one or any combination of two strategies.

CONVINCE

This is standard...every salesman will normally start with this strategy. Coming up with convincing statement persuading one to purchase. Statement like..."our products are made out of quality IMPORTED materials" or "ORGANIC product that can reduce your WEIGHT in 30 days" and many more...

However the Convince strategy will work effectively only if it touches the potential customers' emotional believe and behavior. For example, word like IMPORTED works on people who are brand conscious or with high society status ego. Word like ORGANIC would work on environmentalist, health conscious or green fundamentalist.

A good salesman would be able to read his/her potential customers emotional believe through quick observation of the person, combine with few words of conversations. A bad salesman on the other hand, will read through their standard sales pitch on everyone they meet hoping some will strike or convert to sales..

CONFUSE

Failing to convince...try to confuse them instead. It works most of the time too. Statement like "This product consists ZPT3 elements with extra Mucostilacatic that could...." or " during market EQUILIBRIUM, HYBRID life insurance provides returns..."

These sort of statements make the salesman looks smart or the potential customers feel like an idiot. And in this idiotic feeling that most of the time one would purchase because customers feel the salesman knows better what he's talking about.

Ignorance is the reason why one can easily be manipulated. However, if this strategy is used on potential customers who are knowledgeable, it could turn out making the salesman feels like an idiot instead. Having said that too, I've seen too many times even a subject matter expert would fall into a SUPER SALESMAN.

There's a saying, a good salesman could even sell block of ice to the Eskimo. See illustrated cartoon I extracted from Mc Humor.com by Mc Cracken

SCARE THEM

Have you seen this kinda weird ugly looking giant creature dummy or model at shops or exhibition area that sell some RM3,000 to RM10,000 vacuum cleaner?? It normally comes in at least  3 to 4 feet length and height. In actual fact it is model of a dust mite that is so small that can only be seen using a magnifying glass.

A Magnified Dust Mite

How else to convince one to buy a RM10,000 vacuum? Tell the customers that this is how a dust mite looks like that goes into our body system through our respiratory process. When I first heard that and at the same time look at the giant dust mite model, my nose starts to feel itchy and suddenly water start running out of eyes. Awesome!!!! But I didn't buy the vacuum cleaner because don't have that much money to spare for a vacuum cleaner...:-)

To scare, one must understand what are the things that fear the customers most. Illness, death, security, being poor, undermined dignity or even going to hell are some of the common fears.

That is why you would probably have heard this before from an insurance agent who says "Sir, if you DIE tomorrow...." or food supplement salesman would say " Sir, the daily cost in a hospital ICU is more than buying this RM1000 of 60 days program food supplement..."  and in some cases, salesman do play God too like "Sir, you don't want to go to Hell by using conventional banking. At least Islamic banking is Halal..."

All being said, we are all salesman at some stage of our daily life anyway. Just that we don't realize it. Any act of persuasion to engage another to subscribe to your desire is already an act of selling as far as I'm concern. A child is a salesman to their parents and vice versa, husband to wife and vice versa, employee to employers or even a baby to his/her mother....a simple scare strategy by a baby crying would make a mother or a daddy wake up in the middle of the night to prepare milk...

So no one can really say they can't sell when they were born a salesman anyway....Sorait.

Being a Practicing Accountant - the Road I Didn't Take.

Although this question never really strikes me but my recent experience speaking at the Accountants in Business Symposium 2012 organized by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) somehow trigger some flashbacks. An accountant and a banker I was once upon a time, had I not took the path of being an entrepreneur, I would have been one of the participants in the Symposium, perhaps attending merely to fulfill my Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points, listening to some "IT Guy" explaining about "Cloud Computing.

As usual, to warm up my delivery, i would normally crack some jokes at the very beginning, during and perhaps just before I wrap up. I've spoken in many seminars, forums and symposium as such in front of various walks of life and professions, such  as lawyers, bankers, CEOs of multi-nationals, governments, international trade delegates, insurance agents, media professionals, university students etc. and this was my FIRST TIME experiencing almost total silent from the participants when i crack a joke, except for some gigglings and small laughs from the secretariats staffs sitting at the rights hand side of the hall....AMAZING!!!

Flashback!!! Come to think of it, that's how I was too  once upon a time ago. Focusing on key points to be delivered by the speaker and eliminate all irrelevant information, data and points delivered by the speaker...and JOKES are IRRELEVANT info..

This concept of eliminating irrelevant info is similar to how our brain generally works, except it works more on accountants I guess :-)...Anyway check out some of these Awareness Test to know what i mean..:-)

Then it came to the question and answer session. Again, there were only two questions asked but got nothing really to do with my presentation....Something like - "Our country's internet broadband still pretty bad even in major cities...when do you think our country would be fully wired?". Emmm...hard question to answer because that's just simply beyond me.....

I was confused...first they eliminated my jokes, presuming they listened to the facts of my presentation and eliminated the rest, then they asked out of topic questions. Now I wasn't so sure if they actually understood my presentation or not...:-) ??  However, when I look through the list of topics and speakers during that two days seminar, I realized that it was my presentation that was out of topic :-). Most others are pretty much accounting stuffs ie. reporting, taxes, standards etc.

Anyway, that's not the reason why I'm writing this time. Being together with a good crowd of accountants do bring back some memories. It just triggers how much different we are in almost everything that we do, talk and think

While we talk about business intelligence (BI) that could provide management with almost real time operational and performance data that support decision making, accountants on the other hand, talk about "Standards" in historical reporting. While we talk about sales, business development and marketing, accountants talks about prudent accounting treatment. While we talk about strategic planning, accountants talk cost accounting. While we talk about business growth, accountants talks about profits and taxes. While we talk about strategic planning, accountants talk about budgeting.

Even then, no organization could live without one. If you don't hire them as an employee, you will still need to outsource the book keeping and accounting stuff to third party accounting firms.

I could not imagine the kind of accountant I would be had I not accepted the offer of my ex-boss in Arthur Andersen, Azmi Ahmad to join CIMB and later join him as an entrepreneur. As much as I could permute various possibilities for being an accountant, the truth remains....I WILL NEVER KNOW THE ROAD I NEVER TAKE. Sorait....

James Bond Gadgets, Today's Accessories and Toys

Who doesn't know Mr. Bond? I grew up admiring him. In fact once upon a time many many years ago, my ambition was to be a spy like James Bond. Can't really remember exactly why, but I'm very sure it has something to do with saving the world, he's the good side, charm, cool, ladies' man perhaps :-) and most of all GADGETS...

The James Bond gadgets strikes me when I watched "Die Another Day" last night which brings me back to good old days of The Man With the Golden Gun, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only as well even the earlier James Bond in Diamonds are Forever, Goldfinger and Thunderball.

At the same time somehow it reminds me my last visit to China and my last week visit to Low Yatt Plaza in Bukit Bintang. Some of these gadgets in James Bond are no longer gadgets. They are our day to day tools and accessories or even toys to some. In fact many of those spies gadgets are now sold at Low Yatt. Just to name a few:-

In 1963 James Bond movie From Russia with Love, a pager was used by James Bond to provide him a way to make life-saving contact with MI6. In early ninety's, pagers are widely used by many till almost the end of the 1990's itself before the handphone tookover as the main tool or device to communicate when one is mobile. Now I can't imagine life without handphones. The paging technology on the other hand still being used, but not so much as a man to man form of communication but as a tool to communicate with devices instead.

Fingerprint Recognition Device

In Diamonds are Forever this device was used by diamond smuggler Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) to open up the case filled with diamond. Today, this is used everywhere and we call it some BIOMETRIC device. It is used in offices to access doors, in the banks as personal identification tools with our My Card, at the airport used together with our Malaysian Passport to access the gate, and many others.

Spy Pen

My wife bought this device in China. It is not just an ordinary pen but a pen with mini camera and MP3 voice recording device that can later be uploaded to your laptops via USB...Cool!!! Can't recall a camera pen in James Bond movie but definitely mini camera (still and motion) and mini voice recording devices are being used in some of these James Bond movies and other spies movies.

Come to think of it, most of these devices that we took for granted were in most spies or sci-fi movies in the past - the cellphone, GPS devices, Maping devices, laptops, mini cameras, tablet computers etc. I guess it all started with dreams of how man imagined and wanted life to be in the future and portrait them in the movies..

My point is, what's in the movies in the past are today's reality. With that I believe it would also be safe for me to conclude that what's in the movies today that are not currently available will be our future's reality. No matter what, I'm still waiting the day when I can travel around the world by just saying.."BEAM ME TO...."...Sorait.

Underemployment - Capabilities vs Certifications?

We've heard this word before and I've personally used this in some of my presentations, seminar papers and press interviews. I experienced something interesting today which somehow triggers me to rethink if what I've been saying all these while were accurate and comprehensive or not.

Check out the Wiki and found this  UnderEmployment by Wiki and this UnderEmployed Investopedia at Investopedia. Seems quite consistent with my previous thoughts which centres around those keywords.....overqualified, overeducate, skill underutilization, economic capacity underuse etc. Long and short, the individual is working but isn't working at their full capability.But again, the common denominator for all these is, capability is equaled to "certificate qualification". Whether one is a member of a professional body, degree holder, diploma or even college drop outs...CAPABILITIES ARE MEASURED BASED ON ONE'S EDUCATION LEVEL.

Is this how we suppose to measure capabilities hence tag one as underemployed or not?? Check this out..

Sheila the Caddy

Got this from a friend's facebook Eddie Putra - Sheila the Caddy. I find it interesting when he put the following remark - "The next time you wanna complain about your job, think about Sheila who has to lug a heavy golf bag around, get scolded, get sworn at, rake the bunker, repair divots and entertain tantrums from her boss". Now..WHAT IF Sheila went to university and had an accounting degree and later work for 2 years in an accounting firm before she found out her true talent and passion was actually in golf... and thought it would "never be too late" for her to take golf seriously instead? 

She plays golf since she was 6 years old and at 25 she carries handicap 6 in golf. Since she doesn't think she would go any further in professional golf, she decided to take up serious caddying and make a profession out of it. She joins the Professional Caddies Association and became a professional caddy. Caddying actually goes beyond carrying bags and bunker raking. A professional caddy is just like an advisor and consultant to the golfer..course management, club management, reading the lines, providing second opinions to the golfer etc..

Today, she earns perhaps US$150,000, partly tax free with almost fully sponsored daily expenses, as she'll be on tour following her boss most of the time...with lots of time playing golf in between tour. That's more than what a typical accountant at her age would make and time of her own could spend. In the United States a non tour caddies working at top clubs earning around US$1000 a week or US$4000 a month...check this out Top Earning Caddies

Shilla the Tol Attendant

Now, what about this Tol attendant. I saw her name tag. Her name is Shilla (same pronunciation but different spelling)...Interesting...many Sheela's in a day...and I arrived late evening in the office and my Personal Assistant, Sheila too, forgot to bring me my coffee...ouch!!! But she's not our subject of discussion here..:-)

Going back to Shilla the tol attendant...I don't know her but in that 8 1/2 seconds giving tickets and paying my tol, I manage to get the following info from her - she's 19 years old, from Sentul and finishes her SPM and worked for slightly more than a year at the tol...Amazing and don't ask me how I did it...:-)

And my last "bonus" question or "soalan cepumas" to her.."Kenape kerja kat tol aje? ( Why do you work at the tol?) ". She smiled and answered, "Kerja ni senang aje Pakcik. Duduk pakai tangan aje. ( It is an easy job Uncle. I just need to seat and only use my hand)".

Two parts of her answer I didn't expect. First she called me Pakcik or Uncle, then the using her hand thingy. I got at least another 3 seconds to ask her another question while she's getting my change but I was just too shock to do so..

I kept on thinking after that....8 hours seating, WHOLE right hand in, HALF right hand out, some twiggling here and there, perhaps some simple maths at the end of the day to count the money and that's it!!! For someone who is young, healthy, strong, all limbs working I presume and smart though she's study until SPM, merely doing what she's doing seems "UNDEREMPLOYED" to me. What's she doing could be done by a midget except a midget need to get his/her WHOLE hand out instead. Or someone on wheel chairs or deaf perhaps. These group of people are classified as "In Need of Special Assistance" group and in most occasions they won't be able to get a job even as tol attendance.

I believe if the entire system recognized capabilities as what a person REALLY capable of doing as a person in his/her entirety, we probably be able to maximize human capital in what I call "true sense" in building up our nation.

Based on Wiki and some other definitions, Sheila would be Underemployed and Shilla is Employed. My take is otherwise. Sheila is Employed and Shilla is Underemployed....Sorait.

It is Never Too Late

Starting a blog...something I've always wanted to do, perhaps 10 years ago. In fact, I remember those days when i spoke at various seminars of how internet would change our life and how contents over the internet will be flooded by self or user generated contents, it was merely a myth then. It was plainly beyond imagination then.

Now, after 10 years, user generated contents became not just merely past time reading, but have became "referred trusted contents" by many. People tend to believe what they read what others says on the internet than people they know for ages. It became reference point for many:-

(i)   to decided on holiday destinations and itinerary
(ii)  to form and opinion and views on all matters including, life, business, politics and religion
(ii)  to learn new things - recipes, how to... etc.
(iv) and the list goes on......

Is it too late then for me to start one myself?? To pen down the first time is always the hardest part. But then again, after just looking around things that happened over the past 10 years, everything seems to be moving very fast right in front of our own very eyes....what was not there then, is here now..what was a myth, a reality..what we thought can never be replaced being replaced..what were merely academics now being practical.

Just to give some idea how fast things move over the cyberspace

Who would have thought  the used to be number 1 search engine Yahoo being replaced by Google?? My kids don't even know the existence of Yahoo. And as I'm writing this blog, I received an email from my colleague, Tengku Farith about this new kids on the block that could change the world.... Check this out!! Startup Changing the World

See how what I mean by how fast??? What else have changed over the past 10 years?

This camera was found by my 11 year old son somewhere in my study room. He asked me whether he can have it or not. I told him that he won't be able to use it because the camera needs FILM and no photo shops near our place sell FILM anymore. FILM???? This is alien to my son...
 

Dialing Phone??? How do you dial?? We Press...

We were at this antique shop in Malacca Jonker Street and my 11 year old son saw this weird looking stuff and asked me this.."What is this Daddy??". And I looked at him and asked him "Don't you know what that is? What does it look like??" And he looked at me with clueless face and said " I don't know. Never seen it before..??". It took me a while to make sense out of what I just heard and calmly told him "It's a phone". And he asked me again."Do you know to use it?"...and there we go..I got to do some explanations.

The camera and phone are just few of many others. 10 years too is just too short.

What about community? Near where i stay there is this area which many today call the "Korean Town" and the "Arab Town". The Koreans have their own provision shops, supermarket, private schools and more than 3 churches within the same area. And the Arabs are not much less either. Ten years from now? I won't be surprise if they have political rep too..:-)

Anyway, my point is, it can never be too late. So here I go, my first blog.....and it will not be the last I hope. It would be my personal point of view on everything and anything. Do keep on visiting.....Sorait!!!.