مهاتير محمد's Blog, page 45

MH 17

1. I am very annoyed by the apparent exclusion of Malaysia from the investigation of MH 17.

2. The aircraft belongs to Malaysia and the pilots, staff and quite a number of the passengers were Malaysians. Yet it seems that Malaysia is only grudgingly permitted to participate in the examination of the wreck recovered. And it is not even brought back to Malaysia.

3. Granted the highest number of the passengers who lost their lives were Dutch. But under what law is the aircraft the property of the Dutch?

4. The black box was recovered but although it was handed to Malaysian authorities, the box was surrended to the Dutch and the British.

5. As far as I know the black box contains tape or electronic recording of the conversations and sounds some minutes before the crash. Can it be that Malaysians have no capacity to hear the records even? Are only the Dutch and the British capable of doing this?

6. Malaysia seems unduly grateful being allowed to participate in examining the wreckage in Holland. What is there to be grateful for?

7. As to the cause of the crash, is there something to hide? Lets fire a missile at an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Is it true that a missile fired from the ground leaves no trail of smoke? I have been looking at the war in Syria and against the IS. Every time a missile is fired, there would be a blast of smoke and flames and a lot of noise also. But it seems no one saw the missile being fired, or the smoke trails. Maybe this is a new silent, trail-less Russian missile.

8. The U.S knew that it was a Russian missile immediately after the news of MH 17 being brought down. How did they identify the missile so quickly, even who fired etc.?

9. I remember when a U.S warship fired a missile which brought down an Iranian passenger plane. Was it mistaken identity? Or was it deliberate disregard for non-U.S lives?

10. Now on the assumption that a Russian missile was used to down MH 17, the U.S and Europe have applied sanctions against Russia. NATO seems bent on going to war against Russia.

11. The assassination of an Archduke launched the First World War which killed millions. Any little incident is enough for Europe and America to go on a killing spree.

12. And by the way where is MH 370?? Has it been pulverised into nothing as happened to the aircrafts which crashed into the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania? They left no debris at all.

13. As a Malaysian I demand that the wreckage of MH 17 be brought back to Malaysia as a matter of right. Malaysians should examine it in full view of the people. After all it is Malaysia which is being sued by the relatives of the victims.

JOE BIDEN

1.​The United States assumes that it is the greatest democracy in the world and is in a position to tell others what is right and what is wrong and what they should do and what they should not do. On this assumption Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States chastised Malaysia for retaining the Sedition Act and the trial of Anwar Ibrahim.

2.​Who is Joe Biden to take the moral high ground?

3.​Being the Vice President of a country that detains people without trial for more than a decade, torturing them while in detention; a country where torture is legal, a country which has no qualms about invading other countries, killing millions of innocent people, destroying towns and villages, leaving them without electricity, water supply and sewerage systems; what right has Biden to condemn the retaining of a law to prevent racial conflicts and violence in Malaysia.

4.​Today the United States is engaged in assassinating people opposed to America. Malaysia used to detain people without trial. But the United States passes death sentences without trial, without the knowledge of the victims even. Then drones are sent to kill the designated victims. The judgements and death sentence are not made in a court of law. They are made by officials. These people appoint themselves as judges, prosecutors and executioners. This is justice as practiced by America.

5.​And America dares to claim that it is doing all these to protect democracy. What democracy is there for the innocent people killed, wounded and maimed for life? Wherever the United States goes there would be deaths and destructions.

6. ​In the United States itself there is no justice. Within a short space of time police shot and strangled three blacks. The grand jury then says that there is no case for the police killers to answer.

7.​Arrogantly one white American official says the victims were killed because they resisted arrest. I saw the picture of a black raising up both hands. Is it how Americans resist arrest. The black teenager had no arms but was shot dead. A 12 year old boy had a toy gun. He too was shot dead.

8.​Then of course there is this condemnation of the legal action taken against America’s candidate for Prime Ministership of Malaysia. The Malaysian courts have been extra lenient, taking more than five years, listening to appeals after appeals with nearly 30 postponements. In America a grand jury (whatever that may mean) decide not to indict and the criminal is free. Where is due process?

9.​America is a land stolen from the Red Indians through genocide. Americans should really bow their heads down in shame forever.

10.​Just don’t go around telling people how to behave and what they should not do. Tell it to your own people, about how Americans prosper through slavery, through discrimination against blacks and Hispanics, about spying on your own people, about your controlled media etc. That is what Joe Biden should do.

THE OIL PRICE

1. The price of one barrel of crude fell from US$110-00 per barrel to US$70-00.

2. Is it true it will have no effect on us (Malaysia) or that it will be good for us?

3. When the Government budget for 2015 was launched, it was premised on the price of oil being US$110-00 per barrel.

4. Obviously the Government expected its oil revenue to contribute to the budget based on this high oil price. Is it possible that the effect of the low oil price on the Government’s budget will remain the same, or will improve now that oil has gone down to US$70-00?

5. Petronas contributes to the Government a substantial sum by way of dividends and petroleum tax. Will Petronas contribution remain the same when it earns less from sale of oil, LNG and gas?

6. The oil and gas businesses which have grown very big lately was based on high cost to be paid for by high profits from oil. The capacity for payments of contracts at the old rate must be affected.

7. The lower price of oil must affect the servicing and payment of debts by producer. They have to sell more in a weak market. Profits must go down if not disappear completely. Taxes for the Government will consequently go down.

8. Unless the Government cuts its spending, the deficit must become bigger. The claim that it will not increase the deficits need to be explained.

9. When the Government reduces expenditure, a lot of businesses will suffer. Profits will go down and with it the taxes. Government revenue must decrease because of reduction in Government expenditure.

10. The pump price of petrol would only go down if subsidies remain. But the capacity to subsidise would be lowered because of less earnings and contribution by Petronas. Without subsidy the pump price will remain the same for motorists and industries. It might even go up as the Ringgit has depreciated. So the people will not enjoy the benefit from lower crude prices?

11. We import much of our raw materials and components for our industries. Mostly they are priced in USD which is now costly. We will have to pay more Ringgit for our imports. This will negate the benefits from the depreciation of the Ringgit.

12. I think we should not dismiss lightly the effect of falling oil prices. Share prices in the USA have gone down by considerably. Can we sustain our share prices, especially those concerned with the oil and gas business. Remember we went into this business when costs were high. Our expectations is that returns would also be high.

13. When returns go down due to the lower oil price, will share prices remain the same? As usual, the first to run will be the foreign investors. The locals will be left to shoulder the problems.

14. We have not yet signed the TPPA. Have we worked out what would happen when there is a massive flight to quality of foreign capital.

15. Incidentally, there is a new call for higher minimum wage. Increase in minimum wage must be accompanied by increases in wages above minimum to retain parity. Costs of production will go up and prices will go up also. We will become less competitive in the market, domestic and foreign. Some businesses will fold up. Unemployment will increase.

16. I think we should think carefully before we comment on the oil price.

MESYUARAT AGUNG UMNO

 

1. Saya ucap tahniah kepada UMNO dan Presidennya kerana mendengar dan mengambil berat akan pandangan orang ramai berkenaan dengan pengekalan Akta Hasutan.

2. Tetapi saya kecewa kerana banyak lagi rintihan dan keluhan rakyat tidak berjaya mempengaruhi pendirian UMNO dan Kerajaan.

3. Tidak ada perubahan terhadap niat untuk menandatangani perjanjian bebas cukai Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. Perjanjian 29 bab ini merbahaya walaupun pengecualian diberi kepada usaha memperbaiki kedudukan bumiputera. Perjanjian ini lebih tertumpu kepada sekatan terhadap Negara Cina dan campurtangan dalam hal ehwal ekonomi dalaman Negara.

4. Tidak juga ada respon berkenaan dengan tuduhan terhadap 1MDB. Yang membuat tandatanya bukan kenaikan harga elektrik kerana pembelian stesyen janakuasa, tetapi kerana harga belian yang amat tinggi, dibayar dengan duit hutang yang bunganya tertinggi yang pernah dikenakan kepada Kerajaan dan komisyen kepada Goldman Sachs sampai 11%.

5. Kenapa pula pelaburan dibuat di Cayman Islands atau wang disimpan di sana?

6. Cayman Islands adalah pusat operasi Hedge Fund dan dagangan matawang. Sementara orang atau syarikat biasa gemar melabur dalam Hedge Fund dengan pulangan yang tinggi, Kerajaan biasanya tidak melabur dalam Hedge Fund kerana ia adalah satu jenis judi.

7. Dahulu pun Kerajaan Malaysia biasa dilamar untuk melabur dalam Hedge Fund dengan garanti pulangan 30%. Tetapi ia ditolak.

8. Harus diingat satu dari Hedge Fund yang terbesar, LTCM (Long Term Credit Management) rugi besar dan mengheret bank dan pelabur ke arah muflis. Ia diselamat oleh pelabur yang terdiri dari Wall Street dan Kerajaan U.S.

9. Berjudi bukan cara Kerajaan mencari dana, samada secara langsung atau tidak langsung.

10. Yang lain yang tidak disentuh yang menjadi keluhan rakyat ialah sistem pelajaran yang memisahkan miskin dengan kaya. Yang kaya pergi ke sekolah Inggeris, mendapat ilmu-ilmu yang penting dan mudah mendapat kerja. Yang miskin ke sekolah Kebangsaan, dengan penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris yang rendah dan ketinggalan dalam bidang sains dan ilmu matematik tinggi. Mereka tidak mudah mendapat kerja dengan upah yang tinggi.

11. Dengan ini jarak antara miskin dengan kaya akan menjadi lebih luas.

12. Benar mempermudahkan kelulusan peperiksaan popular, disukai ramai. Tetapi yang disukai ramai kerapkali tidak baik bagi mereka. Pepatah Melayu berkata “menang sorak, kampong tergadai”.

13. Amat malanglah jika populariti lebih diutamakan dari nasib buruk anak rakyat yang terpaksa terima dasar yang tidak baik bagi mereka. Mereka menjadi mangsa, tidak anak orang kaya.

14. Dan banyaklah lagi yang tidak dibincang dan disebut dalam mesyuarat Agung UMNO

15. Dalam demokrasi kesukaan ramai memang penting tetapi janganlah kerananya tergadai masa depan anak bangsa.

MILIK KERAJAAN / MILIK SWASTA

1. Di zaman revolusi industri di Barat, pekerja ditindas oleh majikan. Upah amat rendah, keadaan dalam kilang tidak selesa, kemalangan kerap berlaku sehingga ada yang terbunuh, dan bermacam lagi.

2. Pemikir Barat berpendapat jika kilang dimiliki oleh Kerajaan, dan Kerajaan pula dikuasai oleh buruh, maka semua keuntungan akan diperolehi oleh Kerajaan dan diagih di antara pekerja. Sudah tentu pendapatan pekerja akan meningkat.

3. Inilah asas ideologi Sosialis dan Komunis. Seperti mana kita tahu sistem ini gagal. Sebabnya ia gagal ialah oleh kerana apabila upah dinaikkan kos pengeluaran turut naik dan harga jualan menjadi tinggi. Rampasan kuasa dan harta golongan kaya pula mengurangkan pasaran tempatan bagi barangan mewah. Tanpa pasaran mewah, walaupun pekerja dibayar gaji yang lebih, jualan tidak laris dan keuntungan berkurangan. Dayabeli pekerja tidak meningkat, iaitu mereka terus menerus miskin. Dalam pasaran dunia pula, barangan harga tinggi dari negara sosialis tidak dapat bersaing dengan barangan dari Asia Timur. Sekali lagi keuntungan menurun sehingga ada yang terpaksa gulung tikar.

4. Dengan itu industri yang dahulu memberi keuntungan yang banyak sudah tidak maju lagi selepas dimilik negara. Cukai untuk Kerajaan juga menurun. Tanpa perolehan cukai yang tinggi infrastruktur negara juga tidak dapat didirikan.

5. Maka merosotlah pembangunan negara apabila industri dimiliki Kerajaan. Akhirnya pemilikan oleh Kerajaan terpaksa dihentikan.

6. Apakah kelebihan bagi negara jika industri dimiliki dan diusaha oleh swasta. Yang pertama Kerajaan tidak perlu keluar modal barang satu sen pun. Tetapi 25% daripada keuntungan akan diperolehi oleh Kerajaan sebagai cukai korporat. Lesen dan aneka jenis permit akan dibayar kepada Kerajaan.

7. Cukai juga akan diperolehi semasa kilang didirikan dan daripada keuntungan kontraktor dan pengurus-pengurus mereka yang bergaji tinggi. Benar cukai-cukai ini akan dibayar oleh kontraktor dan pengurus jika kilang yang dibina milik Kerajaan. Tetapi bayaran kepada kontraktor dan lain-lain datang dari duit Kerajaan. Cukai sebenarnya dibayar oleh Kerajaan.

8. Pengurusan kilang memerlukan “operating cost” yang termasuk gaji, kos elektrik, bahan mentah, alat ganti dan lain-lain. Semua ini akan dibayar oleh swasta. Jika dimiliki oleh Kerajaan, semua perbelanjaan ini perlu ditanggung oleh Kerajaan.

9. Katakanlah untung 100% akan dimiliki oleh Kerajaan. Tetapi 25% adalah cukai yang akan diperolehi oleh Kerajaan jika bukan kilang Kerajaan pun. Sebenarnya Kerajaan dapat 75% sahaja daripada keuntungan, bukan 100%.

10. Jika rugi, Kerajaan akan tanggung 100% kerugian. Jika dimiliki swasta kerugian akan ditanggung oleh swasta. Tetapi cukai keatas gaji dan pendapatan pengurus yang bergaji tinggi masih didapati oleh Kerajaan walaupun kilang tidak untung.

11. Apabila Kerajaan hutang untuk membina dan memiliki kilang, bayaran faedah akan ditanggung oleh Kerajaan.

12. Walaupun kilang menjadi aset dan nilainya lebih dari hutang, tetapi nilai ini hanya bermakna jika kilang dijual dan pendapatan diguna untuk membayar balik hutang. Jika tidak dijual aset ini tidak akan kurangkan hutang. Kerajaan bukan sahaja terpaksa bayar faedah tetapi juga hutang pokok. Ini tetap mengurangkan keuntungan lagi.

13. Bila kilang rugi beban yang dipikul Kerajaan amatlah besar. Bukan sahaja tidak ada keuntungan bagi Kerajaan, tetapi hutang masih perlu dibayar.

14. Biasanya kilang yang dimiliki dan diurus oleh Kerajaan rugi atau tidak untung banyak. Ini adalah oleh kerana pemilik dan pengurusan tidak didorong oleh motif keuntungan. Sesungguhnya pemilikan kilang atau perniagaan lain oleh Kerajaan tidak berfaedah. Sebaliknya apabila syarikat dan khidmat Kerajaan seperti pos, telekom dan lain-lain lagi diswastakan pekerja Kerajaan dapat dikurangkan dan peruntukan untuk gaji diselamatkan untuk kegunaan lain.

15. Walau bagaimanapun Kerajaan perlu labur untuk kilang yang membawa masuk teknologi yang diperlukan oleh Negara, umpamanya teknologi canggih dan tinggi. Walaupun rugi tetapi teknologi yang didapati boleh memajukan negara kearah Wawasan 2020.

16. Sesungguhnya pemilikan perniagaan oleh Kerajaan tidak berfaedah dan tidak menyumbang kepada pendapatan Kerajaan.

DEFORESTATION 2

1. We are reading a lot about illegal logging and illegal workers. It is right that illegal logging should be stopped and illegal workers arrested and deported.

2. But what about legal logging? They may be legal but they are also destroying even more of our shrinking forest. It is time that we limit legal logging. Concessions for legal logging should be controlled.

3. Just because permits are issued does not mean that the logging is not destructive of the forests. It may mean a lot of money for the recipients of the permit, but the need for timber from the forest can be replaced with other kinds of timber.

4. We have huge areas planted with rubber and palm trees. We need to cut down these trees every 25 years. Here is a good source of timber. We really do not need timber for housing, especially for formwork. Steel plates can be used again and again. They last longer.

5. For furniture use only rubber wood. Palm tree trunks can be made suitable for chipboards and planks. On the other hand, bamboo can be grown on a large scale and be processed into paper, flooring and even cladding for walls. Even coconut shells can be used.

6. Revenue from timber and forest-products go to state Government. Some poor states will suffer if not allowed to give concessions for logging the forests.

7. The Federal Government should compensate State Governments if they reduce or stop giving forest concessions. For this compensation the Federal Government should be given a say in issuing logging permits.

8. Sacrifice by the states by making land available for industries and other business activities has increased Federal income and corporate taxes. Some kind of basis must be found so that the poor states receive a bigger allocation from the Federal Government.

9. When the states are less dependent on giving logging concession, they will be more willing to reduce and even stop logging concessions.

10. If we are serious about preserving our forest, there are many things we can do. It is the will that we need. Will the governments have the will?

SELAMAT BERSIDANG UMNO

1. Perutusan ini ditulis kerana saya tidak dapat hadir di Mesyuarat Agong UMNO kerana berada di luar negara. Tetapi kerana saya kurang sihat untuk keluar negara, saya mungkin hadir Insya’allah! Walaubagaimanapun saya ingin membuat kenyataan ini juga.

2. Sebagai orang tua, dan orang tua UMNO pula, izinkanlah saya memberi sedikit pandangan.

3. Semua tahu UMNO sekarang tidak popular seperti UMNO dahulu. Ada yang berkata UMNO tidak lagi relevan.

4. Sedikit sebanyak pandangan ini berasas. Jika UMNO dikalahkan dan hilang dari muka bumi, kepimpinan dan ahli UMNO tidak boleh nafi sumbangan mereka kepada kejatuhan parti yang begitu berjasa kepada Melayu dan negara Malaysia.

5. Apakah kesalahan yang telah dilakukan oleh pemimpin dan ahli UMNO?

6. Pada pandangan saya, yang pertama ialah kerana menganggap UMNO sebagai batu loncatan untuk perkaya diri sendiri.

7. UMNO hanya menerima ahli baru yang tidak mengancam kedudukan pemimpin yang sedia ada di semua peringkat.

8. Cawangan tidak terima sesiapa yang berkebolehan mencabar Ketua Cawangan. Ini adalah oleh kerana ada habuan bagi Ketua Cawangan.

9. Oleh itu yang dapat masuk UMNO hanyalah orang Melayu yang kurang berbakat daripada Ketua Cawangan. Apabila Ketua Cawangan meninggal, penggantinya ialah orang yang lebih lemah daripadanya.

10. Pengganti pun demikian. Hanya yang tidak punyai kebolehan yang lebih daripadanya sahaja yang diterima. Apabila dia kembali ke rahmatullah, yang mengganti lebih lagi lemah.

11. Dan seterusnya. Kepimpinan di peringkat cawangan dan bahagian semakin lama semakin lemah dan tidak berupaya memimpin. Sebab itulah apabila ditanya siapa yang akan jadi Menteri Besar Selangor jika Barisan Nasional menang, tidak ada jawapan. Walhal Selangor penuh sesak dengan Melayu yang terpelajar, berbakat, sudah kaya dan tidak perlu memperalatkan UMNO untuk perkaya diri sendiri. Mereka ini tidak boleh masuk UMNO. Yang sedikit yang dapat masuk akan disekat kenaikan sebagai pemimpin.

12. Budaya war lord (kepala perang) sudah meresap kedalam UMNO. “UMNO saya punya.” “ Bahagian ini saya punya.”

13. Kerana kecewa ada yang berbakat dan berjiwa UMNO menyertai parti lain. Maka akan merosotlah UMNO dan akan hilanglah parti keramat ini.

14. Yang kedua ingin saya tekan akan pentingnya menegur pemimpin. Tunku, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein bukan sahaja ditegur bahkan dicabar. Saya diserang dan hampir kalah dalam pertandingan.

15. Tanpa teguran pemimpin akan percaya segala yang dilakukan olehnya betul belaka. Tetapi sebenarnya ada yang dilakukan olehnya salah dan tidak baik.

16. Saya dinasihat supaya tidak membuat teguran terbuka. Sebenarnya sudah saya tegur secara tertutup berkali-kali, terutama berkenaan masalah Bumiputra dan UMNO. Tetapi tidak berkesan. Teguran secara terbuka terpaksalah dibuat.

17. Harapan orang Melayu ialah wakil-wakil ke Perhimpunan UMNO akan buat teguran terhadap beberapa perkara yang hangat dibincang ramai sekarang.

18. Pemimpin pula perlu dengar teguran ini dan ambil berat pandangan wakil. Janganlah selalu mendengar orang tertentu yang dikeliling kita sahaja. Yang mengeliling orang yang berkuasa tidak baik bagi mereka.

19. Orang Melayu mungkin tidak pandai seperti pakar-pakar rujuk, tetapi saya percaya orang Melayu tidak bodoh. Mereka yang membangunkan negara dari sebuah negara miskin kepada negara yang memberi banyak nikmat kepada semua.

20. Selamat Bersidang UMNO. Mudah-mudahan diberi petunjuk oleh Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala.

MALAYSIAN EDUCATION

1. When we became independent in 1957 we had a clear idea about education in Malaysia. We wanted every Malaysian child to go to national schools where the medium of teaching would be the National Language based on the Malay language, the language of indigenous people. They would know and be close to each other, get used to their different cultures and be distinctly Malaysian.

2. For a time the “English Schools” were to be allowed to go on. The students at these schools were from all the ethnic groups in Malaysia.

3. When Minister Aziz Ishak as acting Education Minister decided that all schools must be converted to national schools with the national language as the teaching medium, the Chinese raised a big row. Cabinet then decided that the vernacular language schools would be allowed. They were re-designated “Jenis Kebangsaan” or National Type. The national type primary vernacular schools would receive Government aid but the national type secondary schools were not to be supported by Government. The decision was political. Nothing in the Constitution provided for this. Then another Education Minister in 1971 decided to abolish Government secondary schools which teach in English.

4. The net result was an exodus of Chinese students to private Chinese Secondary schools.

5. With this the children of different races lost all opportunities to grow up together; the Malays to national schools, the Chinese to Chinese primary and secondary schools and the Indians to Tamil primary schools. There were no Tamil secondary schools. So most Indians studied in National Secondary Schools.

6. International schools using English were however allowed to exist. Then local private schools using largely English as the medium were set up.

7. The Malaysian children were not supposed to go to these private schools. In any case the fees charged by private schools as usual were high.

8. Then the ministers’ children, against national policy started going to private schools and international schools which use largely English as the teaching medium. The ministers also send their children to public (actually private) school in the UK. So followed the children of the rich.

9. The result is that the rich go to private schools in Malaysia and U.K while the poor go to national schools at home.

10. Apart from racial separation because of the ethnic language based schools, we now see a separation of the rich children and the poor children. The rich now speak in English and the poor in Malay, Chinese or Tamil. Jobs favour the English speakers.

11. Strangely the language nationalists have not protested as they protest the use of English for Science and Mathematics. Incidentally the Malay language nationalists also help promote the use of the Chinese language in Chinese schools and in business. Even Malay parents like their children to go to Chinese schools. And in Sarawak the natives prefer Chinese schools.

12. All these will result in the separation of the races and the separation of rich high-class English speaking people from the poor less privileged national language speaking people. There will also be a loss of the knowledge of modern science and higher mathematics among national school students.

13. I must confess that although my children all went to national schools, my grandchildren all go to private schools in the country and abroad. They do speak the national language but their kind of schooling widens the gap between races as well as between the rich and the poor.

14. It seems that poor parents must accept poor education for their children so politicians can be popular.

BR1M

1. Let me begin by admitting that I am not a trained economist or financier. Still I don’t think it is fair for anyone to say I do not understand BR1M and the good things about it. I have in the past made some decisions on economic and financial matters which seem to have given good results for the country.

2. I have been opposed to giving monetary handouts as a way to increase the income of people right from the beginning. If at all financial aid should be given to the very poor who are unable to work to earn an income. My primary objection is because handouts on such a scale look too much like bribery. And when this is given near elections or the manifesto promises this, the impression that it is about buying votes just cannot be dismissed. If incomes are to be increase it should be by way of creating opportunities for work or business.

3. But BR1M has more negative implications than that. It increases the tendency towards personal dependence on the Government even for one’s income, without any effort by oneself. It weakens the character of people and reduce their competitiveness in the market place.

4. We want high incomes. But high income should come from increases in productivity. High productivity results from better education and training. A manual labourer cannot be more productive than a mechanic or a craftsman. And they in turn cannot be as productive as an engineer. The ability to increase productivity comes from greater added value to the products.

5. It follows that when we promote industries with greater added value, than the incomes of employees would increase due to greater contribution of the employees. We should note that in countries with big Government revenues from the foreign exploitation of resources, and people are given a part of the revenue to sustain a good lifestyle, there is a lack of desire to work.

6. Giving money does not increase productivity. Without increasing productivity, competitiveness will not improve. And the economy will not really grow. These countries invariably depend on foreign workers, executives and entrepreneurs.

7. When Malaysia adopted a policy of encouraging labour intensive industries, it was because at that time the people were jobless and had no income. After that to increase their incomes we switched to hi-tech, knowledge-based industries and our people are educated and trained for these more sophisticated higher income industries.

8. We can increase their wages further by adopting new technologies and management systems. Our workers should now be involved in designing new products, producing prototypes, testing and mass-producing. Marketing and sales of these more sophisticated products will also increase incomes.

9. We want to be a developed nation by 2020. We think that this can be done by increasing average incomes to a certain level. This is misleading. A few people with very high incomes will distort the average income. Per capita income should not be a measure of our achievement of developed country status. The emphasis on high income alone is not enough. In fact by itself it will not make the country a developed country. It would be even more misleading when the income is due to handouts by the Government.

10. To be developed we have to be at par with these developed countries in terms of education, technological and industrial knowhow, research and development, industrialised to a high level, commensurate infrastructure and high earned incomes for all.

11. It is imperative therefore to spend money on education and training to a higher level, to build up engineering and industrial capacities, to be productive and competitive, to expend money on building first-class infrastructure and to be researchers, inventors and developers.

12. Since we want to be developed in our own mould, we can reject the moral values of some developed countries. We see them obviously decaying because of the emphasis on unlimited materialism and personal freedom. We must sustain the good values that we have and acquire good ethnics which will contribute to our productivity and our income. In other words we must earn our income through higher productivity and not through handouts by the Government. The Socialist and Communists have tried to improve their people’s incomes through giving them money and making free availability of support facilities to ensure they have a good life. But Socialism and Communism have failed. They have to resort to free enterprise and hard work.

13. Finally we must not forget that Government money is derived through taxes on the people. Taxes raise the cost of living. Still the people are willing to endure raised cost of living because they expect the Government to give them security, to govern the country well, to have policies which benefit the people generally.

14. But the people would not like to see the taxes they pay to be expended in ways that are beyond this. Certainly they would not want their hard-earned money to be expended on winning popularity for anyone or political parties or administrations.

DEFORESTATION

1. As I was being driven along one of the magnificent roads in our country, I saw a stream of lorries loaded with logs passing in the opposite direction.

2. I asked my companion who was from that area as to who the logs belong to.

3. He turned and smiled conspiratorially and whispered the owner’s name. I could hardly hear him but it would seem he was afraid of being heard. He was clearly scared although apart from the driver and my ADC there was nobody else in the car.

4. Vast stretches of our forests are being cleared but nobody seems to know for whom the logging is done. But what is obvious is that our most valuable heritage – the great rain forest is being destroyed.

5. There are many reasons for cutting down the trees. Firstly of course is to extract timber legally and illegally. Then there is the clearing for development of rubber and palm oil plantation. These are very big, totalling millions of hectares over the years.

6. Small time farmer clear hillsides to plant ginger and other vegetable. Each farm is small but the total area for ginger is big.

7. The mining for iron ore and other minerals has begun again. Huge forest areas are being denuded as open cast mines expand and expand in area.

8. Living space also requires forest area to be cleared. As towns expand, the poor sell their suburban kampongs and move to forest areas where legally as well as illegally low cost houses are erected.

9. Between all these reasons for clearing the forest it is said that 70% of our forest have been cleared.

10. So what happens? This country is in the rain-forest region. Rainfalls are very heavy. In the past the rain falls on the thickly leafed trees of the forest and the thick undergrowth and much rain does not reach the ground. On the ground the trunks and exposed roots cause the water flow in any own direction to be slowed. So much of the water seeps into the ground or dries up.

11. Some of the water flows to lower ground and form tiny streams, which in turn form bigger streams which flow into the rivers. The speed of flow is slow obstructed by roots of trees and shrubs and rocks. Erosion of the ground is limited.

12. As the rain water now falls directly on the bare earth and immediately flows rapidly towards lower ground, the volume grows along the way. The rivers become swollen, rising rapidly and flow downstream. The massive amount overflows the banks and floods the surrounding land. The ground softens and landslides occur.

13. This is the origin of floods and landslides. No one can deny that the deforestation is causing this. Many are going to die and many have died.

14. We are fortunate in that we are free from typhoons. Our neighbours are not so lucky. We need to clear some forest for living space. But greed has overcome us and we are clearing too much of our forests too quickly.

15. First there is a need to stop illegal clearing of forest, to stop corruption that goes with it. Then we need to look again at legal clearing. Do we really need to make money from logging. Do we need to give out concessions for this? The people who get the concessions are not really poor. They should make more money than they already have some other way.