Motherhood statements won’t change people
We need new and clear ideas and cannot expect different outcomes from run-of-the-mill prescriptions.
By Ah Beng
There is yet another piece of advice from a Malay leader, this time from the Deputy Minister for Agriculture and Agro Industries, urging the Malays and other Bumiputera to leave their comfort zones, embrace the spirit of competitiveness and refrain from “hawking” away their licences in exchange for meagre commissions.
There is nothing wrong with this advice except for the fact that it is so archaic, predictable and frankly quite useless. I have been hearing it for nearly five decades now. In fact, I get the feeling that this is just another piece of “lazy advice”, devoid of any genuine effort to change the competitive spirit of the Malays and the way they do business.
Telling the Malays to be competitive is not going to make them competitive. Advising the Malays against hawking their licences is not going to stop them from doing it.
Why is it that our leaders think it is so easy to change the mindset of the people? Why is it that they think it is so easy to govern the country – by giving thoughtless motherhood statements and prescriptions that can be uttered on any Tuesday afternoon without much study or contemplation?
Did the Deputy Minister ever venture a thought on how to inculcate and nurture a competitive spirit among the Malays? Did he ever study the environment/conditions required to promote competition and help it not only grow, but thrive?
The “immigrant races” in direct competition with the Malays are no longer confined to Chinese and Indian Malaysians. In the foreseeable future (perhaps it is already happening), the main competitors will be Indonesians, Myanmarese, Nepalese, Bangladeshis, and Africans. These are the new Malaysians the Malays must compete with.
I think it is time to go beyond urging the Malays to be competitive. It is time for Malay leaders to “make” the Malays competitive, and not through their gentle urgings. The Malays require clear strategies and efforts, and gentle urgings are just a Tuesday afternoon musing.
Similarly, to keep asking the Malays not to hawk their licences or contracts is no-brainer talk. Everybody knows this is a just an easy way to make some money but in the long run it will not substantively change the people. In fact, it will cause the whole economy to become less competitive and unproductive.
Hence, we need new and clear ideas please, not repetition of the same old stuff because we cannot expect different outcomes from run-of-the-mill prescriptions.
Many want to be ministers or deputy ministers in Malaysia. However despite the perks and other privileges they enjoy, most do brainless jobs – no fact-finding, no hard thinking, no strategising. They are instead happy to issue motherhood statements and expect things to change for the better.
Ah Beng is an FMT reader.
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