Its says ''Malaysia, Truly paradoxical''.. I laughed my ass out, Thank You ''Paul''

Malaysia, truly paradoxical

Foreigners are bemused by some of our peculiarities.
An expatriate friend of mine is slowly settling down to life in Kuala Lumpur. We will just call this American, Paul.
It is his first trip to Asia and he has found it easy adjusting himself. English is widely spoken here, which means he has no problem moving around.
The easy availability of news allows Paul to closely follow events and life in Malaysia but the country remains a paradox to him.
I assure him that he is not the only one who feels that way. Even Malaysians born and bred here are still trying to figure out the many contradictions of life in Malaysia.
Well, Paul has been pretty observant and has asked me about some of our peculiarities.
Below are his observations after a month:
Malaysians are supposed to be lazy when it comes to reading. They read an average of one page a year. Okay, the latest statistics say one-and-a-half pages.
But Paul is amazed at how we have become so emotionally interlocked over a book first published over 40 years ago. We may not have produced any literary giants, except our home-grown laureates, but he is impressed by how passionate we are when it comes to literature.
Like elsewhere, money doesn’t grow on trees here but access to it is pasted on every available place on the streets.
With thousands and thousands of notices plastered all over the city – offering competitive rates with just one mobile phone number to call – Paul thinks getting loans in Malaysia is rather easy.
He’s impressed that the country is both flushed with funds and how easy it is for people to borrow cash as there’s no red tape. Even those blacklisted can borrow. It’s a great country, he says.
Malaysians are health freaks. They are so health conscious that spas and services for massages, starting from foot massages upwards, have been sprouting all over towns and cities.
Notices promoting “Honey Massage” and “Rocket Massage” are even sprayed on walls. And of course, the Malaysian service providers are super efficient, making the massages available with just a phone call.
Malaysians love debates. Every other day, someone seems to be throwing a challenge to debate with another. He feels that these guys must have great oratory skills. He thinks that this is yet another indicator of a truly democratic country.
Paul finds it hard to fathom that Malaysia has a problem with corruption. Something is not quite right as Malaysians are also so religious. His question: If everyone gets all worked up whenever religious matters are questioned, how can the country be grappling with corruption? Many seem so puritanical too.
Paul also observes that Malaysians are environmentally conscious and take great pains in loving their trees. There may not be tree huggers like in the West but he thinks we protect our environment using the full brunt of the law.
He thinks our policemen spend an awful lot of time protecting trees because he always sees them behind trees, along the roads and highways. Such dedication and love for the greens, he says.
Paul has also found out that Malaysia, which used to rely on rubber for its economic growth in early days, still tends to stretch the meaning of being on time.
He has learned that when people say “on the way” or “coming soon”, it really means they are still at home or have yet to begin their journey.
Paul has also discovered that “traffic jam” is the most convenient Malaysian excuse for not being punctual, even if the person arrives an hour late. The rule of thumb is to add another hour if it rains.
But the best part is this: Malaysians must love many things about pirates. We call unlicensed taxis “pirate taxis” and imitation DVDs, “pirated DVDs”.
Pirated DVDs are illegal but openly sold. No one would admit buying or owning one but many Malaysians seem familiar with it.
And pirated DVDs even carry messages telling Malaysians why they should NOT buy pirated DVDs, with a short trailer of a speeding car, showing you the difference in quality between an original and a pirated copy.
Malaysia is truly amazing. Paul is already in love with Malaysia after being here a month.
To know Malaysia is certainly to love Malaysia.

 

Thanks Paul. Very insightful remarks.


From The Star Online, On the beat with Wong Chun Wai, Feb 20 ,2011

Enough of cirque de f*** : part 1

Over the past 20 months, a rampant circus promotion came flushing a little country in South East Asia. The circus master arrogantly denies the wastage caused by the huge event not to mention the infeasibility of it overall. He did not look into the pain and exhaustion of the circus animals, in spite the circus itself did not even attract a single audience for a long time.  Looking through pages of history, I bumped into a verb ‘semiotic’. The word denotes the similar meaning carried by the mental of the circus master. I’m not a fan of social and political circus. Added, I don’t enjoy towering concrete forest with no apparent uses and definitely I don’t enjoy billions of real cashes burned for a cirque-like campaign and the slogan is just a slogan for nothing. If you know what I’m indicating, then keep reading. 

Many of Asia members, though gradually establishing themselves among the regional competing economic and political power in rise, yet these are mere juvenile in the eyes of world. Much bewildered awe, many economists theorized that the coming age will be dominated solely by the light speed development of Asia, and thus the brethrens in South East Asia such as Thailand, Indonesia , Myanmar, and unfortunately Malaysia are among the recapped rising star of the decade. With swaggering political struggle in Thailand, new power rise in Indonesia, and economic recovery joined by Myanmar, I started to feel a new power in work while my own country, unfortunately is working backward. I don’t care what you call this campaign is, and what would you think about it but it merely touches the superficial of whole picture and beneath the necrotic subcutaneous the pathologic symptoms remain undisturbed. Under tsunami of new age, pillage of national resources on personal pride and illogical wastage is slowly reviving revolution at the door step. 

Off course Santa is quite pissed up with the wish list of these countries in growing always beg for. Like poor little kids, these third world countries still struggling at bottleneck of multitude of inner and outer pathologies. Dithering political regimes hooking the back of nation’s advancement, critical poverty straggling breaths out of grass root, followed intimately by hunger, famine, poor health policies and definitely internal instabilities which obviously a terrific made product of flawed governance at the hands of most corrupted ruling clans.  The four powerhouses of Asia, which comprised of Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore had dumped others in their dust. They are now of first world resplendency. 

Whenever I heard the slogan, I bet Singaporeans are laughing their ass out. Why can’t a proper machinery being implemented for sake of national well beings? What would a stupid slogan do to us? Everything is upside down, even a blind can rule out the black dots within the so called campaign. I will not go further because pious political maniacs will definitely tag me as vitriolic. I care for a whole picture, not just some short sighted achievement. Despite of our robust economic growth, political stability and noble intentions still remains a big question mark again because of failed governance and rampant corruption which permeated the whole system in the first place. If unsettled, these would stimulate a chain of mini disasters and rip the fragile growth internally at dangerous rhythm.   

So what spearheaded the hyper growth of the four dragons?

Let’s start off with our friendly neighbor – Singapore. The Time’s named Singapore the hottest (little) economy in the world. 

The timid island country grew at 18.1% at the 1^st half of 2010, thus outperformed the two super dragonheads of Asia – China and India by an impressive ratio win. According to Time’s special report , since the island country removed a 40 years old ban on gambling, the $10.2 billion initiatives commissioned on 2 casinos complete with hotel, shopping malls and restaurant complexes in addition to a Universal Studio has attracted more than 3 million visitors by June. And consecutive growth of the international pharmaceuticals industry in Singapore coupled with increase in global financial institutions setting up shops had put 2010 growth of the nation economic expansion at a groundbreaking 13% to 15%. And according to Enoch Fung, a Goldman Sachs research analyst, Singapore possessed a full employed labor market, with PM Lee Hsien Loong promised an additional 100,000 new foreign workers are ready to join the market to support the domestic economy in the face of worsening external demand outlook. 

A microscopic look into their economy has drawn me of bewildering awe. Despite in 2009 Singapore took a huge hit when their economy shrunk by 2.9% but able to further resist detriments and rise back on their feet in a year. 

What we learned from Singapore’s new move?

Singapore rolled a new dice in the cascading economic outlook and made new exploration in old prefix an alternate subway before the pillaring economies run out of juice in untimely possibilities. Dynamic nurturing and opulent revolutions on current existing industry especially of entertainment had proved to be a new goldmine to the powerhouse. Singapore is the legacy Michael in image comparing to the seasoned world trades moved by fluctuating worldly factorial pendulums which heavily symbolized by Goliath. And in this global coliseum it knew well the way of victory is by focusing it advantages on a single shot whenever chances appeal itself. Despite socio-geographically disadvantaged, Singapore did not make hasty short sighted decision in the face of turbulent new age.

End of part 1.