The Sensitive Ecosystem

While the oil spill at the Gulf of Mexico could be thousands of miles away, we have our own similar problem when 2 ships collided at the Straits of Malacca, near Singapore. The latest is that the oil spill is spreading to the Malaysian shores after causing problems in Singapore.

Somehow, there is not much coverage that we have in Malaysia on this unfortunate event. Either the media deems this as not that news worthy or we Malaysians are not bothered about it as it happens far away from where we live.

I was in Cherating, off Kuantan, recently and was able to enjoy the beautiful South China Sea. There we people who caught some fish using net. Just imagine how their life would be affected if the mishap happens to be in that area. Cherating is where Club Med is located as well.

As we develops further and enjoy better quality of life, we should not ignore the basics which enable us to be where we are now. We need to ensure the environment around us remains beautiful and sustainable. Otherwise, the cost to live in a messed up environment would be expensive and would suck whatever extra income we generate in the future.

Not sure how sensitive we are in protecting our environment, perhaps we have not messed things up that much to start to be concern. However, if we are smart and develop the mentality to preserve what we have, I am sure the long term cost to the society will be less.

The choice is ours to decide.

Who Is Paying The Bills?

Given the chaos the world is experiencing now, we need to really think deeply about the future and organise ourselves accordingly. The near collapse of Euro has initiated debate about the sustainability of the "European Way of Life" with high taxes and generous social security and retirement benefits. If this New York Times article is true, this will have to change soon.

The Performance Management & Delivery Unit of the Prime Minister's Department (PEMANDU) will be organising an Open House on subsidy in Kuala Lumpur next week. The government spent around RM 74 billion last year on various subsidy from fuel, sugar and healthcare, among others. It is also soliciting an on-line feedback from Malaysians on this issue. If the income level of average Malaysians is low, being addicted to subsidy is not a surprise at all. The data on the basic qualification of Malaysian workforce points towards the problem.

While naturally we would like to have more for less efforts, even people living in countries like Malaysia has to think forward and structure ourselves accordingly so that we could have a sustainable decent lifestyle across the society. How this will be addressed in the New Economic Model which will be revealed in full next month would certainly be the concern of most Malaysians.

The Open House is an opportunity to understand the thoughts of the government on how the subsidy would be reduced. Rather than complaining after policies have been implemented, this opportunity should be used by all of us to put across our thoughts on this important matter.

Be a responsible Rakyat and make your views count.

A Tribute to All Teachers

Following the tradition, 16th May is Teacher's Day in Malaysia. It is to honour those men and women whose task are to ensure young Malaysians are adequately educated so that they could contribute towards nation building when they grow up later.

Teachers had played important role in nation building especially the pre-Merdeka and early days of our independence. Among the early roles allowed to Malaysians by the British colonist, teachers in the early days of Merdeka were not involved only in educating Malaysians but were part of the intellectuals who transformed this country into a nation which could stand on its own feet. 

Given limited choice of employment, those who joined the teaching profession those days were among the smart and the brightest, no wonder teachers in the early years of Malaysia commanded respect from all levels of society and many of them ended up being leaders of the society.

In a modern and sophisticated Malaysia, the roles of teachers has grown and become more demanding. Being the group of people interacting with future leaders of this nation, it is upon the teachers to ensure our young flesh and blood do not only acquire academic knowledge but compliment the efforts of parents in inculcating good values in young Malaysians. As our population grow, these tasks are getting more difficult.

As we modernise and move up the value chain, more employment opportunities are available. Teaching is no longer the first choice among the smart and bright Malaysians. While it is fair for them to consider opportunities to maximise their future, the teaching profession needs talents in catering for the more demanding needs of the nation. To add misery to the profession, this is among the most politicised profession due to the number of votes teachers could bring during elections.

As we honour our teachers, we should also ponder on whether this celebration should be limited to teachers as teachers or should also cover others whose role includes getting somebody to be educated. This will robe in many more Malaysians including our parents, bosses and colleagues. As knowledge and platform in delivering knowledge evolve, even Google could fall into definition as our teacher!

Being a son of a teacher, I am very proud of the contribution of this noble profession and I pray that all teachers, present and past, we be blessed.

No amount of money would be enough to recognise the contribution and sacrifices made by teachers in this country to ensure we enjoy prosperity as what we do today.

Happy Teacher's Day.

A tribute to all mothers

Celebrating Mother's Day when one's mother is no longer around is certainly odd. What remains is the memories of the past, to the extend that the mind could remember. Unfortunately, we are not in the position to experience the challenges of our mothers had to go through when we were in their wombs. None also could understand the period when they risk their lives in delivering us into this world.

Many could recall the early days when they were old enough to remember the feeling being comforted by their mothers in the time of needs. Off course we could not remember how it was when they had to wake up and attend to us when we cried. None of us could deny that those early days set the tone for our future.

Many religions and cultures place mothers in special positions. In Islam, they are respected as such that it is a great sin to raise our voices when speaking to them. What more to hurt their hearts. Given the sacrifices that they made in ensuring all their children would be raised in the best possible ways and achieve the best possible future, such honour is the least we could give them.

Have we done enough to thank the most special human being in our life, our mothers?

Malaysia missing on iPad first global launch

The iPad global launch is slated to be on May 28 in nine selected countries. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and Britain are the countries selected to the first launch. Unfortunately, Malaysia is not on the list.

Even we are not slated for the next launch scheduled in July. The countries listed on the second launch are Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore and New Zealand.

Could it be that our purchasing power is considered low that the market for such product is small in this country of 27 million people? Or could it be that we, Malaysians, are do not have appetite for products which contains high intellectual property contents? 


Our level of respect towards intellectual property could be one of the reasons for not being included in the first two scheduled releases. How could be develop such mindset when our level of innovation is fairly low. We are more consumers rather than producers.

In any case, some of us may argue that we need not be listed in any of the launch as iPads are already available at Plaza Low Yat, the hub for electronics products of Malaysia. Or we could just turn to eBay just like what others from around the world are doing.

Maybe in the future, when the objectives of the New Economic Model is achieved, Malaysia will be among the first country for any world class product launch. Just imagine more Malaysians with higher purchasing power, purchase only licensed products and have do not tolerate any infringement of laws such as intellectual property or even corruption.


Let's wait for this moment to happen!

The Value of Trust

The Open Graph project initiated by Facebook is set to further enhance its ability to create value from its membership base. Having more than 400 million registered users, such base is definitely enough to attract advertisers, especially when Facebook could offer a more targeted customer segments given the amount of private information it collects from its members.

The new initiative allows third parties to offer certain Facebook functions such at the "like" function. Attached to certain products or information, this would be a powerful tool to accumulate information for advertising purposes. Such ability create concern on whether private information will be exploited by both Facebook and the third parties.

How did Facebook ended up with huge information regarding its users?

First, I suppose, is the trust the members have on Facebook in not exploiting information which the members share with their friends. This was reinforce with the lack of commercial activities of Facebook in the past. On the other hand, sharing information had also enable users to pull value to themselves by being connected to long lost friends, building relationships with new friends as well as advocating their views and thoughts with the community at large.

The commercial success of project Open Graph would be dependent on whether the trust level of Facebook members could be retained. If enough people on Facebook feel that their information is being exploited for commercial reasons without adequate value in return,the project would encourage people to move away from Facebook.

Who says trust has no value?

A note from Ross Dawson

Sometimes it is amazing how social networking could influence you life! I have been reading books written by Ross Dawson and was following his work on Trends in the Living Networks. We ended up as friends on Facebook.

One day I received a message from Ross on his trip to KL. I was excited and volunteered to connect him with people and organisations which are relevant to his interests. We finally met in KL.

This is Ross's note on his visit to KL.

iPad hits the market

Yesterday saw another milestone passed when Apple finally released the long awaited iPad to the market. While the gadget which is supposed to be the bridge between smartphone and laptop means different things to different users, the release had certainly created huge excitement for fans and foes alike.

What would be interesting is how this new gadget would be applied in our personal lives as well as business. Given that Apple decided to migrate tools form iPhone to iPad, the new gadget will come with many functions previously ran on iPhone. 

Let's watch this space as many of us will start to figure out to do things that are not possible in the past with the new iPad.

New Economic Model for Malaysia - The first part of the NEAC report

New Economic Model for Malaysia - Policy Direction

Download the full NEAC report here.

MIA: Standing in the eyes of the world

FOR those who don't remember, Standing In the Eyes of the World was the official song of the 1998 Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur. Composed by Wah Idris and David Gates, the Malay version of the song was sung by our very own pop queen, Ella.

The lyrics of the song talk about sacrifice, hard work, passion, hope and dreams. How true these key words are when we reflect on the successes of our present sport stars such as Datuk Nicol David, Datuk Lee Chong Wei and Azizulhasni Awang.

All of them have to compete with the world's best without relying on any quota or special privilege. They have to make many sacrifices, work hard, have deep passion for success and carry not only their personal hopes and dreams but yours and mine as well. Success can only achieved if they are indeed the best in the world. A very high benchmark for average Malaysians like us.

Success breeds success. For the champions, winning means more sponsorships, access to better trainers and training facilities and being supplied with better sporting equipment. This is not much different from business.

Once a person has demonstrated that he or she can identify opportunities and able to realise whatever business plans that they had, they will open themselves to more opportunities and support. Like sports, sacrifice, hard work, passion, hope and dreams are equally important in business. No shortcut allowed.

There is so much we could learn about life from sports. One of the most important elements is we cherish our sport champions irrespective of the colour of their skin, religion and culture. Definitely there is merit for this sort of attitude to be actualised in other aspects of our society.

While Malaysia may not feature in this year's edition of the soccer World Cup in South Africa, our accountancy profession will be hosting the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) in November. The WCOA is equivalent to the Olympics of the accountancy profession, held every four years in countries which won a global bid to be the host.

Winning the bid four years ago was an honour, not only for the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) which represents the accountants in this country, but reflects the trust of the global accountancy towards Malaysia as a whole. Now is the time for the MIA to deliver all the promises, and position Malaysia as a respectable investment and business destination.

The theme for the WCOA — Accountants: Sustaining Value Creation — would certainly provide opportunities for a wide range of issues and topics to be discussed by globally renowned accountants and other experts from related fields. Certainly, areas such as Islamic finance, where Malaysia has the competitive advantage, would be prominently featured. We should play to our strengths when there are opportunities to showcase ourselves to the world.

While we would certainly be anxious to watch how WCOA would unfold, our accountants should continue to enhance their roles in nation building. The challenges in implementing International Financial Reporting Standards, further enhancement of corporate governance and improvements in business integrity are among the areas which accountants are playing significant roles. The successful performance of our accountants in these areas would enable them to walk tall during WCOA.

It would also be interesting how our accountants position themselves in the new economic model which would be revealed soon. Given that the services sector would be playing more a important role in generating economic growth, accountants should prepare themselves for the new playing field and support businesses to compete and create more values to the society. This should be achieved without compromising the fundamental value of the profession, integrity.

It may be rather challenging to bring 4,000 foreign delegates to Kuala Lumpur for the WCOA, especially when some global organisations are still finding their footing after the global financial crisis. Not only do we want them to come, they should be convinced of our potential and be excited by the beauty of this country and our sincere hospitality. Like sports, one could not be a world champion if one chooses to avoid hardship when striving to be the best in the world.

The MIA has that opportunity to stand in the eyes of the world, and the WCOA would be the best platform for our accountants to make Malaysia proud and honoured.

This article is also published on the Edge Malaysia website here:

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/commentary/162592-mia-standing-in-the-eyes-of-the-world.html

Saving Planet Earth

8.30pm, Saturday, March 27, 2010 has been earmarked as Earth Hour 2010. Millions of people from thousands of cities are expected to switch off their lights for one hour as a symbol of support for the planet which is experiencing stress from climate change issues.

What was started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 has now been adopted by millions of people around the planet as an initiative to create awareness on the risks of climate change and encouraging more people to do anything within their power to make a difference.

Would switching off lights for an hour be adequate to save the planet?

Although climate change issues have been debated at many forums at the global, regional and national levels, they are still being considered as "problems of the future" by many of us.

Some may have even taken the stand that we may not live long enough to suffer the consequences.

Worse, if such thinking is held by people with power and influence who have the capacity to decide on matters which are related to climate change problems.

Let us consider whether it is really true that we are yet to experience the consequences of overlooking matters that relate to sustainability of our planet?

Malaysia is located close to the equator where water supply should be abundant with the kind of rainfall that we are blessed with. Yet, some of us may be living in areas where water supply has been disrupted due to drought. Blame this on the effect of El Nino. Or could this be the consequences of not having adequate long-term and contingency plans for such a situation?

As water is cheap here, most of the population have no problem in wasting treated water. In fact, we are demanding for the cheap water regime to continue so that there would be no need for us to change our lifestyles.

We have to remember that the population of this country is growing and more people would be demanding for quality treated water in the future.

On the other side, the sources of raw water remain the same if not depleting due to development projects and logging activities upstream. With such a scenario, would it not be better for us to make the change now while things are still very much in our favour?

Some even see the water problems as presenting opportunities, economically! Just imagine if you could secure the contracts to change old pipes or be the supplier of pipes to various water projects. Without robust governance and oversight, the risk of unnecessary price inflation is very real.

When such things happen, the cost would ultimately be paid by you and me, the poor consumers.

Some global companies have demonstrated their seriousness regarding issues relating to climate change and sustainability. Unilever and Nestle had dropped the supply of palm oil from a supplier in Indonesia.

This is due to concerns regarding the effect of plantation practices of the supplier on the environment.

As we are heavily involved in palm oil production, we should be concerned that our palm oil companies are not subjected to similar risk.

More importantly, we should have similar interest in ensuring our planters ensure sustainable practices so that our ecosystem remains viable for living as well as economic activities.

Subsidies that we enjoy as Malaysians have shielded us from paying the real cost of many things. The electricity that we consume, for example, is largely generated from gas-powered generators. The gas supplied to our power generation companies is subsidised.

The end-result is we are not challenged enough to change the ways we consume electricity, at the private level or by even by the industrialists. Thus, the stress on the government budget will grow while our competitiveness eroded as the need for our companies to be energy efficient is not there due to the subsidised electricity that they enjoy.

Some of the issues are inter-related. Excessive logging enabled by corruption could reduce sources of raw water which would eventually affect the availability and quality of treated water supplied to our homes.

While we may not be able to influence all matters, our collective voice in demanding more sustainability practices in our society and our collective action in walking our talk will shape the future of our children and grandchildren.

Whether you and I will be switching off lights this Saturday will be based on our individual choice.

It is not even critical, as the exercise is largely symbolic. The more important question is how much more could we, individually, do to make a difference in saving our planet?

This article is also published at the Edge Malaysia website here:

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/commentary/162074-saving-planet-earth.html

Time to Adopt Integrity Pact Across the Board?

The introduction of the Integrity Pack in its contracts with vendors and suppliers had certainly won the Port Klang Authority a lot of support and encouragement.

The Transport Minister delivering his speech at the signing ceremony of the Integrity Pact

In a nutshell, Integrity Pack is a commitment by all parties not to participate in activities link to the payment, offering, demanding or accepting of bribes and also to refrain from colluding with competitors to obtain contracts or engaging in such abuses while carrying out the contract. Any party violating the pact will face serious consequences like the termination of contracts, blacklisting and forfeiture of performance bonds.

I suppose the question from the public with respect to this development is when would Integrity Pact be part and parcel of all contracts, both the in the public and private sectors?

If corruption is the evil the would derail nation building and destroy fair and equitable distribution of wealth among our citizens, why not make this mechanism as part of out way of life the soonest possible!

Our collective responsibilities in eradicating corruption

IT has been a year since the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was established with a more robust check and balance framework in meeting the expectations of Malaysians at large. To put it simply, the MACC went through a very "eventful" first year.

While different individuals may have different conclusions on how far the MACC had achieved its goals in that short period, another question that needs answer is about how Malaysians, collectively, participated in eradicating corruption from our society?

As Malaysia has no unlimited natural resources, the way forward for us as a country is to encourage Malaysians to be competitive, not only in the economic sense but also intellectually as the main drivers of value creation are knowledge and brain power.

Not only does corruption distort the distribution of opportunities and wealth, it also creates an inefficient business environment and discourage people to compete on merit. Worse still, if it rewards mediocre people with great connections instead of smart and bright Malaysians with no access to opportunities.

As with any other elements in life, corruption exists and evolves in an ecosystem. If we wish to reduce or even eliminate corruption, focusing on enforcement and prosecution alone would not be adequate. The roots need to be identified and neutralised.

Let's consider the demand side. The history of mankind is full of stories about greed and willingness to compromise values in the pursuit of wealth. 

What happened in the global financial market in the last few years had unveiled many situations where people who were influenced by greed went very far in engineering high-risk financial products which eventually caused countries and global corporations to suffer huge financial losses.

Can we eliminate greed? Certainly the answer is No! If this is the case, what are our options in order to mitigate the risks?

Perhaps the first line of defence is inculcating the right values in our people, especially young Malaysians who will eventually inherit the leadership of this country. 

This task should be shouldered by all parents, yes, you and me! While we may argue that our children spend most of their life in schools, there is only so much their teachers could do. 

We should be asking ourselves how much effort we have made so far in ensuring our flesh and blood grow up with the right values, including treating corruption as the worst possible evil?

This is why the report in a daily newspaper over the weekend about the desire of our youth to be millionaires by the age of 35 warrants our serious attention. 

When asked whether they are willing to sacrifice ethics and morality in being millionaires, 9.5% of the 1,678 Malaysians surveyed indicated their strong agreement, another 14.7% agreed while another 32.8% were unsure. 

Only 43% of the respondents disagreed. We must be wondering who the role models are, who have managed to impress our youth that sacrificing ethics and morality is all right in pursuing wealth. Are we, through our conduct and behaviour, responsible for this?

The second line of defence is by ensuring those occupying high offices in public and private sectors are people who breathe and uphold integrity.

We may not have many opportunities to influence the decisions in selecting these people but every opportunity counts. Again we have to ask ourselves, have we decided on our choices, whenever we had opportunities, based on ethics and morality or we succumbed to other selfish interests which are only known to ourselves?

Having robust and transparent systems and processes could be another line of defence in reducing incidences of corruption in our society. 

Sounds easy as a concept but a challenge to be implemented especially when this issue is mixed with other matters such as rights and privileges.

Unfortunately, the weakness in this area is the one causing us to pay big dollars in terms of overpriced contracts, defective assets and lost opportunities to bring investments into our economy. Have we, as a society, indicated our feelings towards this issue strong enough?

Enforcement action is perhaps the last line of defence in the battle against corruption. This really matters if we have failed to get the other defence mechanisms working.

In other words, this is only critical when we, as a society, have not done enough to eradicate corruption. While enforcement agencies have the responsibility to be effective, they may not be able to meet our demands if the whole ecosystem is not supportive of their mandate.

As we evaluate the performance of the MACC on their first anniversary, it would also be meaningful to assess our own performance in the area of corruption eradication. Remember, we have a duty to ensure all lines of defence are up and running and should shoulder the responsibilities if we have failed to do the right thing ourselves.

This article is also published at the Edge Malaysia website here:

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/commentary/161586-our-collective-responsibilities-in-eradicating-corruption.html