A SHOPPING COMPLEX

1. I visited one of the newest shopping complexes in Kuala Lumpur.

2. I was impressed.

3. It is not a shopping complex. 

4. It is a town, a fully air-conditioned town protected from the sun and rain.

5. There are streets lined with brand named shops, with products displayed beautifully.

6. There are restaurants and supermarkets.

7. Outside more streets, paved, lined by beautifully designed shops.

8. Then there are high rise condos.

9. It is a fantastic development and must have cost billions.

10. I toured the shopping area on a buggy. Too long to walk.

11. I am sure the project belong to Malaysian Chinese. 

12. It is more grand than the shopping complexes in London, Tokyo or Seoul, Korea.

13. I feel proud.

14. Really the Malaysian Chinese have good ideas and the money to realisethese ideas.

15. Much of development in this country are by the Malaysian Chinese.

16. The Malays cannot do it.

17. They don’t have the money or the ideas.

18. Their shops are the stalls on the roadside, ramshackle affairs, with blue plastic roofs.

19. Yes, there are Malays who have made good, but there are so few of them.

20. The Malays accepted that the Chinese dominate the economy.

21. They are very good in business.

22. The Malays cannot compete against them.

23. But in the past the Malays dominate the political arena and the administration.

24. So there was a balance.

25. But not now. Now the Chinese are also politically powerful.

26. And they intend to be even more powerful.

27. If they dominate the political arena also, what is there left for the Malays.

28. Is it wrong for the Malays to try to regain a little of their former political dominance.

29. Yes, they are striving for Malay unity.

30. It is not against the Chinese.

31. For over 60 years the Malays dominated the Government.

32. But it was during that time that the Chinese of Malaysia greatly prospered.

33. If the Malays regains the political power, the Chinese would still be neededto prosper the nation.

34. The country would still be a Malay country. It had always been a Malay country.

35. The population may be multiracial.

36. But it does not mean that this country has ceased to be a Malay country.

37. In other countries where migrants settle, they become assimilated.

38. The Malays made a concession to accommodate Chinese and Indians migrants.

39. They need not be assimilated upon gaining citizenship.

40. But that does not mean that the identity of this country must change.

41. By all means make money in Malaysia.

42. Build your super shopping towns.

43. But do not deprive the Malays of their country and their history.

44. Allow the Malays to have their share.

** This article was published in THE EDGE DAILY , May 10, 2021

1. Business people know well that keeping accounts when doing business is essential. It is the only way to know whether you are profitable or losing money.

2. When I was a boy, I was familiar with Malay padi farmers. They were friends of my mother. Off and on I would go to stay with the farmer’s family in Teluk Chengai. I and my brother had to walk on the muddy track, crossing little creeks on bridges of coconut tree trunks.

3. At night we would set short fishing rods along the bunds. Then next morning some of the rods had fresh water fish struggling after having swallowed the bait of little frogs.

4. The family was very poor. They had only about an acre of land to grow paddy. When I asked them how much they made in one year, they were unable to tell me. They clearly did not know how much they made.

5. I did not ask but it became obvious to me that they kept no records of any kind. Certainly, they had no account of their padi business. They seem to think that the whole of their harvest was their profit. They did not know how much effort and money they had put in to get their harvest.

6. I believe that this is the weakness among Malays when they do business of any kind. They keep no record of their costs and the returns they get.

7. Maybe things have changed now. But I suspect that many Malay small businesses keep no record of what they spend and what they make from their business.

8. I would like to suggest that elementary accounting be taught at all levels in the schools. In fact, if we can, even at the kindergarten level.

9. They need not learn anything complex. All they need is to record their expenditure on their business and their incomes. They might also add the value of the labour they themselves contribute. The items which should be included in their record of expenditure must be detailed in the lessons. And of course, the money that they earn in the course of doing business must be recorded.

10. Every month they should record the balance so as to bear in mind how well they are doing. Obviously if the monthly record shows their expenditure is more than their income, they should try to find out why. If the money is diverted to other things unrelated to the business, they should stop the practice.

11. It is well known that new entrepreneurs who had borrowed money often spend a portion of the loan on cars and briefcases. Others spend the money on entertainments and treating friends. Sometimes as much as 50% of the loan is used for non-business affairs.

12. What this means is that the interest that has to be paid for the 50% invested would be doubled. Doing business with 50% of the loan, to make money to pay on 100% of the borrowed would be extremely difficult if not impossible. And so the business fails.

13. Many Malays are from families whose parents are wage earners. The children are given pocket money to spend. How the money is earned is of no concern to the children. The money is always there.

14. This develops in the children a comfortable feeling. Money will always be there. This attitude is not good in adult life when money needs to be earned. And invariably the amount earned is not enough when money is spent without caring about what is earned.

15. With this attitude invariably the amount spent would exceed the amount earned. This is when resort is made to borrowings including from Along. The end is well known.

16. But if a habit of recording the money earned and spent, the person would become aware when he is overspending. Then he would stop or think hard before spending beyond his means.

17. With this, there will be less problem with money and with the likes of Along.

** This article was published in THE EDGE DAILY , May 3, 2021

1. Islam is the official religion of Malaysia. But the Constitution provides for other religions which can be practised freely.

2. Since Islam is the official religion, it is incumbent upon the Malaysian Government to provide Islamic religious education in schools. The idea is to make Muslims knowledgeable of their religion. For those who wish to become Islamic scholars special Islamic schools are provided right up to university level.

3. The curriculum for the religious classes are prepared by the religious scholars. Sometimes they become overzealous and want the students to have deep knowledge of Islam as if they are all going to be religious teachers and ulama’s.

4. Besides this they stress on the compulsory rituals that Muslims must follow. To this they add many rituals which are not compulsory. Some of these may not be in conformity with Islam.

5. The stress on the Islamic way of life is minimal. Yet Muslims like to point out that Islam is not just a religion but is also a way of life. This involve the dos and don’ts, the merit and demerit, the rights and wrongs, the permitted and the forbidden. Together they shape the way of life of the Muslims. If Muslims follow the way of life of Islam they should be successful in life.

6. But as we all know Muslims are not doing well. In Malaysia all Malays are Muslims but the majority of them are poor, not successful in business, and generally in life.

7. Malays are pious. They are seen to be performing their prayers, they fast, they pay zakat (tithes) and they perform the haj. They never neglect to affirm their faith in the one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is His Prophet (messenger).

8. But beyond that what they do in life is not in keeping with the teachings of Islam. If one reads the Quran in a language one understands, (Malay or English) one cannot help but notice that many of the injunctions are not followed by most Malays.

9. Enjoined to regard each other as brothers, we see them deeply divided. They are fond of accusing each other as not being Islamic, not being Muslims even. And politically they fight each other.

10. The Quran forbids Muslims from killing, especially of fellow Muslims. But Malays do get involve in wars fought in the Arab countries.

11. The Quran stresses repeatedly that when you judge you must uphold justice. But there are Malays who disregard justice when they propose that Muslims and non-Muslims be punished differently for the same crimes. For the crime of stealing, they prescribed chopping off the hand for Malays and two-month jail for non-Muslims. Is this just?

12. A woman who has been raped must produce four witnesses or she would be accused of false accusation and punished. Yet in the case of Yusuf and Zulaikha in the Quran, the fact that the shirt of Yusuf was torn at the back was accepted as evidence that it was Zulaikha who was chasing Yusuf even though there were no witnesses.

13. The Quran stresses that you must not cheat in business, that you must be good witness and uphold the truth and be trustworthy.

14. And there are many injunctions and advise in the Quran which would make Muslims good honest people who would be successful in life.

15. If the Malays are unsuccessful in life it is because they don’t follow the injunctions of the Quran. They don’t follow because they are not taught seriously to follow all the injunctions of the Quran or even some of them. They do not follow because normally their parents should teach them. But now both father and mother are working and have little time to raise their children the way advocated by Islam.

16. Since this is no longer possible, the schools must take over the task of instilling in Muslim children the value system of Islam which influences the way of life of Muslims.

17. It is therefore important for the educational authorities to re-examine the curriculum in schools. The best time to instill values is when the children are young. So the teaching of the Islamic values must begin in the kindergarten. Throughout school life the Muslim children must be taught and examined on Islamic values and the way of life of Muslims.

18. The teachers have to be retrained and new textbooks written based on the Quran and the verified hadiths.

19. Just as the early Muslims were able to build the great Islamic civilisation, so will modern Muslims achieve their renaissance and secure Islam, the Muslims, the Muslim nations from being insulted, oppressed and unable to protect themselves as enjoined in the Quran.

20. Malaysia has a chance to reform the teachings of Islam. We should do this now as we still have the capacity. We should teach Islamic values and the Islamic way of life as found in the Quran and the verified hadiths.

21. We must not leave the interpretation of Islam to the teachers alone. Even the great scholars are mere men, and they will be bias in keeping with the version of Islam in their communities.

22. There is only one Quran. It contains the messages of Allah to Muhammad for mankind. Although there are allegories which lend to different interpretations, most of the messages are direct and clear. We cannot go wrong if we follow the clear messages. Thus we cannot misunderstand the injunction for Muslims to regard each other as brothers, nor can we fail to understand that Islam forbids killing a man, be he a Muslim or a non-Muslims.

23. Having read the Quran many times in Malay and English, I feel sure that if Muslims follow the injunctions in the Quran they would uphold peace and brotherhood, avoid wars and be just in the governance of their countries.

1. Tourism is not doing well. How can it when the COVID-19 pandemic does not allow people to be close to each other; when the spread of the disease is due to people with early infection carry the disease to wherever they go.

2. I am glad that Malaysia has found a solution that will bring torrents of tourists to the country.

3. It is, I am told, by appointing a candidate who had lost in several elections and losing his deposit as well, to be a senator and making him a Deputy Minister for Tourism.

4. And we have no money. We have spent RM600 billion.

5. Congratulations.

** This article was published in THE EDGE DAILY , April 26, 2021

1. Teaching started orally. Then came writing and reading. Teaching became easier. This was followed by books written by experts.

2. All this while teaching depends on teachers. They guide the students, explaining, questioning and answering.

3. But today we have the technology for recording and playback. The teachings by the best teachers can be recorded and played back repeatedly, the whole lesson or parts of it. These can be shown on the screen or on the wall for the whole class to see. Graphs and diagrams can be shown. The expert teacher can explain every part of the lesson. The class teacher can guide, stop the video, reverse it, listen to the expert teachers explaining repeatedly through the recording. The whole lesson can be shown repeatedly and the explanations listened to.

4. The graphs and illustrations would be explained by the recording teacher. The illustrations will be graphic and animated. The picture can be exploded (enlarged) so as to show the parts and how they are put together to form the whole product. The class teacher need not be answering question or explain the whole lesson.

5. With a good teacher recording the lessons on video with illustrations and animation, all the students from all the schools in the country will get the benefit of being taught by the same teachers.

6. This sort of instructions are already available on our computer. You can learn anything you may be interested in. You can learn how to cook anything you like – Malay, Chinese, Italian, Indian, Western recipes. You can produce wood carvings, assemble an engine, take it to pieces, build a house, or an airplane, or a drone etc. etc. You can learn any language, hear the correct pronunciations, hear video characters talking and even answering questions. The recording can be interactive. Like the text-books, the lessons will be prepared by the best teachers and every student will get the benefit.

7. It is about time we switch to recorded video lessons produced by the best teachers in the country and abroad (for English language, science and mathematics in English).

8. Teachers in classrooms would still be needed. But their task is to guide the students as they follow the lessons on the screen prepared by the best teachers. There would be no difference caused by the varying skills of the different teachers as we find now. In fact, as the class teacher guides the students, he himself or herself would learn more. The problems faced or the reaction of the students can be noted by the class teacher and conveyed to the expert teachers who had prepared the lessons. Improvements or corrections can be made. And all the corrections can be put into the lessons for the whole country to benefit.

9. As with the Youtube application, the particular subject can be accessed by typing the desired word. The search would be simple for anything the class wants to know. You do not have to search as in a library. All you have to do would be to type the word.

10. This system is especially useful for teaching languages. For English there is no longer a need to find good teachers. The English language course is available now. One can learn English by following the course. However, I must admit that reading books is still very important for learning the English language. The more books you read the more will you master the way English is spoken. It is not about stringing words together correctly. It is about knowing the phrases the English speakers use.

11. Thus instead of saying “It is raining heavily” the English would say, “It is raining cats and dogs”. Time is expressed by saying “Much water has flowed under the bridge”.

12. When reading a novel, you will come across these phrases. You don’t have to memorise them. If you read a lot you will come across the correct phrases often during your reading. And you will remember them because you are familiar with them.

13. We need to change the way we teach. The new technology will make teaching and learning much easier. I hope Malaysia would think about this idea. Remember the text books. They are written by the best teachers. They help the class teachers to understand and to teach. The electronically recorded lessons prepared by the best teachers are even better than books.

14. We accepted books when they were introduced. We should now accept electronically recorded lessons because they are even better than books.

15. Actually, most of these has somewhat been “forced” upon us due to the pandemic.

16. It had to a degree propelled us to a modern and contemporary way of teaching.

17. All we need to do is to explore and update our methods and keep abreast with the rapidly changing technology.

1. There is something wrong with agriculture in Malaysia. Even after independence we still have locals owning small uneconomic land holdings. The British were granted huge forest land to clear and grow rubber and later oil palm.

2. The great British companies developed huge estates of tens of thousands of acres. They were run by experienced estate managers. The labourers were imported from India. They did very well indeed.

3. Seeing their success the locals began to plant rubber and later oil palm. But their holdings were small, generally about two or three acres. They tended their small farms by themselves, confining themselves to only one crop.

4. Naturally they did not do well. With such small holdings and without professional managers, they could hardly make ends meet.

5. The Government responded with advice and subsidies. But the problems of the small holders remained.

6. What everyone should have noticed was that we needed large estates to do well. Small holdings cannot be efficient or economic. This is obvious. But we make no attempt to correct. Also we did not think of mix farming to mitigate down turns.

7. It is time that we acknowledge these mistakes and correct them. Firstly we need to make the holdings big. How do we do this. The obvious answer is to amalgamate the small holdings so as to have a big enough estate.

8. Landowners will not like it. But models of large estates of, say, a thousand acres should be developed by Mardi or some private enterprise. The thousand acres should be managed by trained farm managers with local labour.

9. Next identify a suitable main crop. e.g. rubber or oil palm. Only one third of the land should be planted with the main crop.

10. The rest of the land should be planted with vegetable, quick fruiting fruit trees such as melons etc, other fruit trees such as pineapple, durian, guava etc. A fish pond for tropical fresh water fish, goats and maybe two dozen heads of cattle.

11. At any one time there should be something to sell. The produce can be sold locally or an exporter can collect from all the farms the products for packaging and export.

12. The landowners should get a share equivalent to the size of their land from the profits made. They can choose to work or just enjoy the profits.

13. The universities should train farm managers. Once we have demonstrated the profitability of large farms and mix farming, the small holders would be more willing to have their small holdings amalgamated to form farms of a thousand acres or more.

14. Ownership of the land should remain with the land owners. They should retain their grants to assure them that they have not been expropriated.

15. There may be other ideas. But this proposal should be given a try. We import RM60 billion of vegetables a year. This project will not only secure our supply of vegetable but would save a lot of foreign exchange.

16. Today rural poverty is a fact of life. It is largely due to the wrong agricultural practice. It is time that we change. I am proposing this change.

** This article was originally published in THE EDGE DAILY , April 12, 2021

1. Apa lebih sedap dari dapat duit buta.

2. Itulah ajaran Cikgu Najib.

3. Tak payah kerja, cuma pangkah saja, dapat duit.

4. Lompat – lagi banyak duit. Rakyat pilih Kerajaan. Penyangak beli wakil pilihan rakyat.

5. More duit buta. Belum jadi wakil rakyat tak ada harga.

6. Oleh itu bertanding dalam PRU. Menang. Parti pun menang. Jadi Kerajaan.

7. Harga wakil rakyat Kerajaan naik melambung.

8. Fikir. Dari seorang yang tak ada seduit pun ditawar lima million Ringgit jika sanggup lompat.

9. Bodohlah kalau tak lompat. Sesungguhnya politik lebih cepat kaya dari berniaga.

10. Boleh jadi sampai Perdana Menteri.

11. Pendapatan naik, peluang rasuah – banyak duit lagi.

12. Apa jadi pada maruah. Itu biar kepada orang lain.

13. Biar mereka bersyarah, biar mereka mengeluh.

14. Datang PRU – mereka pun jual undi. Jadi wakil rakyat jual bangsa, jual negara, jual agama.

15. Politik lebih untung dari berniaga.

16. Tak payah buat apa. Duit buta datang bercurah.

17. Sedap sungguh duit buta.