Chapter 9: Institutions Matter

Tropical Climate

Malaysia’s hot humid climate is a bummer. Nothing much can get done as the afternoon heat saps one’s energy. The colonialists attributed the listlessness of the natives to the oppressive heat. Only mad dogs and Englishmen would dare venture out during the day; others knew better.

Air-conditioning makes life in the tropics bearable. Working in a climate-controlled environment, whether it is the office, laboratory, or cab of a tractor certainly boosts one’s productivity.

The tropical climate however does offer many compensating advantages. Unlike in temperate zones where homes and buildings must have both heating and cooling systems, thus doubling the costs of constructing, operating, and maintenance, in Malaysia you would have to deal only with cooling and ventilation. Malaysian architects and designers have yet to come to terms with this reality. They still design in the traditional fashion of the tropics: high ceilings, porous walls, and many large windows. That was fine in the pre air-conditioning era. Today those high ceilings create unnecessary air volume that has to be cooled.

Designers in the temperate zones make full use of the positions of the sun, placing huge windows in south-facing walls to get maximal exposure of the southern sun in winter. Malaysian architects rarely consider such factors. We see huge non-insulated glass windows facing the west, and getting blasted by the hot afternoon’s setting sun.

I once asked an architect whether there are building codes in Malaysia specifying that glass windows especially those facing the west should be insulated or coated to reflect the sun. There are none. One sure and quick sign of power fail during the day (when you cannot tell from the light being off) is to see the windows on office towers being opened. With no air conditioning, those buildings with their expansive glass panes quickly become ovens under the blazing Malaysian sun.

The tropical climate means that construction can go year round, thus reducing carrying costs. The tourist season too is year round; there is no down season. In July, Malaysia is the warm weather destination for the Australians; in December for the Europeans and Japanese. Malaysian resorts do not have low or off-season rates; they charge the same high tariffs year round. In the Caribbean, the off-season summer rates can be as low as 50 percent off the high winter charges.

Malaysian roads are not subjected to the extremes of temperatures, and as such have lower maintenance costs. Damage to Malaysian roads occurs through erosions and flooding, and those could be mitigated with proper drainage. Malaysia does not have to expend vast sums for snow removal.

Had Malaysia paid close attention to its forests, there would be minimal soil erosions that would silt the rivers and reservoirs, thus reducing their capacity. That in turn would reduce the flooding, as well as ensure an adequate supply of clean water.

The hot stifling climate is a ready excuse for many things. Malaysia is planning a half billion rinngit sports complex in London in the belief that its athletes could benefit from cool weather training. A similar excuse was made to explain the intellectual lethargy of our students. One does have to go to expensive London to escape the heat. Built the sports complex and a university at Cameron Highlands or Frazer Hill, and you would get the same cooling effect and save the nation a bundle of money. Of course such a sensible solution would preclude senior government officials from undertaking their frequent foreign junkets.

Maritime Nation

Malaysia has endless miles of coastline and beaches bathed with warm, clear waters. Even where the shoreline is not sandy but muddy with groves of mangroves, that too is a blessing. Those mangroves are effective barriers against coastal erosion; they also serve as excellent habitats for fish and other marine life.

The mangrove trunk makes excellent scaffolding material for construction. Prudently harvested and it would continue to replenish itself and provide endless supply of material. Wantonly cut, and it would be rapidly depleted and expose our shores to destructive erosions and destroy nature’s many life forms. The greatest value for Malaysia’s beaches is as desirable tourists’ destinations for residents of cold countries. They would come, but only if those beaches are clean, the waters unpolluted, and there are services to cater for their holiday needs.

Dubai is in the barren desert, but tourism is now its major revenue source, soon to eclipse petroleum. In Malaysia, tourism is now second (if only a distant second) to manufacturing as a foreign exchange earner. Tourism’s potential is great but has yet to be fully tapped.

With people getting more affluent and international travels more affordable, tourism will be become an even greater industry. Malaysia already has the necessary ingredients and resources, thanks to its geography, but it would have to do a lot more to equip its people with the necessary skills to service this important sector. To develop the leisure boat market and make sailing and boating as mainstream recreational activities, Malaysians must be trained as sailing instructors, boat repairers, and other skills and services.

Then we have to make sure that we do not spoil our beaches and seas by treating them as dumps. It sickens me to see our rivers polluted, emptying its rubbish-laden waters into the seas. It is criminal that factories and municipalities could empty their raw sewage directly into rivers and seas. Our beaches are beautiful only from afar; up close it is strewn with filth from uncollected trash. We have beautiful and valuable assets in our beaches, but we do not treasure and treat them as such.

Again, Malaysia can learn a lot from other countries on how to maintain its coastlines and rivers. California has a state commission that regulates any building or activity within 100 feet of its coastlines.5 Its rulings override municipal, state or even federal jurisdictions. It has done much to maintain the pristine nature of California’s coastline. That is an even more valuable resource than the oil underneath its shoreline.

Similarly, there are statutes governing development along rivers and streams. I have two creeks through my property yet I cannot put a culvert or build a bridge across without permission from the authorities. Wells and septic leach fields must not be within a certain distance from those streams.

Only with such care could our valuable rivers, coastlines and environment be preserved for the enjoyment of all. That is also the only way to treat nature, and if we do that it would also give us valuable economic dividends and bounty to our people.

Next: Our Valuable Rain Forests

SEEING IT MY WAY

Malaysiakini.com September 4, 2008

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

The result of the recent Permatang Pauh by-election was a surprise only to those who depended on the mainstream media and the government’s massive propaganda machinery for their source of news and information.

A measure of how far detached from reality those who sit in the editorial suites of our mainstream papers can be gauged by the pre-election editorial of The New Straits Times where its Editor-in-Chief Syed Nadzri boldly predicted that Anwar would be defeated. Obviously Syed Nadzri was beginning to believe his own spin.

In coming to such a wildly off-the-mark conclusion, Syed Nadzri is either a lousy observer of the public mood or he is more concerned with sucking up to his political superiors. In either case, he does not deserve to be the custodian of such a valuable and essential institution of modern society.

To me Syed Nadzri is both. That he is a poor judge of the public mood can be seen by the ever declining circulation and influence of his paper. Syed Nadzri is only the latest in a long series of those who, through their lack of professional integrity and journalistic skills, have destroyed this once-valued brand name. As one naughty wag put it, that paper should now be more correctly called, The New S**t Times.

It pains me to note (what is obvious to all) that since the paper was acquired by UMNO, nearly all its senior editors and journalists are Malays. I refuse to believe that a Just Allah had not bequeathed upon the Malay race our fair share of talent. I also refuse to believe that past luminaries like the now-ailing Samad Ismail was an accidental fluke and not the trademark of our culture. He should be an inspiration for the present generation of journalists, a measure of what we are capable of producing.

Instead we have the likes of Syed Nadzri, individuals more adept at sucking up to their superiors. Syed Nadzri has obviously learned little from the fate and experiences of his many predecessors who were similarly afflicted. While such a trait may have facilitated their ascent to the top, once there it is no guarantee of career longevity.

Syed Nadzri should have learned, or somebody should have taught him, that while political winds and personalities may change, your professional duties and ideals do not. Yours is to ensure that the public be well informed, the prerequisite of a healthy, functioning democracy.

The slow but sure decline of The New Straits Times was interrupted only briefly when Abdullah Ahmad, a former Ambassador to the UN and a Mahathir appointee, took the helm. He survived but only briefly under Abdullah Badawi. At least Abdullah Ahmad left in a blaze of glory, having had the courage to speak his mind publicly.

As I look at its roster of past Editors-in-Chief, I am struck at how quickly they, with few exceptions, have descended into oblivion once deprived of their perch at the editor’s desk. Kadir Jasin has his widely-read blog where he gives the occasional pungent comments now that he is freed from the tethers of officialdom. Again remarkable because of the rarity, Abdullah Ahmad is one of the few editors whose writings have been respectable enough to appear in reputable foreign publications.

The New Generation of Pseudo Journalists

My observations apply equally to those who helm Bernama, RTM and TV Tiga, as well as the other mainstream papers like The Star, Berita Harian, and Utusan Melayu. What we have today is a generation of pseudo or pretend editors and journalists. Ever wonder why the public ignores them? They have betrayed the public’s trust in them.

It is instructive that Ahiruddin Atan, Noraini Samad and Kadir Jasin now reach more readers through their blogs than when they were with the mainstream papers! It would not be long before they would effectively overcome the blemish in their resume that was the time they spent with the mainstream media.

I would be irresponsible if I were to stop here, pointing out only the problems and not offering solutions.

One thing is clear. The present “leaders” in journalism are very much part of the problem. Having brought up and flourish under the present system, we cannot expect them to change, or be part of the solution. Getting rid of them would be a necessary first step to solving the problem.

Replace them with competent and established editors from abroad if need be, and tie their compensation to the success of their papers. There are many measures of this (circulation figures, advertising revenues) but an important one would be how often articles and commentaries in their paper are being picked up by other publications.

Additionally, I would have as a regular event an annual week-long continuing education series for our reporters, journalists and commentators where they would hear from the leading practitioners in their respective fields. I would invite established journalists from abroad in various fields (political reporting, economic analyses, and investigative journalism) to lecture and share their experiences.

I would include as part of the program a basic writing course as well as courses on effective interviewing. Even more basic, I would gather all the editors, and guided by a competent teacher of English grammar and stylist, craft a uniform editorial format on such things how to handle long names and honorifics, as well such simple things as standardized spelling. Is it Kota Baru or Kota Bharu?

While we are discussing the basics, I would have someone competent in mathematics to teach our reporters and journalists on the meaning and significance of numbers. Then we would not have such silly statements as, “The price of food increased 5 percent last month.” Is that 5 percent over the previous month or over the same month of the previous year. Percentage is a ratio; you must therefore state the reference point.

Then as a concrete commitment to ensuring the future quality of the profession, I would groom at least half a dozen young journalists every year for entry into the leading journalism schools in America. With the promise of future infusions of fresh, bright and well-trained talents, rest assured the quality of local journalism and media would be enhanced considerably.

Only through such careful preparations and nurturing would our future journalists be able to differentiate between news and propaganda, between ministerial speeches and important policy announcements. Our society would then be well served. Journalists owe their readers and the public honest professional reporting, not propaganda to serve the needs of their political masters. This is what separates a free democratic society from an authoritarian state.

Chapter 9: Institutions Matter

Malaysia has many favorable geographic attributes. They will remain so only if we treat them as such and nurture them accordingly. While we may not be able to alter the other less-than-favorable geographic realities (except in a limited fashion as with draining a swamp or channeling the course of a river), we can modify and adapt our cultural attitude towards them.

Those towering monsoon swells that strike such terror in the hearts of the villagers in Trengganu may well be heaven on earth to surfers and whitewater sailors. There may not be much tourist dollars to be had from those youthful backpacking surfers, but Malaysia is trying hard to attract their affluent parents by organizing sailing regattas. The Mahkota regatta on the west coast is fast attracting sailors from all over the world. The government is attempting to have the sailors’ equivalent of the Formula I at Pulau Duyong, Trengganu, the Monsoon Cup. Its inaugural regatta scheduled for late 2006 is already attracting big-name sailors.

Sailing has not caught on with the youth or elite in Malaysia. With growing affluence the sports will soon become mainstream, as seen in Singapore and Hong Kong.

The waters off Pulau Perhentian may still harbor its hantu, but if we could teach those folks to be dive masters, boat operators, tour guides, and sailing instructors, those hantu would leave them alone and the hitherto poor villagers could now earn a good living from the sea. After all there is such a concept as a friendly hantu in Malay mythology.

As indicated earlier, Cancun was once a poor fishing village; today it is a major tourist destination, with former fishermen now working in hotels and resorts or as sports fishermen guides. The geographic facts of Cancun have not changed, only the attitude and values the Mexicans have of the place. Southeastern United States was once the backwaters of the nation. With air conditioning and the building of levees, marinas and waterways, those waterfront properties are now premium. Similarly, the desert Southwest, once the home of gila monsters and rattlesnakes, are today desirable winter vacation spots. The geography has not changed; what has is the attitude towards those geographic factors.

I will consider Malaysia’s four favorable geographical factors: location, tropical climate, maritime nature, and the rain forests, and how best to leverage those advantages.

Location, Location, Location

Malaysia is located roughly midway between Europe and Australia, and between Europe and the Far East. As real estate professionals readily attest, location is everything.

With air transportation now becoming important, developing an airport is a wise investment. KLIA is a superb facility; it could compete with Singapore’s Changi and Thailand’s new airport. KLIA already has a great head start in having a lower cost structure. Combined with superb services, it would give the region’s airports stiff competition. Low cost is important but not enough in itself; besides, Thailand’s proposed new airport would also have that.

Improving services cannot be achieved merely by wishing it. Those running KLIA must be well trained; their executives must be sent to good management schools for formal training, not those mini (culup) courses. Additionally, we should send them to work at other leading airports to see how they are being run. This is necessarily a slow process. When we send our executives abroad to the best schools, there is no guarantee that when they return, they would not revert to their old bad habits or acquire new equally bad ones from their entrenched superiors.

One sure and fast way to transfer “soft” skills like management expertise would be to invite established companies to run KLIA. Arrange the management contract such that they would benefit directly from the increased businesses and suffer the consequences if they do not improve the revenue.

Malaysia made a great leap forward in privatizing KLIA, but its operators were a local entity with no experience or competence. Malaysia should instead open the tender process and invite bids from experienced operators. If that means foreigners so what, at least the locals could benefit from the diffusion of management expertise and other skills. Presently KLIA is a private enterprise only in name, in culture it is still like any government agency.

One way to increase volume and revenue would be to offer part equity ownership to a major carrier, passenger or freight. Fed Ex already owns and operates a major facility in the Philippines. There is nothing stopping Malaysia from approaching other entities like UPS. This is the strategy the Port of Johore is successfully pursuing; it lets foreign shippers like Evergreen have an ownership stake and with it, its businesses that hitherto been going to Singapore.

Running airports and ports are new ventures; they are not usually seen as commercial enterprises. Many Third World nations consider their airlines less as a commercial entity and more as a national prestige. Their mission is less at providing a service or bringing in revenue and more showing of the flag. This is one reason why Malaysia Airlines is bleeding money.

I could not care less who owns KLIA and Malaysia Airlines as long as they provide superior and profitable services. There is no reflected glory if natives were to run or own them but do a lousy job. KLIA right now is plagued with pilferage problems, lax security, and low efficiency. Those are the surest ways to drive away customers.

United Emirate Airlines is a new player and yet it is now one of the best. Its Arab owners have broken the traditional Third World mentality and secured the best talent to run their enterprise. As there are few Arabs with the skills and experience, the airline has not hesitated in recruiting foreigners. Likewise with Dubai World Port; it is now managing some of the biggest ports in the world. Those enlightened Arabs are not at all bothered that many of the executives and senior personnel are foreigners. Malaysians should also have the same attitude; emphasizing competence over nationality.

With increasing affluence and sailing fast becoming mainstream, seaside towns like Malacca, Port Dickson and Johore Baru could have marinas catering to affluent boat owners from the region. Visit a marina in Los Angeles and we have boat owners from thousands of miles away. Langkawi is proving that marinas can be a thriving industry. Small coastal communities in California that once hosted local fishermen are now finding lucrative new businesses serving the leisure boat market. For that to happen in Malaysia, our seas and beaches must remain clean and attractive. Those hitherto fishermen would have a better chance of earning a decent living manning those marinas than with fishing in their old inefficient ways. Of course they have to be properly trained. That should be the focus, not on maintaining some mystical dream of the traditional lifestyle.

Next: Tropical Climate