> Yup, cronies come in all races and creed. Has nothing to do with having
> to be a Malay person in order to become a minister's crony.
>
> Ok, so back to your subject title of affirmative action. It's misused in
> Malaysia, do you agree ? Now what would you do, if you were in the
> position to address this issue ?
1. Give campaigns on "following rules". Malaysians just love to break
all rules. Corruption and misuses are just a manifestation of the
culture of the society.
Many businessmen in Malaysia, proudly proclaims that the only way to
succeed in business is through corruption. When confronted with the
Singapore and Brunei cases, I'm ridiculed of being too naive.
Some even argue that Malaysia is different so normal rules do not
apply. Rules about inflation and monetary policies, and even
engineering practises. The trouble is, they don't have any rule
themselves. The trouble with not following any rule at all is that, we
cannot determine what had been done and therefore cannot make a
thorough analysis.
All rules are not static. They have to be changed with time,but all
these must be documented so that we can monitor the effectiveness of
each rule and reason why they behave the way it was.
2. If some rules are rotten, then request for changes. Unfortunately
Malaysians frown on giving ideas. They view it as giving away secrets
and some even view as insulting.
There should be a way to encourage Malaysians to contribute ideas and
be rewarded for them. Many people question me as to what I can achieve
by giving ideas. Actually many of my ideas were implemented:
A. Internet was my idea. Jaring was initially set up as uucp network
only. Of course, I'm not the only one giving ideas, but I was one of
the few who emailed Awanglah directly with these ideas. He used to
joke with me about KA9Q protocol, but recently, I noticed that Windows
Internet protocols owe a lot to Ka9q.
B. ADSL(Streamyx) was my idea that I posted in this newgroup. Within a
few weeks, Mahathir made the order to TM to introduce ADSL, or
broadband, quoting my exact phrase, "although it is not profitable
now, ...".
The coincidence is just too much. Either Mahathir reads newsgroups, or
someone had forwarded the comments to him, or someone reading this
newsgroup, had forwarded to their respective political or lobby
groups, to be forwarded to the PM.
The latest one was a suggesting for the coast guard equivalent for
Malaysia that I sent through the PM(Abdullah)'s suggestion website.
Also implemented within weeks of me sending these ideas.
Unfortunately I was not even recognised for giving these ideas.
Someone could have stolen my ideas but it does not matter to me,
because we need someone else to develop these ideas, someone closer to
the establishments.
Still, we must encourage people to reward those who give ideas by
giving certificates, at least, or even better cash rewards, and it
should not be restricted who give complete ideas. Partial ideas should
be rewarded as well, because without partial ideas, subsequent
developments will not be possible.
It is due to the lack of respect for Malaysians for Intellectual
Property Rights. Plagiarism is an accepted way of life, when actually
it is equivalent to stealing. We don't lose much by refraining from
plagiarism except our pride which is false anyway and sooner or later
will be detected anyway.
Plagiarism is very different from outright copying, but is even worse.
Copying is usually accepted because it is part of learning but to
pretend that it originates from you is plagiarism. What is difficult
or costly about identifying the originators of ideas or articles or
information? Virtually nothing, but the impact can be very great, the
difference between success or failure of entire nations.
3. Increase the salaries of enforcement officers and people with
powers, such as Ministers and Mayors.
You may say that it rewards crooked people but actually it will
encourage honest people to join and compete for these posts.
If salaries of these posts are so low, honest people will know for
sure that they will not make ends meet and therefore will look for
better paying jobs that do not tempt them with illegal activities.
Dishonest people will fight for these power jobs because they know
that they can get much better side income.
This had been implemented in Singapore and it is very successful.
This is difficult in Malaysia because we have a low regard for labour.
WE are proud in exploiting fellow human beings by paying them so
little, but in the end, we will lose all our talented people.
If we pay our craftsmen better, we will encourage them to improve and
retain those skills.
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