the bodoh malaysia!

by now many bloggers have known of this article by michael backman of the age, australia and had talked about it, refer to it, posted the whole article or the link. now i’m jumping in the bandwagon. since it is a damn good article that expressed the sentiments of most of us, gotta post it here.

hmm… i wonder sooner or later, will we read of some UMNOputera MPs jumping up and down making noises at this article and hurl names at michael backman? or you know saying sutffs like he is a foreigner, what does he knows about malaysia, he has no right to criticise malaysia, he must mind his own business and so on.

i am not going to post the whole article here but only produce some excerpts here. remember to click on the link to read the whole article ‘while malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry’ by michael backman, ok?

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The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.

Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese.

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Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russian rocket – the first Malay in space. And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3 million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science and Technology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight.

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It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space when Malaysia’s inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics.

That’s not Malaysia “boleh”, that’s Malaysia “bodoh” (stupid).

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link to this article when the original link here expired:

beritamalaysia

mental jog extra