Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Cinatocrasy: The Battle of Affirmative Action against the Bamboo Network and Resource Mobility in a Globalised Economy

This post is dedicated to the late Bro Wah Al Subangi who was the first to comment in my Kasut Atas Kepala Post
"A Graph paints A Thousand Words......
This post also draws from the discussion between Bro hishamh, jitu, isa, maju and aku in the post....

Guess what folks....today monkey gonna paint again....

Actually this painting was done immediately after I wrote the Social Capital post in June 2010 but I decided not to make it public just yet.........need to find the right timing for the issue to be debated at the National Level..

That moment came when some "expert" from WorldBank came up with sweeping statement based on "Survey" of 200 Malaysians last week

NEP,brain drain holding back Malaysia,says World Bank
KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — More than one million Malaysians live abroad, the World Bank said today, adding that policies favouring Malays are holding back the economy, causing a brain drain and limiting foreign investment.

In a Bloomberg news service report today, World Bank senior economist Philip Schellekens was also quoted as saying that foreign investment could be five times the current levels if the country had Singapore’s talent base.
“Migration is very much an ethnic phenomenon in Malaysia, mostly Chinese but also Indian,” Schellekens (picture) told Bloomberg in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday ahead of the report’s release today.
Governance issues and lack of meritocracy are “fundamental constraints” to Malaysia’s expansion because “competition is what drives innovation,” he said.
Malaysia’s growth fell to an average 4.6 per cent a year in the past decade, from 7.2 per cent the previous period.
Singapore, which quit Malaysia in 1965, expanded 5.7 per cent in the past decade and has attracted more than half of its neighbour’s overseas citizens, according to the World Bank.
Malaysia has in recent years unveiled plans to improve skills and attract higher value-added industries.
The World Bank conducted an online survey in February of 200 Malaysians living abroad in conjunction with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
They cited better career prospects, social injustice and higher wages as their main reasons for leaving, the Washington-based lender said in the Bloomberg report.
Singapore has absorbed 57 per cent of Malaysia’s overseas citizens, with almost 90 per cent of those crossing the border ethnic Chinese, the World Bank said.
If Malaysia has the investment environment of Singapore and also had the innovation and skills environment of Singapore, then foreign direct investment inflows into Malaysia could be about five times larger,” Schellekens said in the Bloomberg report.
“They need to boost productivity and strengthen inclusiveness.”

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has pledged to roll back the country’s NEP-style policies but he also told the Umno assembly last year that the government’s social contract of providing benefits to Bumiputeras cannot be repealed.
According to the Bloomberg report, Najib has eased some rules to woo funds, including scrapping a requirement that foreign companies investing in Malaysia and locally listed businesses set aside 30 per cent of their Malaysian equity for indigenous investors. Last year, he unveiled an economic transformation programme under which the government identified US$444 billion (RM1.3 trillion) of projects from mass rail transit to nuclear power that it would promote in the current decade.
“If everything is implemented as they say, Malaysia is going to be a star economy,” Schellekens told Bloomberg. “The problem is implementation.” Source here 

For the Full WorldBank analysis go here

In real life monkey deals with WorldBank and the IMF regularly on behalf of a G20 Country.....I know how they operate....and in many face to face Senior Policy level meetings monkey have sent them back to the drawing board with their tail in between their legs.......

I shall begin today based on my own experiences being part of the Malaysia Diaspora....

Malaysia! You pay peanuts you get MONKEYS.....

To illustrate the magnitude of the issue refer below.......

Data sourced from here and here

Add the factor of Income Tax Differential between Malaysia and Singapore......lagi la barai.....

These are just some examples.....if you include the Industry (Finance) that I'm in......hancus..........

That part you don't even have to go to Singapore.....compare the Payscale of Local Vs Foreign Banks in Malaysia.......parah nak mampus

I don't think that I need to go into details with regard to the subject....everybody knows that Malaysians are severely under-paid

Now why the complaint when everybody in the World already accepts the Globalisation of Resources?

If you can make it in the Global arena....why not?

Now to the question of why Ethnic Chinese from Malaysia likes to go to Singapore as per WorldBank observation....

Overall, the Singapore Government’s immigration strategy rests on a policy combination that aims to balance the constraints between achieving the country’s longer-term goals of industrial-upgrading and technological change on the one hand, and, on the other, maintaining competitiveness in the shorter term (Manning and Bhatnagar 2006). This policy combination is closely integrated into national development strategy through an elaborate arrangement of migrant levies on lower-skilled workers, incentives for highly skilled professionals, and strict regulation of these policies through a quota system (Kaur 2007). At the same time the state has adopted a nation-building strategy based on multiracialism to safeguard the rights of racial, linguistic and religious minorities in Singapore (Chan 1991: 159).

As outlined in Singapore’s Manpower 21 Report (which saw the Ministry of Labour renamed the Ministry of Manpower), augmentation of the national labour force with foreign labour is a key element in the country’s economic plans and policies for the foreseeable future. The six core strategies listed include: Integrated Manpower Planning; Lifelong Learning for Lifelong Employability; Augmenting the Talent Pool; Transforming the Work Environment; Developing a Vibrant Manpower Industry; and Harnessing Collective Energies. Further, 

Singapore has always leveraged on foreign manpower at all levels to enhance our economic growth. The employment of foreign manpower is deliberate strategy to enable us to grow beyond what our indigenous resources can produce. As we transit to a knowledge economy, we need to ensure that our manpower augmentation policies remain relevant and effective. Go here "Migration Matters in the Asia-Pacific Region:Immigration Frameworks, Knowledge Workers and National Policies"
To understand further we must look at the Historical Perspective of Singapore Immigration policy

Singapore's immigration policy since independence has been described as one that tries to maximise the economic benefits of immigration while minimising its social and economic costs (Pang 1992). Besides the immigrants' potential contributions to the economy, an early thrust has also been to selectively open its doors to people from countries that bore cultural similarity to the local population. Hence, recruitment was initially permitted only from "traditional" sources, essentially Malaysia, but this has had to be widened as labour needs continued to expand. At present, the search for skilled workers and professionals has extended world-wide although the sources for recruitment of unskilled foreign workers remain confined largely to the Asian region.
Depending on their skills levels, the terms and conditions for foreigners to work or stay in Singapore differ substantially. Skilled workers, professionals and entrepreneurs are encouraged to take up permanent residence and citizenship may be granted after two to ten years of residence (Social Integration Management Service 1994). Unskilled foreign workers, on the other hand, are permitted to work only for limited time periods, after which they are expected to return home. Selective immigration of persons who can contribute economically is not a new or recent policy in Singapore. This policy was apparently adopted by the British administrators in charge of Singapore from as early as 1953 (Arumainathan 1973).
Source: Migration Issues in the Asia Pacific: ISSUES PAPER FROM SINGAPORE go here

Wah lau weh........

"Cultural Similarity" to Local Population.....

Cakap lu orang practise "Meritocracy".....

Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open. -Lord Thomas Dewer