I would like to believe there is an honest politician, its kind of like believing that prostitutes ply their trade because they enjoy it. What’s common between the two is that money always passes hands. It’s hard to believe there is an incorruptible politician because politics by its very nature is corrupt. I think some of the opposition members came to understand this the hard way when there was a line of people waiting outside their service centre asking for money,to pay the bills,favours to get licenses etc. Here lies the challenge, if you can’t even help your constituents obtain licenses, pay their bills . . . generally help them through life, what good are you? You’d probably lose the next election. So imagine the temptation when someone tells you that they’ll help your constituents and yourself, given your tireless work, if you’d push this tender in their direction. Even if you didn’t solicit it, they’d be someone in the office that would have because at the end of it all you’re helping business along to help the constituents. The start of the slippery slope.

“In 2004, the total cost of all robberies in the United States was $525million and the average loss from a single robbery was about $1,300 but consider this, every year,employee’s theft and fraud  at the workplace are estimated at about $600 billion, more than 1000X. There’s more, the IRS estimates a loss of $350 billion per year representing the gap between what the feds think people should pay in taxes and what they do pay”.  (Source: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely) In Malaysia, the newspaper talks about snatch thieves and the tragedy that befall families that borrow from loan sharks. This obviously raised a lot of concerns and real action were being taken by the police force and the government including putting more policemen on the streets to make our streets and homes safer. Horray, great effort, hopefully we’re starting to feel safer already.

Recently the auditor’s general report was published about  “wastage” in the public sector. This is no difference from robbery and thievery, except no one seems to get caught.  I would not be surprised that the loss caused by the crooks on the civil service’s payroll has cost us 1000X more than the snatch thieves and even the loan sharks. I would also not be surprised if very little of the money is recovered and very few of the culprits caught. What is more, I doubt many of the Rakyat would be as incensed by corrupt civil servants as they are with snatch thieves. Why?

I offer a couple of theories on this. Firstly I think this is similar to a bystander syndrome. It’s documented that if a crime were to occur in a densely populated area, the probability of the victim being helped drops dramatically compared if it’s in an isolated area, where only 1 or two people hear the cries for help. Strange but true. In typical Malaysian fashion, most people would prefer to let someone else deal with it but if there is only one or two people, they would have to answer to their conscience if help was not extended. Similarly, when a crime occurs in the public service, it affects everyone but we all think its someone elses problem to solve and hence if everyone ends up being responsible to bring the perpetrators to justice, no one does.

The second theory is that this doesn’t directly affect us. Using Senator Al Gore’s example, corruption is like a pot of hot water that is slowly turned up and we’re the frog that eventually dies inside. And it’s happening already people. Corruption, thievery by civil servants is the root cause of why public infrastructures collapse, literally.  In some instances this occurred when people were not around but recently children have died. The contractor will take the blame, yes but what about the officials who asked him for money to approve the tender, what about the officials who needed money for licenses, who signed of on a dodgy bridge? What of them? The reality is that this affects all of us, we all pay for it.

Finally, perhaps we’ve all accepted that politicians and the whole public sector governance is corrupt and will always be so. We try to accept the inevitable and move on with our lives. Resigned to the fact that the world is the way it is and there is nothing we can do to change it. 

Whilst, I think the first two theories have its merits, the third is meant to be slightly rhetorical. I remember on March 08,2008 we the people finally pushed back, finally we gave voice to our frustrations, our disappointments and we wanted ,no, we demanded change. For once I saw hope that we the people, the Rakyat would not go gently into the night. Yes, there are still disappointments with the opposition party. Yes, corruption hasn’t been solved. We can’t expect many decades of rot to disappear in the morning light. Yes, we fight, fight against the dying of the light and when it comes time to vote again, let’s all vote against corruption.

Good men, don’t stand on by, cry out what is right
Their frail deeds might have danced to a better day,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who were caught and now in flight,
Do not let us learn too late, and go their way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Brave men, near death, who see with blinding light
Blind eyes could blaze the evil of the day,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my Father of infinite light
bless us now with Your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Evil prospers when good men do nothing. If we think Malaysia needs to change, we need to step up and do something, rage, rage against the dying of the light of decency, integrity and unity.

In typical Malaysian fashion, a small upstart of a restaurant fended off McDonald, a symbol of the American excess and arrogance. In a moment to remember, our courts ruled “Mc” boleh use. No more kow towing to the western imperialist. We now join the dubious ranks of developed and developing nations with a healthy trademark row.

Our curries are now global, with this precedence being reported in the Wall Street Journal and BBC news. Forget 1Malaysia, McMalaysia would have had more coverage and mileage ”Mc” in this case standing for My country Malaysia instead of Malaysian chicken curry. 

McCurry holds itself out to be the first Indian fast food outlet in Kuala Lumpur. Makes one wonder whether the owner will now start pushing his luck and start selling McCurry meals with a Big Masala, Smiley Meals and start a global franchise. You can almost hear the staff asking “would you like dhal with that?”. Next an ad campaign “I liking it”.

Two interesting points about this case, this ruling overturns a previous ruling in 2006, “where the learned judge  . . . erred is to assume that McDonald’s had a monopoly on the use of the prefix “Mc” . . .” 

First point, in my simple layman’s mind, I suppose this means I can now open fast food restaurants selling McNasi Lemak (Malaysian Curry Nasi Lemak),  McNoodles(Malaysian Chicken Noodles), McDonuts (Malaysian’s Choice Donuts) and McA (Malaysian Chinese Assam – run the risk of being sued by MCA). Great! I hope someone else goes out and tries to open a KFC House  (Kassim’s Fish Curry House) or a Pizza House, make it a Pizza Mansion coz why have a hut when you can have an RM20.1 million mansion in Shah Alam which is supposed to only cost RM3 million . . . opps that’s another story).

Second point. McDonald’s franchise in Malaysia is owned by billionaire Tan Sri Vincent Tan who is linked to the VK Lingam case which caused a loss of confidence in the independence of the judiaciary and helped the opposition party come in to power in several states in Malaysia. Perhaps this was a little payback for the “it looks like me, talks like me sounds like me but its not me” where in this case the judiciary is saying “it looks like McDonalds, talks like McDonalds, sounds like McDonalds but its not McDonalds”. There is justice in this world after all.

All this talk of food makes me hungry. I think tomorrow, I’ll walk into McCurry, order take away, hopefully they’ll put it in a nice plastic bag and nice red and yellow box, walk over to McDonalds and enjoy my Malaysian chicken Curry with fries on the side.

Then they came for the liquor stores, I didn’t speak up because I didn’t drink.

Then in the middle of the night they came for the political aide,I didn’t speak up, because I am not a  politician.

Then they banned the word Allah in a Catholic publication, I didn’t speak up, because I was Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

(adapted from a quotation attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.)

Is it possible? If history is any guide, I am not very optimistic. We have a little island nation south of our border which had split simply because of the issue of race. If my daily conversations with my fellow Malaysians are anything to go by, I am also not very optimistic. In fact from when I last remembered it race issues seems to be growing. We are NOT a homogenous nation. Many of us fight not to be so. We focus so very much on our differences.

I am reminded how much I think of race and colour and creed when a friend of mine, a fellow Malaysian after working outside of Malaysia for a good 20 years came back and asked me “why do you talk in terms of race?” I didn’t quite understand so he explained. “When you guys talk, the first thing you say is, that Chinese fella, Indian fella or Malay fella. As if its meant to clear up the whole issue. i.e. if he’s chinese he’s meant to behave in a certain way and understandlah, cause he’s chinese. When you say Malay the audience is expected to infer the stereotypes linked to being a Malay.” So I have to admit, I think in terms of race. I don’t want to. I want to blame society and the Malaysian government particularly the politicians for causing this but I am responsible for my own thoughts. So I tried this, I tried having conversations about people without talking about their race. Inevitably the question pops up “he’s chinese ah?”. Try it. Its a revelation about how we think in terms of race.

I think some of us would like to think that we’re not racist. That we have friends of all difference colours and creed. I do too. I used to think myself as a citizen of the world and not too bothered by race, creed etc. I remember a while back a Jamaican friend chastised me for being racist. I was slightly offended until he looked me in the eye and said “one day when your child walks through that door with a woman of a different race, say Jamaican what would your reaction be?”

I paused and there it was. In that brief moment, I realised I was racist. I did think that my particular race was better in someways and that marrying outside of it would somehow dilute that or worse tear down this false notion that my race was better. Some people reading this may want to sit on their high horses and say that they would be fine with whomever their sons or daugthers choose to marry and I believe there are those who truly mean it. But for most Malaysians who don’t come from an inter racial marriage, I think most of us pause.

Malcolm Gladwell the author of “Blink” talks in his book about perceptions people form in a blink of an eye. When shown images of dark coloured skin people, people would naturally associate it with negative words or find it harder to associate it with positive words. In fact he’s actually trying to measure racism i.e. how racist a person is. Check it out at Gladwell.com

Back to the point, we’re racist, its just the degree of it. It is therefore our role as a society to curb this. We should critise politicians who bring up the race card. Don’t vote for them. Shame them. We should start everyday watching our speech when we describe people, to be careful not to talk about their race first. We should be able to start questioning the rationale of delinianating economic aid by race. Political parties by race. We should celebrate our diversity but no longer make it a sacred cow.

We must stop people from using race, dilution of culture etc as the bogeyman. One race getting on top of the other. The real dilution of all our cultures stares at us everyday. Our youth dress like they are African American’s in the ghettos. Some look like they walked off pages of anime. Everday our culture, our identity individually as part of a race/ creed is assailed.

We need to read our constitution, including the bits we’re not allowed to discuss not even in parliment. We need to look at the history of when the constitution was drafted, what was envisaged by the Reid Commission and why they included certain clauses. If we truly believe in 1Malaysia, lets not talk about race any more and more importantly let’s not write it down in our laws.

Those who don’t pass, actually ah, I think they don’t studilah. How can not pass English one? So easy the subject what. My English teacher in school, ask us to cut a few newspapers and look at what they write inside and learnloh. Then we all will be gooder in english. My teacher never say much because our class have more then 50 peoples so she say she loss she got no sound already. So if we one to learn english we must has tuition class with she at her’s house. She give good price and can teach other subjects also.

Gobermen is worry that if we make England kompulsoli then people in kampung will fail. Ayah, fail, fail lah, kampung people what. Why they care whether they can speak England or not? They all tanam jagung only one. If the gobermen one them to pass then gobermen jus reduce the passing mark loh. Like if they can write their name in the right place and fill up form good enough to pass already. Then everyone pass loh. So easy also they dunno how to do it.

I hear my flen say unibersiti also like that one. The teacher there before exam will tell you what question come out. So you spot and then pass already. Anyway, they don’t mark on grandma one they will see how well you remember all the sample answer, so just need to go back and remember all the sampel answer. Problem sometime, they don’t have sample answer, only give question, like that susah already man. How to do?

My flen also said, SPM result never mind one. Look at USM, they all think they masuk then don’t got. Then go other universiti. Subject also cannot chus one. Like play lottery only what. So why worry about result. I got other flen who know some one in admission, so he say for small service fee sure guarantee can get what I want one. Somemore, before I go work next time, he say he can also help me find master degree from oversea universiti. So the employer all kena tipu think I graduan from local and also oversea universiti.

But that one a bit more expensif lah. He say cost about USD5,000 then I get master from University of Washington Central Park. My mother say maybe canlah because now employer one worker can speak good England and a oversea degree show you can speak good england. Like my MARA scholar friendlah, so power. She go England 3 years with all the MARA students, they all stay together in the same flat, very muhibah one and eat Malaysian food there, and learn good England man. Now she can say big word in sentence like the England people like “you is a wanker”. I don’t know what wanker is lah but damn power man.

Somemore, oversea degree more better one. My this friend he got third class in UK, he study there right? He now senior lecturer at UiTM. Don’t play play. So actualy, goberman no need worry about must pass england. Actually not big problem one. If we make so much fokus on englis then bahasa how? I know people say inglis most spoken language in world but who care. Must know bahasa or else cannot talk to my indon kakak. Then she dunno what to cook me.

So, we all must Malaysia Boleh and make Bahasa number one. Then if worry about englis, then change the kurikulum. Make englis more simple so people in Kampung also can pass. We all no more koloni, no need englis. Like that I think english can or cannot also be kompulsori subjek in Malaysia. I duno if this correct answer or not because teacher no provide sampel jawapan.

It was reported that the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) collected about RM10 billion in personal income tax which is contributing 7% (only) of the government’s total inland revenue of RM147 billion. This is paid by approximately 1.1 million working class people out of a total eleven million strong work force. Out of the 1.1 million, only approximately 38,000 taxpayers pay the top bracket of 28%.

Let’s see how this stacks up, according to IRB, there are 11 million people working but only 10% are paying tax. This is of the 2 million that are registered to pay tax. So half of those registered to pay tax actually pay it. To qualify for the “privelege” of paying tax, a conservative estimate is that one must earn a minimum of approximately RM3,000 per month or RM36,000 per annum (assuming all the usual deductions are taken up etc). To pay money at the top bracket, one must earn more than RM20,000 per month.

At first I found this hard to believe. So I thought of ways to try and disprove this, interestingly enough, I couldn’t really. There are approximately 4 million plus credit cards issued in Malaysia. Ahah, I thought, each credit card requires  a minimum income of RM3,000 per month, so there must be at least 4 million guys out there earning more than RM3,000 per month hence should be paying taxes. Then I peeked into my wallet and realised I had 6 credit cards myself. So assuming on average each person who owns a credit card has 4, which is possible, 2 visa and 2 mastercards from 2 different issuers, the number of people with declared income of at least RM3,000 per month drops back to 1 million.

WHERE IS THE MONEY? THE BLACK ECONOMY

This leaves the obvious that there is a lot of money out there that is undeclared. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any statistic to support a discussion on the size of the black/underground/ informal economy. I suspect though, as most Malaysians would that this is huge.

I can only provide anecdotal examples. Because sex or something linked to that sells, I’ll lead with that one. I was informed by friends who frequent Karaoke joints that the guest relations officers there take home a basic of about RM500 per night. This is for the girls who don’t do the “extra” stuff outside or inside the karaoke joint. That could double the girl’s takings. To be gender neutral, I was told that a gigolo who “services” bored datins makes about RM7,000 nett, food, clothing  and accomodation provided. Not sure how one applies for such positions.

On a similar topic, I”ve had conversations with pirated DvD sellers and the rough survey of the guys in pasar malam indicates that a bloke depending on where he/she is in the food chain, pulls in about 3-6 thousand a month. If the guy manages a particular area or shop, they can pull in five figures a month. Makes you wonder why one would bother going to university.

We all know most of the cikgus out there have tuition classes. Some of them blatantly advertise that if you want to learn more go to their tuition. I thought that was why they were paid a salary in school but apparently nowadays the pay is so low, you only get the teacher to be there in body not in mind nor soul. For that you fork out about RM100 per month after school with a bunch of other kids. I think teachers roughly make about an additional RM3,000 a month doing tuition.

I’ve spoken to “runners” for workshops, the Malaysian version of ambulance chasers – our accident chasers. These guys walk around traffic police stations with wads of ten ringgit notes and help “facilitate” an accident scene so that the file is processed much faster than is usual without their intervention. Think about it how many road accidents happen in Malaysia, how much money exchanges hands. The other guys that profit “informally” from this are the insurance assessors who I’ve been told by the workshop guys get between RM500 to RM1,500 per case. Ever wonder why our car insurance is high? It’s nothing to do with the insurance agents.

On the topic of law, litigation lawyers have mentioned that for RM500 a file “disappears”. Our judiciary system isn’t broken, it just needs one of those work shop guys with a wad of tens to “facilitate” the process.

This I think accounts for why some of the 11 million working adults are not paying or registered to pay taxes. Others probably include your neighbourhood vegetable seller, pasar malam guy, the plumber, contractor, electrician, hawker etc (yes, it definately includes the nice makcik that makes a smashing curry puff) . There are probably some adults within the work force that aren’t working because they are the primary caregivers (translated as house wives or tai-tais) whilst some are still in school.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION

In anycase, it does seem unfair that 1.1 million wage earning Malaysians are supporting the rest of Malaysia. Whilst it would be more understandable according to the pareto rule that 20% of Malaysians pay 80%  of the personnel taxes, in our case its 10% of Malaysians pay 100% of the taxes. If you looked further, it wouldn’t surprise me that the guys in the top bracket, the 38,000 suckers pay at least 50% of the tax. It looks even more inequitable when we all know of Dato’s and businessmen that drive big fancy cars and live in large houses. 38,000? Small number eh? Not surprising though given that there are more than 3,000 illegal factories in Selangor (that the government is aware of).

This is what I think should be done. The government through the identity card has registered every Malaysian. They should have the records of every Malaysian above the age of 18. Instead of auditing the poor 1.1 million folk that are already paying tax and trying to squeeze a couple more bucks out of them, they should find out how the other 10 million rakyat out there in our work force appear to survive without any income.

They should first start by getting more than the current 20% of the work force registered to pay tax. How? My opinion is that if you want to vote, you should economically be prepared to contribute to the country. It doesn’t matter if you don’t pay tax, but each voter should be registered to pay tax. You should also be denied public services if you’re not registered to pay tax or are a dependent of someone who is not registered to pay tax. Why should you get a free ride?

Having gotten everyone registered obviously doesn’t mean they can actually pay tax but it puts them into the system. Then, in theory, if every person in the work force contributes a minimum of RM10 per month, this works out to be RM1.32 billion. This increases the IRB’s inflow by about 13% and would easily payback the registration exercise.

With the people in the system, the IRB should then start auditing people who don’t pay tax. At the same time, they should show appreciation to the guys who have been paying tax all this while by reducing the tax rates. Its a lot of work but its just, its equitable and it should be done. Okay, that’s not a great closing particularly when I am writing about how the government can tax people, something everyone hates but my point is why should only 10% of the work force suffer taxes. Let the rest pay too.

In the case of the PKFZ scenario, unfortunately it appears from the PwC report (rumoured to have cost RM2 million for approximately 51 pages not including appendices – but including cover and separator pages) there was plenty of ignorance going around. I digress but apparently the appendices weren’t included in the public online download because it was too big. Its odd, a 51 page report is okay but the appendices are too big to upload. Makes you wonder what’s not said in the report and what’s in the appendices.

If you hadn’t read it yet, I would sincerely recommend getting your hands on it. Its freely downloadable on line. You get to own what is rumoured to be a RM2 million report. This is probably the first time I’ve owned anything that cost Rm2 million. Anyway, if you’re too lazy to read the report let me summarise it for you.

Firstly the valuation of the land when they acquired it was RM25/sqft based on “special values”. I don’t know about you, I always get suspicious when people tell me something is special. Typically it means its going to be expensive and its done to create a perception of value. Anyway, Google “land per square feet Port Klang” and ta-daa Google tells me that industrial land at Port Klang in West Port is RM18 per square feet. Hang on, wait a minute, isn’t West Port right next to PKFZ? What’s more interesting is that there is a post in Wikipedia that states that the vendor had acquired the land at RM3/sqft and made a 10 fold gain selling it to PKFZ. I don’t remember reading that in the PwC report. Perhaps they didn’t look up Wikipedia. Sigh, Rm2 million doesn’t buy much nowadays.

 Secondly, there were some issues on limits of authority, i.e. not getting appropriate approvals at board level or at cabinet level to spend about RM2 billion (not including interest). They did however, remember to get approval for a soft loan of RM4 billion to resolve their cashflow situation. Spend now worry about paying it later? Isn’t that how some people get into credit card debt? Some people need to listen to Suze Orman.

Thirdly, the company was or is technically bankrupt without the support of the government. In law, without Government support, they would have been trading fraudulently which would mean that the directors and officers, in theory would be asked to pay for the Company’s liabilities personally or be bankrupted or thrown in jail. In this case, the Ministry of Transport provided a letter of support. This is apparently ultra vires because it should have come from the Ministry of Finance but anyway the Government’s technically on the hook for the money. Just like some people who guarantee their neighbour’s, cousin’s, in-law’s  debts. You didn’t spend it but you got to pay it.

Fourthly, PKFZ will likely take a very-very-very-very long time to repay the government. If they don’t restructure the loan, they will owe the government in excess of RM12 billion, mostly in interest on a principal of about RM4.6 billion. For those unschooled in interest rates and the effects of compounding and hence fooled by 1.5% interest on credit cards (it means you pay 18% per annum you fool or if compounded probably double what you owed in 3 years), the Government’s interest rate is actually very low, 4%.  Low government interest is why EPF can’t pay Malaysian’s high dividends because EPF is mainly invested in Government bonds. Anyhow, the bulk of the loan interest comes from interest on interest for interest not serviced. 

Like those in credit card debt, PKFZ can’t even service interest. They probably would scrape by with the “minimum” payment.  Add to this, they can’t service the debt for a very-very-very-very long time some where in the next quarter of a century.

Last but not least, and I like how PwC puts it, “PKFZ may not have obtained value for money”. They hired a turnkey contractor without providing any detailed plans nor supervision and the amount owed to the turnkey contractor more than doubled (150%) from an estimated RM2 billion. Its like leaving a kid in a toy store/candy store/ electronics store with a credit card  and saying, buy what you want for Christmas just make sure its wrapped. I’ll leave it to you to judge whether PKFZ got value for money.

I must say though,kudos for allowing the report to be published and not snuffing it out like other inquiries. What would be a slap to all Malaysians is that having now known all this, that the people involved are not punished and the monies remain unrecovered and more of our EPF money is sunk in soft loans to support “special values”. It would be like the bank telling you, “its okay, rack it up babe, take home whatever you want and the depositors will pay for it”. Wouldn’t that make you feel special?

It does make one wonder though, why Malaysian toilets are always in a poor state. It makes one think of how poorly we manage our assets and how lowly hygiene runs in our culture. I mean, more often than not you’ll have to wade carefully in to a wet toilet, much like how Venice is in high tide. Perhaps we got our inspiration from there, after one of those infamous “study trips”.

To solve the ever humid and wet toilets, we have cleverly procured the services of a blower thingy that blows air along the corridor of the toilet. Probably circulating the humid, putrid air more efficiently so in effect we would be breathing in other people’s evaporated  . . . you get the picture. I wonder though if someone had the concession/ monopoly over those blower thingys. I see them almost everywhere. Makes for a great business model – supplier of blower that dries toilet floors. Only in Malaysia.

I suppose it never occured to us, when we hired western or western trained architects to ask them to build us a toilet that would suit our humid climate and our local practice of needing to wash after we tinkled or pooed. In this respect, it kinda seems Malaysia tidak boleh.

Another thing we don’t seem to be able to govern well, is toilet paper. Particularly in the women’s toilet, there never seems to be enough toilet paper. In some offices, women have had to resort to bringing their own supply of toilet paper to ensure that they have some when they need to answer nature’s call. On other occasions, they raid the toilets the minute its stocked up, causing other women not to have toilet paper, causing them to rush to stock up, in effect resulting in an entire office where all the women have at least 1 toilet roll sitting in their desks. Don’t believe me, check their drawers. . . I mean the office drawers.

On this point of governance, I can almost imagine the HR and Administration department calling a meeting to address the dire shortage of toilet paper in the ladies toilet (doesn’t seem to happen to the men). The resolution would be to have the cleaning company increase the supply of toilet papers. However, as will likely happen, this would not solve the problem, resulting in the women complaining about toilet paper and hording more of those ivory soft sheets of tushie paper. This would obviously frustrate the HR manager who had to justify the increase in toilet paper costs to senior management, resulting in a drastic knee jerk “cost cutting” exercise where a committee is formed to evaluate how many times women in the office need to go and how many “sheets” they used each time.

After calling in a specialist to do a survey and interview, they would have arrived at the optimal number of toilet papers to be used, probably asking all the nice female employees to think about reducing the number of sheets they used and considering “folding” and wiping with different sides. Yes, pretty graphic advise. And yet, after probably 6 months of study and evaluation, the problem will NOT be solved. In the meantime, the Indonesian cleaner leaves her job everyday with a stack of toilet rolls which she sells at her local sundry shop.

Perhaps when the mistake the Tan Sri did when he called the meeting was to invite the managers. He should have invited the Indonesian cleaners. They would have known the state of the toilet.