long news post, but worth reading

The news piece came from an Australian paper. Don't want it to disappear, so I'm posting the entire text in this post.

MALAYSIA'S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of
the economy each of its two main races — the Malays and the
Chinese — owns. It's an argument that's been running for 40
years. That wealth and race are not synonymous is important for
national cohesion, but really it's time Malaysia grew up.

It's a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy
for a country that prefers to argue about how to divide wealth
rather than get on with the job of creating it.

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The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest.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.

"Malaysia boleh!" is Malaysia's national catch cry. It
translates to "Malaysia can!" and Malaysia certainly can. Few
countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed
with natural resources and the national obsession seems to be
to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the
proceeds up against the wall.

This all happens in the context of Malaysia's grossly inflated
sense of its place in the world.

Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on
their country and that their leaders are world figures. This is
thanks to Malaysia's tame media and the bravado of former prime
minister Mahathir Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the
streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a map
much less name its prime minister or capital city.

As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons
features a newsreader trying to announce that a tidal wave had
hit some place called Kuala Lumpur. He couldn't pronounce the
city's name and so made up one, as if no-one cared anyway. But
the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is inland.

Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly
when compared to the disaster that passes for a national oil
company in neighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this
is Malaysia's problem. The very success of Petronas means that
it is used to underwrite all manner of excess.

The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. It
includes the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world
when they were built, which was their point.

It certainly wasn't that there was an office shortage in Kuala
Lumpur — there wasn't.

Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why.
They had little to do with them. The money for them came out of
the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South
Korean companies.

They don't even run the shopping centre that's beneath them.
That's handled by Australia's Westfield.

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. There's
no indication of what the Americans will charge for this,
assuming there's even a chance that they will consider it. But
what is Malaysia getting by using the space programs of others
as a taxi service? There are no obvious technical benefits, but
no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that they are
"boleh". The trouble is, they're not. It's not their space
program.

Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend
$RM490 million on a sports complex near the London Olympics
site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and "get used
to cold weather".

But the summer Olympics are held in the summer.

So what is the complex's real purpose? The dozens of goodwill
missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the
centre's construction and then on the athletes while they train
might provide a clue.

Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new
capital city — Petronas has paid for them all. It's been an
orgy of nonsense that Malaysia can ill afford.

Why? Because Malaysia's oil will run out in about 19 years. As
it is, Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that's
just five years away.

So it's in this context that the latest debate about race and
wealth is so sad.

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).

email: michaelbackman@yahoo.com
http://www.michaelbackman.com