We can still learn from history

Great books remind us that our lives and collective history is more meaningful than the petty
ambitions and bickering of leaders.

COVERING politics and politicians isnt good for the health. No one can live life as an endless series
of nanosecond-like encounters.

Sometimes it seems as if my existence is coloured, even defined by blips of information from Iocal
media outlets, images and sound bites.

Then there are the instant buzz issues, that change every few hours: What will be the impact of
Prabowo Subiantos petulant challenge to the Indonesian presidential election results?

How will President-elect Joko Widodos first cabinet look?

Closer to home, why is Pakatan Rakyat seemingly hell-bent on imploding itself via the fracas over the
Selangor mentri besar post?

Will PKR and DAP get rid of Khalid Ibrahim? What will PAS do?

There are mornings where Ive woken up with terrible headaches, having dreamt of news portals,
Twitter, Facebook, WeChat and Instagram.

Sometimes it feels as if someones tap-dancing all night long on my head.

The news cycle has shrunk and then, finally, disappeared.

Information wilts and then fades away within minutes of being scanned and digested.

Indeed, the immediacy becomes so exhausting there are moments when sleep is the only escape.

Nowadays, however, deep sleep can only be achieved if you switch off your wretched smartphone.

Given the circumstances, is it any wonder that we all feel totally discombobulated?

Still, Ive found the perfect companion for too much politics.

Its a 1,160-page history of the 19th century, entitled The Transformation of the World: A Global
History of the Nineteenth Century, by German academic Jurgen Osterhammel.

After all, having been confronted by reams of staccato-like information, what could be better than a
really solid and illuminating piece of scholarship?

Indeed, books are increasingly a refuge from both the real world and online version of the same.

Some years back, as my Blackberry threatened to turn me into a nervous wreck (yes, I checked it
every 30 seconds), I discovered that Tolstoys War and Peace was the perfect antidote to the torrent
of often useless information.

So whats so special about Osterhammels magnum opus?

For a start, you could do considerable harm to a politician with it (if you dropped it from a
sufficiently elevated position) and I can assure you there are times when the prospect of this
extremely enticing.

But more seriously, Osterhammel rejects the straightforward narrative history of our schooldays.
Instead, he presents the grand sweep of history in terms of approaches, panoramas and themes,
drawing parallels, analogies and connections where one would never have imagined.

In this way, he unites the storytelling and explains how the 19th century concept of time and space
was altered so thoroughly by the discoveries of the era.

The standardisation of calendars, clocks and the Greenwich Mean Time injected a sense of order and
concision in everyday life that was matched by improvements in cartography, census-taking and
later even photography.

As a seasoned China expert, Osterhammel also brings an understanding of Asian culture and history
that saves the work from being unduly Anglo-Saxon in its emphasis.

Indeed, the breadth of references is astonishing. Osterhammel leaps from Brazils sertao (or
badlands) to the Ganges Plain and on to the eruption of Mount Tambora on Sumbawa Island in
Indonesia before dwelling for a while, at least, on a fascinating comparison of slavery in the former
Portuguese colony, the southern United States and the Cape.

The catholicity of sources and density of research is reminiscent of Braudels ground-breaking history
of the Mediterranean.

Whilst there is a great deal of densely philosophical neo-Teutonic double-speak, I have rarely come
across such a powerful and profound work of the imagination because the leaps the writer makes
between continents and themes are often so bold they defy expectation.

This is probably why Ive found the book so satisfying to read amidst the day-in, day-out craziness of
South-East Asian politics.

Osterhammels broad and magnificent work has served to remind me that our lives and collective
history is more meaningful than the petty ambitions and bickering of leaders.

Malaysian and Indonesian politicos should be asking themselves: how do they want to be
remembered by history?

And with that, Ill be returning to my weighty tome.

Coping with double the burden

ONE of the questions Im often asked is why Ive stayed so long with The Star. My answer is usually
that the roots grew deep and wide without my realising that time had passed by.

Of course, I would have quit years ago if I wasnt getting job satisfaction or no longer enjoyed the
thrill of the chase for news.

But what made a demanding job manageable and helped me through the three decades was the
flexibility of the work schedule offered in the newsroom.

Because the newspaper was printed every day (excluding four press shut down days), it meant that
journalists had to work on weekends and public holidays. In a months roster, reporters could tick
the days they had to work and days they needed to take off subject to the demands of the news
desk, of course.

But that meant being able to plan in advance to take the day off to go for the Parent-Teacher
Association meeting, stand in for the child minder, prepare the children for an exam, spring-cleaning
for the festive season, etc, without burning ones leave for every single event.
That flexibility made a world of difference to a young mother with a young family; I was in my 20s
then.

After the maternity leave of my first child, I was about to be seconded to the subs desk when the
timely intervention of a woman editor prevented the change of my working hours from day to night.
She felt sorry for a mother to have to be separated from her newborn during the nighttime. God
bless her!

Unconsciously, I have paid it forward by making similar decisions. Some of these reflections have
come about because of my involvement in the Women do Wonders (WOW) campaign, organised by
the Star Media Group Bhd and AirAsia Bhd in conjunction with International Womens Day last
month.

I was reminded that I helped two single mothers keep their job at the education desk by allowing
them to have flexible working hours.

In the first instance, due to the nature of her job, there was no issue for one of them to report for
work extra early drop off her young children at school and then be at work before 7.30am and
leave the office before traffic built up at 5pm.

She could save money on school bus fares and babysitting fees. The other was allowed to work half-
a-day at home clearing copy when her father was battling end-stage cancer. Those few hours made a
big difference to the peace of mind and effectiveness at work, to career growth or career
abandoned.

Because of this sisterhood at The Star, my colleagues and I have found unofficial win-win solutions to
keep our women talents facing domestic challenges. Why do we do it? Because we know that the
onus to find a solution to a domestic crisis almost always falls on the woman. What we need to
realise is that the problem is temporary, the solution a stop-gap measure, but the retention of the
talent is long-term.

At the WOW Talks and Bazaar last Sunday, women were asking if they could rejoin the workforce in
their 40s and 50s after taking a long break for the family. Many felt they still had much to contribute,
and were now in the right frame of mind to commit to work, but felt that companies were
disinclined to hire them.

And even if they were re-hired by the same company, would they have to start from scratch in terms
of perks and lose out in seniority? Obviously, more has to be done to smoothen the passage back to
work, or better still, prevent them from leaving to start with.

Although women make up 63% of graduates and diploma holders, a significant percentage of them
quit the workforce in their late 20s and early 30s.

The World Bank attributes this to the work-balance complications they face the double burden
syndrome of having to juggle work and home, caring for both the young and the elderly.

The Malaysia Economic Monitor: Unlocking Womens Potential (World Bank, 2014) states that once
these women leave the workforce, they never return, unlike in Japan and Korea.

In these two Asian countries, there is a double peaked profile where the women return to the
workforce in their late 30s.

Female employment in Malaysia is only about 54% while the gender that is not afflicted by the
double burden sees more than 80% employment, according to the Department of Statistics.
With the announcement of the Flexible Work Arrangement in the 2014 Budget and the positive
response to the subsequent adoption of the practice by the Women, Family and Community
Development Ministry, we are certainly making headway.

A taskforce set up by the British Government to look into flexible working in 2009 found strong and
compelling business case for flexible working.

Among the many benefits were: lower absenteeism; higher retention, which meant saving on
recruitment and training costs; increased productivity; better recruitment from a wider talent pool;
and stronger loyalty among staff.

It also found the estimated cost of under-utilising womens skills to run into billions of pounds!

As I put in my last good years with my one and only company, I envision a flexible workplace where
we control when, where and how we work part-time or full-time, office or home, nine-to-five or
any eight hours, and when we can enjoy a sabbatical!

Will we ever be ready?

Setting goals without a realistic structure and then making a U-turn make the decision makers look
bad. At the end of the day, students shouldnt be the ones who pay the price.

MY aunt was a Chinese primary school teacher who was stuck at the bar for many years because she
continuously failed to secure a credit in Bahasa Malaysia MCE/SPM in the 1970s and 1980s.

She would lament each year after the results were out from the July paper that all her nephews and
nieces were catching up with her every few years, someone would be sitting for the MCE/SPM
with her.

After about 10 years, she finally moved up the salary scale and her friend told her that she had lost
out on a sum the value of a Proton Saga in her pursuit of the elusive credit.

It was tough for her as a mother with a young family who had to attend additional classes as a
teacher. Yet she persevered, as the credit meant more money for the family.

In todays context, it is English language proficiency that has a monetary tag to it. This is a subject
that has been debated to death but the fact remains that were not making much headway.

And the rescinding of the decision to make English a must-pass subject in the SPM next year has
derailed the Education Ministrys own schedule in its Blueprint.

It was obvious then and proven to be true now that realistic targets were not set in the master
plan drawn up for 2013 to 2025. As a result, were moving the goalpost.

Even now, were divided on this issue. The practitioners and teachers are happy with the decision as
they had warned early on that we are not prepared on the ground. Next year is just not doable; a
more realistic timeframe of getting the students up to mark is at least five years, not three.

But will we ever be really ready? For sure, our sympathies lie with the rural students who will make
up the bulk of those who fail to get a pass.

Going by the past few years SPM results, an average of 20% or close to 100,000 students fail English
and they would have to join the workforce without the basic paper qualification if a pass was
compulsory.
While many welcome the reprieve, others feel that we just need to bite the bullet and suffer the
casualties. If there is no stick, there is inertia.

Now that no deadline has been set, were about to undo all the gearing up and the pressure will
surely ease in the classroom.

We need to immediately set a new date in the near future.

Not only was this a decision that came out of the blue, it was made via a four-paragraph statement,
with no new date given. The Education Ministry doesnt explain the decision to delay the move
except to give everyone more time and opportunities to prepare.

On what basis was this decision made? What measures taken proved not fruitful? What statistics are
there to back it? Who was consulted on this decision?

Such important decisions should be conveyed not via a statement but over a press conference
where questions can be taken without fear as a mark of confidence that the authorities know what
they are doing.

As a reporter who covered education for many years, it is really sad to see the decline in the
engagement between the ministry and the press. Worse still, there have been times when questions
were vetted before they could be asked at press conferences.

In this country, education is so closely linked to politics, then and now. A minister I covered many
years ago was seen by his officers as someone who would sometimes agree to proposals from the
professionals only to change his mind after meeting his political grassroots leaders.

Who but the Education Ministry looks bad when there is such flip-flopping? But the ones paying the
price are our children.

If one size doesnt fit all, lets have flexibility. Just as it was for the implementation of Science and
Maths in English, were now doing the same for English.

We want to bring everyone down to the lowest denominator. Were always holding back the strong
so that the weak can catch up while the rest of the world leapfrogs over us.

One leader who clearly sees the bigger picture and has no time for flip-flop policies is Sarawak Chief
Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem. He is seeking autonomy in education to protect the interest of the
state and the people.

Earlier this week, he told the state assembly that policies must be made to meet the requirements
of the future generations.

Im glad we emphasised English in Sarawak. Its only now that they realise after flipping and
flopping over language that English is very important, he said.

Many share his views. Parents clamouring for English as the dominant language in their childrens
education has given rise to the mushrooming of private schools offering international syllabus,
international schools and home schooling.

Just over the past seven years, the number of such schools has more than doubled and the
enrolment size increased many folds. These taxpayers would rather forgo free education and tighten
belts to pay for costly private education for their childrens future.
With a strong demand for a greater presence of English in schools, the ministry should allow for this
in selected schools along the lines of the autonomous trust schools.

If rural schoolchildren attending trust schools look forward to classes and are happily picking up
English, the same can be replicated in other schools.

If we persevere, like my aunt did back in the 70s and 80s, and stay focused, we can achieve our
goals. Lets stay on track and stop changing the goalpost!

Look for the source of the rage

Recent acts of violence against the less powerful are symptoms of an even bigger problem.

AN assistant warden beats an 11-year-old boy so badly, his legs need to be amputated, his suffering
so great that he eventually dies.

Some men beat up another man who honks while they are praying.

A 12-year-old girl pulls out of a chess tournament after the director deems her clothes too
provocative.

We are rightly outraged by all these events, which range from the ridiculous to the outright cruel
and criminal. We write letters to the papers, sign petitions and rage all over social media about these
people. Yet we are not remarking on the underlying thread among them all.

And that is anger. What all these incidents have in common is a seething anger in the perpetrators
that lies just below the surface, waiting for something to bring it out into the open. What could
possibly cause a grown man to abuse a child so badly, if not for some deep seated anger about
something that may or may not be related to the child? And yet our outrage is not universal, with
various parties willing to defend him and bail him out.

Similarly with the beating up of a man who had the apparent temerity to interrupt people at prayers
with honking. If youre concentrating on communing with God at Friday prayers, you would notice
nothing externally at all. Secondly, one should come out of prayers feeling serene and calm, not
angered and violent.

And thirdly, anyone who has had the misfortune to park in the wrong place on a Friday knows very
well the frustration of not being able to move their car. This I blame on town planners and architects
who routinely build mosques and other houses of worship without adequate parking space.

I have just started reading a book by the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra called Age of Anger. His book
agrees with me that many people, as individuals, are very angry these days.

His theory, however, is based on his vast reading of history. That people often react with anger when
they feel left out of the grand sweep of history, and are vulnerable to having these feelings exploited
by various autocrats and demagogues to a very unsatisfactory end.

When a person feels left out from what he sees makes the elites of a society happy wealth and
power mostly but he feels powerless to gain any entry into that elite, then he reacts in the one way
that makes him feel powerful, with violence.

It is no coincidence that these acts of seemingly irrational violence are carried out by very ordinary
people. Feeling insignificant can be humiliating, especially in a society where men of a specific race
and religion, are constantly told they are superior. Why therefore, do these superior beings have to
constantly struggle in such anonymous humiliation?

Thus an anger begins within a person when he realises that all the aspirations he is told he should
have by sheer virtue of his race and religion that God-given entitlement are simply not going to
come true.

Not unless he knows someone, not unless he toadies to someone just a bit more important than
him, who toadies to another slightly more important person, all the way up that hierarchy.

All this does is point out how low down the food chain he is and this only makes him feel hopeless.
And angry. So he looks around for someone even less powerful than him. A little boy. A little girl. A
member of what he believes is an inferior race and religion. And takes it out on them in varying
degrees of violence, including fatally.

Im not saying that we should excuse this behaviour at all. But when you see this ever-growing list of
acts of violence against women, children, people of other faiths, sexual minorities any reasonable
person has to wonder what is going on.

I doubt our leaders havent noticed these incidents but they appear to have kept silent. They know
very well that these incidents are symptoms of rage ... against them. For not fulfilling promises, not
of a smooth path to heaven, but of a decent and dignified life on Earth. Where every single person
feels that he has an equal chance in life. As Mishra points out, this rage isnt limited to certain
people only. Nor is it a new phenomenon.

Then (in the early 20th century) as now, the sense of being humiliated by arrogant and deceptive
elites was widespread, cutting across national, religious and racial lines.

He continues, The crises of recent years have uncovered an extensive failure to realise the ideals of
endless economic expansion and private wealth creation. Most newly created individuals toil within
poorly imagined social and political communities and/or states with weakening sovereignty. ...Their
isolation has also been intensified by the decline or loss of post-colonial nation-building ideologies,
and the junking of social democracy by globalised technocratic elites.

The angry young man justifying his racist or violent acts in Malaysia with religion is not much
different from the supporters of far-right politicians like Marine Le Pen or even Donald Trump.

They are suspicious of the elites who seem to have everything while they have nothing, yet they
cannot help but allow the very same elites to lead them by the nose to a promised land that they
delude themselves will materialise someday.

But ultimately it doesnt, at least not in the way they expect it to. They do not fathom that while
their job is supposedly to ensure a heavenly future, their secular rivals are being rewarded for
preparing their charges for a comfortable life on earth.

How could they be subjected to such injustice when theyre fulfilling, so theyve been told, Gods
wishes? This is a rage we need to pay attention to. Because history has shown that unless this rage is
properly dealt with, the results can be catastrophic.

We are not like France, a country with enough sensible people not to allow a demagogue like Le Pen
to gain ultimate power. Nor are we even like the United States where despite Trump, there is an
active and vocal resistance and the institutions that can keep him in check.

We are not listening to warnings. That is a recipe for tragedy.

Looking for certainty and comfort

Preachers can have a tremendous influence on desperate souls looking for answers to their
troubles, and the latter may take everything literally.

IT seems as if the last month has been marked by nothing but violence. Beginning with Orlando,
Istanbul, then Dhaka and then the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, followed by those of
several police officers in Dallas, everywhere you looked, there was bloodshed, as if the whole world
had gone to war with one another.

And we werent spared either. First an apparent first attack by Islamic State at the Movida club and
then what seemed like a spate of gunshot killings in Kuala Lumpurs suburbs.

The Inspector-General of Police became concerned enough about the killings to set up a special
taskforce to investigate them.

Meanwhile, reams of articles are written about the profiles and motivations of the perpetrators in
Orlando and Dhaka particularly. It turns out that these perpetrators were far more complicated
people than any stereotype could predict. Which just goes to show the limitations of profiling
anyone.

Indeed, stereotypes were very much defied in the Dhaka attack. Rather than being poor, disaffected
youth who might have been led astray by men wearing robes and bearing money, the attackers were
in fact young men from upper middle class families, who went to good schools and even studied
abroad at private universities in Malaysia.

These were young men who were thought to have everything going for them. Until they started
disappearing, only to re-appear carrying out an extremely vicious attack, even killing young people of
the same background.

In the investigations into their backgrounds, much has been made about who could have influenced
them. Perhaps theirs is an abject lesson in what all human beings need: spiritual succour.

Could it have been that while these kids had every material comfort, what they did not have was
comfort for the soul? And so they went looking, and as fate would have it, found the ones that were
easiest to understand, where blame could be laid on others, rather than on showing compassion and
kindness in order to nurture the soul?

There have been suggestions that some of us have made too much of the influence of particular
religious personalities and politicians in creating the sort of climate in which young people get
attracted to IS ideologies. This is disingenuous, to say the least.

For one thing, nobody sets out to become a politician or a religious preacher without the aim of
influencing people. That is the whole point of these jobs.

Whatever they say is lapped up by many people because it is assumed by the public that what they
say must be important simply because of who they are. Politicians can turn what they say into laws
and policies which will affect peoples behaviour. For example, if they pass a law that says you must
wear seatbelts in the car, you have to do it or face censure.

Religious personalities may not always be able to pass laws but their influence can be even more
powerful, because often people assume that what they say is the word of God.
Certainly those who do not have much religious knowledge (and thus far studies have suggested that
IS members know very little about religion) are particularly susceptible to whatever they say because
they have no other point of reference. They do not see these pronouncements as mere opinion or
only one out of many interpretations, only that these words come directly from Gods vessel, the
preacher.

It is even more disingenuous to say that those words were misunderstood. A person who does not
allow for different interpretations of Gods words in the Quran cannot claim that he cant help it if
people understand his words differently from what was intended. Unless youre unequivocal about
what you mean, you cant blame others for supposedly misinterpreting what you said.

Supporters of such people claim that they cant be that influential anyway. Again, this is
disingenuous.

If these preachers have only marginal effect on peoples lives, they would not be able to fill arenas
with ticket-buying devotees. For sure, some people may go for the halal entertainment value but
you never know what desperate soul might go to find answers to his or her own troubles and then
take everything literally. After all, these preachers preach certainty. If you follow me, you WILL go to
heaven. A potent message, which isnt limited to Muslims only.

Ironic, isnt it, that the ones who always call for the banning of Western performers because they
might influence our young are also the ones who dont believe that conservative preachers have any
influence at all? At least Beyonce has never told her audience to go out and terrorise anyone.

Generating income is vital for redressing social inequity

WHAT gives me a major attack of the blues is the oft-repeated charge that transformation occurs
only in the already developed areas, citing for instance the urban transport plan for Kuala Lumpur.

That is a clear misconception of what transformation is about and what we have to do to get the
necessary income both for the people and the Government to take us to developed country
status, and all that entails, including a great quality of life for all.

Why is St Regis undertaking a RM1.2bil property project in Kuala Lumpur and not in Bario, my village
in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak? The simple answer is that there is no demand for such property
in Bario.

But how will that help rural development in Bario, you may ask. The project will involve expenditure
while providing employment for many, helping to raise incomes for a broad cross section of
companies and people. That raises the Governments revenue through taxes and duties and enables
it to provide basic infrastructure in Bario

Similarly, the urban transport plan for Kuala Lumpur will make transport within the city easier for all
and especially for the poor who need cheap and quick means of transport. It makes Kuala Lumpur a
more attractive destination for doing business for locals and foreigners alike. And it increases
revenue for the Government.

Since 2009, our economy has been growing steadily. Last year, as our GDP (gross domestic product
goods and services produced in the economy) reached a record high, we achieved the highest
Government revenue ever RM185bil. This healthy trend has helped us in our drive to maintain the
current account surplus (surplus of exports over imports) and also reduce our fiscal deficit from 6.6%
of GDP in 2009 to 5.6% in 2010, 4.8% in 2011 and further planned reductions in subsequent years
All economic activity tends also to raise the revenue for the Government and that enables it to get
the income to develop rural and disadvantaged areas by providing appropriate infrastructure and
necessary help for the poor. Without economic growth, the Government cannot get the revenues
necessary to discharge its social obligations.

Allow me to put a simple logical narrative to describe the relationship between the New Economic
Model (NEM) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and the Government
Transformation Programme (GTP) in five points:

1. The NEM describes the outcome that we want for Malaysia that is high income, inclusiveness and
sustainability.

2. The ETP is the roadmap to achieving the NEM aims. We get there by focusing on the 12 national
key economic areas, starting with many entry point projects as catalysts. In addition, we are also
implementing 51 strategic reform initiatives to ensure competitiveness will flourish. This will enable
our companies to make products and provide services which will be competitive locally and in the
global markets;

3. When we successfully implement the ETP, the economy (GDP and gross national income or GNI
the income accruing to the country in current prices), will grow and this leads to higher Government
revenue. This revenue helps us to cut our fiscal deficit, invest for further growth and spend the
money where the rakyat want us to;

4. Under the GTP, we have identified seven priority areas termed national key results areas which
the rakyat want the Government to emphasise. We have made special provisions in our annual
budget for them. The areas are urban public transport, rural infrastructure, education, low-income
households, cost of living, crime and corruption. Over time, we will make changes in our priorities
based on the rakyats feedback; and

5. Taken together as a whole, the points in 1, 2, 3 and 4 above constitute a holistic and balanced
development for Malaysia. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why Harvard and Princeton University
have case studies on the Malaysian transformation programme. We are also gaining some global
recognition for the work done and the results achieved so far.

It is clear that all these cut across demographics and ethnicity. They will help all citizens and most of
all those who are disadvantaged so that we can reduce the gap between the haves and the have-
nots.

No government can claim to have achieved success unless it systematically provides for the
improved well being of its most disadvantaged citizens by programmes, which specifically target
them and give them a real opportunity for lifting them out of their predicament.

Its because that Government finances are good that we are able to implement programmes such as
1Azam, initiated by the Government to provide economic opportunities for low-income households
by giving appropriate aid and continuing access to knowhow to get them started on various
ventures.

Its because of that too that the Government can implement the RM3bil BR1M, a programme to
provide cash hand-outs of RM500 each to those earning under RM3,000 a month to alleviate their
burdens.

These schemes are better than subsidies, which mostly reach everyone, including those who dont
need them. Instead, they specifically target those who are known to have low incomes and help
alleviate their suffering by giving them the means to lift themselves out of the situation and
providing relief in the meantime.

Giving everyone a real opportunity and providing them with the wherewithal of lifting themselves
out of poverty is an integral part of our on-going transformation programme. The success of that
gets even more income eventually.

But the realisation must be there that it needs resources to achieve that and more resources can
only be committed to these areas if the Government income continues to increase. And as the
resources take effect, the improvements in the seven areas will facilitate more productive economic
activity.

Transformation is holistic. The economic and government transformations therefore go hand in

hand and feed on and complement each other there cant be one without the other. This is the
virtuous cycle that we are trying to achieve.

This is the 19th and final column for this year. But we will return in the New Year with a new name
and new focus to keep up with the needs of changing times and the progress we make in the
transformation journey.

In these columns, I have covered diverse topics ranging from achieving high income, crime,
corruption, education, competition, urban transport, oil and gas, the Governments role in business,
going international to rankings amongst others.

I have tried to explain and articulate the transformation programme and dispel common
misconceptions about what it entails in language that is jargon free and understandable to anyone
who is interested. Any suggestions that you have for improving the column and its focus in the New
Year will be most welcome.

Meantime, seasons greetings and have a wonderful and prosperous New Year. And lets all join
hands together to make this country of ours a prosperous one too for ALL of us.

Tourism a key economic sector at these difficult times

WHEN times are tough, some industries can be more resilient than others. Tourism is one such
sector.

Malaysia has plenty to offer tourists whether it is about exploring the Mulu caves in Sarawak,
diving off Pulau Tioman, shopping at the Pavilion, attending a literary festival in the quaint streets of
George Town, Penang or just soaking up the sun in Pulau Langkawi.

Boasting a wide range of attractions, it is easy to surmise that Malaysias tourism industry can thrive
despite the occasional global socio economic challenges.

As part of Malaysias growth plan towards high income status, tourism was selected as one of the
National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) under the National Transformation Programme (NTP) in 2010.
It was envisaged to be a quick win in terms of drawing in tourist spending. Recognising this potential,
we drew up a detailed implementation programme on how ambitious yearly targets running up to
2020 would be met.

The tourism industry is expanding at a tremendous pace. In 2015, tourism was the second highest
private investment contributor at RM24.5bil and the third largest GNI contributor at RM67.1bil.
This year, we are aiming to attract 30.5 million tourists to our shores from 25.7 million, contributing
RM103bil worth of tourist receipts from RM69.1bil.

In parts of implementing the programme over the last five years, we had found that the absolute
number of tourists arriving could be further maximised, as we saw an evident 6% drop last year in
2015. One of the key factors was the exacerbated haze problem. Something had to be done to
sustain this industry or our NTP targets will not be achieved and that would not be a good outcome
for our economy come 2020.

The Government made a conscious effort to get to the bottom of the problem, identify issues and
figure out solutions to attract tourists back to Malaysia again. As a result the Tourism and Culture
Ministry sponsored a 6-week lab early this year, which included sectoral and industry players. Here,
we revisited the plans made in 2010 to determine what worked and what did not.

We found that we have been losing a huge number of Chinese tourists to other countries over the
past few years, while Thailand was seeing an uptrend of Chinese tourists. This was because we had a
complicated visa process for them. Thailand, on the other hand, had eased entry requirements.

We have since eased the entry of Chinese tourists. Chinese tourists visiting the country for under 15
days would not need a visa to enter Malaysia between March 1 and Dec 31, 2016. We also proposed
to fast track the implementation of the e-Visa system, which was deemed more convenient as it
allows tourists to apply directly online and this has also been made operational since March 1. All
these are done with compliance with our security priorities surrounding our immigration process.

Additionally, lab participants also agreed to focus on new initiatives to attract top carriers in the
world to use Malaysia as an Asean hub. Focus will also be put to encourage airlines to ply new
overseas routes as well as targeted promotions to increase travel inflow.

Overall, the lab proposed 65 initiatives, of which 25 are new. More specifically, lab members
explored about 40 opportunities to improve current initiatives, expanding coverage and developing
new offerings, facilities and incentives. Led by the private sector, Malaysia is expected to unlock
RM2.7bil worth of further investments in order for us to attain our 2020 target of attracting 36
million tourists and in the process, raking in RM168bil worth of tourist receipts.

For industry players, there are three important areas that we must focus on to get tourism back on
track.

First, we must deliver a hassle-free experience to tourists to begin with. All segments of the industry
must think of alleviating stress factors for travellers whether it is the airline, the airport,
immigration, transportation or accommodation services providers. People who enjoy a seamless and
hassle-free holiday will spread the good word.

Second, the authorities should be more open and tolerant to activities that appeal to tourists such as
concerts featuring international artistes, performances and even art shows. We must see tourists for
what they are people who are looking to have an enjoyable holiday. I am not saying there need not
be limits, but let us not drive them away from Malaysia because we are too rigid in catering to their
interests.

Lastly, products and services must be top-notch. For example, tourist guides must be good story-
tellers, having had adequate training to handle tourists with the utmost sense of professionalism.
Taxi drivers are possibly first point of contact for many of our tourists, making them as ambassadors
of our Malaysian hospitality. Therefore, integrity and the desire to deliver top notch services must be
their priority while leveraging on their deep knowledge of the city. Holiday packages though
competitive, must not compromise on quality of the experience of the tourist.

I am reminded of this time when I was at Malaysia Airlines, when the team was trying very hard to
figure out how our planes as national flag-bearers of the country could symbolise the warmth and
generous hospitality often associated with our culture. After many discussions, we realised that we
had been staring at the answer for the longest time. The code for our flights begins with MH and up
till then it was nothing, just part of a code.

And that was how we landed the tagline Malaysian Hospitality a simple expression anchored in
gravitas to truly convey the Malaysian way. It brought new meaning to the work we did and
everyone in the company engineers, pilots, stewardesses, management or ground crew
embodied its very spirit in the areas of their work.

If all Malaysians could come together to embrace this spirit of Malaysian hospitality as we receive
tourists from all over the world, I am convinced that our tourism industry will realise their
aspirational targets. Whether it is simply recognising signs that a tourist is lost and pointing them in
the right direction, introducing them to local delicacies or explaining our culture, it is important that
we realise it is within us to be able to make it a better experience for them.

So the next time you come into contact with a tourist, I hope youll remember that youre another
flag-bearer representing Malaysian hospitality.

The journey continues

DURING my childhood growing up in the Kelabit longhouse, my father always the teacher would
use the word ketui to spur me on. Meaning burning desire to win, he did not accept half-
measures and lukewarm efforts. He was adamant I embody the burning desire, especially when the
going got tough.

After serving for six years as Senator in the Prime Ministers Department, I attended my final Cabinet
meeting two weeks ago. The Federal Constitution has a two-term limit for Senatorship, bar none. As
I have absolutely no political ambitions, that route in presuming any extension as a Minister has
always been closed.

At that session, I was especially overwhelmed by the gracious remarks made by the Prime Minister.
As in any epic journey, he was clear we cannot stop midstream. He asked that I continue in my role
as CEO of Pemandu, and to see to the successful conclusion of our national transformation
programmes.

For months, I agonised over the decision of continuing as CEO of Pemandu or moving on to other
pursuits. You can imagine the predicament as many people reminded me about the trust deficit in
Government, telling me to leave.

There are two ways to drive transformation via external transformational push for a change of
Government or an internal transformation from within. I joined the Government because I felt I
could contribute, in a small way, towards our transformation journey.

Our achievements as a country over the last six years are well documented in the Economic
Transformation Programme (ETP) and Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Annual
Reports. Though we made progress, we still have some way to go. The question I grappled with was
simple: Given the current problems and controversies, can the ETP and GTP programmes continue?
The answer is an unequivocal YES. Current conditions should not stop us from implementing
programmes that will benefit the economy and rakyat. For example, we still need to attract
investments, build the MRT and rural roads. Reforms, both fiscal and educational, must endure. The
fight against crime and corruption never ceases.

Instead of caving in to despair, I see a silver lining. Percolating issues give us the impetus to push
certain things. Getting all political parties to accept reforms on political financing, just as we
proposed under the GTP in 2010 is one example. That is why I agreed to work with Datuk Paul Low
who is heading the reform committee on political funding.

Hence, I have decided not to abandon ship in the face of a storming sea.

I admit to another motivating factor. In previous leadership roles be it with Shell or MAS I had
always inherited an existing team. I may have hired a few persons but the teams were nonetheless
acquired without much room to maneuver.

With the setting up of Pemandu in 2009, for the first time in my corporate and public life, I had the
space to assemble my dream team.

With no previous organisational baggage, we started out on a clean slate to tackle the hard work of
transformation.

Over the years, I have come to love how my team has developed. They are impassioned in wanting
to contribute and are prepared to shoulder the load. There are no half-measures to this journey
we have to finish what we started. I cannot imagine walking away from that.

This brings me to our current challenge, the economy. Malaysians must remember we are
significantly plugged into the global economy. Shocks experienced globally undoubtedly affect us.

From Jan 1 to Sept 2 this year, the ringgit depreciated by 17% against the US dollar. But some
perspective is needed New Zealand, Russia and Australia for example have all taken painful hits in
the same period, not just Malaysia.

As a nation that is huge on trading, we tend to be more exposed to external shocks beyond our
control. Sniffles and sneezes from key trading partners in the US, China, Europe and Taiwan may
cause us to end up with a cold too, as supply and demand patterns swing dramatically.

The Government, as keen observers of the global economic movements, was acutely aware of the
need to ramp up on resilience:

> Goods and services tax (GST) introduced in April this year to broaden the tax base and create a
more equitable and sustainable taxation system

> Large subsidies, including fuel, have been progressively rationalised to reduce and streamline
Government spending

> For more economic maneuvering space, we have been steadfast in cutting fiscal deficit from 6.7%
of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 to 3.2% in 2014, while keeping our debt level below the
self-imposed ceiling of 55% of GDP.

These are reasons why we are better poised today to face a downturn than we were during the
Asian financial crisis:
> Our fiscal position has improved significantly, investments are at record levels, and trade numbers
remain better than most countries

> We remain one of the best performing economies in Asean, having recorded a healthy GDP growth
of 5.3%

> Under the Economic Transformation Programme, all sectors (National key economic areas or
NKEAs) registered growth, reducing our reliance on oil and gas revenue from 40% in 2009 to 29% in
2014.

I am writing this article in Jerusalem while on a Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Lands. My family and
I have dreamt about this for years. We travelled for 10 days through Jordan, into Palestine and
Israel. Battered by centuries of wars and conflicts, they simply do not have the kind of peace, which
we take for granted in Malaysia. I was moved to see gripping images on CNN about the ongoing
migrant crisis involving hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Hungary, waiting to get into
Europe for a better life. For these people, it is a harsh and cruel world. I am just grateful I am a
Malaysian.

All said and done, one thing I know for certain in life you cannot cherry-pick. It comes with the
good, the bad and the ugly. But it is our own volition how we choose to live it, to have the
willingness and faith to make a difference for the better. I am hopeful that when the upside comes,
we will stand strong and ready to catch that ride.

Better transit options ahead

URBAN public transport has been a priority of the National Transformation Programme (NTP) since
we launched our first roadmap in 2010. Prior to this, the last major upgrade to our public transport
infrastructure was more than 10 years ago following the introduction of the light rail transit (LRT)
and monorail systems in the mid-1990s.

Over this period, passengers on our main rail lines suffered from overcrowding during peak hours, as
did those commuting on buses plying popular routes in and around the city.

Unreliable service with frequent delays and cancellations, poor connectivity between modes of
transport and poor accessibility to services were also putting people off public transport.

As a result, the public transport modal share in the Klang Valley (including the KL central business
district) was only at 10% in 2009.

Continued population and economic growth in Malaysia and its major cities also gave rise to private
vehicle use, pushing road networks to capacity. Did you know that Malaysia has one of the highest
rates of private car and multiple car ownership in the world?

With Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valleys population projected to reach 10 million in 2020 from six
million in 2009, traffic gridlock in and around the countrys capital would reach levels seen in our
neighbouring cities.

It became clear to us that this situation could not be left unresolved. Commuters quality of life was
eroding, pollution resulting from the increase in motor vehicles was mounting and the general
resulting inefficiencies would harm our productivity. Greater KL/Klang Valleys liveability and
attractiveness for investors would also deteriorate.
The Urban Public Transport National Key Result Area introduced in tandem with the Greater
KL/Klang Valley National Key Economic Area under the NTP set the ball rolling for our transformation
of the urban public transportation system.

The initiatives set out to put in place the policy and infrastructure needed to enhance our urban
public transport system within a specific timeframe.

These include the introduction of the Land Public Transport Act 2010 (Act 715), which for the first
time provided the relevant authorities with a focused mandate to comprehensively manage all
matters related to land public transport. This was followed by the development of the National Land
Public Transport Master Plan in 2013, spearheaded by the Land Public Transport Commission
(Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat SPAD), outlining the safety, reliability, efficiency,
responsiveness, accessibility, integration, affordability and sustainability aspects of our land public
transport system.

We were also aware of the need to be progressive in transforming urban public. Recently, the
government announced plans to launch regulations for e-hailing services in response to the rapid
growth of ride-sharing apps in Malaysia.

This forms part of efforts under the Taxi Industry Transformation Programme to elevate our taxi
services to world-class standards, which includes revamping existing taxi services and operating
systems.

Collectively, these new policies and implementation programmes ensure a healthy ecosystem to
enable sustainable urban public transport transformation in Malaysia.

We have since achieved significant progress in enhancing the capacity of our public transport
infrastructure. Iconic projects such as the mass rapid transit (MRT), which began offering services
under its first phase in December 2016, and the LRT Line Extension Project for the Kelana Jaya and
Ampang Lines, represent game-changers for the public transport system.

I was in the crowd when the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak declared the MRT open on
Dec 16, 2016. A stranger in the crowd extended his hand and said: I was part of the lab in 2010. You
must feel totally elated. When we all proposed the MRT in the lab, many people thought we were
just daydreaming! Today, it is a reality.

Serving previously underserved, densely populated corridors in the Klang Valley and expanding
connectivity in the region, these new rail lines have made it easier for more people to make the
switch to public transport.

We can see this from the encouraging usage of the rail lines: The MRT has already transported over
one million passengers since its launch just two months ago, while as at the end of 2016, the
extended LRT lines recorded an average daily ridership of over 260,000 following its launch in June
2016.

Our efforts to improve public transport services and accessibility have also been supplemented with
the Bus Network Revamp in Greater KL/Klang Valley, which improves first- and last-mile connectivity
by expanding the coverage of buses and increasing the frequency and reliability of bus services.

As a result of these capacity increases, morning peak urban public transport ridership in Greater
KL/Klang Valley rose to 435,439 in 2016, compared to 236,412 in 2010.
Additionally, as at 2015, urban public transport modal share had doubled to 21% from the level
recorded in 2009.

SPADs recently released 2016 Customer Satisfaction Survey has also shown that commuters are
now happier with public transport services. In 2016, overall customer satisfaction with public
transport had risen to 84% from 74% in 2015.

The likelihood of respondents using public transport in the future had also increased, from 67% in
2015 to 78% in 2016.

These developments point not only to less congestion on the road, but also a brighter future for our
public transport system. While there is more work to be done, such as the integration of transport
modes to enable seamless commuting and the completion of anchor infrastructure projects such as
MRT 2 and 3, LRT3 and the Malaysia-Singapore high-speed rail, among others, I am confident that
the pace of our public transport system transformation is on the right track towards achieving world-
class standards never before enjoyed in Malaysia.