Towards a competitive Malaysia by Bakri Musa

Salam

Bakri Musa is I believe a succesful surgeon in Silicon Valley, California. A migrated Malaysian, but seems to want to portray himself a still-a-Malaysian-inside man.

In his book, he introduced his diamond of development: Leadership, People, Culture and Geography. Some of the things that he criticised were the corruptions in the public sector, poor leadership, Malaysia's over ambitious policy, to summarise a few.

The fragmentation of Malaysian society due to the still on going New Economic Policy(NEP) which was introduced in the seventies by Tun Abdul Razak, now slitted subtly in our current policy. The NEP which was targeted to be abolished by 1990 then failed to uplift the Bumiputra's economic power but instead indulged them in an obstinate bribery circle. The advantage that was given is now considered as a deserved right of the aborigines(Ketuanan Melayu). The inability of the Malays to capitalised result in the fragmentation of the Malaysian society due to the resentment that is growing among the non-Malays.

To capitulate the level of competitiveness, government should not discourage criticism from media or individuals. With the ruling political parties controlling the mainstream media, Malaysia has dampened the local pool of intelligence who as Mr Bakri portrayed as radical, critical individual who likes to go against tradition.

Those are only a few thoughts taken from the book. The book has been enjoyable reading, not too complicated for beginners who want to experience the concept of economy. Some of the ideas such as the Brunei -Malaysia-Indonesia Free Trade Zone are outstanding. It will certainly open your mind.

You can borrow it from me.

Knowing the authors of the novels

Salam

Before reading a non-fiction novel, it is advised to "get-to-know" the profile of the author. It will prepare you on how to perceive the ideas that are projected in the novels. Some readers might easily be influenced with the heretic rethoric style of writing. An example is "The Clash of Fundamentalisms" by Tariq Ali. One would think that he is a muslim but actually he is a self-declared atheist. Though not all of his thoughts are against Islam, but his liberal revision of Islamic and world history might some of it be misintrepretated. Nevertheless, let us keep our mind open. Never limit the kind of books that we should read. Even the worst cruelest thing in this world has something that can teach us.