Family ties lubricate Malaysia wheels of power
- From: pluto <pluto@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 10:22:52 +0800
[this is the way things work in my, interestingly inheritated from the
colonial british and fine tuned to umno needs. Most journalists can comment
but offer no solution.]
http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/family-ties-lubricate-malaysia-wheels-of-power/2005/08/09/1123353320054.html?oneclick=true
Family ties lubricate Malaysia wheels of power
By Michael Backman
August 10, 2005
I've long written that Malaysia is more modern and sophisticated than it
gets credit for. But it's a position that sometimes embarrasses me. Events
of the last few weeks are a case in point.
Malaysia has a car industry it doesn't need ? certainly not on economic
grounds ? and Proton, the national car, is profitable because it is heavily
shielded from imports. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Proton's
special adviser since he left office, has been strident in taking up the
company's cause.
Malaysians need an approved permit to import cars, the number of which has
tripled in recent years. Last month Mahathir questioned why so many permits
had been awarded. The imports were hurting Proton, he said, and he called
for the list of permit holders to be made public.
The responsible minister, Rafidah Aziz, claimed that, in fact, she wasn't
responsible. The permits had always been granted with the prime minister's
knowledge and, in any event, Mokhzani, one of Mahathir's sons, was a
recipient. She added that Proton was shoddy and should become more
competitive rather than hide behind government protection, a view with
which most Malaysians would concur, at least on the first point.
tSome in the government then accused Rafidah, ironically one of Mahathir's
strongest supporters during the decades in which he was in power, of being
rude to the ex-prime minister. She responded in a press conference that
Mahathir was like a father to her. Then she burst into tears, not so much a
polite dab-of-the-eyes-type cry, but a full-throttle howl. She has nothing
to do with any permit holder, she claimed. "The Koran is my witness," she
said dramatically, laying her hand on the said book.
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi decided that the list of permit holders
could be published. It emerged that the single biggest holder for this year
was none other than Mohamed Haniff Abdul Aziz, a former senior officer in
Rafidah's ministry. Rafidah's niece Annie and her husband Zulkifli Ishak
had also been allocated 199 permits this year and 850 last year. Many other
well-connected individuals had been given permits, too.
Customs director-general Halil Abdul Mutalib weighed in to further explain
the policy to an increasingly appalled public ? but how the system really
works was made clear to all with the revelation that a company owned by his
own son had been awarded permits.
In total, at least a fifth of all new permits had been allocated to
ex-officials or to the families of officials. Many permits, which are
handed out free, are not even used by those allocated them, but are sold on
? typically for windfall profits of up to $US14,000 ($A18,300) per permit.
It must be said that Rafidah, who has served as Malaysia's Trade Minister
for 20 years is hard-working, capable and knows her way around the minutiae
of international trade like no one else. But this was not the first time
that Rafidah's family has been seen to benefit from government patronage.
Back in 1993 it emerged that her son-in-law had been awarded a huge share
allocation under a government scheme that provided for quotas of new shares
to be allocated to ethnic Malays. Rafidah responded by naming relatives of
other officials who had similarly benefited.
But this should not be taken as corruption or nepotism for the few. In
Malaysia, the bucket of government largesse is sloshed around so much that
literally millions of Malaysians benefit from government-awarded
privileges.
It is explicit government policy.
Former finance minister Daim Zainuddin once told me that the thing that
took up most of his time in office was approving licences and contracts: he
had to ensure that the distribution and balance was just right to keep
everyone on side. But what's missing is transparency.
The reference by Rafidah to Mahathir as a father was telling. That is how
government leaders in South-East Asia like to run ? as families. It helps
to avoid scrutiny. After all, who wants to openly criticise their father?
But respect is no substitute for openness. No longer is such third-world
nomenclature appropriate for a modern world, and certainly not for
Malaysia. Its ministers, instead of acting like capable and accountable
professionals, all too often operate like sycophantic family members
grouped around some village headman.
Prime Minister Abdullah declared it was time for the practice of giving
permits to certain people to stop. Possibly he thinks it is time for
Rafidah to go, but she isn't likely to of her own volition.
The permit system will be discussed by cabinet, several members of which
are outraged by the matter. Rafidah will have a 25-page briefing paper on
the system. No doubt she'll also have a file many times thicker detailing
the licences, permits and contracts awarded to the families of her cabinet
colleagues. She's not the world's longest-serving trade minister for
nothing.
In an unrelated matter, Malaysia's High Court has come up with one of its
silliest decisions yet. It dismissed an application by two London-based
casinos to register a judgement in Malaysia to recover almost $US2 million
in gambling debts from a former chief minister of Malaysia's Sabah state.
It did so on the grounds that profiting from gambling is contrary to
Malaysian national philosophy, notwithstanding the fact that Malaysia is
home to the Genting Highlands Casino, the biggest casino in Asia. If an
Indonesian court made a decision like that, you'd assume the judge had been
bribed.
michaelbackman@xxxxxxxxx
cheers
pluto
.
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