Imitation is the highest form of flattery

In Malaysia we seem to have an imitation crisis. When the United States come up with the Silicon Valley that gave birth to great companies such as google, ebay etc, we came up also with our own version of the silicon valley at Cyberjaya. It supposed to create ICT companies that can compete in global scale and also captures outsourcing job such as what has happened in India. But, Cyberjaya now seems to be housing many global call centres. So much for the outsourcing job. We also try to imitate the success of Indian companies who has been very successful in attracting outsourcing job from the rest of the world. 

When Paklah announced that we should be 100% self sustained in terms of food production, dozens of visits have been organised by government agencies to Holland; who has a successful food valley. (Not forgetting the Member's of Parliament's visit to Taiwan :))  Now with the wind of change that we can see in America whereby they could be having their first black American for president, would this form of leadership from the minority population of the country would be imitated here in Malaysia? hmmm.. only time would tell.

 

Global Recession - Malaysia in Denial

It's funny when an anticipated event will still caught people by suprise if it did really happened. That's what happened when the US faced an economic meltdown eventhough pundits have warned on this as early as 2006. What the global community was caught off guard was the severity of the recession. Many economists predict the recession will be as worse as the 1930's depression. Please note that the 1930's depression has led to world war two. 

A recession can be defined as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy and last more than a few months or by technical terms two quarters of the year. Recession impacts the real GDP, real income, employment, and industrial production. A sustained recession may led to an era of depression. 

With the global financial crisis looming, it is suprised when the top honchos that led the financial matters in this country are saying that we will not be affected as much as the other countries. This statement reminded me about a quote Harry Truman once said about recession 'Recession is when a neighbour losses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.' Malaysia has not yet felt the full brutal effect of the global wave of recession and therefore we are still in denial. The wave will reach our shores next year and we have to be prepared for it as it can be worse than we have ever encounter before. 

R.A.H.M.A.N Theory

There is a theory that has been going around since Tun Dr M's era of premiership. The theory is that the first alphabet of the name of the Prime Minister of Malaysia will follow these alphabets R.A.H.M.A.N. And quite coincidently, our first prime minister is Tunku Abdul RAHMAN. The theory is quite freaky if you think about it. Now that Paklah will hand over his job to Najib in March next year, it will make the theory into reality. When the theory arised during Mahathir's era, many people think that the A after the M must be Anwar. But, alas, the A are destined to be Abdullah instead. Now, many people believe that the N after the A would be Najib. But, nothing is confirmed in politics. Najib maybe seems to be heading towards the throne, but until March next year, we can only wait and see. Probably, the N can be Nik Aziz or Nurul Izzah :) hmmm...