Whatsapp and the People's Connectivity

Whatsapp has grown in popularity and is now famously being used by Malaysians from all walk of ages. Interesting that people now like to use this app to communicate eventhough communication using messages is something not new. Remember SMS? The only new thing that Whatsapp created is the ability to connect free with no charges. This brings to my point that does Whatsapp charges its services and products? And if it does charge does it have a Whatsapp expired date? If it does, then Whatsapp does not create something new, it is just develop the messaging system into something more enhanced but much cheaper than the traditional SMS. However, the good thing about Whatsapp is that at least it is connecting people and bringing people closer.

Future of Social Media - Part 1

On 18^th May 2012, Facebook became a public listed company and its stock has begun trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Facebook priced its IPO at US$38 per share and valued the company at US$104 billion or RM325 billion. This value is even higher than Yahoo, eBay and Groupon combined. If this figure does not impressed you imagine this; with over 900 million users, if Facebook is a country, it would be the third largest country in the world after India and China. According to The Star, Facebook users in Malaysia alone reached 12 million last year. The top five Social Media channels in Malaysia according to Burson-Marsteller in 2011 are Facebook, Blogspot, Wordpress, Twitter and Metacafe with Facebook represents 75.5% of users reach.

Facebook heralded a new era of the media hence the Social Media. It represents a new way of disseminating information and content sharing. The interaction of the traditional media e.g.; Television, Radio, Newsprint have always been a one way interaction with the public being at the receiving end. Interactions can be done through this media but not on a real-time basis. Even by allowing interaction, limited freedom are given to the public as the editors or content managers of these traditional media controls what should be and what should not be printed or aired. This creates monopoly of content and some politicians or even Government use this advantage as a tool for propagating their interests to the public.

However, it is hard to appreciate the new media if you do not know the origin of the traditional media. Basically, media is known as a method of communication between people commonly used to distribute news, information and also views. The need to disseminate information was well established even when our species was living in caves. This can evidently be seen from the cave paintings and also stone manuscript. This method then evolved into other forms of disseminations such as using homing pigeons and manuscripts using bones, clay tablets and papyrus. As people develop new technology for printing, Newspaper was then created and circulated to people and it remains as the popular choice of media for sharing information up until the 21^st Century besides Television and Radio. And then the Internet was born. The main reason behind the creation of the Internet is basically for connectivity between computer users. The ARPAnet, considered as the grandfather of World Wide Web was created in 1969 with the objective of connectivity and data sharing. From that simple solution, the Internet has now evolved into what is now known as Web 2.0.  

Republic of Fear

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. - Bertrand Russell

The malaysian entertainment industry nowadays namely movies and TVs have been bombarded with too many ghost stories, supernatural and also superstitious elements. The producers are rushing to create a lot of this spooky movies due to the relaxation of FINAS in terms of censorship. Ten years ago, there are no way these type of movies would go to the mainstream audience. Even a slight element of superstitious will be banned by FINAS. Because of this factor, there is a pent-up demand from the local movie-goers and tv audience of wanting local ghost stories. The produces are smart enough to notice these demands and when FINAS have relax the regulations, a flood of spooky movies have been released to the market. And like someone who is very thirsty and suddenly given a lot of water, the thirsty person will drink the water a lot until he will have stomach ache. The same analogy goes to these phenomenon right now. Audiences who hunger for these type of local movies wants more and more but what they don't realize is the long term effect it will have for the nation.

Fear can be a seed that is small at the beginning but can grow big. A child who been taught to fear something like the boogeyman under the bed, will carry that seed of fear until he is old but the fear is no longer with the boogeyman but the fear of something supernatural. These superstitious element have been amplified with the movies and TVs nowadays. Just imagine the impact it will have with the younger children nowadays. Children as young as 2 or 3 years old already knows about ghost and supernatural elements. I fear that these in the long term will create a society that have a superstitious mindset. A republic of fear can no longer be innovative. A republic of fear can no longer be creative. A republic of fear will stifled the progress of the nation.

BN nearing the End?

This post can also be titled "The making of a two-party system?".. As far as Malaysian history is concerned, never before a ruling party other than Barisan Nasional has ever ruled the government of Malaysia. The alliance of UMNO, MCA and MIC has been a successful working formula since the independence day. The failure of the opposition to form an alliance due to different ideologies has make it a non-threat to the ruling parties and therefore BN always have garnered a 2/3 majority. It is not until the recent election whereby the opposition have denied the BN a 2/3 majority. The oppositions consists of PAS, PKR and DAP have decided to work together and therefore creates a formidable force against BN. Their cooperations however is hinged upon one dominant person - Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. This alliance is still intact until today due to this one person who is holding the pact together. Remove this person, and the opposition will crumble. BN knows this and therefore you can see their strategy from the very beginning is to attack Anwar Ibrahim.

Whether this strategy will work or not, we will see in the next election in the near future. However, one good thing that came out of this is the possibility of an alternative ruling party besides BN to the citizen of Malaysia, whereby, we as the rakyat of Malaysia can choose. If the ruling party does not perform or corrupted, we can change it through the election and therefore ends a monopoly of one single political party. This perspective have never been available before due to the weak opposition pact before this. With or without Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition must be a credible force and therefore will make BN on their toe and perform at best for the nation. They should not be sitting comfortable because come the next election, they will probably loose power. This will make any ruling party after this to perform and be accountable to their action. It is a good thing for Malaysia to have. It is democracy at its best.

MAS and Airasia - the solemnization

"In order to have an enemy, one must be somebody. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend." - Unknown

This quote says it all about the rivalry between MAS and Airasia. When you have a competitor in the form of Airasia, MAS is forced to be competitive and therefore the exercises done by Idris Jala, the previous managing director has resulted the company to be profitable again. However, sustaining the development has been hard for MAS. And in a weird twist, MAS has turn to its nemesis for help. Tony Fernandez will help definitely but with business intention agenda that is. Eliminating a competitor is one of the goals for every businesses. This is because with less competition, the more the business can control the price of its product.

So, by merging/share-swapping between MAS and Airasia, both entities benefit as they eliminated their competitors. But in the long run, the customers are the victims as prices will not be as cheap as before.

Essence of 1Malaysia

The interest thing about Malaysia right now is that our best thing is also our worst thing. The multicultural society that we have is a good thing. With diversity you can have the best of every culture. In a team of soccer for instance, not every player can become a striker. Some player needs to be the midfielder or goalkeeper. This is due to each distinctive strong point that makes a soccer team strong. However, with strong players dos not ensure success if there is no understanding between the players. Cohesiveness as a team is very important. Knowing other players strength and weaknesses is also vital. So, what this got to do with Malaysia. A lot actually.. Every ethnic in Malaysia have its strength and weaknesses. But, utilizing the strength of each races is not enough without strong teamwork and understanding between each races. This is what 1Malaysia is all about.. Is not the differences of each culture that we should highlight.. or the gaps of wealth between the races... but the most important is how we as a society can work together, filling each other weaknesses with our own unique strength. By doing this, Malaysia as a country can stand high. This is not a patriotic post that I am writing, but more of what I feel that needs to be highlighted by the mainstream media. Instead of highlighting what each races in Malaysia should deserved, we should highlight what is needed to strengthen our ties... and then probably we can scale even higher mountains.

Malaysia's EPL Mania

A treat for all EPL fans here in Malaysia. Three giants from the EPL will be coming here to Malaysia to fight our Harimau Malaya. Arsenal just beat Malaysia yesterday 4-0... Hope the scoreline will be lower this weekend against Liverpool and also Chelsea next week. Malaysia Boleh!

Najib vs BERSIH 2.0

One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it. -Unknown (quoted from Kung-Fu Panda)

This quote is taken from the movie Kung-fu Panda. In that movie, the grandmaster had a vision that his greatest enemy will escape from the prison. His disciple knowing from this immediately send someone to that prison to alert the guard and to tell them to double-up the security. However, by sending someone there, he inadvertently causes the prison break of that enemy. If he were not asked to come there, the enemy would never escape as envision by the grandmaster. Quite ironic, isn't it.

This is actually similar to where Najib is doing against the BERSIH rally. He tries everything in his power to stop this rally but inadvertently he has spurred the interest of people to participate in this rally. The crackdown on BERSIH supporter can only drew more sympathy to their cause. The media hype about this BERSIH rally is really dumbfounded. You can see it in TV, you can see it in the newspaper. Everyone knows it is going to be held in 9th July. The BERSIH organiser got free advertisement and promotion, courtesy from the government. Plus now, there is an added bonus, they got a stadium now, again courtesy from the prime minister and Yang Dipertuan Agong. The harder you try to block it, the more the real it become.

From the way I see it, BERSIH only represent the vocal minority.. But it seems that they like to think that they represent the majority voice of the rakyat. I for one, don't care at all about this rally thing, I personally think that we have a good election system compared to some of our neighbours and some parts of the world. They do have some faults, but at least there is an improvement. At least, democracy is practiced here. In the last election, the opposition managed to get five states, and still they say the election system is corrupted? Samy Vellu lost.. Shahrizat lost.. Anwar Ibrahim won... Nurul Izzah won.... this is big tycoons here.. and yet you say the election system is corrupted? If it truely is, I don't think Anwar can even win in Permatang Pauh.

So Najib.. just give this BERSIH their damn stadium to shout all they want.. In the general election, the silent majority will also have a say.. and we will say it silently through our votes....Not by shouting in a stadium.. PEACE !!

Malaysia - A unique melting pot

The unique thing about Malaysia is that this a country long time ago have decided on the integration approach. The approach is that the immigrants who have been granted the citizenship can still retain their identity from their home country. Therefore their kids can go to their special schools learning their home country's language, and even use syllabus from their home country and also retain their name based on their original country's name. As for Indonesia, the country longtime ago adapted the assimilation approach. The immigrants who have been granted citizenship must use Indonesian name, go to Indonesian school and learn Indonesian language.

Therefore, today you can see that if you go to Indonesia, you can only see one single Indonesian culture that is only unique to that country. The same thing if you go other asean country such as Thailand and Korea. If you go to these countries cultural performance night, you can only see one cultural performance. But, this is not the case in Malaysia. If you go to a Malaysia cultural performance, you are shown a chinese culture performance that is similar to China, the Indian culture that is similar to India and also even portugese culture! The only unique thing and not similar to any other country is the Malay cultural performance. So, it is indeed a unique country since assimilation did not take place and therefore you have a bit of China, a bit of India and with the background of Malay and also Sabah & Sarawak culture in our society. It is best to say that we have a Rojak society.. And it is the best Rojak society in the world

What do Wars, NEM and ETP have in common

As we all know, the Government have announced the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and the New Economic Model (NEM) as the way forward for Malaysia to transform itself from a middle income economy to high income economy within a short time period of 10 years. All in all, I think the ETP is like a quickwin project where the endgame is to get investments in from the private and foreign and finally to stimulate the economy to a degree that can increase the income of the nation. In the same time, Malaysia must maintain at least a 6% growth until 2020 to reach a capita income of USD15,000. Ok.. Enough of the facts...

Let's now look at Korea and Singapore. They do not have their ETPs and NEMs or vision 2020 but how can they escape their middle income status long time ago? I think that the nation can have the very best plan or policy in place but if they do not have the people with them, it will be a failure. Singapore as you all know is a very small nation. Their progress into a developed nation is simply because they MUST progress or else they will be bullied by their neighbouring countries. That simple DRIVE that they have probably have the people there united and support the government in anything that would drive the country forward. They MUST obey and implement everything fast. The fear of being bullied is greater since the nation is small.

Now let's look at Korea. The main drive of them progressing is not just because they wanted to become a developed nation but also the main drive is the FEAR of their neighboring country North Korea. They MUST develop and capable in defending themselves from the attack of North Korea without the aid of the US and therefore they develop themselves with the necessary industries such as automotive, iron and steel, shipbuildings, chemical, electronics. These industries are necessary for WARS. Therefore they created the platform for a developed nation out of FEAR from being attacked. The people of Korea rallied upon their leader to make things happen since they also do not want to be invaded by another country.

So, what's the moral story here? Probably the best motivation of a country to progress is simply FEAR. Fear of something that would happen if they do not developed and therefore the people would work with the government in making things happen. Only with unity, a ship can move forward. But to make people unite, there must be a common ground. A common ground where the people will accept and will do whatever it takes to make it happen.

The Rise of Malaysian Local Movies

The Malaysian movies are on the rise... Prior to 2010, the highest grossing movie is Sembilu 2 directed by Yusof Haslam.. That movie have grossed to about RM6 million and earned Dato Yusof Haslam the nickname six million dollar man. However, the year 2010 is the year for David Teoh. The films under the Metrowealth production have bulldozed the Malaysian box office not just once but twice. The film Ngangkung is now the highest grossing local movie in Malaysia ever with sales collection of RM8.0 million beating previous record holder, Adnan Sempit that collected RM7.8 million previously. These signs shows that the Malaysian audience supports the local film industry with conditions that the movies are of good quality. In addition to this also, the film by Mamat Khalid, Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah also garnered the local moviegoers attentions and have become the talk about from the public. So far, the film have collected around RM6 million. Do Malaysian local audience prefers comedy rather than serious stuff? From the statistics, it does shows that. To do well in the cinemas, producers must avoid stupid comedy as Malaysian cinemagoers are now much more educated. They want quality comedy and this what they get from the films such as Hantu Kak Limah Balik Rumah and Ngangkung.

However, there are still potential for Malaysian movies to increase their sales collection. From the record, it shows that Iron Man 2 collected RM14 million from the Malaysian market and Karate Kid collected RM13 million. The local producers must benchmark this sales record and realise the full potential of Malaysian film market locally. From the trends showing, it is not possible one day that a Malaysian local movie can finally break the RM10 million threshold. Only time will tell.

The Rise of Malaysian Football

It has been too long that the Malaysian football team has been in the doldrum. Time and time again we have been mentioned about the great past of Malaysian football where we are once feared in Asia. Aaahh... the legendary Supermokh era... But, then again I was not even born yet so how can I even remember what was the era is all about.

But, now the glimpse of an awaken giant have emerged. The giant have wake up and become champion of the ASEAN region. This was shown in the result of the SEA games and AFF Suzuki Cup. Both tournament was held in 2009 and 2010 respectively and both times Malaysia emerged as champions. Have the giant have completely awaken or it will go back to sleep again? Hope not. Let's hope that this time around Malaysia will keep the momentum and become again a force to be reckon with in the Asia region.

And I hope also that the national team jersey to be permanently change to blue instead of yellow... based on statistic the team suck when playing in the yellow shirt... Hidup Harimau Malaya..

A Malaysian getting famous for the wrong reason

NEW YORK: A Malaysian man, charged on Thursday with hacking into computer networks of the US Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) and a defence contractor, was caught by Secret Service agents while selling stolen credit card numbers for US$1,000 (RM3,200) at a diner in New York.
Court documents released by US prosecutors said the man, identified as Lin Mun Poo, 32, was arrested on Oct 21, hours after arriving in New York.

He was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday on four charges, including hacking into the system of a US central bank branch in Cleveland, Ohio.

“In his post-arrest statement, the defendant admitted compromising the computer servers of a number of major financial institutions and companies,” US prosecutors in Brooklyn wrote in a letter to US District Judge Dora Irizarry, who was assigned the case.

It said Lin admitted exploiting a vulnerability he found in the bank’s computer system.
“The Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio, has confirmed that an FRB computer network was hacked in June 2010, resulting in thousands of dollars in damages, affecting 10 or more computers,” the letter said.

A court hearing for the judge to consider a government request to continue to detain Lin was postponed. No new date has been scheduled yet. Lin’s court-appointed lawyer was not available to comment.

Lin is a Malaysian with no professional or family ties to the US, the letter said. He arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport from Europe with a round-trip ticket, planning to return on Nov 22. “Within hours of his arrival at JFK, US Secret Service agents observed the defendant selling stolen credit card numbers for $1,000 at a diner in Brooklyn and arrested him shortly thereafter,” the letter to the judge said.

Other allegations against Lin include possession of more than 400,000 stolen credit cards and debit cards on an encrypted laptop computer that the agents seized. If convicted, he faces a potential maximum prison sentence of between six-and-a-half years to eight years. - Reuters

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It's quite funny to first heard of this news. It is a bit of a mixture of between being proud that a malaysian is highly skilled enough to hack into pentagon and in the same time being embarassed that because it is a criminal act. However, I have to say that this guy is one super hacker as hacking into pentagon is not easy. It needs skill and knowledge that you cannot learn from anywhere but through trial and error and also some serious experiences. This can also be a case of a malaysian getting famous in the world arena but really for the wrong reason. The same as the case of another Malaysian, Jho Lo, a businessman who was in the limelight because of the excess partying with hollywood celebrities such as Paris Hilton.

Perkasa - A Swing Vote

The Political divide caused by the election tsunami in 2008 is still being felt until today. Malay especially has been torn apart between PAS supporters, UMNO supporters, PKR supporters and also who sits in the fences and do not support any parties. Before this, the Malay who neither liked the extremist view of PAS and in the same time rejected the elitism of UMNO will tend to join PKR as a way to express their view as a modern malay. However, recent trends have shown how PKR is not willing to defend Malay's right as they need to 'kowtim' with their 'sleeping partner' the DAP. DAP having certain extent of an extremist view of a Malaysian Malaysia will not let PKR defend malay rights.

So, this have left a gap of political supporters from some of the Malay group who wants to defend the rights of the Malay according the constitution. This scenario has been worsened by the 1Malaysia agenda by YAB Dato Sri Najib whereby some quarters feels it equates with equality among all races regardless whether you are in a majority or minority. 1Malaysia is a good agenda but in the same time it gives permission for others to start attacking the constitution right of the Malays.If UMNO who should have been the caretaker of Malay rights is promoting 1Malaysia, which other party should this group of Malays would have gone to? This is where Dato' Ibrahim Ali played a very strategic move by creating Perkasa. Perkasa in a way fills the gap that some of the Malays who still feels they need to protect their rights as given in the constitution. Neither UMNO or PKR or PAS is doing this.So, they come to Perkasa for the rescue. Eventhough DAP, PKR and even UMNO are calling Perkasa as a racist group, but I have a feeling there will be also a huge silent majority who is also supporting Perkasa agenda. And this silent majority will become a crucial vote in the next election. Backup by Dr Mahathir himself, do not underestimate Perkasa as I feel they can be a swing vote to either BN or the oppositions during the next general election.

Budget 2011

Interesting to note that the Government has the 'rakyat' in mind each time the budget is announced. No bonus to government servant because it will cost RM3.1 billion but still they can allocated a fund of RM111 million to permata programme. As we all know the permata programme is lead by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, our 'beloved' first lady. And then the waived of tax for imported brands. In one hand government wants us to 'ikat perut' and in the other hand they are implying that we should spend on this branded goods because it is cheaper now? And the finale.. warisan merdeka, a 100 storey building to built near the stadium negara... the tallest in the country. I have no qualms on this as they are saying that this would be privately financed by PNB. Look what happens to KLCC. When the KLCC project was proposed during the 1990s, many people have opposed to it and saying it was a waste. But look at it now, standing proud and have bring tremendous positive impact to the country. But, I have a feeling that the opposition will used this warisan merdeka issue very strongly as one of their strong points in the election.

Middle Income Trap

(Img source: PEMANDU)

YAB Prime Minister of Malaysia has launched the new economic model for Malaysia last month. This initiative has an ambitious aim of making Malaysia into a high income economy. As Idris Jala, the head of the PEMANDU keep saying, this is not a plan, this is a program. This is not a plan, this is a program… or maybe better said “Ini bukan cobaan, ini betul-betul”.. “ini bukan cobaan, ini betul-betul”.. Ok, on a serious note. What are these program consists of? 131 Entry Point Projects with 60 business opportunities and 3.3 million job opportunities. From a layman perspective, probably the first question that an individual would ask is ‘what is it for me? ‘ Well, if you one of the head or Board directors of the GLCs or one of the corporate big boys.. There is plenty. But for the normal rakyat.. we can only hope on the spillover effect such as the employment opportunities and also spillover of small projects that is related to the Entry Point Projects.

However, I am not touching much on the New Economic Model. Just let the professional do the analysis on the Model. As for me, I am much interested on the strategy and program on how Malaysia can get out of the middle income. No more blueprint.. no more roadmap.. no more dreaming for the sky….. just pure action or as they call it Entry Point Projects. Implementation is the key. Action is the key. What makes me wonder is that how we as an individual can also apply the same concept and strategy to get ourselves out from the middle income into the high income bracket. Let’s put it this way. Malaysia has been depending on Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs) previously in creating the job and revenues for the government. They came in, open up their factory, provide jobs to locals and in the same time Government can get revenue from taxing the companies and also their workers. It has been good so far but nevertheless it can only give Malaysia so much. Too much dependence on this type of revenue alone could not bring Malaysia further into the high income bracket.

Therefore, Malaysia is trapped in the middle income. The only way Malaysia can increase its GNI or in layman’s term.. Its salary is by applying the same principle that made people millionaires and billionaire worldwide.. multiple streams of income. Do not be overly dependent on one source of income but by creating other type of sources. That’s why the government wants this EPP to happen. By having multiple entry point projects.. it can create the multiple revenues that the government can have in order to become a developed nation. If all the EPPs are implemented successfully, I am confident that the goal of Malaysia in becoming a developed nation by 2020 can be achieved.

Malaysia as a Brand - What do others see?

It's funny that eventhough we have been independent for 53 years now this year, we still really have this identity crisis or self image problem when it comes to promote the country as a tourism spot. We always project ourselves as multi-ethnic, multiracial country that can co-exist together and live in harmony. Or in common sense, we are a 'rojak' society. Do we really want others to see us as a "Rojak" society? Sound tasty, but, really... how does this work? We project ourselves as a boiling point of many cultures and but then again also promote ourselves as this moderate Islamic country. Is this on purpose so that the foreigners that come here will be confuse enough to even bother. If you go to Bali, Indonesia you can expect there will be one single theme to it and you can even see it once you arrived at their airport. The same goes to Thailand. There is one single underlying theme to every country and the foreignors will know what will they be experiencing. But, in Malaysia case, it can varied depending on where you want to go. Malaysia Truly Asia or Malaysia The Confuse Asia. Nothing serious. Just my personal thought.

The Theory of Broken Window

The theory of broken window suggests that a high concentration of petty crimes can lead to a higher and bigger crimes. The theory are made based on the observation of James Q Wilson and George L Kelling in New York transit. From their study, the reasons why crime rates are very high especially in the subway area was due to grafitti and vandalisme to the subway train that went unnoticed or ignored by the authorities. Because it is ignored or considered as small and petty crimes, the vandalisers there sees it as a signal for them to become more aggresive and starts to do much more serious crimes.

The theory also suggests that in order to reduce crimes, you must tackle it even at the earliest stage and that is at the broken window stage. By fixing the window immediately, it will leave the message to the would-be criminals that no rooms for law breaking is allowed here even for small crimes as broken window.

How does this relate to Malaysia? In my perspective, in order for the police and authorities to reduce the crime rate in Malaysia in a drastic manner is to focus more on the 'broken window' and take care of it immediately. Among the 'broken window' that worth mentioning is the dvd/vcd pirate sellers. Here in Malaysia, it is a norm to see this particular vendor selling the pirated dvd of the road or 'pasar malam'. They are breaking the law in broad daylight and it seems that the authorities just simply either don't care or considered it as petty crimes so it is not worth their effort to crack down their operations. However, if we follow the theory of the broken window, it leaves the impression that is ok to bend the law, and this will lead to higher crimes.

1Malaysia concept BN vs PR

I must admit the concept of 1Malaysia is a good branding exercise promoted by Dato Seri Najib for race unity although it has existed before from previous leadership through a different name. However, certain quarters has tried to linked it up with the same concept promoted by the opposition, DAP and that is 'Malaysian Malaysia'. The concept that DAP trying to promote is equality for all races in Malaysia. This means that all Malaysian are equal and no race have the special priviledge over the others. However, 1Malaysia concept promoted by Dato' Seri Najib have stated that it abides by the federal constitution and therefore the concept is not the same as DAP concept. This means it still recognise Malays to have special priviledges eventhough all races embraces the concept of having a 1Malaysia for growth and unity.

Brazil for instance is a good example of equality among races because there are no category for races even existed in the country. In their form or ID, there are not even a category for races. Therefore all individual is treated as Brazilians no matter what color their skins are. However, in reality in the country, there do exist groups that is white in skin color and a group that is black and brown. Generally, the white skin groups dominates the economy and trades while the darker skins dominates arts and sports. And in reality also, the groups that in position of power in Brazil and in the higher income bracket is the white skins.

This scenario that happens in Brazil shows the disadvantage of having no race category. The discrimination and displacement of races occured in broad daylight but since there are no race category there, there are also no law for race discrimination. The groups that have darker skins is been left out in the economics development and position of power and they can do nothing about because as individuals there whether you are black or white, you are a Brazillian. Or 1Brazillians if I may add.

So we now have to ask ourselves, which 1Malaysia concept that we really want to adapt? The BN or DAP?

High Income Economy equals Highly Focused Nation

The prime minister, Dato' Sri Najib have mentioned again and again that for Malaysia to achieve the vision of a developed nation by 2020, we must strive to become a high income economy. What is a high income economy? A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with a Gross National Income per capita of $11,906 or more in 2008.

By an analogy, if an average person who has a salary of RM3,000 to RM10,000 is considered a middle income, and RM10,000 and above is considered high income, what he should do in order to get that range of salary? Of course the first thing that he can thought of is to get back to school. A Master degree might get him there but a phd will definitely get him to that range. But this approach may take some time, and probably not cost effective.

Another option is some refocussing on his strength and skills. If he works now as an engineer, he still may be trap with that middle income, but by becoming a specialist engineer, he can get to that range. All that he needs is to focus on one niche area and be good at it. Malaysia can do the same. Look hard into what Malaysia is good at, focus very hard on it, be tremendously good at it and the global market will bend down to your knees and will forever be at your doorstep. Look as an example, Japan become a developed nation by focussing on automotive and electronics. Malaysia needs a niche area where the nation is already good at, focus all its resources to it, and become a specialist whereby all the global market recognise and will source it in Malaysia.