Although it's been quite some time our government allowed us to dine-in a restaurant. I believe that I was afraid to go out because I found some of my fellow countrymen is a little slippery when it comes to adhering to Covid procedures.
To top it up, since our previous Prime Minister resigned, for a while we couldn't find the daily report on the number of infections and when they started sharing the numbers, it was around 15,000/day, and dropped to 8,000/d in one day, and I found that statistically improbable because, for weeks, the entire nation was behaving as though they were just released from their 2 year celibate oath.
Malaysia has been proudly running their brain drain policies for over five decades, and to add icing on a cake, it is also the most socially and politically divided nation in the region. No one really cared how the government mismanaged the pandemic, and if you or anyone cared enough to make a stand. They wouldn't be able to muster enough votes to straighten out things because of the level and type of education that the government systematically propagates ye old British divide and conquer to its citizens for over five decades. It is also the only nation in Southeast Asia that have 5 official levels of citizenship and unofficially 6 levels. Each level of citizenship comes with different set of rights and benefits. I'll illustrate it below to help you better understand:-
Num 1. King
Num 2. Sultan's
13 states with their own respective sultan's rotates every 4 or 5 years for each one to be king.
Num 3 Plutocratic Politicians
This is the unofficial citizenship, they vary in terms of power and influence. Their power mostly stems from how much they can ruin your life by tweaking nonsensical policies to their favour. This is why our nation has one of the most immigrants in the region, not because our currency is the highest in the region, in actuality our currency is the 3rd from the bottom right after Myanmar and Philippines. These people became immigrants because every change of leadership comes with a change of policy that doesn't include previous applicants/tion. Also if you want to get anything done right you'll have to slip some undertable money, and in between the officers and applicants, there are many vultures preying on the desperate. Immigration policies are also the worse in the region disguised under cultural preservation. Which is an absolute sham because the
ruling system is a direct photostat of the British and American plutocratic colonial system from the 1800s. I'll share more information to give you a better picture. To begin with, even a PR would be hard to attain without making a few officers rich. Then if you have a spouse visa, you're not allowed to work?!?!?!?!? If you want to work, you need a work visa which would roughly cost between min 2 - 6 months salary depending on your paygrade. The cost of visa, would usually be borne by you, unless of course you are exceptionally skilled and willing to accept a much lower remuneration. All of the above applies if you're not Muslim and if your spouse isn't 1st to 4th class citizen.
However, if you're Muslim or your spouse is the mentioned classed citizen, then above hassle is automatically discounted. PR and citizenship will be granted with couple of sweet talks and smiles.
To help you conclude, the reason why it is done so is because of quota. They don't have much quota for non Muslims, and the reason to that is quite simple and to be honest, quite brilliant. The key word is, exposure and expectations. Statistically, Non Muslims have a much higher global exposure and expectation, which automatically gives them a wider variety of methodological applications, and they would be less intuned to the fud thrown by the government to keep their votes in check.
This is just on immigration, if I start it on the basis of business, that would be another book to write. So, I'm going to leave that.
Num 4. Bumiputra 1 - aborigines.
Num 5. Bumiputra 2 - second class aborigines.
Why do they have that? Short explanation is because most of the second class aborigines are from East Malaysia, they follow the old Asian codes which were predominantly peaceful and inclusive. They're so chilled out and inclusive, that they're not really bothered by fud the government throws at them. According to the education ministry of East Malaysia - which I briefly interviewed. He/she (keeping that person anonymous for safety reasons) says that the central government intentionally limits the access of education in order to limit their intellectual and financial capacities of all east Malaysians.
Num 6. Others / a.k.a Aliens in America. Chinese, Caucasian, Europeans, and Indians are classified in this category.
For those who read up to this point, firstly I would like to thank you for your sincerity, effort and time. You've exceeded the point where most people have given up reading, and this also means that you're above the median average - you would probably be an expert/leader in your industry or you're on the way to be one.
I wish there was a way that I could summarize this, but there isn't one. I'd also like to mention that I'm not in anyway islamaphobic, my god father is one of the primary Islamic leaders in whom many of the political leaders from Malaysia and Indonesia would pay homage to him and would ask for God blessings through him, and I still go to the mosque several times in a year to donate and ask them to pray for my late brother.
Coming to my point - I've been working with the elites from almost all our neighbouring country. Because of the pandemic, I had the opportunity to re-explore Malaysia after being away for almost to a decade. I was pretty blessed to have the opportunity with local Malay leaders during the pandemic. I was set as a project manager at that time and I sat down for my first board meeting. It was held with one of Malaysia's top corporate leaders - the meeting went on for 3 hours and to be honest, I was absolutely disappointed. They had no training in terms of how one should conduct a meeting, no vision, no innovation. By the end of the 3 hours, they haven't gotten through the first topic. Any questions I had for them, they covered by accusing me for my lack of knowledge, in actuality I caught them off guard and they haven't even gotten off first base and I knew that my knowledge is way above theirs but I knew from growing up here that it's not good to insult them because they would go all out to destroy you, and they have the time to do so. So, I kept quiet, and I knew this project would be a failure, I told them I quit after the first board meeting and the project failed.
Please don't get me wrong. There are good malay leaders out there. I classify them in this terms. Those who grew up pre-Razak times were excellent. However if is those who are in power now that is the post Razak times. By the way Razak is one of our Prime ministers and father to Najib, so, you get my point. If you're not in tuned, just Google Najib Razak and you'll instantaneously get the point, I promise. Pre Razak boys are too old to lead now.
I believe comparisons are important as we get to measure our capability and capacity. In my opinion, they are behind the military junta of Myanmar. Basically in every aspect. Because the military is disciplined and they straight to the point even though their points are somewhat nyeh.... But nevertheless at least the know what they wanted to do and to create and they are disciplined in every way.
So, what are the effects after 5 decades of brain drianed policy firstly for the bumiputra and non bumi. Let us start with the Bumi's. Those who are smart and academically qualified - have mostly migrated because they know that they wouldn't be able to make a difference back home, there is too much beaurocracy that you need to go through, plus the pay is shit, so what is the point of being back anyways.
As for non bumi, they all work extra hard because we don't get to go to university for free. There are people going to local universities, because there is buy a small quota given, but let me show you a video, to give you an idea of how a local university welcomes it's non bumi students. Which happens to be a yearly event but it's usually covered up by the local media. This happens to be a yearly event and it is condoned by the board of education and its cronies, of course since the emergence of youtube and this video, nowadays they confiscate your phones and smash them before it could be a media event.
In the corporate world, it would be hard to create some a life changing app or solution without having the government strong arm their policies and forcing you to give up either the entire company or at least part of the company. That is why Robert Kwok migrated to Hong Kong because his companies were swept out under his nose by the government and that is why Wilmer International is public listed in singapore instead of Malaysia. Another company which is Grab the Uber of Asia is also public listed in Singapore and they manage to get out with slightly less damage learning from history, however it is not wihtout a price. Today Grab indonesia is operated by CIMB Niaga which is owned by Najib Razak's brother - by the way, Indonesia is the largest economy in south eastasia. Many malaysians do not know this because it is heavily convered up, which also means that they knnow it is wrong to do so, but they do it anyway because they konw that they would be able to get away with it - and they did.
Those who do not have the means to migrate, work locally, and of couse they follow the rules, but deep down, little that they know, they started having behaviours of their conqueror, because somehow they do not know it is wrong to treat people in such a way. but since decades and for some, most of their lives, these behavior wasn't punished, they never know that is it a wrong. So, in the corporate world, hard work is the last in everyones mind, because they know, working hard is the wouldn't get them anywhere and they would be robbed in the end. instead of working hard and being innovative, most people became sociopathic, they do as little as they can to receive a paycheck and those who actually do well in an organization would be instantaneously pulled down. As for me, my one day chilled out work result would usually be equal to 5 days work for a local, of course it is the first time in my life that I'm being punished for creating results. And I'm just being chilled out at my work, not even serious and that already creates a problem for them. its really hard for me to adjust and I totally understand why those who are expats would like to go home whenever they have the chance.
It would be hard for anyone to reverse these damages and it would take at least another 5 decades to do so. Because it would be hard for any malay leader to point this out, it would probably take perhaps another century, maybe two.
So, for those who are in international business. After reading this article, you already know that Malaysia wouldn't be a suitable place for business. But how would you know other countries wouldn't be the same and how do you identify them? Simple actually, if you look into their economic policies to have any sort of protectionism policy. Avoid them at all cost or it will cost you your life.
