Congress on Malay Excellence

Prof. Dr. Yaacob Harun, Director of Centre for Malay Excellence delivering the opening address at the Congress

1. Introduction.  The Congress was organised by Pusat Kajian Kecermalangan Melayu (Centre for Studies on Malay Excellence), Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur on November 25 and 26, 2015 at Hotel Armada Petaling Jaya, participated by an estimated 150 participants, principally academicians and graduate students.  In his opening remarks, the Director of the Centre Prof. Dato' Dr. Yaacob Harun, indicated that the Congress was organised as a forum to share ideas on the issue of the Malay Economy with the theme 'Non-economic Factors in the Economic Development of the Malays'. The eighteen papers delivered during the two days covered, among others, the following topics pertaining to the Malay community in Malaysia: poverty and wealth distribution among ethnic groups, leadership, distribution of inherited wealth, entrepreneurship among women, small and medium scale industries development, entertainment, arts and crafts, drama and cultural performances, incentives and subsidies, utilization of multimedia in economic development. The presentations that particularly attracted my attention were the following two keynote addresses, which are discussed in some detail here :

      a. Keynote Address 1. Cultural Transformation and Economic Changes by
          Prof. Datuk Dr. Zainal Kling

      b. Keynote Address 2. The Future of Malay Economy by
          Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim

         

Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim delivering his keynote address

With Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim

 
2.  Keynote Address 1. Cultural Transformation and Economic Changes.  Prof. Zainal, who is attached with Universiti Utara Malaysia, provided a historical background to the economic development of the country.  The colonialists (Portuguese, Dutch and finally the British), according to Prof Zainal, implemented policies that destroyed the entrepreneurial ability of the Malays and wanted them to remain as farmers to grow food crops such as rice and spices and cultivate perennials such as rubber and oil palm as raw materials for their industries. Even the education system then provided the Malays at just the level of Standard Five (five years of schooling). Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of Singapore in 1821, admitted when he wrote an Introduction in the translated version of  'Sejarah Melayu' (Malay Annals) that the Malays were addicted to commerce and the commercial centres of the Malay world then were Aceh (in Sumatra Indonesia), Melaka and Makasar (in Sulawesi Indonesia). It was at the end of colonial period, at the proddings of the Malay leaders that the Rural Industrial Development Authority was established with the aim of bringing about rural development.  At the initial period of Merdeka, the Government adhered the colonialist laissez faire market economy and free enterprise.  However, the capitalistic economic system based on individualism and greed led to a wide disparity of incomes among ethnic groups which subsequently led to a racial conflict of May 13, 1969.  Dasar Ekonomi Baru (New Economic Policy - NEP) was then promulgated, fundamentally, with the overriding objective of national unity through eradication of poverty and to correct racial economic imbalance.  It provided opportunities in enterprises, tertiary education both at local universities and overseas in various professional fields from agriculture, engineering, medical, accountancy etc, positions in the government services for the Malays.  NEP has indeed transformed the community from a peasant society to an urban and industrial one, with improvement in wealth, education, politic and social progress, within a generation. The wealth creation is generated through the establishment of Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), a unit trust investment arm for the bumiputras and the formation of GLCs such as Sime Darby, Petronas, Felda Ventures, CIMB, Maybank which are sources of investments of the accumulated money from the purchases of trust units.
  Prof. Zainal proceeded to narrate on the promulgation of the Dasar Kebudayaan Kebangsaan (National Cultural Policy) which led to the in-depth research and compilation on literature relating to  the heritage of Malay civilization and the parallel development of performing arts such as script  writing for dramas, theatrical shows and acting talents.  Traditional theatre such as shadow plays, 'mak yong, dikir barat, boria' etc received wide support.  This led to what he termed it as 'komodifikasi seni' (commodification of art and culture). Art and culture became commodities that attract tourists and complement significantly to the economic development of the community. Studies have indicated that the progress and development of a community are dependent on the cultural roles and functions, especially values and norms of the societal group - a phenomenon termed as 'The Triple Package' made up of 'Superiority', 'Insecurity' and Impulse Control' , which are the necessary ingredients that push progress and development.
  However, Prof. Zainal indicated that a significant transformation in the Malay society has occurred in recent years following the revival of Islam in the 1970s and the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1990s, with the pursuit of religious knowledge and practices, ingrained in their souls.  This led to the significant integration of Islamic economic principles, highlighting 'moral economy' , 'ethical economy' and 'wasatiyah' (moderation) in the management of the country's economy as opposed to the conventional free and open market capitalistic system where maximization of profits to individual entrepreneurs is the objective or the planned socialist system where the State has so much rights over the people.  The Islamic system is the moderate between the two extremes. Religion becomes the guiding principles of the soul and mind of the Malay-Muslim community.  However, adherents emphasise the 'fardhu ain' - practices in the preparation for the next world rather than a more balanced approach with practices to overcome the many challenges that followers face ('fardhu kifayah') in their daily life, encouraging efforts particularly  to generate wealth.  Accordingly, Prof. Zainal, strongly advocates the more appropriate interpretation of the verses of the Quran and a reorientation of the efforts of the ummah towards this as it actually fulfilled the command of Allah in  a verse which exhorts that 'it is compulsory to create wealth so that His commands to pay tithes and give alms to the poor and perform prayers could be fulfilled' and another verse that 'Allah will not change the ummah and that it is only the ummah that can bring progress and changes to themselves'. A change of mind-set is needed in accepting that wealth creation is encouraged and compulsory and that wealth should then be utilised to pay tithes, donate to the poor and handicapped, create waqaf, establish foundations etc and actions that will contribute to the well-being of the people, in accordance with Islamic principles. An Islamic economic movement should be established to promote JIHAD ECONOMY.

3.  Keynote Address 2.  The Future of Malay Economy.   Tan Sri Muhammad Ali is a strong proponent of Jihad Economy having managed a large corporation, Johor Corporation, for considerable number of years, on the basis of Jihad business, where the whole philosophy is still profit motive but with a social orientation - i.e prices of goods and services are reasonable and fair to the consumers and a substantial amount of profits from the various enterprises of the Corporation are then ploughed back to the Waqaf Foundation for distribution to the various charitable bodies.  Tan Sri Ali, in his presentation, emphatically advocates that the Malays have to enhance its business capability but doing it in its mould.  The Wall Street business culture of maximizing profits and individualistic self-interest creates social problems and the adoption of, the Superman economic system or the Westoxification, as he termed it, has led to the emergence of the Ugly Malays and failure to uplift the well-being of the majority of the people. The income gaps between the rich few and the poor citizens are wide.
 The adoption of the capitalistic economic system among the giant Asian economies like Japan and China led to many dark sides of business.  Tan Sri Ali, quoting Michael Backman in his book 'Asia Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia' highlighted the many weaknesses in the Asian business models.  There are rampant high level corruption, widespread organised crimes and poor corporate governance in the Japanese model whereas the Chinese model is family centred with rampant cronyism, secret societies and endemic corruption.  The way forward, according to Tan Sri Ali, is a humanly decent Social or Jihad Business where the main consideration is people centric. The main ingredients in this Jihad Business module for the future economic progress of the Malays include the establishment and continued perpetuation of GLCs in the various diversified industries encompassing plantations, petroleum, energy, finance, health and shipping which can contribute to the provision of employment, creation of wealth and economic justice to the Malays; reject privatization and finally incorporate innovation with the establishment Waqaf Foundations; and finally undertake business activities that are more just and inclusive.

4. Comments and Concluding Remarks.  The Congress was organised, according to the Organisers, to share ideas on non-economic factors that contribute to the economic development of the Malays, touched on such factors, among them, as leadership, art and handicrafts, theatre and performances, gender participation, multimedia, culture and language. However, I feel, there are other important non-economic factors that are critical in the economic development of the Malays.  One important factor is the intellectual aspect both from the perspective of reading and writing.  A survey undertaken quite a few years back indicated that Malays, on the average, read one book a year.  Has the reading habit improved?.  What about writing - have more got involve in writing and what are the subjects of interest to the writers?.  It is the reading that enhance the knowledge that contribute to innovation in any society. The second important factor is health.  Incidents of obesity is reported to be high among the Malays.  The culture of having feasts and receptions and lack of awareness and self-discipline may have contributed to this.  Empirical studies are required to provide understanding to the phenomenon.
  I consider the Congress important to bring stakeholders together so that the findings could be internalized and translated into strategic plans with objectives, strategies as follow-up actions.  However, there is insufficient promotion of the Congress as evidenced with the participation of mainly the academia with hardly any participation by government officials, representatives of NGOs and the private sector including representatives of the GLCs.

        

     

One of the sessions

      
Another discussion session

  Complete posting January 8, 2016.