WHAT CAN WE MAKE OUT OF THE LOOK EAST POLICY WHICH SEEMS TO HAVE BENEFITTED JAPANESE FIRMS IN MALAYSIA ONLY?
…SOME MALAYSIANS COULD STUDY IN JAPAN AND ABLE TO SPEAK AND WRITE IN THEIR LANGUAGE BUT NONE HAS ANY PERMANENT RECOLLECTION OF THEIR STAY IN THE COUNTRY.
By Mansor Puteh
WHAT CAN THE GOVERNMENT BE PROUD OF THE LOOK EAST POLICY ANYWAY?
IT HAD DIED A SILENT DEATH DUE TO NEGLECT AND ITS USELESSNESS AFTER THE GIMMICK RAN DRY. .
A SPECIAL SEMINAR ON THE LOOK EAST POLICY WAS ORGANIZED IN DECEMBER, 2010. WHAT DID THEY DISCUSS AND BENEFIT FROM?
Before they went any further, let me say many are wont to believe that the look east policy mooted by the then prime minister, Mahathir Mohammed had failed. Has it failed miserably?
Did it serve any real purpose? That it was only able to distract some who thought there was brilliance in the idea.
It turned out to be nothing but a mere gimmick. The Japanese didn’t care as much as the British who cared when he implemented the Buy British Last even this pseudo-policy did not last. It could not last for long.
What is there that he and the others could be proud of the Look East Policy?
If it had been better the Look Within The Muslim World Policy, it would have been a lot better as most Muslims have not or never attempted to look within themselves to know who they are and what they can do collective to create a new force in the world of economics and the arts which can form the basis for the Unity of the Muslim Ummah.
But this didn’t happen.
The strongest point cited by the government then was for Malaysians to learn good work ethics from the Japanese which they had been practicing all these years since their country embarked on their development and economic plans to recover from the devastation wrought from the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 which caused the country to surrender to America and the allied forces.
If this was so, then why sent the Malaysian students all over Japan to study technical courses when they should major in management so that they could be absorbed into the relevant ministries and also the police force as well as MACC, and so on where they can impress their work ethics technique on the others to learn from?
Japan had already become an industrialized nation before the Second World War. They were so developed so much so that they were able to manufacture the sophisticated weaponry that allowed them to go into military adventures throughout Asia.
Their goals were thwarted only with the Atomic bombing of two of their cities.
So what the government had wanted to do with the introduction of the Look East Policy has not materialized.
He did not fully understand fully the thinking of the Japanese. He was only impressed by a certain part of their character which is their discipline and concentration and their strong cultural upbringing and pride.
These are what many Malaysians seemed to lack so he thought by sending some Malaysians to Japan they could be uncalculated with such virtues.
But alas, the number of those who had gone to Japan was so small and insignificant that they are not able to create wonders when they returned to Malaysia to work at posts which are not so strategic as to be able to allow them to practice what they had learn while in Japan.
They ended up being just like the others in the workforce.
One does not know how many Malaysians had gone to Japan to study under the Look East Policy. The number must be so small and insignificant that they are not able to form an association to carry out social and cultural activities to bring attention to themselves.
Those Malaysians who were lucky enough to be sent to Japan to study at their universities have not become prominent.
They have only become cheap expert and specialized labor for the Japanese companies in Malaysia which managed to get them for free, when it should have been their effort to send young Malaysians to Japan to study and all at their expense.
So now we can find many of those Malaysians who had studied in Japan for many years are working with the Japanese firms when they should have been given employment in the ministries and agencies.
And if the Japanese firms in Malaysia wanted to get Malaysians to work for them who have education at their universities, then that chore should be theirs.
But none of them seems to have become prominent or significant.
They are able to speak in Japanese which is a great advantage, but many of them have forgotten how to write in it.
I was lucky to have met some of them when I went to Japan few times in the 1980s and stayed with them because I knew some of them who helped me shoot some scenes for my film, 'Seman' which was also shot in Japan and Hiroshima.
Many of them stayed in apartments in the Nakano district.
Once when I was there it was during Hari Raya Haji and they had a gathering. I was invited to attend it and to meet the other Malaysian students all of whom thought I was a Japanese lecturer of some of their friends.
I was quite amused when I answered in Bahasa Melayu, they remarked if I was South Korean!
The truth about the Japanese and how they had managed to develop their country is not only because of their work ethics which had impressed the government.
But more than, the Japanse were insular and only wanted to consume, use and share things that they need.
So with this attitude and determination, they create, produce and manufacture all the things that they need and in the process, because of their own brand of economic theories and models which were not fashioned on those that were taught elsewhere in the West including at Harvard, they were able to defy conventions.
Their products that were later exported to Malaysia were considered to be a joke with their vehicles being said to have tin cans for their body.
But they persisted and the same motor brand that were frowned by many Malaysians are some of the most popular in the world, including in America which had caused Japan to become destroyed for which they had risen to develop their country.
The other reason was because the Japanese experts do not exert themselves by trusting themselves; none of them had been declared by the western economic magazines as being smart economists.
Yet, they would soon cause some of their major corporations to buy over some major American establishments in the entertainment industry for which caused the Americans to feel eternally grateful, so that all the negative attitudes that they had grown to keep with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor disappeared.
Therefore the Look East Policy as envisaged by the government then was flawed because of these reasons.
But it is not too late for the government to learn from this mistake and truly and relearn from the Japanese and shape new economic policies that can be truly beneficial to the economic growth of the country.
Malaysia may be very small in size, so products and other goods cannot be produced and manufactured that bring in economies of scale.
But we can always count on the Muslim World market and provide them to this market which is far wider than the market reach of early Japanese products.
So in no time, Malaysia can become a very strong economic force which can even supersede that of Japan and even China, because of the ready market that we have in the Muslim World which has so far been surrender to them for so long.
By Mansor Puteh
WHAT CAN THE GOVERNMENT BE PROUD OF THE LOOK EAST POLICY ANYWAY?
IT HAD DIED A SILENT DEATH DUE TO NEGLECT AND ITS USELESSNESS AFTER THE GIMMICK RAN DRY. .
A SPECIAL SEMINAR ON THE LOOK EAST POLICY WAS ORGANIZED IN DECEMBER, 2010. WHAT DID THEY DISCUSS AND BENEFIT FROM?
Before they went any further, let me say many are wont to believe that the look east policy mooted by the then prime minister, Mahathir Mohammed had failed. Has it failed miserably?
Did it serve any real purpose? That it was only able to distract some who thought there was brilliance in the idea.
It turned out to be nothing but a mere gimmick. The Japanese didn’t care as much as the British who cared when he implemented the Buy British Last even this pseudo-policy did not last. It could not last for long.
What is there that he and the others could be proud of the Look East Policy?
If it had been better the Look Within The Muslim World Policy, it would have been a lot better as most Muslims have not or never attempted to look within themselves to know who they are and what they can do collective to create a new force in the world of economics and the arts which can form the basis for the Unity of the Muslim Ummah.
But this didn’t happen.
The strongest point cited by the government then was for Malaysians to learn good work ethics from the Japanese which they had been practicing all these years since their country embarked on their development and economic plans to recover from the devastation wrought from the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 which caused the country to surrender to America and the allied forces.
If this was so, then why sent the Malaysian students all over Japan to study technical courses when they should major in management so that they could be absorbed into the relevant ministries and also the police force as well as MACC, and so on where they can impress their work ethics technique on the others to learn from?
Japan had already become an industrialized nation before the Second World War. They were so developed so much so that they were able to manufacture the sophisticated weaponry that allowed them to go into military adventures throughout Asia.
Their goals were thwarted only with the Atomic bombing of two of their cities.
So what the government had wanted to do with the introduction of the Look East Policy has not materialized.
He did not fully understand fully the thinking of the Japanese. He was only impressed by a certain part of their character which is their discipline and concentration and their strong cultural upbringing and pride.
These are what many Malaysians seemed to lack so he thought by sending some Malaysians to Japan they could be uncalculated with such virtues.
But alas, the number of those who had gone to Japan was so small and insignificant that they are not able to create wonders when they returned to Malaysia to work at posts which are not so strategic as to be able to allow them to practice what they had learn while in Japan.
They ended up being just like the others in the workforce.
One does not know how many Malaysians had gone to Japan to study under the Look East Policy. The number must be so small and insignificant that they are not able to form an association to carry out social and cultural activities to bring attention to themselves.
Those Malaysians who were lucky enough to be sent to Japan to study at their universities have not become prominent.
They have only become cheap expert and specialized labor for the Japanese companies in Malaysia which managed to get them for free, when it should have been their effort to send young Malaysians to Japan to study and all at their expense.
So now we can find many of those Malaysians who had studied in Japan for many years are working with the Japanese firms when they should have been given employment in the ministries and agencies.
And if the Japanese firms in Malaysia wanted to get Malaysians to work for them who have education at their universities, then that chore should be theirs.
But none of them seems to have become prominent or significant.
They are able to speak in Japanese which is a great advantage, but many of them have forgotten how to write in it.
I was lucky to have met some of them when I went to Japan few times in the 1980s and stayed with them because I knew some of them who helped me shoot some scenes for my film, 'Seman' which was also shot in Japan and Hiroshima.
Many of them stayed in apartments in the Nakano district.
Once when I was there it was during Hari Raya Haji and they had a gathering. I was invited to attend it and to meet the other Malaysian students all of whom thought I was a Japanese lecturer of some of their friends.
I was quite amused when I answered in Bahasa Melayu, they remarked if I was South Korean!
The truth about the Japanese and how they had managed to develop their country is not only because of their work ethics which had impressed the government.
But more than, the Japanse were insular and only wanted to consume, use and share things that they need.
So with this attitude and determination, they create, produce and manufacture all the things that they need and in the process, because of their own brand of economic theories and models which were not fashioned on those that were taught elsewhere in the West including at Harvard, they were able to defy conventions.
Their products that were later exported to Malaysia were considered to be a joke with their vehicles being said to have tin cans for their body.
But they persisted and the same motor brand that were frowned by many Malaysians are some of the most popular in the world, including in America which had caused Japan to become destroyed for which they had risen to develop their country.
The other reason was because the Japanese experts do not exert themselves by trusting themselves; none of them had been declared by the western economic magazines as being smart economists.
Yet, they would soon cause some of their major corporations to buy over some major American establishments in the entertainment industry for which caused the Americans to feel eternally grateful, so that all the negative attitudes that they had grown to keep with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor disappeared.
Therefore the Look East Policy as envisaged by the government then was flawed because of these reasons.
But it is not too late for the government to learn from this mistake and truly and relearn from the Japanese and shape new economic policies that can be truly beneficial to the economic growth of the country.
Malaysia may be very small in size, so products and other goods cannot be produced and manufactured that bring in economies of scale.
But we can always count on the Muslim World market and provide them to this market which is far wider than the market reach of early Japanese products.
So in no time, Malaysia can become a very strong economic force which can even supersede that of Japan and even China, because of the ready market that we have in the Muslim World which has so far been surrender to them for so long.
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