Mean it
Sometime last month, Sweden announced: We aim to be an oil-free economy by 2020.
That’s ambitious even by its own lofty standards. But there’s something to be said, rather taken to heart, about this country of nine million people. Sweden doesn’t boast much. Nor does it do the sales and propaganda talk – no ‘Truly Europe’ slogans, no tallest building bids, no Stockholm-jaya; no need. Just Sweden, land of Volvo, Saab, SKF, ABB, Husqvarna, Electrolux, Ikea…. The list goes on. Other than that it pretty much keeps quiet and prefers to let its work and play do the talking.
That’s why it’s taken seriously. So when the Swedish minister of sustainable development Mona Sahlin said: “Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020,” the world sat up and listened.
And justifiably so. It has a veritable track record for getting things done. Not just in industry and services, but the sciences, arts, sports and the humanities – think Alfred Nobel, Linnaeus, Celsius, Hasselblad, Abba, Ace of Base, Ingmar Bergman, Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, Annika Sorenstam… I’m out of breath.
The point is not about Sweden although I am fascinated by the Scandinavian states in general. The point is about doing it right. Less talk already. Nine million people in a country about 1-1/2 times the size of Malaysia, when enabled and given the chance, will collectively walk the walk.
*********
The Malaysian government on Tuesday cut back its petrol subsidy by 30 sen for every litre. In that one move, it stands to save RM4.4 billion which it intends to inject into “national development” projects, especially public transportation. Najib, who chairs the Cabinet Committee on Fuel Prices, went live on TV yesterday and talked the talk. Whether this government will walk is another story.
I am skeptical. The government of Malaysia does not have a good track record when it comes to getting things done. In the first place it often lacks a solid plan, something which ties into a holistic goal. Proton – set up to jumpstart a national automotive industry – was a poor idea from the beginning. That was probably the beginning of Mahathir’s heroic vision and mega-whatever. Back in 1985, we did not have the necessary history and culture to handle such an industry and it continues to haunt us today.
See, we’re plagued by two major syndromes which we’ve failed to tackle all this while – “Gaya Mau” and “Aiyah”. It has made us desire a lot but not work for it. There’s a coarse, half-assed quality to many things that we do. Our buildings are half-assed, our infrastructure is half-assed, our civil service is half-assed… Instead it has formed a habit of leaving hands outstretched for perks. It also makes us talk a lot. A lot of it, so it turns out is rubbish. We’ve been spammed. Cekap, Bersih, Amanah. Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang. Engineered to Exhilarate. Petaling Jaya – Ke Arah Bandar Bestari. Selangor the Developed State.
Talk, here, is very cheap.
The government, since administrations past, has set the pace of broken promises and dreams that are out of sync with the culture and too big for it to maintain. Wayang, they are good at, not much thereafter. KLIA is a farce as an international hub; you seen the arrival and departure screens and how they are dominated by MAS and AirAsia flights? So much for “Bringing the World to Malaysia”. It boasts state-of-the-art equipment but we only hear of security breaches and systems breakdown. Cyberjaya is a farce with a museum called the E-Village, but it’s a nice lallang field otherwise. And mark my words, Putrajaya will be a bigger joke than the lifeless Shah Alam – evidence of simple urban design lessons yet unlearned. Bakun Dam? Adoi. The list can go on, and I’d be out of breath.
Talk, talk, talk. Just talk. It has become arguably Malaysia’s most successful national campaign to date. It’s so successful, this lifestyle has seeped right down to the grassroots. I mean, try naming 10 people you trust to really deliver at work. I can’t. Instead, I get responses like “I’ll call you back with the info” and you don’t hear from them again or “It’ll be finished in two weeks” but it takes two months.
And when it’s not possible to talk you to death, they’ll kill you with its paper equivalent – bureaucracy. Consider this: FedEx can send a parcel to Timbuktu in 48 hours with just the pertinent information entered in a small form. The company has a new tagline: Relax, it’s FedEx. It strives to live up to that claim.
Now, to add a tiny terrace to a semi-D house in KL, you have to prepare a bundle of drawings and documents for planning approval before submitting for a building permit. If you’re lucky, the entire two-stage process alone will take six months before a hole can even be dug. DBKL has a tagline too – Bersedia Menyumbang, Bandaraya Cemerlang. Nobody takes that seriously.
It all points to one thing. The government has a lot of ground to make up if it is serious about the people. It has put into words its blueprint for a better Malaysia. Integrity, transparency, all those feel-good verses. Meanwhile, tenders remained closed, local councilors still go to faraway exotic places to look at toilets, newspapers get suspended, a new chicken slaughterhouse in Selayang will cost RM20 million (gadzooks!)… the list can go on, and I’d be out of breath.
By all means, reduce the petrol subsidies. I don’t fault its rationale. I fault its implementation and am very curious about its motives.
If the government had been serious about public transport, it would’ve initiated dialogues prior to the petrol price hike long ago, not as a result of it. There would have been a campaign in full momentum by now, not just warming up with the announcement of a Cabinet Committee on Wednesday. These after-the-fact moves are not convincing at all and, if anything, prove to being plain silly.
With RM4.4 billion in the purse, I’d really wish those Boleh folks showed more heart. I really wish they’d act.
I really wish I could believe.
That’s ambitious even by its own lofty standards. But there’s something to be said, rather taken to heart, about this country of nine million people. Sweden doesn’t boast much. Nor does it do the sales and propaganda talk – no ‘Truly Europe’ slogans, no tallest building bids, no Stockholm-jaya; no need. Just Sweden, land of Volvo, Saab, SKF, ABB, Husqvarna, Electrolux, Ikea…. The list goes on. Other than that it pretty much keeps quiet and prefers to let its work and play do the talking.
That’s why it’s taken seriously. So when the Swedish minister of sustainable development Mona Sahlin said: “Our dependency on oil should be broken by 2020,” the world sat up and listened.
And justifiably so. It has a veritable track record for getting things done. Not just in industry and services, but the sciences, arts, sports and the humanities – think Alfred Nobel, Linnaeus, Celsius, Hasselblad, Abba, Ace of Base, Ingmar Bergman, Bjorn Borg, Stefan Edberg, Annika Sorenstam… I’m out of breath.
The point is not about Sweden although I am fascinated by the Scandinavian states in general. The point is about doing it right. Less talk already. Nine million people in a country about 1-1/2 times the size of Malaysia, when enabled and given the chance, will collectively walk the walk.
*********
The Malaysian government on Tuesday cut back its petrol subsidy by 30 sen for every litre. In that one move, it stands to save RM4.4 billion which it intends to inject into “national development” projects, especially public transportation. Najib, who chairs the Cabinet Committee on Fuel Prices, went live on TV yesterday and talked the talk. Whether this government will walk is another story.
I am skeptical. The government of Malaysia does not have a good track record when it comes to getting things done. In the first place it often lacks a solid plan, something which ties into a holistic goal. Proton – set up to jumpstart a national automotive industry – was a poor idea from the beginning. That was probably the beginning of Mahathir’s heroic vision and mega-whatever. Back in 1985, we did not have the necessary history and culture to handle such an industry and it continues to haunt us today.
See, we’re plagued by two major syndromes which we’ve failed to tackle all this while – “Gaya Mau” and “Aiyah”. It has made us desire a lot but not work for it. There’s a coarse, half-assed quality to many things that we do. Our buildings are half-assed, our infrastructure is half-assed, our civil service is half-assed… Instead it has formed a habit of leaving hands outstretched for perks. It also makes us talk a lot. A lot of it, so it turns out is rubbish. We’ve been spammed. Cekap, Bersih, Amanah. Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang. Engineered to Exhilarate. Petaling Jaya – Ke Arah Bandar Bestari. Selangor the Developed State.
Talk, here, is very cheap.
The government, since administrations past, has set the pace of broken promises and dreams that are out of sync with the culture and too big for it to maintain. Wayang, they are good at, not much thereafter. KLIA is a farce as an international hub; you seen the arrival and departure screens and how they are dominated by MAS and AirAsia flights? So much for “Bringing the World to Malaysia”. It boasts state-of-the-art equipment but we only hear of security breaches and systems breakdown. Cyberjaya is a farce with a museum called the E-Village, but it’s a nice lallang field otherwise. And mark my words, Putrajaya will be a bigger joke than the lifeless Shah Alam – evidence of simple urban design lessons yet unlearned. Bakun Dam? Adoi. The list can go on, and I’d be out of breath.
Talk, talk, talk. Just talk. It has become arguably Malaysia’s most successful national campaign to date. It’s so successful, this lifestyle has seeped right down to the grassroots. I mean, try naming 10 people you trust to really deliver at work. I can’t. Instead, I get responses like “I’ll call you back with the info” and you don’t hear from them again or “It’ll be finished in two weeks” but it takes two months.
And when it’s not possible to talk you to death, they’ll kill you with its paper equivalent – bureaucracy. Consider this: FedEx can send a parcel to Timbuktu in 48 hours with just the pertinent information entered in a small form. The company has a new tagline: Relax, it’s FedEx. It strives to live up to that claim.
Now, to add a tiny terrace to a semi-D house in KL, you have to prepare a bundle of drawings and documents for planning approval before submitting for a building permit. If you’re lucky, the entire two-stage process alone will take six months before a hole can even be dug. DBKL has a tagline too – Bersedia Menyumbang, Bandaraya Cemerlang. Nobody takes that seriously.
It all points to one thing. The government has a lot of ground to make up if it is serious about the people. It has put into words its blueprint for a better Malaysia. Integrity, transparency, all those feel-good verses. Meanwhile, tenders remained closed, local councilors still go to faraway exotic places to look at toilets, newspapers get suspended, a new chicken slaughterhouse in Selayang will cost RM20 million (gadzooks!)… the list can go on, and I’d be out of breath.
By all means, reduce the petrol subsidies. I don’t fault its rationale. I fault its implementation and am very curious about its motives.
If the government had been serious about public transport, it would’ve initiated dialogues prior to the petrol price hike long ago, not as a result of it. There would have been a campaign in full momentum by now, not just warming up with the announcement of a Cabinet Committee on Wednesday. These after-the-fact moves are not convincing at all and, if anything, prove to being plain silly.
With RM4.4 billion in the purse, I’d really wish those Boleh folks showed more heart. I really wish they’d act.
I really wish I could believe.
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