Chapter 12: That's Life

Episode 1: The Wind Blows Again

                This year of 2014 began with not so many events except for the Chinese New Year being celebrated with a moderate atmosphere perhaps because of the rising cost of living which tends to overshadow the strategies of the present government. In trying to control it, the government comes up with unpopular and untested financial strategies. With the 13th general elections over, the government is confident of running the country and tries to boost the economy with a view of sustaining growth which could be costly due to the high deficits. Over spending as I look at it and with a likely crash around the corner, making the scenario a very risky undertaking, but it could not be helped as people are crying for developments.
                Just as we are undergoing business as usual, Pakatan comes up with a missile, to declare and go for a by-election on its state consistency of Kajang. Not much do I know of Kajang except for its famous 'Satay Kajang' which during my college days at ITM Shah Alam in the mid-70's would cost about thirty cents a stick, and now may be a stick would cost more than double, a number which could laugh at the distorted CPI.

                So Datuk Seri Anwar will stand as a candidate against the mighty herculean BN. In my mind the BN with its logistics, finance and trained hardline campaigners could easily drown and humble any no-name candidate standing against the BN's choice. As I look at it the BN lacks issues to use, and quick to capitalize on the cheap issue of cost of the Election Commission to undertake the by-election. The Election Commission of course and backed by many governments’ sympathizers highlighted the issue further but why worries as they are paid for their job done anyway. Having a longer time frame for carrying out the by-election could be seen as an advantage to the BN which is, as I look at it was not prepared. For all intends and purposes, Datuk Seri Anwar as I look at it will be set to win the by-election and the majority here will not be an issue as his win will alter the political equilibrium marginally, but more to draw attentions to Malaysians of the Pakatan struggles as we are now going into a new momentum. A highly calculated undertaking at this point in time and the BN could try to soften this challenge by choosing a humble MCA underdog against a born and skill orator, but that is not the point, as this point does not work well in urban areas for BN. Win or lost as I look at it, damages has been prescribe to the BN, and of course like primary school going children the BN will come up with excuses.

                However, Datuk Seri Anwar may not find the answer to the rising cost of living as he is not in the positions nor an economist to chart the ways to overcome it. But the Selangor state government could perhaps show the way by interfering with the forces of supply and demand, a very basic prayer to restructure the economy, as we are more an export oriented economy and why not try domestic oriented for a change and let the people like me enjoy decent living. Malaysian corporates entities are more of giant conglomerates and supported by the government policies of monopoly and oligopoly at the least tend to dictate prices and fuel by speculations can be critical to the economy and eventually as I look at it could lead to a social disorder if not properly checked. 
                To win Kajang as in any urban or semi-urban areas, campaigners would have to look at local issues, such as the rising cost of living, public utilities, the transport system, and local buisness opportunities such as trading and other agricultural activities. Semi-urbans are turning into urbans, therefore congested, and hazards for traveling from points to point, and on the other hand people are starting to live in flats or condos similar to that of pigeon homes which are at escalating cost due to speculations. Urbanization has resulted in the emergence of the urban poor because of the rising cost of living and unequal opportunities, due to the policies of cronyism and nepotism and segregation of races.
                Rising cost of living are mostly due to the withdrawal of subsidies of fuel, sugar and other essential items. The withdrawal of the fuel and sugar subsidies cost a chain reaction. Fuel is an essential element in the cost of productions of goods and services and therefore production cost, transportation and administrations tend to increase, but on the other hand Petronas and Tenaga Nasional will tend to benefit most and like the federal Government will have excess fund at their disposal but the people expense. Tenaga Nasional on the other hand tend to pass the increase in cost of production of electricity to the people by introducing new electricity tariff.
                Beside raising cost, other issues of interest will be transparency, the GST and what the present Selangor Government can do to help the urban poor. Perhaps, by giving them more opportunities and turning the economy to more of domestic oriented might chart a new path. Datuk Seri Anwar on this aspect is seen as a force to bring about changes in transparency, a political force as an alternate to the BN, and with all his aids will try to bring about changes to the present economic system which tends to favor more to the upper elite.
                Anyway like it was in Ijuk, Kajang will experience a lively, temporary celebrated economy due to more demands and supplies, and 'satay Kajang' will be on the main menu and of course a stick will cost more as sellers tend to capitalize. More visitors will arrive in Kajang and it could spell a danger to Datuk Seri Anwar, since the demographic pattern does not ensure his win. The advance voters could work against him and he could be lucky to get ten percent of the votes cast from them which numbers slightly more than one thousand two hundred. The Malay and other voters (except for the Chinese) will be split as the majority will tend to succumb to goodies and propaganda of the BN. So it will boil down to the Chinese voters who have nothing to lose. If we see the Chinese voters come out in great numbers then BN chances will be less. So let us see how popular Datuk Seri Anwar is among the Chinese. It will also be an acid test to the newly elected MCA leadership even if its choice is not the candidate. 

Episode 2: When Old Friends Meet

            Finding an old friend is a very hard thing to do but with the technology today such as Facebook, sometimes our old friends coincidentally appear and after 40 years, the stories of our experiences seem endless. A story of one of my childhood friends Hj. Parno Wongso does not differ very much from that of Gregory Reauterns, a traveler in his younger days. So a typical islander is I should say curious of what is beyond the rainbow or what is beyond the distant horizon. Their stories painted their life like a picture. In Malay we called them ‘perantau’,  so over a cup of coffee, at this point in time in our late 50’s (me 60 years old) we meet again and tell stories, our stories and recall friends like Roselly Ag. Besar, Ajamain Hamzani, Wahid Hj. Idris and also Morsidi and Yap Chi Han who are no longer with us.

 

Episode 3: Cries of Dawn

It is hard to get by the days at this point in time, perhaps because of the heat from the dry season or perhaps because of the heat from the rising cost of living. So much so even for a pensioner like me with grown up children find it so hard. Perhaps the blame should be on me not to struggle so hard during my younger days. But then, if I took the easy way I could end up being interrogated by the anti-corruption agency, as they always concentrated on small guys like me who could not afford a lawyer, while the jaws mostly escaped loaded. On the other hand our local civil service regulations are of draconian in nature, I should say only suited to a group of staffs; the elite who are the chain link group who are normally known as the inner circle.

Whatever, the choices I have is few but I am far better off now than during my teenage days where I could not afford ‘Nasi Lemak’ at 10 cents a pack, let alone buy a pair of school shoes. Now I have no choice but to help purchase the shoes of my school going son costing more than ten times then in those days, of course there are aids, but for any given RM100 ringgits I have to add more than RM400 ringgits to maintain him in school, which have been going on all these years. What is going on, I often ask myself in disbelieve, perhaps because I am quite naïve of the market forces and rusty I should say. However, like Dato’ Seri Anwar, I am not much of a economist and I regretted of not doing a double major then which only required an additional 15 semester hours to complete. But the way I look at the scenario is maybe partly due to the interference to the market forces through the government policies and I here would prefer to focus on the class struggles. For fifty years I struggle to make a decent living, day in, day out, and so are those rural people in the interior of Sabah and Sarawak. It is rather unfortunate that in the formation of Malaysia people of Sabah and Sarawak are categorized as indigenous and although synonym with the term native it could be taken as derogatory. And for all intends and purposes help to create a low class of the society. Some part of our interior are without electricity, clean tap water, and roads, etc., but in so far support the current government unlike many urban and semi-urban dwellers. Imagine one have to walk for many kilometers to get medical aid, attend school and get their products to the market. So here we have where basic infrastructures are at the very minimum, we have the low class, the poor, who will not afford to make ends meet.

Perhaps this is due to the policies of focusing on growth to gear the economy more towards exports rather than domestic oriented. Our exports are very much dependant on exports of commodities which are subjected to price fluctuations in the world markets. When our Ringgits are at lower level then demands will increase causing increase in supplies and at certain point an over supply will cause prices to go down. Similarly with a contraction in growth of the economy of the importing countries, demands will decrease and followed by a decrease of the value of Ringgits. Sabah which is regarded as the biggest supplier of crude palm oil suffers on this, and the absent of a downstream processing mill will cause unnecessary high prices for household cooking oil. The other danger is obvious due to the rural being underdeveloped with basic infrastructures, the rural to urban migration is the only option, while leaving bigger space for giant conglomerates to take over the lands and there by employing foreign labors leading to worse consequences of social disorder and thereafter changing the demographic pattern. But to catch up to promises of rural developments the choice is to go on a deficit budget, thereafter causing a spin of not only to the Ringgit value but to inflations. Now the government will be facing a number of haunted fronts; rising cost of living, aspirations to make Malaysia as a develop nation with a distorted income per capita,  the economic and political uncertainties and the emergence of social conflicts between those who struggle and those who have too much where the gap is too wide.

While I do not share the Marxist ideology as I see it does not served any purpose in this modern era, I should say we should address the disease after noting the symptoms, meaning corrections should be focused on the people aspirations rather than of the elite and the upper class. Members of the elite and the upper class earn millions of Ringgits compared to a pensioner like me and those rural people who have to share the household expenditures, and what not have few options and we are subjected to unequal opportunities. It seems governmental policies and the laws are left in the hands favoring the elite and upper class of the society. The emergence of the elite and the upper class in my opinion are due normally as representatives of politicians who do business and also to control the government related businesses. These captains of industries in order to execute control often use management jargons and an example is management by objective (MBO) which is a debatable subject. An ethical policy should be passed where these captains should not siphon the millions of Ringgits through high salaries, perks and incurred expenditures in the expense of the poor people.

                And speaking of Dato’ Seri Anwar, the way I look at it he is a victim of a political agenda orchestrated by hidden hands and I should say at this point in time he is a political agent of change. The Appeal Court however halt his intends to stand in Kajang but the Pakatan choose his wife Datin Sri Wan Azizah as replacement giving weight to the challenge from the Barisan National, and if she wins this could pave the way for the first woman Menteri Besar in Malaysia, making history, replacing Tan Sri Khalid, whom I see as one of the best Menteri Besar because of being transparent not fearing to change and had prepared the state administration for better governance. But Pakatan must move on in order to achieve greater heights. But in the long run in order for Pakatan to form the government at the federal level, they would have to capture a few rural parliamentary seats where the rural poor would listen, but this as I see it is a different ball game, where logistics, finances and spirits will be tested to the limits.

                I believe that to attain a political stability we must first moves towards an economic stability with a balanced and surplus budget. With a surplus budget our assets and monetary values will increase and thereafter easier to move towards an advanced economic status. To avoid unnecessary expenditures and inflations we must move away from traditional budgets and rely on zero base budgets. It is useless to owe to spend more than what we can earn which will eventually lead to disaster and similarly opening the economy to more direct foreign investments on the premise of providing more employments and increasing revenues is not far from exploitations. If we are to focus more on domestic, then the domestic business institutions would have to be more competitive and innovative making imports less attractive. Large scale productions must be exploited in order to bring down prices.

                We should focus on the society aspirations rather than on status. The society is being divided into classes of the rural and the urban poor, the middle class, and the elite and the upper class. The income gaps are not being narrowed but stretched further apart. The rural and the urban poor, started the day much earlier, before the rays of dawn begin to light the day, and so are those of the middle class. Some return home after the sunset, a very hard life especially for those who grow paddy and fished in nearby waters. But some foreigners supported by politicians are taking over as middle man exploiting available lands, the streets and markets where local enforcements turn their eyes away.