Half-measures only can take us half-way

Wednesday, 9 June 2010 | Filed under Innovation

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, has launched a large-scale integrated livestock project to increase domestic beef and milk output.

The RM688 million project, a collaboration between Felda and two partners from India and the United Arab Emirates, is also aimed at making Malaysia the largest halal meat producer in the region.

Currently, the country produces only 25% of its domestic beef and 5% of its milk supply.

In his comments at the launching, the Prime Minister said Felda is already the “new sugar king” and now aspires to become the “new beef and milk king”.

Malaysia, he declared, also wants to become “one of the leading international players in agrobusiness”.

It’s hard to disagree with that objective.

The Prime Minister was clearly on target when he focused on boosting our food industry.

Malaysia has a competitive advantage in agriculture but that edge is prominent only in the oil palm and rubber plantation sector.

More and more, we are falling behind in food production and increasing our reliance on food imports.

Our food export value increased from RM6.4 billion in 2000 to RM15.7 billion in 2009 but, during the same period, food imports rose to RM26.7 billion in 2009 from RM11.4 billion in 2000, further widening the deficit between output and consumption.

The bane of economic landscape

Food self-sufficiency is an old dream in Malaysia. Our planners blow hot and cold over it according to the prevailing situation.

In the 1970s, cattle farms made an appearance but the animals soon disappeared and only the grass remained. In 2008, during the global food crisis when rice tripled in price, we sought land to set up rice growing estates in Sarawak and Sabah but the search seemed to have been called off.

Recently, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Datuk Mohd Johari Baharum said the rice self-sufficiency objective might be dropped if imports were cheaper than the cost of expanding our “rice bowls”.

Half-hearted efforts and uncoordinated measures have been the bane of Malaysia’s economic landscape for a long time.

For instance, the prices of Cameron Highlands vegetables have soared. The reason? A critical shortage of foreign workers, according to the Vegetable Farmers Association.

At the other end, the government is restricting the recruitment of foreign workers for the agricultural sector where more than 50% of the workers are foreigners.

In another case, the government put off at the last moment a ban on the sale of cigarette packs of less than 20 sticks per pack from June 1 this year to January 1 next year.

Following protests by cigarette manufacturers, who had adjusted their production processes in anticipation of the ban, the Cabinet reinstated the effective date of the ban to June 1.

The ban is meant to discourage young people from smoking by making it harder for them to get their hands on cigarettes.

However, cutting off the cheaper source of cigarettes is only one aspect of the continuous fight against tobacco abuse.

A campaign should have been run simultaneously to educate the public on the hazardous effects on health of smoking but the “Tak Nak” campaign was discontinued several years ago although its message was highly effective in creating public awareness.

Design minus the spirit

One more example was the “Tiger” jerseys designed for our sports people chosen to represent the country as a visual identity to help build the competitive team spirit.

The stripes on the jerseys were intended to inspire young people with the spirit of the tiger, a symbol of power and courage, and grow up wanting to wear the Malaysian colours.

True, in most of the physical sports, Malaysia would lose because our people are not big enough but they should go down fighting. Then people would look at them and said these were Malaysian tigers – people who never stopped fighting. Even in losing we could gain respect and admiration.

Unfortunately, the jerseys were accepted but the spirit behind the stripes was not promoted, and we lost an excellent branding opportunity in sports.

In the education sector, we talk about making Malaysia a hub for international students.

Then we go and load the private education sector, which is the main driver of international education in the country, with regulations that hinder more than facilitate the expansion of the industry.

For instance, a private institution that wishes to offer a new programme to meet market demand can only get it accredited after running it for three years.

That means the programme is dead in the water. Without accreditation, it will not attract students; without students, it cannot start.

This brings me to the government’s decision to allow eight universities to accredit their programmes internally and bypass the Malaysian Qualification Agency.

Four of the institutions are public universities and the other four are the branch campuses of four foreign universities.

Although the official nod of confidence in the four foreign universities is good for the long-term development of the private education sector, indirectly it reflects poorly on the quality of the rest of the industry, especially the home-grown institutions.

This might encourage students to “buy foreign” instead of “buy Malaysian”.

So often, we tend to go only half the distance.

A ‘World Car’

Then, we went into building cars through Proton.

Malaysia is now a full-fledged car maker. We have developed the talents, skills and experience to design, engineer and build a complete car, including its engine.

Proton exports its cars to many countries, ranging from Australia to China, the Middle-East and Europe. This year, it aims to export 24% of its production or 26,000 cars and raise the target to over 40,000 cars next year.

Looking at these numbers, it will take Proton many years before it can reach the present levels of the Japanese and South Koreans who are exporting cars by the hundreds of thousands.

So, should Proton continue to compete head-on with the giant car makers or should it carve its own niche in the global car market?

In underdeveloped countries in Asia and Africa, the motorcycle is used to carry several people – the rider, his wife and their children. It’s very dangerous but they are allowed to do that because of the local social and economic situation.

This means there is demand if we can create a cheap car that can seat the whole family.

So we should make a small car. The Germans and Japanese won’t do it because it would be too expensive for them.

I am sure we can sell such a car to the world.

Proton has the knowledge and the technologies to produce an affordable “World Car”, designed for the road conditions and special needs of developing countries, for export in large numbers.

It should be a very basic car and easy to drive.

The “World Car” is clearly within the capability of Malaysia to achieve.

If that is what we want, then that is what we must do.

With full commitment, and not half-hearted measures.