Malay Competitiveness Problem – How Did We Get Here?

Welcome back to the guide short podcast. I'm here today Shamsul your host Sam with my good friend Said Akbar. Good morning. Yeah, we're back. We're going to talk about today the competitiveness or the lack thereof of our majority Malay society and economic segment and why it has been so. Uh as you can see, we will talk about we will have conversations like no other places. Come and join us. Have a thinking society built around this. Subscribe for those who have not yet and like. All right, Said, let's let's start this conversation on on this topic. Um

I think what we're discussing really is failure of policy. Uh and because this the efforts to bring up Malays, make them more competitive uh in the '70s, there was a very good focus on something called Berdikari in Malay. Berdikari means Berdiri atas kaki sendiri or to be self-sufficient, to be able to compete. So, basically when we talk about Malay competitiveness, you're talking about failure of policy over the last 50 years. And then we also have a comparison. We have the neighbor, the neighboring country to the south called Singapore where there is not much of

really no affirmative action policy to help the Malays as much. There is some but not as much. Malays over there exposed more to the the market forces. And uh surprisingly in Singapore, you have from my personal knowledge, you have very successful Malays in business and in the professions. In Singapore, a lot of senior well as a number of senior bankers are Malays in in Singapore. I was It's a pleasant surprise to have met some of them. And you know, in Singapore, the property market, the property agents, the top property agents, some of them are Malays, you know.

It is a field that the Malays have they have penetrated quite well. And of course in Singapore, they have to compete. They have to be professional and everything. So, it provides an example where Malays have performed and have done well. Okay, over in Malaysia, basically the competitiveness is not up to date and and I I blame it entirely on policy and also on the the the political equation, the politics. The politics of race where politicians who basically don't have as much ideas on how else to go about bringing up a community, Malay politicians. They have resorted to basically

a welfare society kind of thinking where they've been dishing out you know cash and goodies to the Malays for too long. But the whole idea is to fish for votes. So, it's a incessant non-stop giving, giving, giving. You know, the carrot and stick. It's always It's always carrots. Carrots all the way with no stick. So, that kind of mollycoddling that kind of you know cradle to grave kind of largess or welfare basically has put them on drips in the ICU where their their competitive skills have not been developed as well over the past 50 years. So, I lay the blame on

policy and the policy makers because if you've done the right policies, everybody can learn to compete especially after the passage of 50 years, you know. Um I think let me add to that because my experience in since I started work in in business, I remember um I was surprised when I was starting out in the marine sector um one of the top lawyers I had to deal I dealt with is a Malay guy in Singapore. Then and I was quite taken aback looking at how well they perform. And actually one of my good friend and

business associate that has done extremely well over there as well, two of them that I know of. Are Malays. Right? So I think sometimes it's a question of also just it's it's called building muscles. Right? Competition I mean it's just like a football team. If your football team before they are trained not to compete, they are trained and given reduced workload or allowed to actually be able to go into the team say the national team on the basis of race instead of the basis of merit, then the then not only the team is not going to perform well but actually even the

players are actually not going to be able to perform better individually and as a unit. So, you don't actually I think the policies that you mentioned, they don't build muscle for the community. They they and and so they don't have the muscle because the policy mollycoddles them. And then the other part that that we see is uh uh politicians then hijack the policies for their own benefit and their cronies' benefit. Um Let's see.

That's exactly the other point. Uh Yeah. from from the mollycoddling for fishing for votes, then you have the the rise of the political patronage system. You have the nexus between business and politics. You have the GLCs and things like that which then diverted resources uh uh to the crony system, the political patronage system, the GLCs, those who hold monopolies and oligopolies. Because ultimately for a long time and until today the Malay economy, the Bumiputera economy is very much dependent on government the government budget. Hm. Uh government procurement, basically taxpayers' funds.

And that is extremely limited. You are basically limited to what is available uh in the annual budget. So, for 2026, the budget is 421 billion. And then when you have all these other specialist groups, elite groups, the wealthy classes, the connected classes, the politically connected classes, as well as the GLCs, they're all vying for the same uh

pie pie for the same amount of cash which is announced by the Minister of Finance every October. So, that's all the funds that they have to play with. So, the more of those funds given up in big chunks to you know, those who are connected, those who have you know, clout as you mentioned, those who have bigger muscles, then there's that much less left over for the ordinary Malay. Hm. So, you find that now after 50 years of this you know, the government trying to bring up the Malays, the affirmative action and all that, the way it has been done well not very successful, you find

there is a class class structure now among Malay Bumiputeras in the country where you have two classes basically, a sizable wealthy class. Well, sizable means in in the in terms of amount of wealth. Absolute numbers is small but the wealth is sizable versus a very large the the underclass or the ordinary the ordinary masses. Almost like you know, in French they said that the hoi polloi, the masses. Uh Uh and then there is a middle class but that middle class is not is not uh big enough. Uh logically after five decades of of affirmative action, the new economic

policy and all that, there should be a diamond shape in in the society in Malay society as well as the entire society. A diamond shape being you have uh a few at the top who are the the the wealthy classes. You have a very large middle class. And then below that you have a tapering the underclass. So, that is more balanced for a society. What you want is you want to increase that middle class. But more importantly, you want that middle class to be self-sustaining, not a created middle class. That means you created a middle class by largess, by dishing out goodies, by cash, you know,

too much of these subsidies and other things. So, it is an artificial middle class. So, anytime there is serious economic slowdown or the something happens in the world in a world economy or political upheavals inside the country, that middle class is affected seriously because it is not self-sustaining. So, that is what we see in the country now. We have created uh the the the the the elite classes have been created, have been made out of thin air almost. And also the middle classes, I'm talking about Malay Bumiputera, a lot of them have been sustained by

government support, a lot of government support. So, when there are there are economic distress in the country, in the world economy, political uncertainties, you find that the support uh decreases, goes down, and they become uh they face more difficulties. Yeah. It's not self-sustaining.

I find that I think uh I I want to touch where to a reasonable extent cuz I I I was in uh in this sector, which is the oil and gas sector, right? Uh Petronas has got uh as the uh as the authority uh in the early days had made some good policies. Um they are uh in terms of bringing up the localization of is just Malaysianization mainly. And then the Bumiputra requirement uh was uh not as um as as high that allows uh uh what do you call partnership between Bumiputra and non-Bumiputras into the sector. What I've seen in the oil and gas sector uh since I participated in it in the '90s,

um there's big change as well. This is the funny part. Instead of when you mention graduation, right? What has happened uh in our sectors uh and I suspect also in other sectors. Take for example, uh their need to have uh uh Sharia compliance. Okay? Um in the banking side, that limits the banking um access access to uh funds uh for all the companies, okay? I've seen companies go up and then the other thing what happened, instead of graduating, what we've done the last I think 15 years uh funnily enough, the Bumiputra requirement becomes actually higher and higher rather than

lower and lower. And there's a cost. There's a cost to it. And not just that, there's also your uh access to capital. The minute you take your company public, for example, right? You are diluting your capital uh your your uh Bumiputra capital uh capitalization or equity control. And that should be recognized very well and you want actually not just at that level, even at the seeding level, when your economy has already grown and become mature. The more you do that, um the more you actually make your sector weaker. So, we've got a very counterproductive thinking as we went along because

the government need to keep and the political elite need to keep this narrative of uh I am the champion of the race and religion. The that is the other issue among the policy makers in the last 50 years now since the new economic policy. They they do not seem to have uh unders- an understanding of uh free market of the open market, the free market, and of the, you know, the price mechanism, the free market price mechanism. Uh they don't seem to have a proper understanding of the free market and basically there's nothing much to understand, but nevertheless, they seem

to be afraid of it or I think they don't understand it how it works because uh you know, the um the free market and the open market uh to me like it is the greatest uh gift that that has been given to the entire human race because uh in since the 20th century uh now 21st, uh the the greatest amount of wealth around the whole world in uh in the west, in the east, in Japan now, in China, everywhere, the greatest amount of uh wealth has been created by adhering to free market principles. Mhm. People have tried, you know, other methods, uh the the socialists tried,

the communists tried. They they thought they could do a better job, but they have all failed. At the end of the day, it is a free market system that has not only succeeded, it has succeeded beyond uh what anyone could have uh visualized, but it is now it is more entrenched than ever. Despite all the talk of capitalism is this or that or this or that, capitalism is I mean, that's a word they use with a negative connotation, but open market, free market, free market pricing, the pricing mechanism has yielded more wealth and more uh economic benefits and opportunities than ever before and it's

not slowing down. And at this time, we are still stuck in our 50-year-old policy making, which has basically removed the free market from our economy and has shielded shielded with behind thick layers of solid steel, uh it has shielded the Malays, the Bumiputras from open market competition. So, that is why they have lost out. Actually, if you ask me, um we have two we have practically two uh economic markets in Malaysia. Uh the government and uh Malay uh socialist um socialist system.

Two different ecosystems. Yeah, two different ecosystems. Socialist system that is a welfare system. And then you've got a non-Malay The private sector. uh private sector, the real free free free enterprise.

So, the GLCG the uh GLIC and um uh government uh welfareism uh is a large part of our our economic sector that um that's

that contributes to political patronage and also enhances corruption. If you ask me, yeah? You look at I think the biggest proof we have of how capitalism is makes a country successful, you only have to look at China. Actually, China, in spite of its having the CCP uh as a single-party system,

That's just a name. They uh they yeah, in the in the market is a is an open market that that forces every region um and every company to uh to uh compete to certain a point I would say to the compete to the extreme. Yeah. They they are more capitalist than anyone else.

Correct. And yet actually, if you talk to um talk to actually even our liberal people these days, um and I think it's a lot to do with the uh liberal education and liberal mainstream talk from the west, which has actually stifled their development like in the EU and all that. They uh they're worried about this they they are let's say, "Oh, capitalism also uh create uh uh a widening a widening chasm between the the top and the bottom."

We made uh we made uh fatal mistakes, absolutely fatal mistakes, uh when we embarked on this uh distribution of wealth ideas, uh you know, as opposed to open market free market system. This distribution of wealth, uh Dr. Mahathir would say many times, "I give I give distribute." It's got a huge flaw, a fatal flaw, because somebody when you distribute something, somebody decides.

Yes. This is this this is it. That's it. This is the only one single fatal flaw in a system economic system where you distribute wealth, I give, uh where the decision-making is made by somebody. So, like the government has a budget every year. So, you want to decide that we're going to spend X hundred million for to develop this sector or this project. And it's part of affirmative action. We're going to bring up a few Malay entrepreneurs to do these things, uh which happened in the country, yeah? How do you choose them? Mhm. Handsome, not handsome? Uh what qualifications? Yeah.

uh what uh university qualification, what schools they come from? you know who. It's so it's no more based on the market and proven ability, but on their own merit, but somebody picks them. Mhm. And inevitably, the politics comes in. Okay. If the fellow is known to have certain leanings towards, you know, some some other politician or the opposition, he won't be as favored, you see? So, ultimately, you end up picking people who support you, who think like you, who, you know, So, that is political patronage.

Mhm. So, you're moving away from the free market. You're moving away from merit-based. You're moving away from uh the price mechanism as a fantastic and natural tool to allocate resources. That's what basically we're talking about here. How do you allocate resources in an economy? In a free market economy, that is taken care of by the price mechanism. The highest bidder gets it. It's as simple as that, you know? And then if you want to uh you lower your price, you'll probably beat the next seller. The basic things that I wish any vegetable seller in the market will understand. But we have

interfered with that. So when we went into distribution philosophy I get, then you remove this part of the equation and transfer that decision-making to the individuals politicians. They decided how to allocate funds. That basically destroyed a lot of things in the in the economy, especially in the Bumi Putra economy. Remember in the '90s, is it '90s? Yeah. There was a focus by our Prime Minister at the time, Dr. Mahathir. You know, he wanted to create billionaires. We already had millionaires. So you want to create billionaires. And a few billionaires were created simply by giving them

projects and boosting them through government policy and largest the the well, patronage system. And a few of them were created. We had a few billionaires in those days. They were famous for flying around in helicopters, marrying pretty girls on the TV screen, yeah, that kind of stuff.

And then late '90s we were hit by the Asian financial crisis, the economic upheaval all over Asia. And all of them disappeared except for one guy who's still around, I think. All of them disappeared because they were sustained by somebody else. They were it was not their own. They couldn't sustain themselves were constantly being propped up. They were propped up by government, by the whichever government in power at that time. So once there were issues, there were problems, they could not sustain anymore, they disappeared. So they disappeared. So that was it's obvious failure of this

distribution of wealth. I get it. Distribution of wealth does not work because it is not decided by the market, it is not decided by the price mechanism. It is decided by human beings, usually politicians. And they are the worst decision-makers when it comes to, you know, the economy, how to manage the economy. That's what has happened. Well, I mean I I kept saying this. I mean

most of our politicians that we have today because of the political block system that we have, you have to go through your your apprenticeship in the political party such a young age in order to test their loyalty to the master to the political master. And then, you know, once you pass that loyalty after a long number of years It's still the same today. And and then only you can you can you can fight for a post, you know. So it's really the whole system that we have today is catered for the political class and the feudal class. And they really spoiled things, you know. I I'd like to

quote an example where where there was this group of Bumi Putra contractors. They were quite capable on their own. They had been surviving on their own. They were M&E contractors. This is a real story, all right? But it happened some time ago. This must be from your banking days. Okay, go on. Well, it's somebody that I knew was one of them. So

they were the M&E contractors and they were doing fine. They were surviving. They doing well. I most of them were all right, you know. So I said, "Okay." Then suddenly the government set up a program. They said that they're going to have this thing called this Wibawa contractors scheme and all that. There have been many Wibawa schemes. This is one of them. And then they they called these people for to attend a course. They told them what they're going to do. So basically what they were going to do was that they would pick this group of contractors, give them a label the Wibawa M&E contractors.

And then they encouraged them to bid for certain government projects, you know, which is sort of reserved for this group of contractors. Like they have better they are given like a leg up. They have better chances of getting these contracts. So they were happy. So it started, you know, that whenever this this class of contracts came up, these people would be invited to bid for it, all right?

So very soon, you know, these Wibawa contractors, they were able to sort certain things out and they worked out a little scheme, you know, or rather a scam. So what they would do was that when the government asked them to bid for certain project, let's say five of them bid, all right? Say the project is worth like say just for example 2 million. So like four of them will bid like insane at 3 million, 4 million you know, higher than that, which is way above. The one guy would behave would would bid not about two he would bid like 2.75.

So he will get the contract, right? So he will do the job for 2 million. It's a 2 million job. So he will do the job for 2 million and still get his 30% or whatever profit he makes. But he's got the extra 750,000 right? Or the extra million, he'll divide it up among the

It's a simple scam, you know. So this went on for a for a while. Then they they got wind of it. Then the whole scheme was unwound. The whole idea was unwound. So here was a situation where these Bumi Putra contractors were doing perfectly well on their own, you know. And that was their undoing because they were successful. So some politician said, "I'm going to make some gain, political gain out of this and create this scheme and give them contracts and so that and I claim that, you know, claim the credit for that." You see, and this all political game. But it it went

it backfired because when you when you throw free money at people like that, they will start behaving naughty, you know. If you just leave them alone and let them compete and do what they want to, they'll be fine. But it's this I I think yeah, it goes back to what we've always been saying, the two of us has always been saying that the the free market system, the access to capital, the the dismantling of regulation is the one that is going to build muscles on our entrepreneur class regardless of race, you know. And if we don't do that and we do this welfarism, actually it become then

a tool for the for people who have authority to actually manage how contracts are being dished out, you know. And at the end of the day we we 40, 50 years down the road, we still see the same thing. Yeah, we really have to I mean there are many ways, but we really have to stop this shielding the Malay race from competition. And even at the at the corporate level, they still do it. Do you know that I don't want to mention names, but you know our national car, it has changed hands many times. I think now it's in the safest hands, all right? But previously it had it had a lot of

problems and it had changed hands from this GLC to that corporate and all kinds of stuff. So along the way, it was given to a one corporate Bumi Putra corporate company, Bumi Putra corporate, you know. And they were running the national car company. And that same company, that same Bumi Putra entrepreneur, was also given the franchise to operate the the public transportation system in KL. You know, the the bus systems and all that. So the biggest market for the national car is KL. I mean Klang Valley, Selangor is the biggest market for just about everything else in the country.

The biggest market for the national car was in in Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley. And this person was also also given the franchise to run the public transportation system in KL and the Klang Valley. So of course, you know, if if he if the public transportation system improved a lot in the Klang Valley, people would buy less of his cars, isn't it? So it was a clearly conflict of interest, you know. But that's what happened. They gave the franchise for the transportation system to a company which is owned by the same fellow who was manufacturing the the cars. He's not around anymore, but it was a

conflict of interest. So of course, you wouldn't expect to see too much improvement in the in the public transportation system because the same fellow is selling cars. So they do these kind of things basically So basically he he was able to create an environment where to safeguard his market share, meaning that you are shielding him from competition. So how is he going to sell his cars in Japan, for example? If he exports his cars overseas, he he will not learn how to compete. So this is what we've been doing the last 50 years. I hope our Bumi Putra politicians

are listening. I hope they understand what we are saying. Well, I think he's also to finish the point, which is also the why they losing elections now because it doesn't work. They don't understand this. But you know, I think before we go, I just want to remind our viewers that please subscribe to the channel if you have not yet. Hit the like hit the like button. Hit the like button. Let's get more viewers, your friends to come in and and and join into all these conversations, into the comment section. Get them to subscribe. Let's build a movement of thinking Malaysian, you know, for

to to make a better country. Now, moving moving on to on on you on your point there, let's look at quickly this is the problem that we face, I think, you know. I mean I The bottom line is this. The bottom line is the free market cannot have political political political leadership actually to meddle in it, but to actually reduce all the regulation, free up, don't have oligopolies and monopolies with the GLCs. I think it's it's it's it goes to the root cause of everything. And maybe, you know, even again goes to the politics of it, the the politician does not under understand economy.

I mean, they have to understand that in the rest of the world, uh free market, open market, uh market pricing and all that, they have uh it's a success story. It has created so much economic wealth and economic success in the rest of the world. How is it that in this country you do not allow free market uh free market open competition or market pricing? How do you expect the economy to succeed? Yeah. Is there some magic that you have where you basically don't follow the rest of the world, but still you expect to show uh some positive results, huh? It's not going to work.

It's like that Einstein thing we always talk about, you know. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Doing the same thing and expecting things to change is not going to happen. The same mistakes, repeating the same mistakes. I mean, I think there's also the other point that people need to understand. And I think that if you ask me, we are like the frogs in a boiling water actually. If you've been a in business long enough, you can see the signs out there. You know, people point out there are people who wants to point out that oh, yeah, our ringgit strengthened. Yes, if you get cash inflows uh more,

let's say that we're getting a lot of investment in data centers in uh in the uh in in in the semiconductor industry, which actually with without any change to the underlying policy or governance, yeah. All right, just on the sake that we are relatively speaking a safer country if you want to com- to compare to other places around the region. And you also got uh China exporting their funds over here. And the US dollar coming down, right? So, where and on top of that, I say, okay, Europe is also not doing very well. So, you got this you And yet the best GDP growth that we have right now is if I

were to take it as a their word for it or their statistics, the our Bureau of Statistics on it, 5%. With an inflation rate of 2%? I think that's pretty lousy for us. You ask me, really, you know, it's pretty lousy for us as a actually low income country. We are really a low middle income country, not even solidly middle income, you know. You don't need You don't need a government to generate 3%.

Exactly. It it'll happen by itself. Correct. So, you don't need a If you think about it, right? You It doesn't need any help for 3%. No. Correct? So, you add another 2% and then you have 2% inflation. Knock knock off everything, you're nowhere. As long as

be looking at 7 to 8% for a country of our caliber. As long as the sun shines and there is rain, I think we'll get 3% economic growth. Yeah. So, I think I mean, let's let's look at that and and and peel back what needs to be done. Let's make a few for today a few of a few points of how we think, you know. The we should cost correct in terms of policies. Let's go for policies first. Where should we cost correct as a first item?

I honestly feel that um the policy makers, they have to What is very simple really. Wherever there is regulation and government decision-making on resource allocation in the economy, including government decision-making which determines pricing of products and services in the economy. I'm talking about licensing of monopolies. When you issue a monopoly license for anything, when you issue oligopolistic licenses, when you create these massive powerful GLCs to who who dominate a certain sector, you are basically interfering in the open market pricing mechanism, the

Adam Smith invisible hand. You are messing with it. When you do that, you are looking for trouble. All the problems they are facing now is because of that. The moment we the politicians you know, interfere in the natural course of movement of the economy, they interfere, then it disrupts the the harmony. It disrupts the flow of the economy and you and the problems are created. That disruption is through as I said, creating of monopolies, oligopolies, overregulation, overlicensing, franchises and this and that, dominating presence of GLCs who have access to bottomless pit of cash because

they are funded by taxpayers. That's already a disadvantage for the others. A super advantage for them, an unfair advantage for them, and a disadvantage for the rest of the players in the economy, but which has a terrible cost to us because it is taxpayer funded, which is a very limited resource. So, anytime where there is government interference, government decision-making in in licensing, monopolies, oligopolies, GLCs, which basically affects the pricing of products, uh you are doing you are doing it wrong. You are you are making somebody lazy by giving them an extra head start,

handicap as in golf. You are you are basically giving them a handicap and you're making them lazier. And they are able to extract more profits. They They are just carrots all the way. And because the Bumiputera economy, we're talking about Bumiputera competitiveness, because the Bumiputera economy is so dependent on government budget, there is less left over for the ordinary people. So, that's why we see that over time there's an elite class. There's a super wealthy class which has come up, but the larger numbers, the ordinary people are not making it. Mhm. Because of how we

distribute resources in the economy by by giving the politicians the right to decide rather than allowing the market to dictate. This is a big problem.

if you if you look at that, then you you have to free up the economy. Which means that you're going to have to have you're going to make a decision as voters that you want people that goes into government or people that are elected that will disown all these GLC, all these affirmative action based on race, you know, the championing of because the next thing they do it doesn't work.

work. It just doesn't work. So, the you you mentioned voters, huh? The voter dissatisfaction among Malays especially is already happening. Because you find that since 2008, the ruling coalition lost the two-thirds majority in 2008 and 2018 they were they were removed from power, kicked out of office, and now the politics is so we do not know where it's going. Everything is so topsy-turvy and uncertain. Politics has been a very hazardous profession as we we discussed in the earlier podcast since 2018. Uh nobody can win a simple majority. The Malay voter is not convinced by any one

particular Malay party. That no one of them can win the majority because every day the Malay voters and the Malay society, there is a lot of dissatisfaction among the Malay society, a lot. And this dissatisfaction, there's a cause to it, there's a reason why it is happening because of all the policies that have failed over the last 50 years. So, the politicians do not seem to understand that you have to change this policy to get back the Malay vote. There's no other way because every morning when the people wake up, you know, they find that you know, it's tough. Life is

a Uh it's tough It's it's tough for them. You know, they have to pay the bills, they have to so many things and everything costs money and your your opportunities in life, education for your children, jobs for your children, the future for your children, everything is a blur now for many people. So, this situation is not going to change no matter how many coalitions the politicians perform uh or how many coalitions the politicians enter into, the this situation on the ground is not going to change. So, because of this, they are never going to win a majority. Well, I think that that

opens up the opportunity for people who wants to make change to actually take over or if the people are willing to allow them to to to start going in, you know, and make changes in Parliament so that I mean, I really say I I really want to see the the simplest the simplest to me um route um I I've never heard a politician ever in our for God maybe 30 years 35 years that will will say I'm going to cut taxes. Because if you can do that, that means that you going to have to have less money in government. You know? And and we confident that the private sector will

pick up the slack and actually grow the economy so that you can call collect more money on absolute terms. But I think the largest that they give out for patronage is so big last I think. That I think current political political system uh unless you change them, they're not going to change. I I have very bad news uh on that score. Even if we want to say we want to do affirmative action based on needs. That's going to be a tough with this current bunch of people.

they they play to the gallery, you know. For example, you know this uh gig economy has kicked off. Actually, it's it's fairly recent in just a few last few years especially with the arrival of this e-hailing. Yeah. The e-hailing taxis, the food delivery, you know, online ordering food and other things that they deliver. So, it's created this huge uh gig economy. They say now there are about 3 million people involved in this gig economy. Yeah. We've talked about this before. To me, it's just uh the unemployment line become longer.

Yeah. Cuz the gig economy is not really a full-time it it's not it's not a a stable. Not stable. And it's not a growth uh I I heard stories about the e-hailing cab driver who can make 4,000 ringgit a month, but he has to work 12 to 14 hours a day. Uh that's that's not life. That's not a real life. Uh But the thing is the politicians jumped on the on the gig economy wagon. They started becoming champions of the gig economy. They said we're going to get you EPF and SOCSO and this and that. The very reason the gig economy functions is because it is low cost. The employers can

avoid all these costs and that's how the thing functions. Now, they want to come in and they talk about, you know, doing other things which uh a normal worker 9-to-5 worker gets. Mhm. They want that those benefits to accrue to the gig economy. Which again it is it is not it's not a fair comparison because if you work 9-to-5 daily and you go to work every day and you you earn a monthly salary, then that system has got various other things which we have set up the EPF, the SOCSO, and this and that. But if you're not working 9-to-5, you're not disciplined, you're not there

9-to-5, and you don't work a full month, and then you still want to enjoy the benefits that the normal 9-to-5 workers get. So again, it creates imbalances in economy. They don't seem to understand. I I think I think you you the way you have phrased things I say is very um very kind to the political class. Really, you know.

They They really don't understand, you know. They don't understand the economics. They have no clue what they're talking about. They have no clue. Can you imagine the amount of stress you're creating on the employment system where you have a worker who doesn't work regular hours for 30 days, but he gets EPF and all those other things. It the the the arithmetic doesn't add up. I mean, it's it's a great philosophy, you know, a compassion for your fellow human being. Fine, but the arithmetic will simply not work. Well, let's let's

People will go bust. Say let's let's put it this way. You and I, we are very uh much against uh minimum wage for very simple reason. When you do minimum wage how I how do What do you know as far as what is minimum wage? Why not 5,000? Right? Why why not 8,000? Okay? Yeah. Why All All prices have gone up. Yeah, why not 8,000? Yeah. You know? Yeah, why not? To us, you have to let the market economy decide.

They don't understand. They don't. They don't and they think and they they And and the the problem is there's also a segment of our society that does not understand this part unfortunately.

This is the problem. They don't realize that what he's doing is not good for our economy. Not just that. I mean, I give you a very simple example. Just recently uh the government announced a few hundred ringgit for government servants. Okay? Uh for the incoming Raya. You know? Dude, that's not your money to give away. Okay? All right? And the thing is, you know, um that is money that is taken from the private sector. And you have again misallocate that resource. You know? So So uh I mean, we we are talking about

This is political patronage. We're talking about competitiveness or the lack thereof in the Malay society. Uh this is what this is the problem. The Malay society has been shielded uh from competition. And one of the uh the worst side effects of that is that the wealthy, the rich among them are also protected from competition. They have these monopolies and all that, GLCs, and oligopolies. Yeah. And they sell their products and services also to the other Malays. So, they gain more. They They are sucking blood. One part of the society is extracting blood, you know, vampire

style from the other from the other part of the society. They don't seem to understand that. Okay. they can't see it. Let's put it Let's Let's put a close to this. I I mean, all the all the fact that Said just call it a vampire sucking economic system. All right? And I think we'll try and we'll try and touch a bit more uh in later podcast as we go along. I think uh this is this is a uh a topic that can go for hours. Uh I have a few more anecdotes uh that I think I will keep it for for We need the free market and we need more competition. That is a given. Okay. On

that note, um thank you for joining us today. Don't Don't Don't forget to subscribe and like. See you again. Thank you.