Personal Opinion of a Malaysian Columnist About Singapore

[Sosaria]

Thank you Dr M for bringing down your currency

 

to almost 3 times lower than S$.

 

Every time I shop in JB I think of all the

 

hard work Dr M did to bring down his currency.

 

To view things objectively, it would have been much worse for the malaysian currency if dr M was not at the helm during the asian financial crisis in the late 90s.

 

Countries that followed the "advice" of the IMF suffered serious currency devaluation causing unrest like in indonesia.

 

What dr M won't admit is how similar he is to LKY. Both were strong visionary leaders that insist on their way of leadership and make no apologies for their actions. Both led their respective countries to progress against the odds.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Sosaria

[2BDriver]

To view things objectively, it would have been much worse for the malaysian currency if dr M was not at the helm during the asian financial crisis in the late 90s.

 

Countries that followed the "advice" of the IMF suffered serious currency devaluation causing unrest like in indonesia.

 

What dr M won't admit is how similar he is to LKY. Both were strong visionary leaders that insist on their way of leadership and make no apologies for their actions. Both led their respective countries to progress against the odds.

The only one thing that Dr.M Mahathir impressed me was he bother to stripe off all Sultans Royal Power to governed Malaysia in Constitution Law & Order.

[Jamesc]

To view things objectively, it would have been much worse for the malaysian currency if dr M was not at the helm during the asian financial crisis in the late 90s.

 

Countries that followed the "advice" of the IMF suffered serious currency devaluation causing unrest like in indonesia.

 

What dr M won't admit is how similar he is to LKY. Both were strong visionary leaders that insist on their way of leadership and make no apologies for their actions. Both led their respective countries to progress against the odds.

 

I think their personality might be similar - both strong and determined leaders

 

but their policies were totally opposite.

 

One for meritocracy and one played racial politics.

 

One going for English in schools to do business with the world

 

and one going for Malay so giving up every advantage of being

 

a British colony.

 

Didn't Korea follow the IMF direction? Doesn't look like they are

 

doing too badly today.

 

[Sabian]

Dr M fostered and deepened the entitlement/ spoonfeeding in Msia.

[SGCMmadman]

Thks to dr m... theres a wide group of blur cock mlys in msia who tink spore mlys are uneducated low class. His brain washing was to make msian mlys scared n continue vote for umno. The way they bash lky.. spore mlys.. makes my blood boil n tats y i hv stopped entering their shithole country since 1995. I used to go wif frens during pre u & NS days to chiong. Since 1995... spend my money enjoying sawadee land n beyond. Mat hatter made his people be insecure n so thankful my grandma became a sporean or else i kena become a 'pendatang' in msia n sing negara kuku

[Spring]

To view things objectively, it would have been much worse for the malaysian currency if dr M was not at the helm during the asian financial crisis in the late 90s.

 

Countries that followed the "advice" of the IMF suffered serious currency devaluation causing unrest like in indonesia.

 

What dr M won't admit is how similar he is to LKY. Both were strong visionary leaders that insist on their way of leadership and make no apologies for their actions. Both led their respective countries to progress against the odds.

 

IMO, Dr M is a very strong, determined leader who wants what is best for Malaysia and he makes no qualms on being ruthless to achieve his goals so for that he deserves plaudits but I won't say he is visionary and I feel he should have done more to make Malaysia more meritocratic which was the bedrock of S'pore's success. He could easily have taken a leaf out of S'pore's books but instead chose to play to the masses.

 

Overall, I would rate his reign a mixed success and admittedly there has been worse Malaysian leaders!

Edited April 6, 2015 by Spring

[Sosaria]

 

IMO, Dr M is a very strong, determined leader who wants what is best for Malaysia and he makes no qualms on being ruthless to achieve his goals so for that he deserves plaudits but I won't say he is visionary and I feel he should have done more to make Malaysia more meritocratic which was the bedrock of S'pore's success. He could easily have taken a leaf out of S'pore's books but instead chose to play to the masses.

 

Overall, I would rate his reign a mixed success and admittedly there has been worse Malaysian leaders!

 

Bo pian... I think we have seen how the many generations of leaders there in malaysia; they are all beholden to the masses. Even if there were some well-educated, more open-minded reformers among them - and the Tunku was certainly one of these reform-minded ones - they always had to be careful when it comes to implementation of meritocratic principles.

 

Unfortunately, the power of their PM stems from delivering electoral success, and that success depends on the support of political "warlords" and "chieftains" in large rural constituencies, thus there are a lot of self-interests brought into the picture. Couple that with the rural masses who can easily be swayed and stirred up on sensitive issues - so it's quite a balancing act for whoever is the PM.

 

Lately, the country has become more polarised, and it's an even harder job to get everybody to face up to facts. It's a vicious circle they've gotten into, with ever weaker PMs, and more and more people getting bolder to stir up trouble. In my opinion, Dr M was in the best position to turn things around, but he squandered the chance.

 

His greatest contribution to singapore, perhaps, was in triggering a brain drain to singapore .

[Kxbc]

Did he say they help the minority while we ignore them? haha...,, Who create the racial problems? DAP?

 

Mahathir left the govt and never stir shit.

 

No mistake made?

 

image.jpg

 

the message of this article is intended for his countrymen, not us.

 

[Shull]

To be honest, i could care less about Malaysians being happier than us, or have a less stressful environment, or we being more kiasu than them..

 

Because in Singapore,

 

I don't have to turn around my back every 10 secs or so to see whether I was being followed.

I don't have to lock my car door the moment i step into my car.

I can park my car at the roadside without being worried of it disappearing in the next 30 minutes.

 

Heck, just look at the number of Malaysians working in Singapore, versus the number of Singaporeans going the other way.

 

My Malaysian relatives say BN and UMNO is hopeless. The brain drain facing their country is so obvious, even the urban and educated Malays are getting out, yet they still are still in denial.

 

Also, their cost of living (dollar-to-dollar) is even higher than us. Imagine an average SG graduate earning SGD3k, and dinner for two outside costs SGD40-50 in mid range restaurant, while Msian graduate earns SGD 2-3k, but their dinner for two is minimum RM50 and above.

[Lala81]

I agree. Dr M could have improved things, but he ignored the problems.

Now Malaysia is going downhill.

[Spring]

 

Bo pian... I think we have seen how the many generations of leaders there in malaysia; they are all beholden to the masses. Even if there were some well-educated, more open-minded reformers among them - and the Tunku was certainly one of these reform-minded ones - they always had to be careful when it comes to implementation of meritocratic principles.

 

Unfortunately, the power of their PM stems from delivering electoral success, and that success depends on the support of political "warlords" and "chieftains" in large rural constituencies, thus there are a lot of self-interests brought into the picture. Couple that with the rural masses who can easily be swayed and stirred up on sensitive issues - so it's quite a balancing act for whoever is the PM.

 

Lately, the country has become more polarised, and it's an even harder job to get everybody to face up to facts. It's a vicious circle they've gotten into, with ever weaker PMs, and more and more people getting bolder to stir up trouble. In my opinion, Dr M was in the best position to turn things around, but he squandered the chance.

 

His greatest contribution to singapore, perhaps, was in triggering a brain drain to singapore .

 

You have some valid points.

 

But LKY and the 1st generation leaders also had the same dilemma. They could easily have ignored the minority and pander to the majority Chinese in S'pore but deliberately chose not to. They chose to up the ante for the minority races and this I feel was a key decision.

 

Malaysia could have chosen this route as well but they deliberately chose otherwise and whilst admittedly their make-up is harder with warlords and chieftains as you have pointed out, they don't seem to have the will to do this in any case.

 

Well that's the route they have chosen and it would take a very strong leader to do otherwise and I just don't see any current Malaysian leader capable of doing a revolutionary change. My 2 cents...

[Shull]

 

You have some valid points.

 

But LKY and the 1st generation leaders also had the same dilemma. They could easily have ignored the minority and pander to the majority Chinese in S'pore but deliberately chose not to. They chose to up the ante for the minority races and this I feel was a key decision.

 

Malaysia could have chosen this route as well but they deliberately chose otherwise and whilst admittedly their make-up is harder with warlords and chieftains as you have pointed out, they don't seem to have the will to do this in any case.

 

Well that's the route they have chosen and it would take a very strong leader to do otherwise and I just don't see any current Malaysian leader capable of doing a revolutionary change. My 2 cents...

 

Food for thought... A strong Malaysia and Indonesia will do us more harm than good though..

[Spring]

 

Food for thought... A strong Malaysia and Indonesia will do us more harm than good though..

 

You could be right on this but then again, a strong regional Asean could collectively bring success and attract more investments to the region but point taken that strong neighbours could potentially draw away jobs from us which is already happening to an extent currently.

 

 

[Mockngbrd]

When was the last time SG actually made comparisons with Msia? 70s?

They keep comparing for wat? sheeesh....

[Mcscot]

I think we should be more appreciative of Dr M's contributions and not bash him here in in the MCForum.

 

Imagine a country north of us with a population of 25-30 million working hard, highly productive, literate, globally competitive, meritocratic and most of all mineral rich! Where would we be? We will be in their backyard living off scraps they throw at us!

 

But as a result of their policies we have thrived and surpassed many times over their GDP.

 

I am always thankful and always smile inside when BS and hot air comes out from our northern neighbours. With their incompetence, I can only imagine what our lives will have been!

 

However, we also must remember that most countries will not remain like that for long. We must always stay one or two steps ahead. LKY was a Chessmaster and was miles ahead of the region. I only hope we currently have the same or at least 50% of the mettle and foresight he had.

 

We also have to continue to push ourselves and realise that the world is an unforgiving place and STOP assuming that the world owes us a living otherwise we will also go down in history as the only country which was built faster than Rome and destroyed in a lifetime!

 

Yesterday we mourned ... Today we fight to build our legacy!

[2BDriver]

I agree. Dr M could have improved things, but he ignored the problems.

Now Malaysia is going downhill.

With their majority in a race swallowing of a sweetener "BUMIBUTRA" for more than 5 decades, no leader in this planet is able to turn it around for good sake of nation well being and progress further on par with the current world continuing pace in modernisation.

A revolution or reformation is deem possible for a "CHANGE"

[Lala81]

With their majority in a race swallowing of a sweetener "BUMIBUTRA" for more than 5 decades, no leader in this planet is able to turn it around for good sake of nation well being and progress further on par with the current world continuing pace in modernisation.

A revolution or reformation is deem possible for a "CHANGE"

 

This is a country that

a) due to corruption, much of the money has been siphoned away by the haves, vs the have-nots

b) now that inflation is rising, the have-nots are suffering due to stagnating pay vs increased cost of living

c) the opposition campaigns on critcising the govt for every tax, and wants more subsidy

d) the government needs to increase revenue and abolish stupid subsidies for sugar and petrol but can't do it in significant steps due to the strength of the opposition

e) the deficit will worsen

f) the corrupt BN is just milking the cow until the country goes in a downward spiral.

 

Frankly, even if Mr Lee and the old guard take up reign now and they all changed their race to Malay, also no hope liao.

Mahatir is not a bad leader, he's just not a good one.

[2BDriver]

 

This is a country that

a) due to corruption, much of the money has been siphoned away by the haves, vs the have-nots

b) now that inflation is rising, the have-nots are suffering due to stagnating pay vs increased cost of living

c) the opposition campaigns on critcising the govt for every tax, and wants more subsidy

d) the government needs to increase revenue and abolish stupid subsidies for sugar and petrol but can't do it in significant steps due to the strength of the opposition

e) the deficit will worsen

f) the corrupt BN is just milking the cow until the country goes in a downward spiral.

 

Frankly, even if Mr Lee and the old guard take up reign now and they all changed their race to Malay, also no hope liao.

Mahatir is not a bad leader, he's just not a good one.

To sum up your above a ~ f with many many etc.......... I can only think of 2 words to describes about them, that is "Self-immolation" & "Ignorance"