Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Economics

[1099] Of food sovereignty and comparative advantage

As a graduate of economics, I unreasonably assume that everybody knows basic economic ideas like supply and demand and comparative advantage. Perhaps, it is time for me to throw away that assumption and assume the opposite. Explanation on comparative advantage is crucial in effort to discredit the idea of food sovereignty; food sovereignty is merely another name for protectionism.

The idea of food sovereignty is well-stated in the Ninth Malaysia Plan. See Chapter 3 of the Plan if you prefer not to take my words for it. Given that the current administration is stressing on agriculture, perhaps it is not too astounding to see food sovereignty being part of the administration’s economic game plan.

The idea of food sovereignty basically states that a nation should be able to produce enough food for its population and not dependent on others. It should be self-sufficient in food production.

In order to do that, resources would need to be allocated in a way that prioritizes the food production sector. Such prioritization if done as rigidly as possible would deprive other sectors of resources. And indeed, the idea of food sovereignty might contradict the concept of comparative advantage and ignore the possibility of trade.

Comparative advantage is a basic economic principle first proposed by David Ricardo approximately two centuries ago. It states that an entity, be it a whole economy or a person, should concentrate on what it does best. In order word, the entity should specialize in what it could produce most efficiently. From there on, trade away in order to obtain other goods that the entity does not produce. Whenever trade is impossible, the idea does not apply for the obvious reason. There is more to gain from trade than autarky, nonetheless.

When it comes down to the issue of food sovereignty, the question that needs to be answered is this: does Malaysia have a comparative advantage in food production?

Even if Malaysia has comparative advantage in food production — which I think it does to some extent due to favorable climate — the concept of food sovereignty is not as helpful as comparative advantage in creating a more prosperous society.

Categories
Politics & government

[1098] Mengenai melatah tentang pembubaran Parlimen

Jika semalam Utusan Malaysia, meminjam frasa The Sensintrovert, cuba menyemarakkan nafsu politikus-politikus di seluruh negara, Timbalan Perdana Menteri Najib Razak melalui Utusan dan juga saluran-saluran Media Prima memadamkan keghairahan tersebut. Bak kata Mat Salleh, TPM “poured cold water” ke atas perkara yang secara langsung menyentuh kemungkinan pilihanraya di dalam tahun 2007.

Di muka hadapan Mingguan Malaysia hari ini:

Scanned by Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Copyrights by Utusan Malaysia. Fair use.

Lebih lanjut lagi:

KUALA LUMPUR 17 Feb. — Banyak pihak menganggap masih terlalu awal untuk kerajaan membubarkan Parlimen bagi memberi laluan kepada pilihan raya umum walaupun petunjuk ekonomi pada masa ini berada pada kedudukan memberangsangkan.

Mereka berpendapat kerajaan tidak perlu tergesa-gesa kerana negara baru sahaja selesai mengadakan pilihan raya umum pada tahun 2004 dan mandat itu hanya berakhir pada April 2009.

Adalah rugi bagi kerajaan membubarkan Parlimen dalam tempoh singkat selepas hanya separuh penggal memegang amanah rakyat selain menurut mereka, Barisan Nasional (BN) tidak berada dalam keadaan terdesak untuk mengadakan pilihan raya.

Saya berpendapat bahawa Utusan lebih merupakan suara orang-orang Melayu daripada orang-orang UMNO. Mungkin ramai akan menyangkal pendapat itu tetapi kegagalan pengambungan di antara Utusan dan New Straits Times akibat penentangan hebat orang-orang Utusan dan ahli-ahli politik Melayu (yang juga ahli-ahli UMNO) terhadap kehendak Perdana Menteri menyakinkan saya tentang kedudukan Utusan.

Oleh itu, mengambil kira kedua-dua laporan mengenai pilihanraya yang cuba membawa maksud yang berbeza, mungkin sedang berlaku satu perdebatan hebat di dalam UMNO tentang pilihanraya. Atau, mungkin sekali, orang-orang Melayu sudah mula bosan dengan UMNO.

Atau mungkin Utusan hanya mengulangi apa yang Reuters telah sampaikan.

Walau bagaimanapun, saya teringat slogan pasukan yang berkempen untuk William Jefferson Clinton untuk pilihanraya Amerika Syarikat 1992. Slogan itu berbunyi, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Clinton kemudiannya dipilih oleh rakyat Amerika untuk menjadi Presiden yang ke-42 negara tersebut.

Tiada siapa patut lupa akan kata-kata itu.

Categories
Books, essays and others History & heritage

[1097] Of purchasing books liberally

It is Chinese New Year and I got myself more books. I did not mean to purchase anything in the first place. The act was impulsive especially when I have yet to finish up the previous books that I bought earlier. In fact, I am still reading The Origin of Wealth. Furthermore, I have not even started on Clinton’s My Life and Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Yet, here I am, supporting the economy by spending.

At first, since I was in the vicinity of Kinokuniya under the majestic Petronas Twin Towers, I thought I could do with a browse. Alas, temptation got the best of me.

I found myself in the history section. For some reason, I wanted to read more about Srivijaya. It was kind of hard to find a book on the ancient Malay kingdom which in my opinion is greater than the Malay Sultanate of Malacca. If the Malays wanted to look for something to build their pride on, they should look beyond Malacca and embrace the Srivijayan. At the very least, acknowledge Srivijaya as a kingdom as great as Malacca.

Despite the size of the store, its collection is limited. I could not find a specific book on Srivijaya.

Nevertheless, Hugh Clifford’s Farther India looked promising. For those that score F for history without fail, Clifford was one of the more important colonial administrators of British Malaya. He was also one of those foreign administrators that fell in love with the Malays and Malaya, just like Frank Swettenham. At Cambridge Journals, the phrase “doyen of the colonial service” is attributed to Clifford.

The synopsis describes Farther India as one of the most important publications on Southeast Asian history. Yet, it seems to me that the book is concentrating on mainland Southeast Asia and talks about European explorations and discoveries of old Southeast Asian civilizations. I suspect the book does not talk much about Srivijaya. So, when I saw Paul Michel Munoz’s Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, it placed Clifford’s back on the shelf and grabbed Munoz’s instead.

While on my way out of the history section, I stumbled upon a book entitled British Malaya. That book directly reminded of an article at Wikipedia of the same name that I have been working on for more than a year. I thought this particular book might help me finish up what I started. So, book number two.

While on my way out of the store, somehow, Sophie’s World came across my mind; I made it as my third book.

And so, right now, five books await the completion of The Origin of Wealth. The pressure is now on me.

Ah… the curse of purchasing books liberally.

Categories
Politics & government

[1096] Mengenai kemungkinan pembubaran Parlimen dalam masa terdekat

Di muka hadapan Utusan Malaysia hari ini:

Scanned by Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Fair use. Copyrights by Utusan.

Ingat lagi laporan Reuters beberapa hari lepas?

Categories
Environment

[1095] Of little battles in the Southern Ocean

In the Southern Ocean where the whales swim, amid tussle between Japanese whalers and conservationists, the Japanese whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru is on fire:

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — A sailor is missing after a fire broke out on board a Japanese whaling vessel sailing off the coast of Antarctica, New Zealand’s maritime authority said.

Most of the crew of the Nisshin Maru was evacuated to other vessels in the Japanese government-run fleet and about 20 sailors remaining on board brought the fire under control, said Steve Corbett, a spokesman for Maritime New Zealand.

With a crew missing and the ship incapacitated by fire in the rough open sea, the Japanese has called for helped. The Greenpeace’s Esperanza is responding to the distress signal and this is the third distress call it responded to in six days.

Earlier, there were clashes between the Japanese whaling fleet and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Sea Shepherd has been the most aggressive conservationist group so far as far as this whaling season is concerned. Its ship, the Robert Hunter and Japanese whaling Kaiko Maru, which was hunting whales in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, collided:

Anti-whaling activists say one of their vessels and a Japanese whaling ship have collided near the Ross Sea, sparking a distress call from the Japanese crew.

Each side is blaming the other for the collision:

The two sides blamed each other for the clash near Antarctica late on Monday which holed a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship, the Robert Hunter.

According to The Age:

In nearly 20 years of protest against Japanese whalers, there have been other clashes on the water. But never has such a determined attempt been made to disable the fleet.

The small US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its 60-odd black-clad activists upped the ante this week to the point that Greenpeace, the whalers’ usual foe, now risks being seen as ineffectual.

There is a decade-old moratorium on whale hunting in the area but the international ban is being practically ignored by Japan. Also this week, Japan unsuccessfully organized a forum aimed to undo the moratorium:

Only 35 of the IWC’s 72 members took part in the meeting, with 26 anti-whaling countries, including the US, Britain and Australia, deciding to stay away. Their boycott drew an angry reaction from the pro-whaling nations, which accused them of “imperialism”.

The oddest about the clashes is that, when it involves human lives, the whales and the conservationists are helping each other out. For instance, during an earlier skirmish between Sea Sheppard and Nisshin Maru when two members of the former were missing, both declared truce and directed their effort into searching for the missing persons. Call it tragic comedy in the high seas but:

Two missing Sea Shepherd activists have been found safe in the Antarctic, and hostilities have resumed against the Japanese whaling fleet.

Sea Shepherd ships have since gone back to port for refuelling.

Of all distress signals, the third latest is probably the most serious. Not only there is fire on board Nisshin Maru, the ship stranded and a sailor missing, it is possible that the ship might be drifting to the world’s biggest Adelie penguin colony at Cape Adare, Antarctica, causing environmental damage through oil leakage. Greenpeace’s Esperanza is ready to aid the stranded ship and tow it to port. The Japanese however disagrees with theat assessment:

“There’s no threat of oil leakage at all, and no worries over environmental pollution from the Nisshin Maru,” said Kenji Masuda, of the Fisheries Agency.

And refusing Greenpeace’s offer:

A spokesman for the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which is carrying out the whaling, said other ships in the fleet could tow it from the area if required.

According to Defending Our Ocean, Esperanza has reached Nisshin Maru. There are several other ships nearby, including the US Coast Guard ship Polar Sea.

My take?

The whalers should just take up the offer and cut the season short.

In any case, Greenpeace’s conservation mission has turned into a rescue mission.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s — the body of the missing person has been recovered.