Tag: Malaysia

Categories
Sports

[1464] Of Malaysian team is frustrating

The field hockey match between South Korea and Malaysia ended very frustratingly for me. South Korea won 3-2 but the frustration is not about the loss per se but rather, the way Malaysia ended up on the wrong end of the gun.

I only managed to catch the second half of the match and I was initially delighted to find out that Malaysia was leading 1-2. South Korea had painted an image of invincibility on themselves after beating Australia and the Netherlands. So, it was easy to rationalize why I was impressed at the scoreline. Malaysian playing style became apparent to me soon enough and that turned me off. It really turned me off, I tell you.

I do not know how they played earlier but in the second half, Malaysia appeared contended to simply defend instead of attacking. On top of that, Malaysia was fond of long balls. Unfortunately, the long passes were rarely accurate. If I had not known better, I would have thought that the Malaysian team was kindly passing the ball to the Korean!

But it was not too bad really because Malaysia did attack and produced some remarkable chances. But it was not long before the Korean equalized.

Much to my dismay, the equalizer only made Malaysia to burn throw away their sword away and hide being a shield all the time! It reminds me why I hate the Italian soccer team so much!

It almost worked though. Almost.

As the seconds ticked away, Korean redoubled their attacks. While I was visibly angry at Malaysia’s defensive mode, I found myself praying — now, that is a miracle — for the clock to run out. Barely two or a minute from the end, the Korean scored a goal. Needless to say, the pray went unanswered (I wonder why?).

Malaysia tried to do something after a bang in the head but it was too late for anything.

This is so much different from the way Malaysia played against Australia and Pakistan. During those two games, Malaysia fought valiantly. We attacked and played intelligently. Australia, the Kookaburras, one of the top teams in the world, were struggling against us! Struggling! For that, I do not mind losing to Australia. At least, we came down fighting. As for Pakistan, they were simply playing badly. But against South Korea in the second half, we were truly pathetic and frustrating. It was so frustrating that if I had knife right beside me, I would have stabbed myself to death. The frustration was un-f-bearable that it would warrant suicide.

All I can say, Malaysia deserve to lose that match and get no sympathy from me. At the moment, the Malaysian team is placed 8th out of 8 possible places. In other words, we are at the bottom of the table.

Categories
Liberty

[1463] Of Malaysia is a democracy

Recent events had provoked outrage amid those that sympathized with the idea of individual liberty. With a stake of woods burning, BN-led government threw fuel into the fire, allowing it to burn more brightly than before. One of the more angering statements, to me personally, was made by a minister that had the cheek to claim that no force was used to disperse protesting crowd whereas on the contrary, clearly caught on camera, the police did fire tear gas and water cannon. Another claim which I wish to address here concerns claim that Malaysia is a democratic country. While many understandably would like to fiercely dispute that, Malaysia is a democratic country. What it is not, in practice, strictly speaking, is a liberal democracy.

When the minister made that assertion, my initial reaction was of pure disbelief. Frankly however, I need time to rationalize something and any reaction that comes immediately after an event may be prompted by emotion without proper consideration. As emotion subsided, as it always does with time, I began to impartially reassess at the minister’s assertion. My conclusion is that, Malaysia is a democratic country, in the purest sense of the word.

As written earlier, democracy in its purest form is majoritarianism. Many however assumes the term democracy is liberal democracy instead of, well, simply democracy.

To the defense of those that disagree with the minister, the term democracy and its underlying assumptions have evolved ever since the ancient Greek popularized it. The ideological triumph of liberalism over socialism in the 20th century later made the word liberal in liberal democracy redundant. Slowly as liberalism proliferates everywhere, many come to associate democracy with liberal democracy. Day in and day out, what was simply an act done in simplicity’s sake has become an act of redefinition as far as popular opinion is concerned. As liberal democracy becomes accepted norm and taken for granted but is referred to democracy instead, the fact that the word democracy today enjoys a polymorphic but inaccurate definition is forgotten. Those that take liberty for granted usually are less rigorous in rationalizing their liberalism. These people especially are unable to recognize the difference between pure democracy and liberal democracy.

But ignorance is no reason to erase that line that separates the two types of democracy. While I am uncertain if the BN-led government as a whole realizes the difference between the two, it is quite clear that the government refers to majoritarianism when it talks of democracy. Under this definition which is perfectly fine — and I would argue, the most accurate — Malaysia is a democratic country. Elections have been held on regular basis. There are serious flaws in Malaysian democratic processes but Malaysia fits the shape of crude majoritarianism. Nothing compels a society of pure democracy to respect liberty.

With that respect, Malaysia is not a liberal democracy; a democracy that respects individual liberty which includes free speech and freedom of assembly, among others.

One may argue that BN-government is stuck in the past and has yet to move along the evolution of ideas that transformed the popular definition of democracy but in all honesty, both definitions of democracy, of majoritarian and of liberal, are perfectly valid. The former appeals to majority rule while the latter fuses the best of democracy with liberalism.

In the end, what this highlights is the importance of definition. Without being on the same page, it is hard to move forward.

Categories
Environment

[1460] Of increasing Malaysian emissions

When I saw this…:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Carbon emissions in Malaysia have increased by 221 percent since 1990, the highest growth rate among the world’s top polluters, the United Nations said Thursday, as it urged the government to control climate-changing gases more vigorously.

Malaysia, which has rapidly transformed from an agricultural economy to an industrialized one in the last four decades, is now ranked the 26th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, said Richard Leete, the regional representative for the United Nations Development Program. [Malaysian growth of carbon emissions highest in the world, says UN. IHT. November 29 2007]

…I was prepared to defend Malaysia. After all, it is likely for a country’s emissions to increase in spite of improving efficiency (decreasing carbon per some unit of measurement, or in other words, carbon intensity). An economy may expand while emissions per capita dropped due to technological progress. In this case, there is effort to reduce emissions through growth. Indeed, many developing countries such as that in western Europe are experiencing this trend.

But when I read that Malaysian carbon intensity of energy (amount of carbon emitted per some unit of energy; kt CO2 per kt of oil equivalent) and intensity of growth (carbon emitted per some unit of GDP;kt CO2 per million 2000 PPP USD) have increased from 2.44 to 3.13 and 0.56 to 0.76 respectively from 1990 to 2004, I decided to frown instead.

Anyway, the Human Development Index initiative under the United Nations Development Program has tables of data for abuse.

And, the Bali Summit on post-Kyoto climate change action starts tomorrow.

Categories
History & heritage

[1419] Of what if the Phillipines were Malaysia?

I was surprised to find out that the people of the Philippines once contemplated to name their state as Malaysia.

Filipino politicians who dreamt of creating a Pan-Malay nation also considered adopting the name Malaysia, which had referred to the overall Malay archipelago before becoming the name of the newly independent Malaysian nation in 1963.5 The former Filipino Vice-President of the Pan-Malayan Union presented a bill in the  Senate in 1962 to change the name of the Philippines to Malaysia (Alonto 2003 p.190). While the bill was debated in the Congress, the name was adopted by Tunku Abdul Rahman, who led the Malaysian nationalist movement, and the term narrowed to refer to the country-in-waiting, consisting of the Malay Peninsula and territories of the former British colonies in Borneo. [Reviving Malay Connections in Southeast Asia. Minako Sakai]

Suddenly, the etymology of the name Malaysia sounds like a worthy subject to research into.

Categories
Economics

[1405] Of Wal-Mart comes to bury you all with Snapple

Previously, talks on the street had it that Wal-Mart was interested in acquiring stakes in Makro. It did not happen and instead, it was TESCO that absorbed Makro. A year after that, news of Wal-Mart coming to Malaysia resurfaces.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal said yesterday that US-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Germany’s Metro AG had applied to open stores in the country and that the Government was still vetting the applications. [Economist: More operators good for hypermarket sector. The Star. October 12 2007]

If the application is approved, two of the largest retailers in the world would have presence in this country. Number one is Wal-Mart of course; number two is Carrefour. But do not be misled by the 1-2 ranking: Wal-Mart is much larger than Carrefour. Even if four of the top five global retailers excluding Wal-Mart consolidate into an entity, Wal-Mart would still be the largest retailer in the world in terms of revenue.

Also, there were rumors that Wal-Mart wanted to acquire Carrefour. But heh, the French would never allow that!

This apparently is made possible by recent market liberalization:

The ban on new foreign hypermarkets establishing a presence in Malaysia was lifted in May, with the ministry issuing permits on a case-by-case basis.

[…]

In April 2002, former Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin banned the setting up of new foreign hypermarkets and imposed restrictions on store sizes, opening hours and locations for those already operating in Malaysia to protect local retailers. [Economist: More operators good for hypermarket sector. The Star. October 12 2007]

With the liberalization, I hope to get my daily supply of Snapple and Snapple caps! They must bring more Snapple into Malaysia!

Yup, yup. The application must only be approved on one condition: amply availability of Snapple! No Snapple, no license!