Categories
Politics & government

[2494] Cheapening transformation

Transformation is a big word. It is not some word that should be used lightly. Use it too often for the smallest of things, it will turn into a cliché and it will lose its meaning soon afterwards. In Malaysia, that is already happening with all the stress on transforming Malaysia under the 1Malaysia banner.

And so, in conferring an award to Prime Minister Najib Razak, World Chinese Economic Forum’s Michael Yeoh said, “[y]ou have contributed significantly to the transformation of the Malaysian nation.”[1]

Transformation of the Malaysian nation?

With the ETP appearing stalling or at more kindly put, going slowly, economic liberalization halted halfway through, along with half-baked realization of the September 15 announcement of the so-called political transformation program, and moreover, not even 3 years in office, I would think there is hardly anything that could be transformed. Tweak yes, but transform? Far from it.

Remember, transformation is a big word. It connotes an action that changed something completely into something else. Maybe the ETP has it right when it uses (and overuses) the word transform. At least, the objective of being (yet another overused phrase) high-income nation suggests a completely different Malaysian economic reality that prevails today.

A moth into a butterfly, that is transformation. Ass to a donkey? Maybe not so.

In the past three years, what transformation have we seen? Is Malaysia today any different that in 2009? Some potholes in the city have been there even before the PM assumed office with Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s mandate. It will not take a transformation to cover the potholes. Yet, here we are living in transformation, so claimed Michael Yeoh.

You cheapen the word Mr. Yeoh. But I guess, since everybody uses it so cheaply, it does not hurt much. How more cheaply can the cliché get, eh?

A mere less-than-three-years, and Mr. Yeoh and the WCEF granted the PM a lifetime award.

If anything, the supposedly transformation has hardly begun in earnest. The jury is still out there but Mr. Yeoh and the WCEF have jumped the gun. Overwrought, them.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved
[1] — PUTRAJAYA, Jan 25 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak was crowned today the “Father of Moderation and Transformation” by the World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF), which said the prime minister’s “fair and just leadership” had benefited the Chinese community “tremendously”.

Najib was also conferred the “Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award” by the WCEF for his work and commitment towards transforming Malaysia.

“You (Najib) have contributed significantly to the transformation of the Malaysian nation.

“The Chinese community has benefitted tremendously from you for your fair and just leadership,” WCEF chairman Datuk Michael Yeoh said in his speech at the conferment ceremony here today. [Chinese economic group calls Najib ”˜Father of Transformation and Moderation’. Clara Chooi. The Malaysian Insider. January 25 2011]

Categories
Economics

[2493] What happened in October 2011?

Does anybody know why the leading indicator went up in October?

I see the money supply went up, which means demand for money went up, which in turn suggests there were increase in economic activities. But why?

Categories
Sports

[2492] The unfairness of it all; goodbye JoePa

Saturday football was always fun during college days. Every morning I would listen to the radio, watched television in the common room, visited a friend’s room to watch football (sometimes, I would take the bus all the way to North Compus or even sleepover the night before) or during my senior year, watched the game at the stadium in full school colors. Michigan was at the top of the world and it was easy for my friends and I to laugh at other god-awful teams. One of the teams was Penn State and Joe Paterno was the coach there, as he was for the longest time until recently. Paterno was Penn State.

The Littany Lions were doing so bad that fans were calling for his head. I remember this so clearly. On TV, a fan held up a poster, urging the Penn State to fire him. At that time, I stopped cracking jokes about Paterno, and starting to feel pity for him. For all he had done for Penn State, I felt it was unfair to ask so, so unceremoniously. He survived the tough time, unlike Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez, and went on to reinstate some respectability in the football program at Happy Valley.

For that and more, he deserved respect. This was the winningest coach in college football history. That fact alone demands respect.

It is obvious that not everybody agrees with that. Amid a sex abuse scandal involving his staff (not Paterno himself), Penn State fired Paterno. The administration fired him because the university thought he had not done enough.

Maybe there was an ethical error on his behalf. He should have reported it to the police, instead of informing what he knew of merely to his superiors.

Regardless, I thought it was unfair the way he was fired. Somehow, I thought he was the scapegoat.

It must have been hard on him. When you coach at the same place for 40 uninterrupted years, the place just stops being the place where you work. It will be your life. Imagine how Paterno felt when he was fired. Already suffering from cancer, the firing must have made it all worse.

Paterno died today. The knife that drove through his heart was not cancer. It could not have been. It must have been unfairness.

Categories
Economics

[2491] Malaysian real government spending growth

This is the Malaysian government spending year-on-year quarterly growth from 2001 till 2011, as classified in the real gross domestic product.

Categories
Pop culture

[2490] Gallic gall

I am not saying anything bad about the French. I love the French. Close friends know how much I mean that. I am only quoting this just because the last sentence is witty.

Hermès, however, says that selling a sari in India is not taking coals to Newcastle. Rather, it wants to ”connect with Indian tradition and elegance,” says Bertrand Michaud, president of Hermès India. And there is precedent, thanks to Hermès’ Marwari scarves (prints inspired by the rare horses of Jodhpur) and sari-dresses designed by Jean Paul Gaultier in spring 2008 when he was creative director of the brand. Those, however, were riffs; this is a more significant collection. ”It is like Indians selling wine in France,” sniffs one Indian style expert. ”To sell a sari in India takes Gallic gall.” [Saris from Paris? Financial Times. January 14 2012]

And no, I do not typically read the fashion section of the Financial Times or anything. I spotted a hot girl in sari on the front page (or somewhere) while reading about the debt negotiation in Greece. I then decided to skip Greece and turned to the fashion section instead. Sue me. I am a guy.