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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (515)	1/6/1998 8:03:00 PM
From: Stitch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Hi Thomas, Welcome back! re: Malaysia's form of government: Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, its head of state being the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, (King) which is one of the Malay Federated State Sultans elected for a term of five years by his brother State Sultans., and who has to act in accordance with Government advice. It has a bicameral parliament consisting of a Senate(Dewan Negara) and a House of Representatives(Dewan Rakyat). Elections to the Lower House are held every five years on the basis of universal adult suffrage, each constituency returning one member. The Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister, consists only of members of the legislature and is collectively responsible to Parliament. In reality a great deal of power is invested in the PM. There are laws and practices here that would never be seen in the U.S. or Europe. For example, suspect criminals can be remanded for an idefinite period of time during ther investigation into their alledged offence. In addition constitutional rights Americans hold dear are not observed, as in the right to a lawyer being present during questioning etc. The real political give and take here is between the Chinese and the Malay peoples. The party in power is UMNO consisting primarily of the Malay people. There is an opposition party that is somewhat vocal but from my perspective they are "carefully" so. The local press, television, and film industrys have very active censorship reflewcting the sensibilities of the state religion here which is Islam. There are seperate islamic authoritys who maintaim religous laws that apply to malays and not to Indian or Chinese people. There is state condoned discrimination against races other then Malay in the form of state supported discounts on home buying, Bumiputera (son of the land, ie Malay) corporate ownership laws, etc. Over history the Chinese wielded the power,the money and the business acumen on their side. This was largely an outgrowth of their witting colusion with the British colonialist that tended to subjugate the Malay to a tenure of cheap labor source, serfdom, etc etc. The current political situation is an outgrow reaction to that circumstance as a post colonial condition. In spite of this the maysian today is less conscious of racial differences and much more conscious of their own status as a Malaysian, whether of Chinese, Malay, or Indian ethnic origin. This has largely been the result of, (or vice versa, I am not sure) economic prosperity. There are, however, in my personal observation, still barriers of race and prejudice amongst the people here. There is also some level of anti western sentiment, especially of late. In my observation, Islam in Malaysia is a very far cry indeed from the extremist islam of places like Iran and Iraq. At least it seems to me this islam is far more Western tolerant and peace loving then in the Middle East. One article I read somewhere said theat U>S> diplomatic channels had long recognized that Malaysia, and to a slightly lesser degree, Indonesia represebnted diplomatic and cultural buffers between the West and the Middle Eastern brand of Islamic activism. In many respects Malaysia is still a third world country. The country faces much arduous task to achieve their "2020 vision" of reaching a developed natiomn status. I also believe that there is considerably more political tolerance here then in ..say..Singapore for example. Some of the larger challenges Malaysia faces is education, language, ecological concerns, and technical progress. To a lesser degree medicine, social services, and export driven growth are also high on the list. While there is substantial instances of graft and political corruption and cronyism here there has been a very publicized and vocal outcry against such practices. I believe that in the long term Malaysia will have made much progress in this arena. I also think that the latest developments economically have opened a lot of eyes here to the fragility of their system and economy. I think that in reaction Malaysia will become very cost conscious, more transparent, maybe even more democratic in the sense we Americans think of democracy. But I do not think we could or should expect to see a total conversion to an entirely free economy and political landscape in a rapid time frame. In my opinion, to do so would be tantamount to Malaysia sacrificing its identity as a sovereign nation and as a unique and rich culture. There is much good here and more to come. But patience is a watchword IMHO. I have rambled on here I see. Hope I havent bored you. Best, Stitch