Penang Series Part III: The Benevolent Leader

Debating military affair in the presence of King Xiaocheng of Zhao (reigned 265-245 B.C), the lord of Linwu claimed the essential point in the art of military are utilizing the most seasonable times of heaven and most profitable aspects of the earth, observe the movement of enemy, set out after he does, but get there before him.

Xunzi, a Confucian philosopher during the period of the “hundred philosophers” in China beg to differ. He believed that the basis of all warfare and undertaking lies in the unification of the people under the benevolent leader. To him, if the bow and arrow are not properly adjusted, even the most famous archer could not hit the mark. If the six horses of the team are not properly trained, even the most famous carriage driver could not go far. If the officers and people are not devoted to their leaders, even the sages could not win victory. In contrast, a tyrant may practice deception but only success against another tyrant if their plot is relatively better but will fail against a benevolent leader.

In Penang, one may find such benevolent leader in its current Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng. After his Pakatan Rakyat team won the mandate to form state government in March 2008 General Election, Penang state prospers greatly. His benevolent leadership has been noticed until even Hong Kong TVB made a documentary on him. The documentary can be viewed through the following links.

TVB (HK) on Lim Guan Eng (Part 1 of 3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRQjmS-SDlE&feature=player_embedded

TVB (HK) on Lim Guan Eng (Part 2 of 3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFqwQFua1rw&feature=related

TVB (HK) on Lim Guan Eng (Part 3 of 3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuGpg0rD_Us&feature=related

Penang Series Part II: Where “Pendatang” Engraved Heritage

There are quite a number of words, names and colors being unofficially banned in Malaysia, usually for being too “sensitive” or “seditious”. The word “pendatang” is in the list. People of the East has been known for their shyness as compare to the West but level of tolerable sensitivity for Malaysian authorities is much lower beyond imagination of any democratic earthling.

Direct translation for “pendatang” is immigrant. Not many will dispute that the United States of America is the biggest land of immigrant in size. Besides the State, World Factbook revealed that United Arab Emirates (UAE) citizens are less than 20% of its total population and ranked top in term of migrants per population. Malaysia only ranked 139^th with 0.40 net emigrant per thousand of population based on 2009 estimate.

According to Malaysia’s Nomination Dossier to UNESCO for World Cultural Heritage status application, Penang was founded as a settlement colony in 1786 by a British trader named Francis Light. However, the early development is attributed to “the courageous and entrepreneurial spirit of early migrant communities who found in George Town a place to make a living and begin a new life”. Thereafter, these migrants (whom their descendants have been given citizenship of the country) engraved heritage for the modern generations to treasure and tourism industry to prosper.

Photo: Kapitan Keling Mosque

Highlighted heritages in Malaysia’s dossier to UNESCO include fifteen religious buildings in George Town. Among them are Kapitan Keling Mosque and Goddess of Mercy Temple, both at Kapitan Keling Road and St. George’s Church at Lebuh Farquhar. Kapitan Keling Road also hosts Sri Mahamariamman Temple for Hindu devotees. This is a good proof that Malaysian of different religions could indeed live harmony together. Unfortunately, some Malaysian politicians choose to tune up Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilization, perhaps for hidden agenda that only themselves and God known.

Photo: Goddess of Mercy Temple

Kapitan Keling Mosque is the largest historic mosque in George Town. More interestingly, it was built for the Indian Muslim community in 1801 by German architect (Henry Alferd Neubronner) on a site granted by the British East India Company. Meanwhile, Goddess of Mercy Temple is the oldest Chinese temple in Penang.

Photo: St. George's Church

Away from George Town, two more temples share no less popularity – the Kek Lok Si and Wat Chayamangkalaram. Located in Air Itam, the former is the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia. According to Wikipedia (2011), Kek Lok Si started construction in 1890, primarily sponsored by Kapitan Chung Keng Quee and even received sanction from Emperor Guangxu of China who bestowed a tablet and gift of 70,000 volumes of the Imperial Edition of the Buddhist Sutras. Meanwhile, Wat Chayamangkalaram is a Thai-Buddhist temple located in Pulau Tikus. Various Thai festivals are celebrated in Wat Chayamangkalaram temple, for example, the Loy Kratong. The temple houses the gigantic gold-plated reclining Buddha statue. Surprisingly, a larger (being claimed Southeast Asia’s largest) reclining Buddha is in another Thai Buddhist temple in the sate of Kelantan. Being rule by the Islamic political party PAS, this speak well for the party as well as the religion in contrast to the issues of temples demolition claims against the Barisan National previous ruling in Selangor and other states.

Photo: Kek Lok Si Temple

Photo: Reclining Buddha in Wat Chayamangkalaram

Photo: Loy Kratong Festival in Wat Chayamangkalara

Other than Indian and Chinese temples, one could also find Acheen Malay Mosque, Dhamikarama Burmese Temple (first Burmese temple in Malaysia), Chinese Kongsi (e.g. Khoo Kongsi which has becomes museum), Syed Alatas Mansion, Sun Yat Sen’s House and numerous clan jetties.

Nonetheless, the best imprint to Malaysian society from the migrants and British is not the buildings but the unique society itself and their everyday living where language, craft, system and architecture are only parts of the whole cultural heritage within Malaysian society. Cross culture between ethnic groups has evolved unique Malaysian identities. For example, throughout Peninsular Malaysia, we have Indian Muslim who operate the very popular “mamak” eateries. Local and foreign tourist can enjoy roti canai, capati, tosei, nasi lemak and many other Indian and Malay food variety there. Whenever there is a live telecast of English Premier League match, football fans will throng those eateries, cheering their teams together with unknown patrons of different race, religion or citizenship! Well, shall we consider this enthusiasm of English football a British heritage?

In Penang, the Peranakan is worth highlighted. This community is prominent in Straits Settlement (which includes Melaka). Known as “Baba” (for gentlemen) and “Nyonya” (for ladies), they are Chinese origin but adopt mixture of Chinese and Malay lifestyles in their dialect, food and other aspects of culture. The Penang Peranakan Mansion offers the best experience of Peranakan culture and lifestyle.

Photo: Penang Peranakan Mansion

Photo: Living room in the Mansion

Photo: Peranakan Costume

Last but not least, a modern “immigrant” from Kuala Lumpur offers a surprise attraction. Along the way towards Penang Bridge to Prai, this look like KLCC condominium clearly signaled that Penang is fast catching up with Kuala Lumpur.

Photo: Look like KLCC Condominium

--------

Malaysia’s Nomination Dossier to UNESCO; Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca: Melaka and George Town. Available at http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1223.pdf.

Wikipedia. (2011). Kek Lok Si. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kek_Lok_Si. Access date: 9 February 2011.

--------

[Credit: Some of the photos used are originally taken by my friends (Mei Chin & Adeline) in our previous group tour to Penang]

Penang Series Part I: The Abandoned Twin?

As Malaysians grace south, they cannot do much but to envy the success of Singapore. Once part of Malaysia, Singapore has pace ahead in great speed. To the former shame, Singapore has never been half as lucky as Malaysia. Middle East countries, particularly Saudi Arabia have been the biggest oil exporting countries in the world, thus boosting their purchasing power. Now, India has its “steel king” entrepreneur to cement its economics influences while Singapore may thank its strategic geography location. However, Malaysia has even more. It was once the biggest tin exporter in the world. Malaysia was also either biggest or among the biggest in term of producing or exporting rubber, oil palm and semiconductor besides also being a net oil exporter and previously a favorite foreign direct investment destination. Yet, why Malaysia still not as developed as Singapore remains not a puzzling question but a “restricted” one because answering this question frankly will need to touch on so called “sensitive issue” that can land anyone into detention or death treats! Perhaps referring to Malaysia, former Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew sarcastically claims that Singapore economic success is due to its lack of natural resources endowment. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s longest serving Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad blamed brain drain for underdevelopment. One may wonder what will happen if Singapore’s brain paired up with Malaysia’s resources. A possibility is that a single Penang state would beat Singapore’s success!

Penang and Singapore are like twin. Both are the Straits Settlements (Negeri-negeri Selat) during the British colonial period. Indeed, Western looking architectures are aplenty at Georgetown, its capital city. Those include Standard Charted bank, HSBC Bank, fire station and local council building. Singapore was part of Malaya during independent on 31^st August 1957 and the formation of Malaysia with Sabah and Sarawak states in 1963 but withdrew in 1965. Since then, the development path of these two “twin” began to differ greatly. While Singapore achieved developed nation status, Penang remained artificially surviving under the ruling of Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia Party (PGRM) as state government and Barisan Nasional (BN, formerly known as Alliance) as federal government.

Photo: Architectures at Lebuh Pantai (left), at Gat Lebuh Gereja (right top) & Georgetown local council (right bottom)

Problems in Penang, particularly related to Indian community were exploited in full scale during the 12^th Malaysian General Election in March 2008. Among the highlight issues are Penang state government asked the federal government to offer a RM1 billion project to Motorola. This was seen as a desperate attempt to prevent that mammoth multinational company to leave Penang [see note 1]. In addition, the Socio-Economic and Environment Research Institute (Seri) survey between November 1997 and February 1999 on 3100 Indian household in Penang revealed among others 60 percent were wage earners in the lower income brackets, average monthly income was between RM500 and RM1, 000 per household and nearly 40 percent of the state’s suicide cases involved Indians [note 2]. Therefore, unattended old and dirty buildings and areas are easily found even in the developed Georgetown. Among are two local wet markets, a burnt down Syarikat Tai Tong building and paint peel-off Diners Bakery. Anyway, those could be eyesore to one but heritage to another and therefore would not jeopardize Penang tourism.

Photo: Wet market at Georgetown

Photo: The burnt down building (left) & Diners Bakery (right)

Perhaps it is the combination of modern high rise and old buildings that make Penang special from Singapore. A good spot to view this old-new combination is from the 1st Avenue Mall parking bay.

Photo: View from 1st Avenue

If anyone wishes to find a Singapore in Penang, Straits Quaq is the place. Built on a land-filled area, Straits Quay architecture is “fantabulos” (the latest Singlish word made popular in its latest Chinese New Year movie, Homecoming). Despite not yet fully bloom, several big names like Dome and Royal Selangor have booked their presence there.

Photo: Straits Quay

On shopping, Penang has Queensbay Mall that can match those in Singapore and in Kuala Lumpur in term of size. Within very short walking distance from Queensbay Mall, Penang bridge can be view afar.

Photo: Queensbay Mall Penang

Photo: Penang Bridge viewed from nearby Queensbay Mall

Come the 13^th Malaysian General Election, Penang will certainly be a spotlight state. In the previous election, opposition alliance has won the state election, hence handling the administration to Democratic Action Party (DAP), the component party that won the most seats ousting PGRM. After taking over in 2008, Penang has seen vast improvement. This state has just top the ranking of total capital investment in the country. Penang was ranked 4^th in 2009 but has increased 465% since then [note 3]. Hope will be put on its Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng of DAP for continue reforming the state for better transparency and higher development. Thus, will Penang be better than Singapore one day?

-----------

Note 1: See Malaysiakini report at http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/78997; subscription login required) for further information.

Note 2: Athi Veeranggan. (2007). 17 years on, Penang Indians 'have nothing'. Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/73322. Access date: 26 May 2008.

Note 3: The Star. (2010). Penang top total capital investment list for 2010. 20^th January: N20.

----------------

[The blogger would like to thanks his friends for their accompany in Penang]

[Best viewed with Mozilla Firefox]

Public Forum on Eradicating Poverty for Sustainable Development

Title of the forum
Poverty from "Missing" Perspectives: Religious Institution and Non Governmental Organizations

Selapas Tsunami (After the Tsunami)

May 14th, 2010 by Pusat KOMPAS

[Source: http://vimeo.com/11732348]

Selepas Tsunami (After the Tsunami) from Pusat KOMAS on Vimeo.

The 12th General Election did not only result in the change of government in four states or the lost of Barisan Nasional two-thirds majority in Parliament. It brought along many practices never seen before in the governmant system. In Selangor, a body under the state assembly was formed to monitor the use of public funds.

In the federal Parliament the increasing presence of opposition representatives has resulted in more serious debates. Today, UMNO and Barisan Nasional has started speaking the language of change. However, the real reform process is not as easy as voting on polling day.

This documentary discusses the meaning behind those promised changes. Info on KOMAS - komas.org

A Big Pictures production for Pusat KOMAS.
36 mins.
Director: Anna Har
Producer: Brenda Danker
Executive Producer: Jerald Joseph
Editor: Chi Too

Pilihan Raya umum ke-12 bukan setakat melibatkan perubahan empat kerajaan negeri atau kehilangan kuasa dua pertiga Barisan Nasional di Parlimen. Ia membawa kepada pelbagai amalan yang tidak wujud dan namkapasing sebelum inin dapat dirasakan oleh rakyat buat julung kalinya. Di negeri Selangor satu badan di bawah Dewan Negeri ditubuhkan untuk memantau perbelanjaan dana awam.

Di peringkat Persekutuan , Parlimen kini nampak lebih serius dengan kehadiran wakil pembangkang. Hari ini, Barisan Nasional yang keras kepala sebelum 8 Mac lalu, juga sudah mula bertutur dalam bahasa prubahan. Bagaimanapun, perubahan yang sebenar bukanlah semudah membuang undi pada pilihan raya.

Malaysia’s International Relations and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): A Structural Change Analysis

[Asian Social Science; Vol. 6, No. 7; July 2010]

Har W.M, Lam Z.L, Chan M. L, Liew K.Y, Har E.L & Lum C.

Abstract

This study aims to identify the effect of international relations and the presence of structural change using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Chow test respectively. It also aims to examine the long run relationships among Malaysia’s GDP and inward FDI, as well as among Malaysia’s total FDI and inward FDI taking into consideration of international relations using Engle-Granger test. Furthermore, Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) is used to examine whether the variables are converge in the long run. This study supports that international relation affects inwards FDI from all selected countries (Japan, United States, Singapore and Germany). In addition, inwards FDI from respective countries have long run relationship with Malaysia’s GDP and Malaysia’s total FDI. It also found that the respective variables are converging in the long run. With this finding in mind, international relations-focused policies can be created in order to boost up Malaysia’s FDI inwards and growth.