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Like all things, it is easier to criticise than to perform. This is an occupational disease that afflicts an opposition which is too long in opposition.

Since I have criticised the Malaysian economy as top heavy and structurally dangerous , may I also offer some small suggestions as to what can be done to correct this structural “defect”.

I hope we can move forward bravely and not hold back for fear of odium to name and reputation (not that I have any name or reputation in this matter but this is by extension to the new govts now controlling several states) if we fail.

Marx, when he identified the workers as the proletarians, also mentioned an even lower class – the lumpen proletarians. It is this group of people that I wish to discuss. At least the workers have reasonably stable roles in an economy (if not stable jobs). The lumpen proletarians have no real role at all. They are the dregs and outlaws of society because they are economic outcasts. Without any economic life, people also lose their social lives. They cannot get married or have children or lead normal lives because they have no money. They cannot fit into any organised civilised society. Perversion and want is their normality.

Unfortunately the modern world has created lumpen proletarians of even ordinary kampong folk. In S. Thailand, there is a phenomenon they call “kratom” which is actually a Malaysian export. In Malaysia it is call “ketum”. It is a cocktail of  boiled daun ketum, coke, cough mixture and insecticide (yes, insecticide, you did not read wrongly) and is drunk to get a high. There are no accurate statistics, but people say at least half of young people are involved in the habit on a regular basis. Unemployment, stagnation, boredom, despair and self-hate are the causes. They have no economic life, so they lose their social lives and become “kratom” addicts. Kratom works slowly. Bodies and minds waste away ever so slowly.

How is this related to Malaysia and our topic? For one thing, it is a Malaysian “export” to Thailand which means the phenomenon is already established in Malaysia – only people don’t want to talk about it. For another, modern economies in the 3^rd world tend to create a giant pools of lumpen proletarians and we are not excluded.

It is easy to talk about being competitive and dynamic, but it is real life-and-blood people who pay the price in terms of non-life-sustaining wages and huge pools of desperate unemployed. International production is so efficient and so competitive that local economies all over the 3^rd world are made redundant. Even rice growing is super-specialised and we are not competing successfully with Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Don’t even mention cars.

Before you rich middle class guys laugh about it and say it is not your problem, you should know that your children are also being turned into lumpen proletarians even before they become old enough to enter the workforce. Boredom and lack of any responsible role has the same effect in young bodies ripening with potent hormones as lack of economic life and chronic unemployment in adults. Popping ecstasy pills is the result for rich young lumpen proletarian wannabes.

Modern economies and modern societies have created the phenomenon of overworked, harassed and underpaid employed persons with little time for social life on the one hand and a pool of economically unused persons without any economic and therefore suppressed social life on the other. We need to change this and build a strong local economy that is able to support our relatively large population and find a meaningful role for “unused” persons and integrate them back into society.

In Malaysia, even as we slowly lose our social lives and become strangers in the crowd, our racial separateness makes this worse. We have become stunted socially, culturally and economically. Even for a few rich Malaysians, social and cultural life is limited to going to the malls. This is supposed to be fulfilling and character building. On the outside some may look like they are the beautiful people, but inside they are more like the thin half-naked creature in the Lord of the Rings that half crawls and half walks. They are Jekyl and Hyde characters in the making.

Economic life and social life are inter-related. A rich social and cultural life creates economic opportunities while economic well-being opens up the horizon for a more sophisticated culture and social life. The closer this inter-relationship, the more efficient a society becomes. There is less waste as opposed to cultural activities that offer opportunities to businesses that do not fit well into the total mish-mesh of mutually supporting economic activity

For example, a society that is hedonistic has social and cultural lives that support sin industries of gambling, alcohol consumption, and prostitution. Such a society is efficient because the social, cultural and economic activities match. However such a society must also expect to live with drugs, depravity, gangsters and violence.

On the other hand, a society that is strict and puritan may not be able to generate a high level of economic activity because social and cultural life is basic and disciplined. Such a society is also efficient, but must expect to be poor.

Malaysians must know where to strike the balance. Having the wrong mix of the two may have strange and unwanted effects. The main problem is to have a local economy that can sustain the whole population in a healthy and constructive way and to have that healthy society keep the local economy humming and active. To be able to keep city centres healthy and active instead of slowly getting run-down and decrepit. To keep gangsters and anti-social elements at bay and to involve as many people as possible in healthy mutually supporting economic and social life and that does not need a massive police force to control the conflicts and contradictions. To remove fear and suspicion from society. This is the challenge.

Placing total emphasis on all things foreign including our self-respect, social and cultural life, values, traditions and habits as well as our economic livelihood is going the Singapore way. They have been successful – let’s be clear about this, but can we follow the same route and use the same model of development with equal success? I think not and we’d be foolhardy to try - as we did on a number of occasions and continue to dream of doing.

We need to wean ourselves away from a foreign orientation in order to give the locals a fighting chance. Respect and high regard for local things should be encouraged. This encourages self-respect and reduces self-hatred. A foreign orientation also mean buying foreign things, using foreign gadgets and trying foreign clothes and styles. This reduces opportunities for the local industry.

I do not advocate xenophobia and I do not advocate stopping the search for FDIs, but we have become too much in love with things foreign. In addition to searching for FDIs, I advocate learning (and expropriating!) things foreign that make us more competitive and more skilled, but avoiding those that make us lose our self-respect and forget who we are. This is easier said than done. A free press will help a  lot in expanding discussion and debate on these matters, so that the rakyat can make intelligent choices.

I suspect even the foreigners will approve. As in tourism, they are eager to go to places that are exotic and strange, but once these places become too service-oriented and try to put on white faces on Asian bodies and use false western accents, trying to become more western than the westerners – I think even the westerners can see that this is demeaning and is off-putting to all except the most depraved.

Economic activity arise from active, creative and dynamic human activity. All these form a virtuous cycle. Unfortunately Malaysians have been repressed and divided for too long thus breaking the virtuous cycle. This represses the local economy and favours UMNO stewardship and control. We know where this has led us. We have won political power in a few places. Give back the whole social, cultural, intellectual, spiritual and economic power to the people! There is so much to do to correct 50 years of misrule. Opposition leaders – please don’t waste any more time.

By batsman

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