This was my first time going to a Young Corporate Malaysians (YCM) event. Everybody was in super formal attire, and luckily with some foresight I did the same, lest I would have stood out oddly even more.
Apparently, YCM is a circle for young people within the age group of 21 to 30 years old. No wonder I felt out of place. Most of these guys are already working, corporate leaders of renowned companies with high qualifications in their respective fields, unlike me who’s still studying.
Anyway, who cares. After all, having a look see was all I wanted.
All the professionals of the private corporate world were congregated for a reason and one reason only – to have a Q&A session with the PM (besides of course growing their networks).
The hall was soon filled to the brim with excited faces. So many people attended the event that the number of chairs didn’t match the number of people. So some people have to stand instead, for the whole way through!
Then there was the welcoming speech by the leader of YCM, Wan Mohd Firdaus, who was very outstanding with his red tie. Ensuing that was the speech by our res
pected PM Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak. In his speech he stressed on the importance of the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) and the New Economic Model (NEM).His casual manner of speech dropped down formal barriers and he managed to squeeze laughter out the audience at punch-line perfect timing (surely a skill that was honed through many experiences of speech). After the “ice-breaking”, he, with leadership authority, turned things to the direction of the core of that evening.
Reminiscing about the past generation and comparing its economy with ours today, our PM said that “our economy is not growing as fast as before” the financial crisis. Therefore, he posited that a reform of economy is needed in order to achieve the goal of Vision 2020 of becoming a developed nation.
In order for Malaysia to achieve the status of a “developed country”, a yardstick for measuring and tracking the progress is thus required. Hence, the Gross National Income (GNI) was chosen as the reference for success. To become a high income developed nation, a 6% growth per year is required to double the current GNI per capita of USD 6,700 (RM 23,700) to USD 15,000 (RM 48,000) by year 2020.
Mr. PM proposed that a solution has to be Big, Bold and Fast Resulted. That’s how the NKEAs et cetera came about, leading to the accumulation of what we have today – a strategic, comprehensive and holistic transformation package that would drive the nation toward the bull’s eye like never before.
Dato’ Seri Najib ended his speech with hope that 1 Malaysia will be something that’s beyond a concept, and he called for the audience’s support to enable this great transformation of economy to happen.
For the next one and a half hour or so, the floor opened up as the Q&A session began. With much grace and composure, all the questions were answered with amazing speed. Questions were taken from the floor 3 or 4 at a time.
Here are some of the questions bombarded…The Q’s and A’s don’t represent the actual people involved but the summary from my side. It’s neater that way.
………………
Q: Somebody shared his benefit of Sekolah Kebangsaan and asked if there’s any plan of having more schools that can unite students of different races rather than having separate schools for different races. Furthermore, the asker also wanted the great moral values to be maintained.
A: A concept of having a unified school or Sekolah Wawasan was certainly brought up in the idea box. The idea was to have Chinese School, Indian School and National School to all be in one big school complex. Students would study separately but they would come together and know one another through activities outside the classroom. However, it wasn’t viable due to practical difficulties. For one, the school complex would have to be really big, which is a big problem in lieu of the limiting land space.
Some questions not related to the topic of the day was also forwarded, like the question of election day (which was pointless because everybody knew the answer – no answer), personal company problems and the price of imported cars (in terms of tax, and got the crowd hyped up).
On the proposed reduction of the price of imported cars in terms of tax, the Prime Minister jokingly replied that as the Finance Minister, the problem could be solved if the crowd can tell him where to find additional funding. “Tell me, where do I get the money?” he was questioning.
Q: There was a question on the progress of the Iskandar Project.
A: In reply to the question, our PM assured that the project is still on-going, and many things have already been achieved and many more good stuff are coming along the way. For example, a Legoland would be constructed that would greatly contribute to the tourism industry. Some universities like the University of Hampshire would be involved that would make the Iskandar region one that can be proud of becoming an education hub.
Even the censorship of internet didn’t get censored. Pardon me, I forgot the reply to this issue. Perhaps some chatter at the back distracted me.
Q: Minimum wage is another hot topic that was raised in the session.
A: His answer was one that the crowd literally celebrated. Mentioning that “Malaysians are underpaid”, he is a staunch supporter of having a minimum wage applied to all. Some measures are already in effect. Some jobs that pays less than the poverty line were upgraded to pay more. Plantation workers are also paid more now after companies realized how much they have been underpaid for so long. He also admitted that many skilled professions are not paid as well as they should for their skills and talents, e.g. Engineers and lawyers. We can sense that this issue is going towards betterment. Definitely a good thing to look forward to.
Q: A young corporate also put forward the issue of the English Language and its importance as the international language, asking what’s the plan of the government to increase the proficiency of English in citizens.
A: Addressing the English Language as a language that is very important in this globalized age, Mr. Prime Minister said that plans are also underway to counter this problem. The contact hours of English Language class has been increased. Besides that, there is also a massive project in the pipeline involving the revival of a long time project. The government actually plans to bring in native speakers of the English Language to teach young Malaysians, meaning that teachers from UK, US and so forth will be hired.
Q: A man compared 2,000 pounds to the same value in Malaysian Ringgit, saying that one could buy, say, a ketchup at 1 pound, but it costs more than that in Malaysia. He postulated that with the same salary, Malaysians can buy less things with the same 2,000 value.
A: The answer to this is that one cannot compare pound to ringgit like that. In UK, a salary of 2,000 pound doesn’t equate to RM 2,000 because in UK the tax is higher. There are more taxes in the UK and that would actually make the salary (after tax deduction) not as exciting as 2,000 pounds. Besides, the price of goods and products in Malaysia are subsidized by the government so that what you pay is less that what you really get.
An interesting young corporate who’s (I think) an advocate of youth power, wanted the PM to make a promise to include 5 ministers under the age of 50 in his team of decision makers. In response, the PM did acknowledge that more middle age youngsters should hold high positions in the government too.
Q: Then the cutest of all participant spoke into the microphone and blurted out his confusion with the figures. He remembered our then PM Dr. Mahathir saying that an 8% annual growth was needed every year until year 2020 to make Vision 2020 a reality.
A: Now that some decades have passed, calibration of the numbers means that the 6% today is in fact much more than the 7% or 8% back then. So that’s why 6% is enough. One more beautiful thing about the number 6 - it is credible and convincing enough when we tell the world about it. Ain’t it so?
Q: ISA. (The usual)
A: This I agree with Dato’ Seri Najib. The ISA is still there for one purpose: peace.
Q: What about inflation. It is something that has worried many Malaysians who are aware of its rising. Now standing at 3% and in gear 4 to move up to 3.4% or 3.2% soon.
A: If we look around, look at other countries, we see that we are doing okay with the current inflation rate. In summary, that was the answer.
So that’s about it. The remaining queries were about Green Technology (a focus of ETP), Faster Oil/Gas extraction and request for higher teacher salary.
And so, that’s about it.
Overall, the event was a success, although many more young people under 30 have questions still burning in their minds.
Being a leader sure is tough as our PM said “it (being in my shoe) is not a bed of roses”. So we should really appreciate what our Prime Minister has contributed so far. Also kudos to him for bringing transparency to the public and opening up to the rakyat like no other Prime Ministers have done before.
He’s the prime, that’s for sure.
Having twitter, Facebook page and other means of technology has really branded our PM as the most approachable/sociable PM ever. He wants to make sure that all Malaysians are in this journey together and that nobody should be left out. Awww. So touching. It’s true, everybody can now contribute and dictate, however much, the future of Malaysia.
Hat’s off to you Mr. Prime Minister, keep up the good work.
Salam 1 Malaysia.
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