What's wrong with Malaysia in terms of GDP per Capita? (2012)

Addressing the issue, which Finance Malaysia thinks was critical at a time of globalization heats up, Malaysia needs to formulate and take action immediately without much hesitation. But, before we jump into action, we need to know the root of the problem. Right?

Exactly, we must find out the reason why we left behind other countries in terms of GDP per capita, which refers to the country's gross domestic products at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita. According to Wikipedia, it was the value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given year divided by the average population for the same year.

Why not using nominal GDP to measure national wealth?

Comparison of national wealth are also frequently made on the basis of nominal GDP, which does not reflect differences in the cost of living. Using a PPP basis is arguably more useful when comparing generalized differences in living standards on the whole between nations because PPP takes into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rates of the countries, rather than using just exchange rates which may distort the real differences in income.

Singapore is now the richest country in the world.
Where is Malaysia?

According to sources, some of the factors contributing to Singapore's forecast performance are its 'human capital' -- a skilled and educated labour force, the dynamic business environment, openness to trade, capital mobility and foreign direct investment. Also, it is worth noting that there is a global eastwards shift in economic activity -- Singapore is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this.

However, everything is not going well for Malaysia, although we are Singapore's closest neighbour. In terms of GDP, we moving nowhere for past few years amid competitive global environment. But, in terms of population, we believe we accelerated for past one year after government legalized some 1.6million foreign unskilled labourers. Please noted that they are non-taxpayers who consume all the benefits funded by us Tax payers.

On the other side, our brightest and brilliant are forced to mass migrate to other countries. This is a fact which is dampening the future of our country. It's sad because Malaysia supposedly was high on the list in terms of GDP per capita, given the plenty of natural resources that we had and strategic position we located in. Why?

The main reason lies within us, Malaysians. Don't blame the government. Don't blame other countries. Don't blame the statistic. Just blame ourself, Malaysians. A government was formed by its own people, and elected by us. All the while, we have this wrong mentality that we are blessed with valuable resources which can last us for a long long time. Does that mean that we do not need to compete?

Facebooking is a new norm in workplace now.

If you were to ask, Finance Malaysia would take the blame on our mindset, especially youngsters nowadays. Most of them didn't bother about the country and their future. These people go to work for the sake of working only. They follow instructions, without reinventing the way we work. How are we going to excel? Don't even think about competing. It's about time to change for a better tomorrow.

University Campus Election?

Even before the much awaited general election, our universities under-graduates are up for the upcoming campus elections. Candidates are going all out, day and night, to campaign for votes for the past few days. Election will be held from Feb 21 to Feb 24.

News excerpt from The Star newspaper (17 Feb 2011)

Successfully, every year, campus election which initially meant for universities only, got the attention of public and full coverage from major dailies. Malaysian is like watching European Cup (campus election), prior to the more important FIFA World Cup (general election). Meanwhile, politician tends to monitor the progress of the campus elections for various reasons:

1. Read the minds of undergraduates
2. Identify the potential future politicians
3. Predicting the youth trends on politics

Penggerak Mahasiswa or Pro-Mahasiswa?

Not surprisingly, campus elections are heated up once again this year. As a graduate from one of Malaysia's public university, it reminded me on campus election. those days Brochures and banners seen every corner. Ceramah-ceramah by candidates are being held here and there. But, to be honest, I'm really not sure who are the candidates and what is their promises and whether those promises materialized.

At USM, Pro-Mahasiswa candidates and supporters campaigning in the campus. (SinChew Daily)

Finance Malaysia is wondering:

Why we have these campus election at the first place?

And, is it wise to have it?

Or, should we amend it?
 

They says that campus election can build the charisma of undergraduates who are the future leaders. But, other than campus election, there is no other ways to instill such good values to our undergraduates nowadays? You must be joking...

In campus election, one can win the election by simply campaigning for few days to fish vote, and gone missing for the whole year. If this is your purpose of having campus election, our future politicians would be worse. It is wasting time and money.

News excerpt from mStar online reporting a scuffle happens at UKM which needed the help of FRU last year.

Very often, government is blamed by undergraduates for not allowing them to involve in politics. Reasons being for the benefit of undergraduates and to encourage them to just focus on their studies. But then, why allowed them to involve in campus election? Is it totally unrelated between campus election and politics? You must be fooling yourself if you said no...

In my opinion, we should either ALLOW or NOT ALLOW. By allowing, please let them to engage in politics freely. Otherwise, please abolish such campus election totally to let them focus on their studies 100%. Do not please our undergraduates simply because you forbidding them to engage in politics, and you do not want to arouse their anger at the same time.