DOING THE RIGHT THING

Peter Drucker, the father of management studies, says that it is more important to do the right thing than to do things right.  This is particularly true in Malaysian politics for the past sixty years.  We should have chosen a leader and a government that is honest and capable, regardless of race or religion.  We should have rejected race and religion politics right from the start.  

The government so far have never adopted or practiced this and it resulted in a government that most people complain about almost every single day for the past many decades, with the Malay politicians happily exploiting the lack of opposition to their plot of using race and religion to continue governing the country.  After almost six decades Malaysia is still deeply mired in corruption, cronyism and abuse of power, recently culiminating in the world-famous 1MDB corruption scandal.  Lately it resulted in poor management of Covid-19; causing more than 10,000 deaths so far and millions of businesses closing down nationwide.

The opposition, with DAP in particular, did not do the right thing since Day One.  This has led to the country's situation today.  Right from the start they were doing the wrong thing, that is, trying to create a Malaysian Malaysia and to fight corruption and abuse of power.  Now, many may ask, "How can trying to unite a country and fight corruption be doing the wrong thing?"  Well, we can just take a look at the results.  After sixty years they do not have a party membership that reflects the racial composition of the country.  Not even close.  And, after sixty years of fighting corruption how many corruptors have they put behind bars?  And why after sixty years, they not only failed to arrest corruption but instead allowed it to rise to the highest level in the form of 1MDB?  Their excuse is simply because for all these years they did not have any power to convict corruptors or stop corruption.  Which means they have failed miserably.  They should have attacked the root cause and fought the politics that allowed people to corrupt instead of making a futile attempt at the fighting the symptoms of corruption instead, making it a totally non-event.

Yes, and to emphasize his point, Peter Drucker says there is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.  DAP has been having campaign after campaign, ceramah after ceramah for sixty years, expounding their fight against corruption and abuse of power.  At the end of the day it has proven to be totally useless.  And if they continue at it without giving up (because they still have not come to the realization), they will be in danger of ignoring the advice of another wise man, Albert Einstein.  Einstein says that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is called insanity.

And the fact that DAP is the best opposition that country has to offer (that party won a whopping number of 42 seats in parliament in the last election) reflects the deplorable state of our country.  DAP will never amount to anything simply because it didn't have the courage to try anything yet.  Having slogans like "Malaysian Malaysia" and "fighting corruption, etc" don't count.

It's all much ado about nothing; a catchy phrase from the world's most famous author and playwright, Shakespeare, as well as the greatest writer of fables, Mr Aesop.

Malaysia needs a new strategy and a new script.

References:-

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/08/13/survey-shows-90pc-sales-drop-in-malaysian-malls-association-predicts-more-t/1997300

IT'S NOT TOO LATE

 

It's not too late for Malaysia.  Sadly, for many our beautiful country is a failed state.  Wherever they look there is heartache.  Today is even worse with people dying from Covid and businesses coming to a grinding halt.  We used to hear of deserving students not getting the chance to study.  And outstanding ones being snapped up by our neighbours and other countries and they have gone on to excel to do our country proud just by being born here and nothing more than that.  Here is a country where corrupt leaders can still stand proud and hardworking, capable people have to cower in fear.

All this started a long time ago, about sixty years.  That was the time when our opposition leaders made all the wrong choices that led to the sad state of affairs today.  

THE FAILURE OF MCA

PKR was not born yet; only race-based parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan and DAP were from the early days.  MIC is too small to be really significant.  MCA was a race-based Chinese party that gave up fighting for Chinese rights and chose to just pledge allegiance to the ruling Malay parties.  We do not know why exactly they made such a choice.  Probably they felt it was hopeless to fight against the Malay majority race, and they had a pact that goes back to pre-independence days.  (The same thing goes for MIC which many say is the mirror image of MCA for the Indians.)  Gerakan was roughly the same story, too.

The result of that choice is that for most of this country's history, MCA is branded the traitor and, running dog of the Chinese (running dog is the Chinese term for traitor).  The party was so hated that the last election saw them winning only one miserable seat in parliament.  The saddest part is that they may not have realised the error of their choice since the early days and will continue to pursue their proven path to failure.

DAP'S ELUSIVE DREAM

DAP had wonderful aspirations embodied in their slogans "Malaysian Malaysia" and "fighting corruption and abuse of power."  However, it is sad to note that after sixty years they have not progressed beyond their slogan which still remained just a slogan.  It's a party without any significant membership of the majority Malay race, thus making their slogan meaningless.  And they still have not realised that as long as they do not fight the root cause of the problems in Malaysia, that is, race and religion, they will never be able to realise their other noble slogan of "fighting corruption and abuse of power."  

Right from Day One they have surrendered their ideals of Malaysian Malaysia because they are convinced that they will never be able to attract Malay votes during elections, just as they are not able to attract Malay membership.  

As a result of such a defeated mindset they have to resort to the next best thing, that is, to find some Malay parties to partner with in order to get more political control of the country.  Such a terrible compromise saw them regularly landing themselves in compromising positions.  Their partnership with PAS was doomed from the start but their wrong choice from Day One made sure they did not see it that way.  Eventually they have to resign themselves and arrive at the correct conclusion that PAS will forever continue to pursue hudud and their efforts to sway PAS away from such a stand was indeed futile.  They then divorce themselves from PAS.  

They also tried getting Malay votes by partnering with PKR.  But they also did not realise that by doing so they would be getting themselves into situations that are totally beyond their control.  Anwar was convicted (rightly or wrongly) of sodomy and PKR was without their leader.  

Their last attempt to partner themselves with Malays was with their oldest political foe, Dr Mahathir, in the last election.  At first things seem to run smoothly and went according to plan.  However, Mahathir inevitably showed his old self which was the King of race and religion politics in Malaysia.  He got the non-Malays in the country so riled up that they placed unbearable pressure on DAP who had no choice but to keep pressuring him to pass the baton to Anwar.  His refusal to do so caused the temperature to rise above breaking point.  He resigned as prime minister and brought down the whole PH Cabinet together with him.  That has led to the PN government we are having today.

Has DAP learned anything?  I don't believe so.  They will not go back on their decision made on Day One, that is, to give up fighting against the majority race.  They will continue to look for "suitable" Malay leaders and Malay parties and align themselves behind them.  (Hey!  That sounds familiar.  Where have I heard it?  Oh yeah, that was MCA's strategy.)  It is obvious they have not heard about Einstein's advice, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

George Eliot gave us wonderful encouragement - It's never too late to become what we might have been.  And there's a wonderful clue in the Chinese proverb, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is now." It means we should start doing the right thing today.  We have no choice.  The alternative would be looking for another country to migrate to, because for many people this country is becoming unlivable by the day.  

Do we want to continue believing there is nothing we can do to change the situation?  Then we must not complain that the government has failed.  (They say we get the government we deserve.)  We must not complain that we would soon be dying of Covid at the rate things are going.  We must not complain that we are getting into a lot of debt and we are getting poorer by the day.  We must not complain that our children will suffer worse than us.  And we must not complain that in the event that we actually migrate we will be beaten up by other guys in a strange land.

Yes, there is something we can do about our beloved country.  But it must start with us.  It must start with a new belief in a new tomorrow.  And together as Malaysians we can rise up and overcome all the great problems we are facing right now.  And we can overcome the forces that brought about our situation today.  Remember the final advice of Tunku Abdul Rahman, "The power lies with the Rakyat."  Not the politicians and the political parties.  We the Rakyat have the power.  Tunku would be sad that we didn't listen to him.

Make no mistake; it is going to be an uphill task all the way starting from today.  Don't be surprised if it is as difficult as climbing Mount Everest.  Always remember, we are doing this for our children.  But rest assured when we are doing this together we will definitely succeed.  We will not only build a country that is free from all these problems.  We will actually build a country that is world-class.  A country that will attract all the Malaysians who have left for greener pastures elsewhere and are longing to come back.  A country that we all as Malaysians will eventually be proud of.

THE BIGGEST THREAT TO SUCCESS

 

They say there is no elevator to success.  And it's true.  We see this everyday.  In the money world, people do not spend the time to do research before investing.  They just buy on tips and sell on rumors.  And keep losing money but still stick to the same strategy.  Because winning is hard.  It involves lots of effort and sacrifices.

On the political front in Malaysia we see DAP and MCA, both Chinese parties trying to do something good for the Chinese and for all Malaysians.  After sixty years what results have they got to show?

DAP is still predominantly a Chinese party that only wins Chinese votes, despite having a slogan "Malaysian Malaysia."  After six long decades, they have not attracted significant Malay membership.  In order to secure enough political power to effect change they resorted to shortcuts by partnering with Malay parties. Although it is well known that PAS is a religious extremist party bent on doing hudud, DAP had no choice but to partner with them.  It is the shortcut to success.  It ended badly with PAS insisting on hudud and DAP finally had no choice but to abandon the partnership.  Next, they partnered with PKR with Anwar at the helm.  Due to reasons beyond their control DAP did not find any success,  because Anwar was convicted (rightly or wrongly) of sodomy.  The final bet was to embrace their greatest old foe Mahathir in order to try to finally do something good for the country.  And how did it end?  Badly, as always.  Mahathir, in his twilight years made a final push for race and religion, the two items closest to his heart.  It thoroughly angered the non-Malay community and it is possible the stress on his allies eventually caused him to resign as prime minister and brought down the whole Cabinet with him.  So much for shortcuts.  Sixty years and back to square one.

MCA is slightly smarter, they say.  They have reached the conclusion since Day One that it is a futile battle.  Malaysia is predominantly Malay and there is no way the Chinese can control politics.  The best strategy is to play along with the strongest Malay political party.  That's all.  Wonderful shortcut.  And how did it play out?  They became the most hated Chinese party and won only one miserable seat in parliament in the latest election.  And they are still sticking to their strategy because they don't want to climb the Mount Everest of Malaysian politics.

THE WAY TO SUCCESS

The way to success is not to embrace shortcuts but to do what is necessary.  Just like Peter Drucker says, "It's more important to do the right thing than to do things right."

In order to bring about sustainable and lasting success for Malaysia, there is no other way but to put into practice the Robert Kuok Theory which says the country must be run by people who are honest and capable, starting from the leadership downwards.

If we have such politicians who are of prestige in our country right now we should invite them to lead a new party to secure power to effect change.  It may not happen in the next election or even the subsequent one.  But it will be successful soon enough and we will have a new country we can all be proud of.  The alternative of partnering with existing leaders or parties who are doomed will cause us to lose another sixty years or even more.

NEGARAKU

In order for a new political party to be successful, it must publish a book containing the new deal.  This book must debunk the theory and social experiment under the old deal as expounded in Mahathir's book, The Malay Dilemma.

The contents of the book tentatively titled NegaraKu must include:-

1.  A vision of the new Malaysia - safe and comfortable, with opportunities for all regardless of race, religion or financial status.  A world-class nation that is comparable or surpassing that of developed countries in terms of financial stability, mentality, environment, technology, etc.

2.  A plan on how to reach that goal ie. having the right leadership and personnel running the country comprising honest and capable people who are highly qualified in their areas of expertise.  Above all, it must contain an assurance to the majority race of voters that their privileges and benefits will remain intact and even enhanced under the new deal.

3.  A brief discussion regarding the causes of failure of the old deal.

4.  A promise and guarantee of an iron-clad framework and system that will ensure that the new party achieves its goals in the shortest possible time.

HOW CAN A NEW POLITICAL PARTY SUCCEED?

 In order to bring about change or reform and to build a new and better country, a new political party outlined earlier must succeed in following areas:-

1.  Marketing.  It must give Malaysians a chance to know their manifesto and formula for a new deal.  One of the best ways to do this is via publication of a book to refute the formula found in  the book The Malay Dilemma.  Malaysians and voters across the country must be aware this new deal so that they can vote for it.  The party must have a face and a voice of its leader who represents the spirit of the party and its new deal.

2.  Delivery or execution.  Once Malaysians get to know and accept the new party, they must execute and perform on their promises.  If they have not attained power they need to have something like a shadow Cabinet with proposals by competent professionals on what must be done and how to run the country well, so that voters can get a glimpse of their country's future when it is run by that new party.

3.  Financing.  Without the proper financial support, marketing and execution will be impossible.  The plan on paper will fall flat and the project will be stillborn.  We must invite people and insitutions of means to join in chip in their support for a better country.  Financiers must feel that the new party will stand a realistic chance to succeed before they throw their weight behind that party.

The party will need a sales kit to convince financiers.  The sales kit will comprise the book for the new deal, tentatively titled NegaraKu.  They will need election campaign plans and execution details, and a list of FAQs for voters and financiers alike.

4.  Leadership and personnel.  The new party should welcome people from all races to participate in its leadership and execution team.  As mentioned earlier, if they are honest and capable they are qualified to join and lead the party, which is governed by its Constitution whereby leader and follower alike must abide.  The Constitution will include criteria that members must meet in order to assume any position of responsibility.

THE NEW DEAL FOR MALAYSIANS

Malaysia has been run based on the principle expounded by Dr Mahathir in his book The Malay Dilemma, published in 1970.  The main theme of Mahathir's theory is that the Malays who are the majority race in Malaysia, are inferior to the Chinese who have 4,000 years of history surviving wars, plagues, famine, natural disasters and corrupt officials.  They are able to survive under the most adverse conditions.  On the contrary, the Malays do not have this ability.  Therefore, his conclusion is that the Malays must be helped and given a handicap, just like in a game of golf.  Otherwise, they will not be able to compete and this will result in the majority race being sidelined.  And this will eventually result in an unstable country with violence as a possible outcome.

Mahathir's theory and social experiment as mentioned above is deeply flawed.  After running the country based on this prognosis, the country is widely perceived as lagging behind our neighbours who were once considered backward.  They have progressed and overtaken Malaysia.  In fact, Mahathir himself admited that he has failed because his New Economic Policy or NEP has failed to bring progress for the Malays as he expected, depite repeated encouragement and scoldings by him from time to time, while at the same time admitting that the Chinese still hold the upperhand despite the handicap given.

However, the country up till now is still running on the fuel of affirmative action.  This is partly because nobody or no political party has proposed a new deal for all Malaysians - deal that is cohesive and comprehensive.  A deal that revokes that premises of Mahathir's The Malay Dilemma.

Therefore, a new political party must outline the terms of the new deal for all Malaysians.  This deal must include the following:-

1.  The assurance and guarantee of political power and privileges of the Malays who are the majority race in the country - including religious freedom, economic privileges for all classes of Malays, and guaranteed education quota for the willing and deserving.

2.  The guarantee of various forms of assistance to other races in Malaysia such as economic, business and educational opportunities for the deserving, regardless of race.

3.  The removal of shackles of race and religion in politics.  (We can follow the good example of our neighbour Indonesia who bans politicians from using or abusing race and religion in their political ceramahs.  Former US President Barack Obama who visited our country also said that any country that divides itself along racial lines will not succeed.  We need to bring back the good old days of muhibbah for all Malaysians.)

The politics of race and religion is powerful because it is self-reinforcing.  Malay politicians portray themselves as heroes and saviours of the Malays and their religion in order to garner votes.  After securing power they will give some handouts to the majority race in order to obtain their continual support.  However, it is also destructive because the elite Malay politicians and their cronies will pocket a lot of the country's wealth and leave the Malays still struggling for indefinite periods of time.  A new deal must break this powerful force misusing race and religion for personal benefit, under the pretext of helping the Malays.  But first they need to win the trust of the Malays which is probably at its easiest level right now under the scourge of Covid.  All races are frustrated with the incompetent way the government that is run by Malays right now, including the Malays themselves.  They are all desperate to have a "third force" or new political power that can change their situation for the better.

The opposition led by DAP will never be able to reverse the situation because they have failed in their ideals of creating a Malaysian Malaysia.  It is all along perceived as a Chinese party.  One of the reasons is that they are unable to solve their racial composition within their own party.  The Malays are suspicious because they are not properly represented according to the ratio of their population in the country.  How would they be able to solve this problem on a national basis if they can't even solve it internally?  This has resulted in very clumsy partnerships with PAS, PKR and even Mahathir's Bersatu, which all ended badly.

HOW DO WE SECURE POLITICAL POWER?

First, we need to first form a new political party.  All the existing political parties are deeply flawed beyond redemption.  If we are to bring about a better country it is not possible to work with any of these parties.  They are all either mired in corruption and abuse of power, or they do not have the right formula for an excellent country.

This new party would need the following:-

1.  A strong leader who is both honest and capable.  Only a strong leader would be able to resist the attempts to continue corruption and bad practices in the country.  If there is any honest and capable politician from any existing political party we can invite him to lead this new party.  If there isn't there is no point trying to take a short cut by simply plugging someone (some today say it's Anwar or Saddiq).  Building a great country is not a joking matter.  The leader must be suitably qualified, otherwise it won't work.  And all the existing political parties in Malaysia do not meet the criteria, otherwise there is no need to form a new party.

2.  A new manifesto and modus operandi.  A leader must be equipped and able to give the Rakyat a new deal which would be far more attractive than the old one as expounded by UMNO leader and former prime minister, Dr Mahathir, in his book The Malay Dilemma.

HOW DO WE CREATE A BETTER COUNTRY

Our country is in tatters.  There is corruption and abuse of power, croynism and nepotism everywhere.  All these have resulted in untold suffering of the Rakyat, especially the B40 and M40 groups, and probably to a lesser extent the T20 group as well.

We want a country that is safe and comfortable.  Where people can leave their homes open without fear of stealing or robbery.  We want a comfortable environment where there is love, tolerance and mutual respect among all citizens regardless of race, religion, culture and beliefs.  Where people who deserve a chance at life will actually get it.  A country where we can be proud of and display all the natural beauty for ourselves as well as visitors from other countries.

In order to build a new and better country and to reduce or eradicate the problems mentioned above we need the following ingredients:-

1.  Political power.  There are lots of NGOs and capable people who dream about a better country everyday.  They even give plenty of suggestions on how to run the country better.  But all these good people will not be able to achieve anything because their expertise and professionalism will not be put to good use, due to the problems mentioned earlier.  Capable people do not get the chance to show their strengths.  We must first achieve and attain political power in order to put all our strengths to good use for the benefit of the Rakyat.

The method to obtain political power will be discussed later.

2.  Cooperation of the army, police, judiciary and the media.  These are extremely powerful institutions that can prosper or ruin a country.  Positive efforts to build a better country will not succeed without the cooperation and joint efforts of these institutions.

3.  Honest leader and executive personnel.  If a leader is corrupted it would not be surprising if his subordinates are equally corrupted and dishonest.  Having crooks to run a country will only result in disaster and hardship for the Rakyat.

4.  Capable leader and executive personnel.  A leader must not only be honest person with integrity that is beyond question.  He must also be capable and not a clueless guy.  The same goes for people running every ministry and department of the country.

THE DANGER OF SHORT CUTS

A common mistake made by Malaysians is to expect change overnight or in the next election.  They feel that the only way is to choose the best political party or best politician available.  This always means compromising on their criteria of selecting someone who is not a crook, and someone who is capable.  A lot of our country's problems today are because DAP chose short cut, and MCA's strategy of just folding their hands and following the Malay majority.  Both these parties have given up hope right from the first day.  They never believed they can have a significant influence on the country's destiny because the Chinese are a minority.

Pakistan is a country that has seen a successful transition in politics where a former criketer and captain of the national criket team took fifteen years for his new political party to win the elections and for him to become prime minister.  He initiated reforms and reduced corruption in Pakistan.

China is able to bring about change to their country because of the political power of the Communist Party there.  It is rumored that Xi Jinping is able to fight corruption because he is fully backed by the military, unlike his earlier counterparts who didn't have this privilege.  Democratic countries with weak majority face a lot of opposition in implementing government policies.  The Covid situation lately highlighted this problem where Western countries find it difficult to get some of their citizens to wear masks or go for vaccination.  This is a striking difference between them and China who is undoubtedly one of the best performers in controlling Covid deaths.

The two criteria of having honest and capable people to run the country were first expounded by Robert Kuok, richest man in Malaysia and southeast Asia.  Sadly, he was not able to bring about this change when he was younger.  I believe his formula is still relevant today as well as for the future.  Without this formula a country cannot progress and excel.

IF THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY

Before we ask how, we need to ask why.  Why do we want to do this project of building a better country?

We want to create a new country that we can all be proud of.  However, most people have simply written off this idea because they cannot see how it can be done.

Before we think about the how, let us take a look at ourselves and ask, "Are we willing to do what it takes to create a better Malaysia for ourselves and our children?  Are we willing to make the necessary sacrifices?"

They say it takes years to build and only minutes to destroy.  Building a better country involves great effort, time and sacrifices.  Are we ready to do it?

And what does it involve when we want to build a new country?  We want a country we can be proud of for our children.  Where all Malaysians can live in peace and harmony, free from the bondage of race, religion, culture and creed; where there is love, tolerance and mutual respect.  Free from corruption, abuse of power and cronyism.  Where Malaysians can be free to pursue their dreams.

We must not expect such an achievement to be easy.  In fact, we should expect it to be as difficult as winning a gold medal in the Olympics.  Or conquering Mount Everest which is about 30,000 feet, roughly one foot for each Malaysian population.  Are we willing to take on this task?  Or are we going to look for short cuts and not finding any for another sixty years?

Renowned Malaysian motivator Datuk Lawrence Chan says that success involves a few critical steps.  First, we must have the desire.  The dream to achieve something great; with specific goals and targets and not just hazy dreams.  

Next, we must take stock of our current situation and a plan to reach our destination.  Just having a desire is not enough.  We need to be desperate to achieve our goals.  Are we happy to remain in our miserable situation?  Can we stand the shame when we travel abroad and be identified as someone from a lousy, corrupted country with famous stories like 1MDB?  Can we bear the thought of our children growing up and continue struggling in a hopeless country?  Do we really want to do something for our loved ones if we can?

With the desire and being desperate about it, we will then have the discipline and dedication to really go all out to achieve our goals in building a new country for all Malaysians.

IS THERE ANYTHING WE CAN DO?

Most people will agree - Malaysia is in dire straits today.  We are having Covid-19 woes like many other countries in the world.  And this has seriously affected the economy and livelihood of all Malaysians.

Most people think that our government led by Tan Sri Mahiaddin has not done well to improve the situation and a lot of people are suffering, especially the B40 group.  About 10,000 Malaysians have died from Covid so far.  Hundreds have committed suicide.  Hundreds of thousands of businesses have closed down, with more to follow suit.  The only time we had it worse was probably during the Japanese occupation in World War Two, before independence.

The question now is whether there is anything we can do to make our country better.  Many people have already given up and are only thinking about migration.  To them our country's problems seem insurmountable and the best solution is to just run away to another country.

I believe that even though our problems seem great, it is not beyond saving.  We can take inspiration from countries that have gone through tough times and have become better.  A good example would be China.  That country has been having serious problems especially in the area of corruption for thousands of years.  Nobody would have thought China would be able to solve its corruption problems and become a shining example today.  They have executed many high-level corruptors from their Communist party, the army and from their business community.

Yes, Malaysia's problems are only sixty years old; it can be solved.  If a big country with thousands of years of history in corruption can overhaul their system and become a world superpower today, Malaysia too, can become a progressive country and succeed like never before.

We may not be able to make things better overnight.  But we can set a system in motion to ensure that the problems we are having today can be arrested and solved in the shortest time possible.  It would also involve taking a hard look at how things became how they are today.

COVID AND THE GOLDEN RULE

Covid-19 struck the world in late 2019 where the virus was first discovered in Wuhan, China.  The virus has since wreaked havoc around the globe, causing trillions of dollars in damages and millions of lives lost.

Amidst all this upheaval in our money world, the poor and middle-class are the worst affected.  Many have lost their jobs, used up their life savings and are on the verge of mental breakdown due to all the stress. Some have actually committed suicide due to the unbearable pain resulting from money woes.  In Malaysia, an average of 4 suicides a day were reported for the first three months of 2021.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/06/29/a-shocking-statistic-four-suicide-cases-a-day-in-2021/

Now why are the poor and the middle-class so badly affected?  Could they have done something to prevent all their money problems from coming to a boil and resulting in unbearable stress?  The answer is yes, although it many have come too late for many of those suffering right now.

The answer is found in the golden rule of personal finance, that is, pay yourself first.

An accountant friend of mine recently made a rather harsh remark for those who are suffering, especially entrepreneurs who have to continue paying rent and workers' salaries when they are not allowed to operate their business due to frequent lockdowns across the country.  He said, "Why didn't they save up some money earlier after operating all these years?  Can't they just tide over for a few months?"  What he said, though harsh, kinda make sense.  There are some new startups and we can't blame them for getting into trouble because their business is not stable yet.  But there are some businesses which have been operating profitably for decades and they are closing shop due to lack of funds to tide over difficult times.  Now why is that so?  Why didn't they "save for the rainy day?"

Financial success and survival really boils down to financial intelligence which covers ten elements.  Saving money and financial discipline are two critical elements.  I will tell you about all the other elements of financial intelligence at the end of this story.  Let me now digress and tell you about a viral story that most of us have read earlier.  It is the story of the smoker and it is usually told half-jokingly.

A wife asked her smoker husband, "How much does a pack of cigarettes cost?"  "Ten bucks," the husband answered.  "Do you know that if you quit smoking thirty years ago you would have saved enough money to buy yourself a Ferrari?" said the wife.  The husband then asked her, "Do you smoke, dear?"  "Of course no!" the wife answered.  "Then, where is your Ferarri?"

Although the story is often told as a joke, there is a very serious lesson behind it.  It is about the critical topic of saving money.

Most people don't smoke.  But where is the money that they have saved?  Yes, they have saved (did not spend) a lot of money.  But they also did not save (put aside) that money.  You see, there are a hundred good ways of spending our money.  All of them can somehow be justified.  People reward themselves after a hard day or a hard month's work by buying themselves a nice dinner.  Or getting themselves a new set of clothes.  Or a smart phone or some fun gadget.  Or a round of golf with buddies.  Or changing their old car.  Or renovating their house which really needed a facelift.  Or going for that long-overdue vacation overseas.  We can't wait until we can't walk before we go for a holiday, you know.  Months and years pass by quickly.  We did not save any money, because we always have a very good reason to spend it.

In Malaysia, a government survey in 2017 showed that 94% of Malaysians cannot last six months without income.

https://www.imoney.my/articles/malaysians-have-no-savings

And, 75% of Malaysians have less than RM1,000 ($240) in their account.

https://www.everydayonsales.com/news/bank-negara-75-malaysian-are-actually-doesnt-have-saving-more-than-rm1000/

Based on these official figures it is now clear why both bosses and employees alike get into big trouble during this Covid pandemic.  They simply have no savings.  And the reason for this is just mentioned.

On the other hand, rich people are financially intelligent.  That is how they become rich in the first place.  They don't underestimate the power of saving money as one of the elements of financial intelligence.

Why is it that people are not able to save money?  The reason is simply because they have either not heard of the golden rule of personal finance, or, they don't practice it.

The golden rule of personal finance says, "Pay Yourself First."  Although this sounds simple most of the poor and middle-class folks actually don't understand what it means.  It means that "a part of what you earn is yours to keep" as expounded in the classic book, The Richest Man in Babylon.  If you have not read that book you really should get a copy. Google says it is one of the best books about wealth ever written.  It was written about a hundred years ago and the copyright has expired.  You can get it on the public domain like here, https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-richest-man-in-babylon-e17589151.html.

Most people cannot save money because they pay themselves LAST.  They settle their bills.  They pay their daily expenses like food, gas and groceries.  With the high cost of living especially in the cities they soon find themselves out of cash before the month is over. Whatever they earned is paid to everyone else but themselves.

They should reverse this habit.  Each time when they receive their salary or profits from business they should set aside at least ten percent of that money and lock it away safely.  They can then spend the rest of their income.  At first, like the hero character in the Richest Man book, we will find it extremely difficult.  After a few months it becomes easier.  Meanwhile, we should learn how to invest the money we saved in order to make more money instead of letting it lie idle in the bank for a long time, because inflation will erode the value of the money we save.

Using that money we saved to either start a small business or to do investment requires skill.  The more skillful we are in handling business or investment the faster we can double our money.  It may take a couple of failures but once we improve our skills we will be on our way to financial success.

I have no doubt that no matter how tough it is we will somehow weather this storm and survive.  If you have not practiced the Golden Rule with your money, let this be a time to learn a valuable lesson in financial intelligence.  Once the storm is over you can put it into practice and find financial success.  Or at least save you on that rainy day like right now.

Good luck!  And, before I forget, the ten elements of financial intelligence as highlighted by CENFIS, the Centre for Financial Intelligence Studies, are:-

1.  Motivation

2.  Debunking money myths

3.  Residual income

4.  Making money

5.  Saving money

6.  Spending money

7.  Financial discipline

8.  Investing

9.  Emotional control

10. Protecting and distributing wealth

THE WORSE VIRUS

THE VIRUS THAT KILLED 300 MILLIONS PEOPLE

Today in May 2021, the coronavirus Covid-19 has infected 169 million and killed 3.5 million people worldwide.  The whole world is living in fear.  Lots of people are placing their hopes on the vaccine and right now most people are waiting for their turn to be vaccinated so that they can go about their normal lives.

Now, let's take a look at another virus that is much worse than Covid-19.  It's the smallpox virus in the 20^th century, around the mid-1900s.  It is believed that the smallpox virus was first discovered about 3,000 years ago and originated in India or Egypt with the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses V dying from it in 1145 BC.

Smallpox is estimated to have caused 300 to 500 million deaths in the 20^th century!  It started 3,000 years ago and was declared eradicated with the use of vaccine.  WHO declared the world to be free from naturally occuring smallpox in the year 1980, after a massive worldwide vaccination campaign started in 1977.

The death rate is about 30%, that is, 3 out of 10 people infected will die from it.  You can check it out on Google or Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

In Chinese, smallpox is known as 天花病.  We can see some cases mentioned in the martial arts movies of olden days.  Older folks would have read about smallpox and Dr Edward Jenner in their history or science books during their primary school days.

This is how smallpox looks like…

 

And this is cowpox...

WHO DISCOVERED THE VACCINE FOR SMALLPOX?

There is no cure or treatment for smallpox till today.  But not to worry - the disease has been eradicated.  How?  With the use of vaccines.  All of us have been given smallpox vaccine when we were just one-year olds.  And probably some booster shots later.

Dr Edward Jenner first noticed that some of the milkmaids did not get infected with smallpox and he wanted to know why.  He found out that they had earlier contracted cowpox which he thought was somewhat similar to smallpox.  As a result, these milkmaids had immunity and did not get smallpox.  He then carried out his famous experiment by inoculating a boy with pus from a cowpox blister.  The experiment was successful and the boy became immune to smallpox. It was the year 1796.

This is how cowpox looks like...

   

This picture is before and after recovery

HOW RISKY IS VACCINE?

How about the risks of smallpox vaccine?  The smallpox vaccine will give roughly the same reactions or side effects of our current Covid-19 vaccines.  Did anyone die from smallpox vaccine?  Yes, like most vaccines there is a possibility of serious side effects or even death.  There have been deaths from taking smallpox vaccine but the risk is very low at only one or two deaths per million.

Some people get confused and anxious about taking the Covid-19 vaccine.  Unlike the olden days, today news travels fast, far and wide.  Someone having serious adverse effects from vaccine will be on the news in no time and a lot of people will get scared.  There are many countries such as the Philippines and even Hong Kong that reject vaccines due to these fears.

Eventually most people come to the conclusion that it is better to get vaccinated, just like smallpox.  One of the reasons is that lots of people get infected everyday, and lots of people die from it.  The chances of dying from Covid-19 is very much higher (2 in 100) than the chances of dying from vaccine (2 in 1,000,000).

We hope that soon Covid-19 will be eradicated through vaccines just like smallpox.

If you have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 yet, it is advisable to do so as soon as possible.  Protect yourself and your loved ones.

Source:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_smallpox#:~:text=During%20the%2020th%20century%2C%20it,in%20the%20world%20each%20year.

 https://www.healthline.com/health/smallpox#treatment

 https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/Smallpox-Vaccine.html

 https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/committee/topics/smallpox/questions/en/