Exclusive Interview with Michael Backman

"It depresses me that Malaysia hasn’t been more successful than it has and that it is still fighting the old fights of the 1960s." - Michael Backman

An exclusive interview with Michael Backman, the Australian author of the much-talked-about "Boleh or Bodoh" article (Click HERE to read his scathing article)

P.S. Do you agree with him? Feel free to leave your feedback in the comment box OR discuss this article on the forums.

Exclusive Interview with Michael Backman

1. What was the initial thought that prompted you to write about your "Boleh or Bodoh column"? What was and has been your intention in writing the article?
Malaysia has good people, good resources and a legal system that ought to function. It depresses me that Malaysia hasn’t been more successful than it has and that it is still fighting the old fights of the 1960s.

Malaysia’s Chinese have accepted the NEP and its successor policies. They define themselves as Malaysians first and foremost and are among the proudest Malaysians. They have learned Malay. Essentially, they have done everything that has been required of them and yet still there is this endless preoccupation with race in Malaysia.

Meanwhile the rest of the world is just so unbelievably dynamic now. Malaysia is looking more and more like a sleepy backwater relative to what’s going on elsewhere in the world.
Many Malaysians don’t seem to understand this. Many like to travel overseas – but when they do, too many look but they don’t see. They don’t see how things in Malaysia could be improved. They don’t want to learn from anywhere else. They think Malaysia is a special case. They should be bringing back new ideas to Malaysia. Instead they just want to bring back duty free.

2. Have you ever considered the impact the column might have upon your relationship with Malaysian government and its people? We understand Rafidah Aziz, Malaysia's Minister for Trade and Industry, criticised your column by saying you probably know nothing about Malaysia. Has there been any (positive or negative) impact/response from publishing the column?
I write to be read and I write to have an impact, otherwise there is no point in writing. I criticised the space program for Malaysia’s first astronaut – the making of teh tarik and so on – and the Malaysian Government changed its mind on that and announced that the astronaut would be doing sensible scientific experiments after all. Perhaps I had an impact there.

In any event, more than a thousand Malaysians e-mailed me to say that they agreed with my views. If I am giving a voice to those Malaysians who share the same views but feel that they can’t express them then I’m happy to have been of some help.

But then why should I as a non-Malaysian comment about Malaysia? As far as I am concerned, strict notions of nationality are breaking down. We are all involved in each other’s countries now. Malaysians have a lot of investments in Australia. Australians invest in Asia and so on. We all have stakes in other countries and so all should be able to comment on how they are run. The free flow of ideas and openness are good things. The only people who do not like this are politicians in Malaysia and Singapore. You will never hear Australian or UK politicians complaining about those things. So you should ask yourself, why do Malaysian and Singaporean politicians dislike public debate and openness?

As for Rafidah, I know quite a lot about Malaysia. And I know quite a lot about Rafidah, which is why I wrote about the corruption allegations against her in my second column. Rafidah understands her trade brief very well, but she is dictatorial. Look at how she rules UMNO Wanita.

Sadly, I suspect I know more about Malaysia than many Malaysians. One reason for this is because Malaysia’s media is so poor and many things cannot be discussed openly. Ministers like Rafidah would prefer that Malaysians are not told things. Perhaps they have something to hide.
There is an idea among Malaysians that their country is particularly special and unique and that non-Malaysians simply cannot know much about Malaysia. That simply isn’t true. All countries are complex and have their nuances. You can be expert in a country without being from that country. Indeed, sometimes it helps not to be from that country. If more Malaysians sent more time away from Malaysia, they would gain a far clearer picture of what Malaysia is and what it is not.

I have met many Malaysian politicians and business people, spent time in almost every Malaysian state, sat through sessions of the Malaysian parliament and even attended an UMNO general assembly, stayed in kampongs, visited rubber plantations, and so on - that’s more than most Malaysians. I have stayed with Malaysian friends in Damansara, in Ampang and in Pandan Jaya. But Rafidah only stays in Damansara.

3. We understand you're an expert on Asia's political and economical affairs. But you seem to have taken an extra interest in Malaysia (like having a special column for Malaysia's articles on your webpage
(http://www.michaelbackman.com). Why Malaysia?
I studied at an Australian university. Many of my classmates were Malaysian students – Chinese, Malay and Indians. I became very interested in Malaysia from that time on.

4. After reading the column, one can hardly not to think that Malaysia is a somewhat badly "managed" country. We know it might be a big question, but what do you think has contributed to the "mismanagement"of the country?
It is not all bad news. Malaysia has handled race relations well. The NEP with all its imperfections was good for Malaysia. But Malaysia is rich in resources and there is a lot of squandering of those resources.

Education is big part of the problem. Malaysian schools are not nearly good enough. There are Malaysians who are now very regretful and resentful that they attended school in Malaysia. Some have told me that they have spent a lot of their adult lives trying to undo the damage of rote learning and ‘follow the leader’-type training that they were given in Malaysia.

Malaysian schools are a long, long way behind schooling in the West in which emphasis is very much on learning how to question, be creative and not being afraid to publicly voice your opinions. When I was at school in Australia I was encouraged to write essays in which I took the opposite view to my teachers. And the more I argued against my teachers’ positions on things such as social and political issues, the higher the grades that I received. Malaysian schools need to become like this.

5. From the top of your head, what would you rank as the most wasteful projects/policies ever implemented by Malaysia Government in the past 10 years, and why?
Proton – Malaysia should NOT have a national car. You cannot get sufficient economies of scale with a population as small as Malaysia’s when it comes to car manufacturing
Putrajaya – removing civil servants from ordinary society does not make for good government
KLIA – all that infrastructure, very little air traffic and it still takes forever for your luggage to come though – it is ridiculous
Petronas Towers – the lower floors are mostly full of lift shafts – you can’t rent out a lift shaft

6. What is your view towards Malaysia's national car policy?
It is a mess. Australia started out wanting to have a car industry too. And this has been a disaster for Australia too – too many Australians building too many sub-standard cars that can only compete with world class cars if they are protected by tariffs.

I mentioned this to Dr Tun Mahathir on an occasion that I met with him. He said that Proton had been beneficial because many small companies were created which became suppliers to Proton and that as a consequence Malaysia now has more technical expertise. There is some truth to this. But is it right to force every Malaysian to pay much, much more for their cars so that some companies and their owners can develop new expertise?

Proton will only get a strategic partner/investor if the government hands over massive tax holidays and other incentives. It all means that ordinary Malaysians will have to pay even more for their second rate national cars.

7. How would you compare Dr. Tun Mahathir and Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi?
Dr M was one of Asia’s greatest leaders in recent times. But that does not mean that I agree with everything that Dr M did. With Abdullah, Malaysia now has more of an administrator than a leader.
But when is he going to stamp out corruption in Malaysia’s police? He didn’t do it when he was home affairs minister and now he is prime minister. I’m tired of seeing police in KL taking bribes from motorists. Don’t ever think that police everywhere are arrogant and corrupt like Malaysia’s police. They are not.

8. It's not uncommon for Malaysian Government ministers to advice (or warn) Malaysian people against criticising the government by labelling such behavior as "culturally wrong" and "not patriotic". How do you, as a foreigner, think about that attitude?
Such an attitude on the part of ministers is self serving, arrogant nonsense. Ministers are not there to rule. They are there to serve. They are the servants of the people and if that doesn’t suit them then they should leave politics as they have no moral right to continue in their positions. Malaysia’s ministers need to spend some time in the UK observing how the UK government is answerable to the Parliament, to the media and ultimately to the people. That might then give them a clue as to why the UK is so rich and dynamic and why Malaysia isn’t. The government needs to be reminded that it and the Malaysian state are two different things.

9. You have written a number of books on doing business in Asia. Are you currently writing any new books?
Yes. I am writing a book about what Asia will be like in the next 20 or so years.

10. Any special words you want to say to Malaysians in general?
Speak up more and shop less. Too many Malaysians think that if they voice any dissent – write a letter to a newspaper and so on – that Special Branch will take an interest in them. That is not the case. Special Branch doesn’t have enough staff and enough technical sophistication to monitor everyone. If you think Malaysia is a modern, sophisticated country then prove it. Have an opinion and voice it. Give the government constructive criticism. Don’t leave it all to government to do. Governments govern better when people bother to point out when they are doing things wrong. They govern better when they are accountable.