War for Talent! How to win it for Malaysia?

Tweet  

Winning the war for talent

By LIM WEY WEN wwen@thestar.com.my

Are hefty paychecks and good career prospects the only aspects talents look for in a base country? The answers may be the key to a country's success in bringing its best brains home.



THERE is a global war being waged as companies and countries struggle to keep their best within their borders while they try to woo the world's brightest.

And if salary perks and benefits offered by countries like Qatar, China, Singapore and Malaysia for returning experts and expatriates are anything to go by, the “War for Talent”, a term coined by research giant McKinsey & Company in 1997, is still going strong despite the global economic slowdown.

But 13 years after the term was coined, the landscape of the war has greatly changed. Most notably, the “weapons” used to attract talents have changed.

While salary packages and fringe benefits used to be one of the most powerful magnets for talent, it may not be enough in the current human resource climate.

Dr Tan: ‘When you have the brains or energy, you want to go to the best place to learn from the best’ >>

 

David Lee, author of the Insights: The Journal of the Northeast HR Association article titled “Becoming a Talent Magnet: How to Attract and Retain Great Employees”, says that competitive pay and a good benefits package although important are not enough to attract and retain “the best of the best”.

Quoting a study by another US consulting firm Kepner-Tregoe of Princeton, Lee, an executive coach and founder of US consulting and training firm HumanNature@Work, points out that 40% of the employees surveyed felt that increased salaries and financial rewards were ineffective in reducing turnover.

Hence, the vital question for most human resource managers and national talent development organisations is “What are the world's best looking for?”

Lee says the proverbial carrot lies in the intangible, such as pride in where they work and what they do, appreciation from their managers, opportunities to learn and grow as well as respect.

Interviews with Malaysian diasporas and experts who have returned seem to support the trend.

Although many of them acknowledge that salary packages and career prospects matter, it is often not a deal breaker when it comes to their decision to remain abroad or return home.

Wong: ‘If Malaysia wants to attract talents, it must be able to provide a conducive environment’ >>

 

One of the main attractions for talents is the environment for them to develop and excel in their fields of interest.

When Kuala Lumpur-born consultant psychiatrist and analytic psychotherapist Dr Tan Eng-Kong left for a sabbatical in Australia in 1976, he knew he would get to work with some of the best psychiatrists in the world.

“At that time, Australia invited the best of American and British psychiatrists to its country, and I was lucky to be able to take a sabbatical from lecturing in Sydney,” says Dr Tan, who was in Kuala Lumpur recently.

As he found greater opportunities to practise his field of interest psychotherapy in Australia, he chose to stay there and build his career.

“In those days, the field of psychotherapy was not developed yet in Malaysia. So, I had to stay back in Australia just to practise,” says Dr Tan, who has now spent over 30 years building a successful career in Sydney.

While psychotherapy is currently gaining popularity among local mental health professionals, Dr Tan still feels it is more popular and better received in the West.



“When you have the brains or energy, you want to go to the best place to learn from the best,” says Dr Tan, who still visits Malaysia regularly to share his expertise with local mental health professionals.

Dr Lam Wei-Haur, who has just come back under the returning experts programme (REP) after spending six years in Britain and two years in China doing research in ocean renewable energy, shares a similar experience.

“Funding for research at a post-graduate level was limited when I finished my undergraduate studies in 2001. I was lucky to obtain a scholarship to further my studies in the UK,” says Lam, who is now an associate professor in Universiti Malaya's department of civil engineering.

 

Although the tax cuts and benefits made the transition back to Malaysia easier, I came back because I felt I could contribute more to my field of research back home. - DR LAM WEI-HAUR >>

“However, after six years of research in the UK, I wanted to learn about the system of research and development in China,” he adds.

Lam, who is in his 30s, says he came back because he felt he would be able to contribute more to the field of ocean energy in Malaysia.

“Although the tax cuts and benefits such as a permanent residentship offer for my spouse made the transition back to Malaysia easier, the reason I came back is because I felt that I could contribute more to my field of research here, back home,” he explains.

There may be more established research institutions and teams overseas but having the opportunity to work with researchers in a developing nation such as Malaysia is like “sketching on a white piece of paper” for him.

On worries that Malaysia may not have sufficient funding and infrastructure for research, Dr Lam says researchers have to look for opportunities themselves.

“Our Government is now very supportive of scientific research and there are a number of sources researchers can go to for grants. We must understand that opportunities do not come to us if we do not make an effort to ask or look for it,” he stresses.

While Dr Hood Azlan Mohd Thabit, 35, is determined to return to Malaysia to continue his research in endocrinology (specifically in diabetes) after his post-graduate research in Cambridge, he agrees that the base country of a scientist or researcher is of marginally less importance compared to the research network and collaborations he could forge with other researchers around the world.

“It is very difficult for an individual or group to do research on its own, not just because the world is more globalised now, but because it is so easy to collaborate through the Internet, they have no excuse not to,” he says.

While certain countries have established infrastructure for research, others have the human resource and expertise, he adds.

“Personally, it is really for the satisfaction of doing what you do. And coming home, for most people, is about whether they can continue their work in a meaningful way,” says Dr Hood.

For corporate social responsibility (CSR) consultant Wong Lai Yong, who hails from Penang, the location of her base country does not matter as long as she is able to contribute to society from where she is.

Since she first volunteered to read to the blind in primary school, community service has been in her blood. Today, she continues to serve the people around her by spreading her knowledge on childcare development and social entrepreneurship based on her experiences in Japan.

“I've always realised that education is the best way to bring people out of poverty, so I think about the ways I can help bring education to people who have no access to primary education. That is why I have never confined my contributions to Malaysia alone,” says the cheerful 39-year-old.

She does not plan to return to Malaysia in the near future but even so, she visits regularly to share her knowledge.

“If Malaysia wants to attract talents, it must be able to provide a supportive and conducive environment for these talents to perform and contribute,” she says.

“We might not be able to compete with many developed nations in terms of salary and benefits, but we can offer Malaysian diasporas the comfort of home and the company of their family members.”

Malaysian transplant

Carol Lamb calls herself a transplanted Malaysian, having settled down in the United States in the 1980s. Lamb, who now runs communication firm Fantastic International Inc in Atlanta, says she is often asked in social circles where she is from.

“How do I convey that I am from a country surrounded by glistening islands with white sandy beaches, tropical rainforests with unique animal and plant life, cool mountain ranges with quaint villages, tall skyscrapers with world-class shopping, a fusion of Asia and British rule? I decided to build my own website and affiliate with one of the biggest online travel booking engines on the Internet, Hotels.com,” she tells.

With the help of Tourism Malaysia and its New York office, she travelled back to Malaysia and wrote about exciting tourist attractions and sites. The concept of medical tourism caught her attention and she is now helping to promote Malaysia as a health tourism destination among Americans.

“The number of Americans going to Malaysia is small. This is the reason why I created the Global Marketing Network'. I promote medical facilities that are in Malaysia at exhibitions around the US.

“Malaysian medical facilities need to be seen. Malaysia also needs to be on the lips and minds of people thinking about having surgery abroad. What better way to do this than participating in exhibitions?

“Additionally, most Americans do not know that Malaysia used to be a British colony. They are also unaware that English is widely spoken, the country has great infrastructure, fantastic beaches, awesome hotels, scrumptious food and is multi-racial and multi-cultural.

“Who better to explain all this face-to-face than a Malaysian who knows the country well?”

 Weaving a win-win web

BUILDING a global Malaysian diaspora network might seem like a colossal task but after the encouraging response entrepreneur Winston Choe received for the first diaspora meetup he planned in Silicon Valley, he is convinced that it may not be as difficult as it seems.

He had put out the word on the meetup he planned to link Malaysian technology companies with professionals and investors in the US in December, and was pleasantly surprised when he found over 80 Malaysians in the San Fransisco Bay Area, many of whom he had not met during the years he lived there.

“What I did was send the word out over the Internet through Facebook pages, LinkedIn groups and e-mail lists about the meetup. Within two weeks, we had to increase our initial cap of 30 people to 50,” said Choe, a Petaling-Jaya born CEO of his own business networking software company in Silicon Valley.

In fact, the meetup sponsored by Talent Corporation Malaysia (TalentCorp) that features the topic “Malaysian Tech Sector Opportunities” has attracted 80 interested participants, but Choe had to limit his audience to ensure quality interaction.

“I am greatly encouraged by the initial feedback and am confident that the next one will easily attract at least 100 people,” he said via Skype.

The idea of a meetup in Silicon Valley came up when Choe was in Malaysia in October for a workshop organised by TalentCorp.

“This meetup is a follow-up to the workshop we did in Kuala Lumpur in October,” said Choe, who is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs build their businesses.

“My goal is to allow professionals (in Silicon Valley) to explore cross border opportunities between the United States and Asia,” he added.

Before the meetup, held at the Intel Santa Clara campus, Choe had selected four MSC companies and coached them to make a 15-minute business presentation to Silicon Valley professionals and investors. At the meetup, he also presented a win-win model for Malaysian diasporas to contribute to various sectors in Malaysia.

“After the workshop in Kuala Lumpur, we realised that what Malaysian start-ups need most are funding, market access and global partners,” said Choe.

The win-win model he suggested is focused on enhancing these three aspects for Malaysian companies as well as professionals and investors abroad.

In terms of funding, Malaysian diaspora with successful business ventures can introduce Malaysian companies to investors in the West, and Malaysian companies can reciprocate by introducing them to investors in Asia.

“While Malaysian diaspora can help Malaysian companies access the US market, Malaysian companies can serve as a gateway for them to access the Asian market.

“What we are trying to do now is to build a global (Malaysian) diaspora network with physical meetups, workshops and also online social tools, and our objective is to accelerate various sectors in Malaysia, starting with infotech,” he said.

As a result of the meetup, Choe made eight qualified introductions between professionals at the workshop and three MSC companies that presented that day.

A LinkedIn group has also been set up to connect participants of the workshop.

“A few participants have expressed interest in helping me organise more of such meetups,” said Choe.

With their help, Choe's goal in 2012 is to organise similar meetups across the world in cities such as New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Melbourne and even Singapore.

“This represents about 80% of the Malaysian diaspora population, and we hope that they can take this platform and replicate it,” said Choe.

Related stories:More professionals return home

Related Posts:
Innovation can start from home 
Diversity Vital For Innovation!
Recipe for innovation
How To Kick Innovation Up a Notch to Nanovation?
Innovation management
America's Entrepreneurial Innovation Needs Help
Innovation Takes Real Effort, Even For Startups
Whither finance for innovation?
China to lead world in innovation by 2020: survey
Immigration Can Fuel U.S. Innovation—and Job Growth
SP Setia Boss Liew is Malaysian Ernst & Young ...
Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) - Winning ...

I Recognise You! But How Did I Do It? How local Chinese see faces?

Tweet
 

ScienceDaily (Jan. 13, 2012) — Are you someone who easily recognises everyone you've ever met? Or maybe you struggle, even with familiar faces? It is already known that we are better at recognising faces from our own race but researchers have only recently questioned how we assimilate the information we use to recognise people.

---

New research by the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus has shown that when it comes to recognising people the Malaysian Chinese have adapted their facial recognition techniques to cope with living in a multicultural environment.

The study 'You Look Familiar: How Malaysian Chinese Recognise Faces' was led by Chrystalle B.Y. Tan, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. The results have been published online in the scientific journal PLoS One, This research is the first PhD student publication for Nottingham's School of Psychology in Malaysia.

Chrystalle Tan said: "Our research has shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and Mainland Chinese, possibly due to the multicultural nature of the country."

The ability to recognise different faces may have social and evolutionary advantages. Human faces provide vital information about a person's identity and characteristics such as gender, age, health and attractiveness. Although we all have the same basic features we have our own distinguishing features and there is evidence that the brain has a specialised mental module dedicated to face processing.



Recognition techniques

Previous research by a group at Glasgow University in Scotland showed that Asians from mainland China use more holistic recognition techniques to recognise faces than Westerners.

• Chinese focus on the centre of the face in the nose area
• Westerners focus on a triangular area between the eyes and mouth
• British born Chinese use both techniques fixating predominantly around either the eyes and mouth, or the nose

Chrystalle said: "The traditional view is that people recognise faces by looking in turn at each eye and then the mouth. This previous research showed us that some Asian groups actually focus on the centre of the face, in the nose area. While Westerners are learning what each separate part of the face looks like -- a strategy that could be useful in populations where hair and eye colour vary dramatically, mainland Chinese use a more global strategy, using information about how the features are arranged. Meanwhile British born Chinese use a mixture of both techniques suggesting an increased familiarity with other-race faces which enhances their recognition abilities."

Eye tracking technology

The study by the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus set out to investigate whether exposure and familiarity with other cultures affects our recognition accuracy and eye movement strategies.

The team used specialised eye tracking technology to investigate the visual strategies used to recognise photographs of faces. They recruited 22 Malaysian Chinese student volunteers from across Nottingham's Malaysia campus. The results showed that Malaysian Chinese used a unique mixed strategy by focusing on the eyes and nose more than the mouth.

Chrystalle said: "We have shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and mainland Chinese. This combination of Eastern and Western looking patterns proved advantageous for Malaysian Chinese to accurately recognise Chinese and Caucasian faces."

The study was supervised by Dr Ian Stephen, an expert on face processing and Dr Elizabeth Sheppard, an expert in eye tracking. Dr Stephen said: "We think that people learn how to recognise faces from the faces that they encounter. Although Malaysia is an East Asian country its ethnic composition is highly diverse. The intermediate looking strategy that Malaysian Chinese use allows them to recognise Western faces just as well as Asians."

How local Chinese see faces?

A study shows that Malaysian Chinese have their own distinct way of identifying faces compared to Caucasians and those from mainland China.

NEW research by the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus has shown that when it comes to recognising people, the Malaysian Chinese have adapted their facial recognition techniques to cope with living in a multicultural environment.

The study was led by Chrystalle B.Y. Tan, a PhD student at the Nottingham Malaysia campus.

The results have been published online in the scientific journal PloS One. This research is the first PhD student publication for Nottingham’s School of Psychology in Malaysia.

The study had established that we were already better at recognising faces from our own race. However, researchers had only recently questioned how we assimilated such information to recognise people.

The images (from left) show locations where Malaysian Chinese participants focus on when recognising faces; in contrast the Caucasians focus on the eyes and mouth, while the emphasis for Mainland Chinese and Japanese is around the nose.

 

“Our research has shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and Mainland Chinese, possibly due to the multicultural nature of the country,” says Tan.

The ability to recognise different faces may have social and evolutionary advantages.

Human faces provide vital information about a person’s identity and characteristics such as gender, age, health and attractiveness. Although we all have the same basic features we also have other distinguishing features, and there is evidence that the brain has a specialised mental module dedicated to face processing.

Previous research by a group at Glasgow University in Scotland showed that Asians from mainland China use more holistic recognition techniques to recognise faces compared to Westerners.

“The traditional view is that people recognise faces by looking at each eye and then the mouth. This previous research showed us that some Asian groups actually focus on the centre of the face, around the nose area.

“While Westerners are learning what each separate part of the face looks like — a strategy that could be useful in populations where hair and eye colour vary dramatically, mainland Chinese use a more global strategy, using information about how the features are arranged.

“Meanwhile British-born Chinese use a mixture of both techniques suggesting an increased familiarity with the faces of other races which in turn enhances their recognition abilities,” Tan explains.

The study by the School of Psychology at the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus sets out to investigate whether exposure and familiarity with other cultures affect our recognition accuracy and eye movement strategies.

The team adopted specialised eye-tracking technology to investigate the visual strategies used to recognise photographs of faces.

They recruited 22 Malaysian Chinese student volunteers from across the Nottingham Malaysia campus. The results showed that Malaysian Chinese used a unique mixed strategy by focusing on the eyes and nose more than the mouth.

“We have shown that Malaysian Chinese adopt a unique looking pattern which differed from both Westerners and mainland Chinese. This combination of Eastern and Western looking patterns proved advantageous for Malaysian Chinese to accurately recognise Chinese and Caucasian faces,” Tan adds.

The study was supervised by Dr. Ian Stephen, an expert on face processing and Dr. Elizabeth Sheppard, an expert in eye-tracking. They are both Assistant Professors at the School of Psychology at the university. “We think that people learn how to recognise faces from the faces that they usually encounter. Although Malaysia is an East Asian country its ethnic composition is highly diverse. The intermediate looking strategy that Malaysian Chinese use allows them to recognise Western faces just as well as Asians,” says Dr. Stephen.

Related post:

I Recognise You! But How Did I Do It? How local Chinese see faces?

Newscribe : get free news in real time 

Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) - Winning ways with Science creations

Tweet  

Winning ways with Science creations

Teacher Talk By NITHYA SIDHHU

What one needs is passion, persistence, patience, precision and perfection for a creative idea to take off and make an impact.

<< Malaysia Toray Science Foundation

IT was easy to see why Tan Mun Wai was all smiles when I met her recently a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

As one of the 2011 Winner Prize recipients of the Science Education Award given out annually by the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF) to creative teachers and educators, she had every reason to be proud.

A lecturer with Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Pendidikan Teknik, Kuala Lumpur, Tan’s winning idea and the one that booked a berth at the 18th MTSF prize presentation ceremony was a model of the moon’s eclipse and its path relative to the sun.

Tan Mun Wai: Teachers should not feel that their creative ideas have no value or significance.

 

Sitting not too far away from her at the ceremony was another prize recipient, Dr Tan Ming Tang, a lecturer at the Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Batu Lintang, Sarawak.

He had created a simple winning model, using a tilting plastic bottle and a ball, to explain how the Earth’s seasons occur.

For those of you who are in the dark as to what the MTSF is all about, Toray is a Japanese foundation which has taken its corporate social responsibility role to the level of doling out lucrative annual science and technology research grants as well as science education awards to Malaysian researchers and educators.

Research projects

As was explained by the MTSF chairman, Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Omar Abdul Rahman in his message, the foundation has, since its inception in 1993, “funded 191 basic research projects and awarded 36 outstanding scientific achievements and 289 creative and innovative teaching methods.”

I can vouch for the truth of what he says because over the span of 10 years (from 1998 to 2009), I myself, as a government secondary school Biology teacher, submitted my own creative ideas to the MTSF and won seven Science Education Awards from it.

Dr Tan used a tilting plastic bottle and a ball to explain how the Earth’s seasons occur at the competition. 

I was named winner on three occasions, a runner-up once and won three consolation prizes.
The reward, recognition and respect awarded to a teacher like me by the foundation, not to mention the learning experience is unforgettable. I can honestly say that the MTSF spurred me to grow creatively as a teacher.

The jitters 

I still remember how nervous I felt the first time I participated in the competition in 1998 and was shortlisted and called to Kuala Lumpur to present my idea to the examination committee panel of the Science Education Award then.

At that time, the chairman of the Examination Committee was Royal Professor Ungku Abdul Aziz and I was understandably concerned as to what impression I would leave on him.

I shouldn’t have worried. The man was engaging, humble and a good listener, as were the other members of the committee.

Encouraged by my first win, I made it my personal and professional goal to “dare to be different” in the classroom and kept submitting my tried-and-tested ideas to the committee.

Lest you think I was motivated by the money (recipients are rewarded with cash prizes ranging from RM2,000 to RM6,000), I must tell you that my entries were often sparked off by my students themselves — who yearned for something “novel” , “fun” or just-the-right analogy to clarify their understanding of the material I taught them.

As a child of the 60’s, I spent countless hours playing outdoors. With no money to buy proper toys, I was often forced to fashion many of my own — from rubber bands, cardboard, stones and paper.

This allowed my mind a creative bent and as a teacher, I noticed early that I found it easier to “think out of the box” compared to some of my other colleagues.


Interacting or alone, in nature or in the man-made things that surrounded me, I would find inspiration for new ideas.

Today, I am no stranger to the MTSF prize giving ceremony which, by the way, is held yearly in the month of December.

I was honoured last year however, to attend the ceremony, not as a winner but as an invited guest.

The sight of its secretary, Susan Lim, was familiar and comforting. An MTSF stalwart, she is the woman with the kindly face who offers words of encouragement and advice before any teacher steps into the assigned room to present his or her ideas to the committee.

Talking to Tan Mun Wai and Dr Tan, two of the prize recipients at the ceremony, I was not surprised by their positive and winning attitude towards teaching and life.

Both their awards were definitely bred from their desire to do their best for their students and the willingness to work hard on their projects.

All winners know it takes time, passion and commitment to bring a good idea to fruition.

At school, despite having new ideas to improve their teaching or even using them in the classroom, many teachers stop there.

Some of them feel that their creative endeavours lack merit and some do not bother to take the trouble to write up their ideas or submit them in ‘innovative teacher’ competitions organised by the foundation or the district and state education departments.

Tan Mun Wai explained, “such teachers should not feel their creative ideas have no value or significance. They should just come out and say, ‘Hey, I have this idea and I want to share it with you’. Besides, whenever a teacher takes the trouble to communicate and make her ideas presentable to others, she clarifies it all over for herself.”

Dr Tan and I agree that it’s a boomerang effect. “Every idea of mine,” he shared with me, “starts with a misconception or misperception on the student’s part.It comes from them and then goes back to them.”

Simplfying matters 

“When there’s a frown on the face of one of my students, I start thinking to myself — how can I simplify this? What method can I use to make them understand it better?”

I enjoyed talking to them.The others whom I spoke to included two teachers from Sabah, Mr Wong Fu (from SMK Putatan) and his protégé, Ho Pui Shan (from SM All Saints, Kota Kinabalu) — both Physics teachers.

Wong Fu, a Guru Cemerlang (excellent teacher), is an old hand at the game. This is his sixth Science Education Award from MTSF and he plans to keep “charging” his brain to generate even more ideas to benefit his students.

His told me that his winning entry on the “lost dimension of the prism” came to him when he saw how the water in his son’s water bottle curved when the bottle was lying in a horizontal position.

Ho, meanwhile, had created a sensitive Bourdon gauge using a paper whistle and a straw pointer. She too confessed that the idea struck her when she saw a young child playing with a paper whistle.

By the way, the MTSF Science Education award attracted a record number of 131 entries last year.

As a platform for Science and Mathematics teachers to channel and share their ideas with the teaching community at large, the MTSF is doing a commendable job.

In his address to the audience and press, the current deputy chairman for the Science Education Award, Datuk Dr R. Ratnalingam, appealed once again for more corporate organisations to offer incentives and rewards to teachers who are innovative.

“Teachers often have to fork out their own money to work on their creative ideas. The expense incurred can be a strain on them. While planning and thought are needed to generate ideas, grants would be hugely beneficial to these teachers. ”

Supportive

I agree with him. I know for a fact that the MTSF motivated and supported many of my own creative endeavours at school.

My feelings on the matter were shared. Mr Lau Yong Fuei (from SMK Convent Ipoh, Perak), who was runner-up for his idea on how to trap mosquitoes as well as by Mr Yip Chi Kong (consolation prize winner from SMJK Chan Wa, Seremban, Negri Sembilan), who submitted the idea that impressions made by waves in sand were a useful teaching device.

Sitting at my table for lunch were also See Yik Chu (a winner of the Selangor State Innovative Teacher Award) and Eng Guan Guch (of SMK St. Thomas, Kuching, Sarawak) who were also recipients.

Like me, they too realise that while nothing can take the place of seeing “our students do well when we put them first”, it is always nice to be appreciated and acknowledged for our ideas in our own right.

As Seow Yoke Hock from HELP Academy, another winner said his speech as the representative of the 14 recipients who won this year, “it takes 5Ps to make it – passion, persistence, patience, precision and perfection!”

If you are interested to participate this year and you think you have these 5Ps, please visit the MTSF website at

www.mtsf.org and the closing entry for all submissions is May 31, 2012.

Why not give it a shot?

Sunday January 8, 2012 The Star

Acknowledging excellence

UNIVERSITI Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) vice president (Internationalisation and Academic Development) Prof Dr Ewe Hong Tat and Universiti Malaya Faculty of Medicine’s Prof Dr Mary Anne Tan Jin Ai have won the Science and Technology Award under the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF).

The MTSF awards recognise the excellent achievements of scientists, researchers and secondary school educators, and were presented at a ceremony last month. Prof Ewe and Prof Tan received RM30,000 each.

A total of 16 young researchers were given the Science and Technology Research Grants for their research projects while the Science Education Award went to 14 secondary school teachers/educators.

Prof Ewe (fourth from left) and Prof Tan (sixth from left) pose with their RM30,000 mock cheques at the awards ceremony with Dr Sharifah Zarah (fifth from left) and Dr Omar (seventh from left).

 

Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry deputy secretary-general (Policy) Datuk Dr Sharifah Zarah Syed Ahmad represented deputy minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof at the event.

Reading Fadillah’s speech text, she said: “In this ever-evolving, complex and competitive global economy, science, technology and innovation as well as human capital are important and add value to our agricultural and industrial sectors.

“It also enhances our nation’s economic growth, and is in line with the ministry’s vision,” she said.
Also present was MTSF chairman Tan Sri Dr Omar Abdul Rahman.

Lessons from Marx to market

Tweet
 

 Perhaps his views on capitalism could be considered to right what's wrong

WHAT ARE WE TO DO By TAN SRI LIN SEE-YAN

TODAY we still face not just about the worst recession since the 1930s, but a challenge to the rich West's economic order. The poverty of orthodox economics is now exposed. It showed up capitalism as fundamentally flawed. Karl Marx had contentiously labelled capitalism as inherently unstable. Sure, some of Marx's predictions had failed: no dictatorship of the proletariat; nor has the state withered away. Even among Americans, just 50% surveyed was positive on capitalism; 40% not. Young people are markedly more disillusioned.

So, recent vogue for Marx should not surprise now that the euro stands on the precipice of collapse; and Jeffrey Sach's The Price of Civilisation pointed to US poverty levels not seen since 1929. Indeed, the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano recently praised Marx's diagnosis of income inequality. Brazil elected a former Marxist guerrilla, Dihma Rousseff, as President in 2010. Marx may still be misguided, but his written pieces can be shockingly perceptive.

Marx and global disorder

Examine the daily European headlines: there is the spectre of a possible Greek default, an impending explosive bank-made disaster, the imminent collapse of the euro all reflecting a bewildering mixture of denial, misdiagnosis and bickering undermining European policy response.

As Mohamed El-Erian (CEO of Pimco, the world's largest bond dealer) observed: “Rather than proceeding in an orderly manner, today's global changes are being driven by disorderly forces ...” We see a crisis that has shaken the foundations of the prevailing international economic order.

It is remarkable that in Das Kapital Marx diagnosed capitalism's instability at a time when his contemporaries and predecessors (Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill) were mostly enthralled by its ability to serve human wants. George Magnus (UBS Investment Bank) wrote: “today's global economy bears some uncanny resemblances” to what Marx foresaw.

Marx had predicted that enterprises would need fewer workers as productivity rose, creating an “industrial reserve army” of unemployed whose very presence exerts downward pressure on wages.

Reality comes home readily with US unemployment still at 8.5% (13.3 million jobless). Nearly 5.6 million Americans have been out of work for at least six months; 3.9 million of them for a year or more. Last September, US Census Bureau data showed that median income (adjusted for inflation) in the US fell from 1973 to 2010 for full-time male workers aged 15 and above. True, the condition of blue-collar US workers is still a far cry from the subsistence wage and “accumulation of misery” that Marx figured. Again, French economist Jean-Baptiste Say had postulated that markets will always match supply and demand hence, gluts don't arise.

Against this conventional wisdom, Marx argued that over-production is endemic to capitalism simply because the proletariat isn't paid enough to buy up the supply capitalists produce. Recent experience showed that the only way middle-America managed to maintain consumption in the last 10 years was to over-borrow. When the housing market collapsed, consumers were left with crippling debt they can't service. The resulting default is still being played out.

Marx also predicted capitalism sows the seeds of its own destruction. Unbridled capitalism tends towards wild excesses. The 2007/08 Wall Street crisis had demonstrated how reckless deregulation (for example, in allowing banking leverage to rise unabatedly) proved disastrous for the financial system, attracting extensive moral hazard in massive bailouts.

“The Republican Party is en route to destroy capitalism,” radical geographer Prof David Harvey says, “and they may do a better job of it than the working class could.”

Now once again, we see unbridled capitalism threatening to undermine itself. European banks financially weak but politically powerful, are putting on the pressure to rescue their balance sheets. We see the same in the United States as home-owners struggle to stay afloat while renegotiating their mortgages. Similarly, creditor nations (e.g. Germany and China) are trying to shift the pain of rebalancing onto debtor nations, even though squeezing them threatens to be counter-productive and eventually, cause economic disaster.

Even so, prolonged economic weakness is contributing to rethinking on the value of capitalism. Countries scraping for scarce demand are now resorting to currency wars. America's senate has turned protectionist. Within Europe, the crisis turmoil is encouraging ugly nationalists, some racist. Their extremism is mild against the wrecking horrors of Nazism. Even so, it's unacceptable.



Unbalanced times ahead

The outlook for 2012 is dismal (my column 2011: Annus Horribilis dated Dec 31, 2011): recession in Europe, anaemic growth at best in the United States and a significant slowdown in emerging nations. We also know the world is far from decoupled. Export economies in Asia (South Korea, Taiwan and China) and commodity exporters (Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil) are already feeling the pain.

What's going to happen in Europe is critical. The eurozone is already in recession. Germany's economy contracted in 4Q 2011 at a time the region is looking to its biggest economy to give the zone a lift. Add to this, continuing credit crunch, sovereign debt problems, lack of competitiveness and intensifying fiscal austerity we have a serious downturn ahead.

Downside risks in the United States can be as serious fiscal drag, ongoing financial unwinding among households in the face of stagnant incomes, weak job creation, losses on wealth, rising inequality and political gridlock. In Japan, weak governance will show-up soon enough. Rising inequality is impacting domestic demand big time! This is also fuelling popular protests around the world, bringing with it social and political instability adding further risks to economic performance. Turmoil in the Middle-east gathers geopolitical risks of its own making persistent high oil prices will constrain growth. On present course, conditions will get worse before they get any better.

Policymakers are running out of options. Monetary policy is already less effective and ineffective where problems stem from insolvency (as in Europe) rather than liquidity. Fiscal policy is now well constrained. Whatever central bankers do, they cannot resolve problems best fixed by politicians such as the United States' incoherent deficit politics or Europe's fractured institutions and crucially, its lack of political will to act firmly.

Eventually, papering over solvency problems and reform issues will give way to more painful and disorderly restructurings, including exit from the euro. History teaches that financial crises are followed by years of weakness and stress. But some of the pain is self-inflected. Clarity on eurozone's future needs strong political leadership. There is really no excuse for the United States' fiscal paralysis as politicians bicker and dawdle. Indeed, even deeper austerity is quite unnecessary; it brings a vicious circle of decline, squeezing demand and raising unemployment, thereby hurting revenues, sustaining large deficits and draining away confidence.

Lessons from Japan

Japan has been experiencing the West's current woes for 20 years. Will Europe and United States suffer a similar “Japanese” future? There are important lessons.

First, get out of denial: admit past mistakes and take-on new challenges for the future. Japan had refused to admit its economic model has since failed. Similarly, Europeans are not ready to give up their welfare safety net even though already buried in huge debt. The United States, in preserving “free markets”, wouldn't build badly needed infrastructure because of aversion to state intervention. Let's face it: new realities need new ideas.

Second, recognise problems are really structural. Japanese politicians continue to rely on orthodox pump priming in the face of excessive regulations (which stymied competition) and belief its high savings will finance it. All it did was to pile up more debt up to 200% of GDP. The United States and Europe are now in a similar boat. Continuing Fed stimuli missed tackling underlying problems need smarter approaches to resolve the mortgage quagmire, and to extensively re-train misfit unemployed. Euro-zone needs reforms for a more integrated Europe to spur growth. Instead, governments bury their heads in the sand of Tobin taxes (a small financial transactions tax to discourage speculation) and other such diversions.

Third, embrace globalisation which Japan has yet to seriously acknowledge, while the rest of Asia had become more integrated. The United States is still “fighting” globalisation harbours an anti-trade mentality in the face of deficit politics. Similarly, Europe indulges too intensely in intra-regional trade; needs to build a competitive multilateral non-European network.

Finally, firm political leadership is critical. Psychologist and Nobel laureate Danial Kahneman pointed to behavioural economics showing people are “influenced by all sorts of superficial things in decision making” and so they procrastinate. Japan personifies procrastination. Likewise, political gridlock gripping United States and Europe led to more “kicking the can down the road,” instead of seriously changing national policy. Japan's history teaches political will as vital in instigating change without it, the West will likely turn “Japanese.” Ignore it and history may well repeat itself.

Middle class on the rise

The growing irrelevance and mistrust of politicians and governments are the result of massive economic slowdown and wasteful public spending. Emerging markets in contrast, have kept growth consistently going while keeping fiscal affairs well under control.

The political woes in China and India and even Malaysia (and possibly in Brazil and Indonesia) reflect, in my view, the early stirrings of political demands by the growing emerging middle class.

The World Bank estimated the middle class (people earning between US$60 and US$400 a month) trebled to 1.5 billion between 1990 and 2005 in developing Asia, and by one-third to 362 million in Latin America. Estimates by Asian and African Development Banks showed similar trends in Africa, Latin America and China in 2008.

As Marx said: “Historically, the bourgeoisie played a most revolutionary part” in Europe. As I see it, in emerging markets, that same but softer revolution is now on hand. Middle-class values are distinctive.

Surveys showed the middle classes consistently are concerned with free speech and fair elections; with opportunities and corruption. Success of Hazare's campaign against graft in India, and of street protests in Dalian and Xiamen in China over environmental abuses and the crash by high speed trains are some cases in point. Unlike unrest in Middle-east, middle class activism in India, China, Brazil and Chile is not aimed at bringing governments down. Rather, an attempt to reform government, not to replace it so far, at least, aimed against unaccountable, untransparent and undemocratic politics.

What to do?

Recession made plain the need for smarter government and highlighted weaknesses in designing policy to address issues on fairness and burden sharing. There are lots to learn and much to put right. I see an extraordinarily uncomfortable year ahead, with a wide range of possible outcomes, many unpleasant.

The euro-zone casts the darkest shadow. The US outlook is darkened by political uncertainty. The West is now being challenged to deliver not just growth (while necessary, is insufficient given high unemployment, and income and wealth inequalities) but “inclusive growth” for greater social justice. There is a deep sense that capitalism has become unfair. Calls for a fairer system will not go away. As Marx would insist, they will spread and grow louder.

Ironically, unlike emerging economies, the West is not equipped to deal with structural and secular changes after all, their recent history has been predominantly cyclical. Grasping the ways in which Marx was right marks the first step towards making things acceptable. The longer they fail to adjust, the higher the risks. So expect more volatility, unusual strains and even odd outcomes. But looking at the cup as half-full, the global paradigm shifts when they do come, will also present opportunities, not just risks. That can help ease the agony. But it won't make up for politicians' mistakes. Welcome to 2012!

Former banker, Dr Lin is a Harvard educated economist and a British Chartered Scientist who now spends time writing, teaching & promoting the public interest. Feedback is most welcome; email: starbizweek@thestar.com.my

Related articles

• Was Marx Right? Some Capitalists are re-visiting his ideas (pakos.me)

English language in Malaysia in dire straits!

Tweet

Image by Roslan Tangah (aka Rasso) via Flickr

English is in dire straits

IT can no longer be denied that the state of the English language in our country is in dire straits. One does not have to look far to see how inferior we as a society have become when it comes to mastering this global language.

I am a first-year student in a reputable private university in Cyberjaya and I am appalled at some of the English used in announcements on its online portal as well as in the notices and circulars pasted on campus.

Grammatical mistakes are not uncommon and not a few of them are a direct translation from languages such as Bahasa Malaysia.

Even members of the student council are not spared from this problem as a good number of their announcements and occasional public speeches in English betray their command of the language.

I am not in a good position to judge my varsity mates in terms of proficiency in that language but the Average Joe will have no difficulty learning just how low their command of English is by having a two-minute chat with them.


Even in the Government, the standard of the English language has dropped drastically.

The recent “poking-eye” debacle in the Defence Ministry website as well as howlers in other government websites are a matter of serious concern and are no laughing matter.

As these websites are an online representation of our country, can we afford to make ourselves a laughing stock on the world stage?

While the government in countries such as China, South Korea and Japan have consistently tried to improve their society’s command of English, the same cannot be said of Malaysia.

In fact, based on the latest decision by the Education Ministry to abolish PPSMI (the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English), it appears that we are taking a giant leap backwards.

Are we going to be more competitive in this globalised world in doing so?

I am definitely sure the answer is “No”.

It is my hope that the powers-that-be understand the seriousness of this situation and will take the necessary steps to arrest this “linguistic-recession” before it comes to a point where we are no longer able to fully participate and, worse, become “paralysed”, in this globalised world due to our lack of proficiency in English.

JSZ, Klang to The Star Friday January 13, 2012

Related posts:

“Clothes that poke eye”, Melayu English; Lost in translation!

‘Poke-eye’ Melayu English blunder, Mindef blames Google, my God!

‘Poke eye’ Melayu English in many public institutions inexcusable!

Milky Way home to billions of planets

Tweet  

Milky Way teeming with 'billions' of planets: Study

New methods have allowed the Kepler space telescope to discover billions more planets in the galaxy.

WASHINGTON: The Milky Way is home to far more planets than previously thought, boosting the odds that at least one of them may harbour life, according to a study released on Wednesday.

Not long ago, astronomers counted the number of "exoplanets" detected outside our own solar system in the teens, then in the hundreds. Today the tally stands at just over 700.

But the new study, published in Nature, provides evidence that there are more planets than stars in our own stellar neighbourhood.

"We used to think that Earth might be unique in our galaxy," said Daniel Kubas, a professor at the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris, and co-leader of the study.

 
"Now it seems that there are literally billions of planets with masses similar to Earth orbiting stars in the Milky Way."

Two methods have dominated the hunt over the past two decades for exoplanets too distant and feint to perceive directly.

One measures the effect of a planet's gravitational pull on its host star, while the other detects a slight dimming of the star as the orbiting planet passes in front of it.

Both of these techniques are better at finding planets that are massive in size, close to their stars, or both, leaving large "blind spots".

An international team of astronomers led by Kubas and colleague Arnaud Cassan used a different method called gravitational microlensing, which looks at how the combined gravitational fields of a host star and the planet itself act like a lens, magnifying the light of another star in the background.

If the star that acts as a lens has a planet, the orbiting sphere will appear to slightly brighten the background star.

One advantage of microlensing compared to other methods is that it can detect smaller planets closer in size to our own, and further from their hot-burning stars.

The survey picked up on planets between 75 million and 1.5 billion kilometres from their stars -- a range equivalent in the Solar System to Venus at one end and Saturn at the other -- and with masses at least five times greater than Earth.

Over six years, the team surveyed millions of stars with a round-the-world network of telescopes located in the southern hemisphere, from Australia to South Africa to Chile.

Besides finding three new exoplanets themselves -- no minor feat -- they calculated that there are, on average, 1.6 planets in the Milky Way for every star, Cassan told AFP.

Whether this may be true in other galaxies is unknown.

"Remarkably, these data show that planets are more common than stars in our galaxy -- they are the rule rather than the exception," Cassan said. "We also found lighter planets ... would be more common than heavier ones."

One in six of the stars studied was calculated to host a planet similar in mass to Jupiter, half had planets closer in mass to Neptune, and nearly two-thirds had so-called super-Earths up to 10 times the mass of the rock we call home.

Another study published the same day in Nature, meanwhile, showed that planets simultaneously orbiting two stars -- known as circumbinary planet systems -- are also far more common that once supposed.

There are probably millions of planets with two suns, concluded the study, led by William Welsh of San Diego State University in California.

Trees pruning must be with loving care! Where are the experts?

Tweet

Be more refined in pruning trees

WITH reference to “‘Tree killers’ at work in Penang” (The Star, Jan 10), I support fully the call to local authorities to be more sensitive and refined in their pruning techniques.

Whoever the contractors were, it should be obvious by the sight of their boorish handiwork how much they know about botany or care about the trees unfortunate enough to be marked out for their chainsaw massacre.

It is heart-wrenching to see lush, green trees that have taken so many years to grow – and which are so vital to our environment – turned into wretched mutilated stumps overnight.

In all the pruning work I’ve seen in the city, never have I seen anyone approaching a “professional” supervising the work.

Don’t the local authorities, whether MPPP or JKR, have any one suitably qualified? Can’t they ask the Botanic Gardens for help? Or would anyone with a crane and a chainsaw suffice?

CH’NG HAN WEI,
Batu Feringghi, Penang, The Star



Treat our trees with loving care

AS a resident of Penang, I was so happy to read StarMetro North front-page story ‘Tree Torture’ on Tuesday.

That story highlighted the hacking of trees by a private contractor and the lack of supervision over such an important project which has far reaching implications.

The majority of visitors to Penang come here not to look at new concrete housing and highrises.

They want to enjoy the traditional architecture, the food and the scenery which includes the beautiful trees that line our streets.

Now, these trees — which are one of the most important elements that set Penang apart from other cities — are fast disappearing.

The increasing destruction of trees is evident almost every day.

Many businessmen are now destroying trees illegally to make way for advertising signs which are eyesores. This is such an oversight.

Destroy the trees and you destroy the heritage and birthright of future generations to enjoy.

As trees vanish, I guarantee, so will the tourists to Penang.

LEWIS, Penang.The Star 

Friday January 13, 2012, The Star

Where are the experts? 

It’s a bad job, says writer

ALLOW me to comment on StarMetro North story ‘One hack of a job’ which appeared on Tuesday.

State exco member Lim Hock Seng, who is chairman of Public Works, Utilities and Transport, said in his reply that the contractor ‘did not do pruning often so it was not practical to just trim a bit’.

To me, this is a silly and unacceptable explanation. It means it is acceptable practice by a contractor to do massive cutting of tree branches even to the extent of them becoming ‘bald.’ No wonder this has been practised by the Public Works Department and Penang Muni-cipal Council (MPPP.)

On MPPP president Patahiyah Ismail’s statement in the second story titled ‘Tree pruning necessary’ on Wednesday that the council sought advice from experts before executing pruning projects, I am sorry I don’t think so.

From my observations when council workers carry out massive cutting or pollarding of roadside trees, the huge branches cut down are still healthy.

There are no ‘so-called’ experts around to give advice, just manual workers doing the job cutting at their pleasure.

Branches are left by the roadside or pavement for a day to three sometimes, before being removed forcing pedestrians to walk on busy roads, thus endangering themselves.

Maybe, this is in keeping Penang green and clean. I have brought (this issue) to Patahiyah’s attention by e-mail. She directed her landscape officer to reply with a silly explanation.

I have also forwarded pictures at Edgecumbe Road, Pulau Tikus, taken on July 1 last year, to Patahiyah. Note the massive cutting on July 20 last year as well as the bald tree in the latest picture taken on Wednesday. This tree is now dead.

Is this advice from experts? What a disappointment from the statements of both parties.

AB YEE, Penang

Social climbers in Malaysia: Race, Datuk, Datin or Puan Sri, not professional meritocracy

Tweet

Social climbers aplenty

A Writer's Life By Dina Zaman

In Malaysia, titles carry a lot of weight. People lie about their names, and some second wives even insist on being addressed as Datin or Puan Sri.

IT all began when I met a fortune teller in Butterworth who chided me for not using my honorific title before the name that you see now. In other words, a family title.

“If you acknowledge this heritage, this name that your family ancestors gave you, you will become very, very, very rich!” she said.

I thought, I could live with that. I am tired of being a financially struggling writer.

A month or two later, I edited my LinkedIn profile and put, ahem, the title in front of my name. Boom! Boom! Boom! I received a monthly average of three potential connections to link with.

Now, I have been a member of LinkedIn.com for more than seven years, and I would receive an invitation to connect like, perhaps, once every two to three months.

This very strange phenomenon affirmed the following to me: First, I’m not a celebrity, hot, and popular. These new friendships confirmed to me that a lot of Malaysians in general are social climbers and will only befriend you if you have wealth and social standing.

My charming personality and some brains have nothing to do with my instant popularity. Tsk.

Before we go on, allow me to clarify a few things. I do have a title tagged to the name my parents gave me. I do not understand why there are women who want to marry into the firm, because having an honorific is hell on forms and documents.

I am grateful that my parents gave me a beautiful name. Maybe at that time of registration, in 1969, there were many tiny boxes to fill in my title and name, but 21st century forms are horrible to fill in your particulars.



Two. Maybe I am related to some very titled and privileged people and maybe I am not. So don’t bother befriending me. I cannot guarantee you an invitation to the istana or a royal event.

I myself do not attend such dos. The one or two times I had been invited, I had to cover an event. If there ever was a personal invitation, and I cannot remember any, I chose to sleep.

I have always invested in very nice beds and mattresses. They win hands down all the time.

Also, if I am related to some Tengku or Raja, it would be 100 times removed. I call myself a SociaLIKE. I only mingle with people I like.

That LinkedIn caper left a bitter taste in my mouth. Surely all the work I had done over these 18 years would have amounted to something. I worked very hard to get to the little mountain I am on now. I can do this, and I can do that.

Actually, I am smarter than some of these titled people. Still, was an honorific my passport to professional and social success?

Unfortunately in Malaysia, titles carry a lot of weight. People even lie about their names.

Friends who work in events and public relations will call me, laughing over guests’ pretensions. “Wah, since when ah, did this person become a Tengku, or Datuk?”

I myself have seen a business card which had the grandfather’s datukship! Since the person’s father was not a datuk but the grandfather was, the person insisted on having it on the card.

How do you take someone like this seriously? Obviously many do, because the person is a director of a public-listed company.

I have also met second wives who insist on being addressed as Datin or Puan Sri. Darlings, think what you will, but that privilege belongs to the first wives only. Non-negotiable. Lu sudah sapu sama laki, mau sapu title pulak?

There is little professional meritocracy practised in this country: it’s not just your race, it’s who you are related to, who you know in this country, (and perhaps also the bomoh you’ve hired) that gets you places.

This may be 2012, but Malaysia is very much a feudal society. A title may not get you that timber deal, but at least the waiting staff or sales clerk will stand to attention.

And perhaps this is why we hold on to social status like a limpet: because there are so few honest successes in this country.

I have been asked before what I thought of the monarchy in Malaysia. If there is one legacy any monarchy should have, it would be that it has served its people well.

It should act intelligently and be compassionate. It should not be known for excess and wastefulness,
especially in times of austerity. Granted, there are a number of royals who have contributed to the country, but how many have left proper legacies?

I do enjoy reading the Malayan history of monarchy and aristocracy. Reading the Hikayats make me yearn for simpler days. Modern day aristocracy has lost that romance, refinement and adat.

Three months into my experiment, I was already getting irritated by requests to connect. My e-mail was constantly alerting me of new possible friends I could network with. And I still have yet to hit the jackpot. So I called the fortune teller in Butterworth.

“Aunty! Apa dei, I put the title in front of my name and I’m still not rich la!”

“Aiyo, it is the month. The stars are not aligned … you see, my dear …”

I squawked on the other side of the phone. I had no time to deal with astrological alignments. I went to my laptop and edited my LinkedIn.com profile. Goodbye title.

And what a marked change. To date, I have only had two requests to network with me, and these were old friends from university. I like it that way.

To those who added me on the basis of my name, I don’t want to do business with you. And to those who appreciate my work, and think that there are possibilities, you know how to get me.

> Dina Zaman is a writer based in KL. She is interested in Malaysian religious histories and its people.

Related post:

Rightways: China Wen:Serve the people well, aim for big ... accomplishments, not big titles!