Malaysia’s drop in the Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013 to 25th spot from 21st last year is not only simply a failure of the Prime Minister Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak’s Economic Transformation Programme(ETP) but also a failure in technological readiness, fighting crime and building human capital formation.
In Jakarta, the City Mayor has just announced free wifi would be available on main roads and highways. As digital intelligence is of critical importance in the internet connected world, providing free wifi in public places would provide a much needed boost. There is no reason why free wifi in public places can not be done throughout Malaysia, if it can be implemented in Penang Or is Malaysia going to be behind not just Jakarta but also Indonesia eventually?
Regarding Malaysia’s technological readiness, the report notes three areas that require improvement, namely: international internet bandwidth in kilobits per second per user (ranked 83rd), broadband internet subscriptions per 100 population (68th) and mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 population (64th). This contributes to the low
level of technological readiness despite the country’s focus on promoting the use of ICT.
The common perception of an increase in crime negatively impacted Malaysia’s ranking with a drop in the rankings related to crime such as the business cost of crime and violence; organised crime; and reliability of police services. Clearly the drop in crime index poses many questions about the reliability in the compilation of statistics
and that the final determinant of public safety is not determined by statistics but ultimately whether the people feel safe.
The Global Competitiveness Report shows not only the general public but even investors and international community do not feel as safe as they would like in Malaysia. The time has come for both the Home Ministry and the police to stop being in denial but focus solely on fighting crime instead of allowing the police to be used as a tool to serve the political interests of BN against the legitimate opposition PR in Malaysia.
The Report also identified inefficient government bureaucracy, corruption, an inadequately educated workforce, poor work ethics in the labour force and restrictive labour regulations as the top five problems faced when doing business in Malaysia. Unless Malaysia succeeds in stopping the ruinous exchange of human talent with unskilled foreign workers, Malaysia’s hopes to escape the middle-income trap and join the ranks of high-income economies will remain a pipe dream.
Perhaps Malaysia should not just learn from Jakarta, but also China which attracts back its human talent from USA by paying them comparable salary rates, provide housing accomodation and most important of all opportunities of career advancement. With 2 million Malaysian leaving the country since 1957, Talent Corp would not only fail to attract them back but would see more Malaysians leaving unless more incentives can be given.
—Mandarin Version —-
民主行动党秘书长兼峇眼区国会议员林冠英于2012年9月6日 在吉隆坡发表声明：
马来西亚的全球竞争力下滑，不只是因为首相经济转型计划的失败，也是科技就绪度、打击罪案及打造人力资源的失败。
马来西亚的全球竞争力下滑，不只是因为首相经济转型计划的失败，也是科技准备、打击罪案及人力资源栽培政策的失败。
雅加达市长最近宣布他们将在主要公路及高速公路提供免费无线上网。数码智慧的网络通讯时代是非常重要的，在公共场所提供免费无线上网非常受落。如果槟州做得到，我们不明白为何政府不能全马各地公共场所提供免费无线上网？还是马来西亚不只会落后雅加达，甚至是印尼？
有关马来西亚的科技就绪度，报告中指出三个需要改善之处：国际宽频每个用户、每秒千位元排名第83；每百名人口的固定宽频订户率排名第68，以及流通宽频网络订户排名第64名。尽管我们一直在极力推广科技资讯工艺，这些都是科技就绪率低的原因。
我国的罪案率一直被公认为有增无减，在报告中，与商业、暴力、组织性及警方可靠性有关的罪案排位下降。很明显地，罪案指数下滑不禁让人怀疑，有关数据统计是否可靠？毕竟公众安全问题不是由数据决定，最终是人民是否觉得有安全感。
全球竞争力报告显示的是公众的意见。但是就连投资者及国际社群也觉得在马来西亚不安全。内政部长及警方应该集中精力打击罪案，而不是把警方当成对付我国合法在野党的政治工具。
报告也指出在马来西亚经商面对的五大问题，包括：政府官僚低效率、贪污、不恰当的劳动力、工人恶劣的工作态度及有限的劳工条例。除非马来西亚停止“输出人才、输入无技能外劳”的做法，否则要我国逃脱中等收入陷阱、成为高收入经济体将永远成为遥不可及的梦想。
或许马来西亚不只应该向雅加达学习，也应该向中国学习，他们把美国的中国人才召回国后，支付他们与美国同等的薪水、提供住房以及良好的职业前景。而我们自1957年200万人口移民后，除非人才机构愿意提供更多奖掖，否则我们不仅无法吸引人才回流，还会看到更多人才离开。
林冠英