Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times by Barry Wain (fantasy novels to read .TXT) 📕

decline and had lost the values that made it great, he urged Malaysia to consider Japan, South Korea and Taiwan — and, publicly unstated, Singapore — as models for economic development. While the West itself was awestruck at the time over Japan's seemingly inexorable rise, Southeast Asia's bitter wartime memories precluded any spontaneous inclination to look northward with affection.

As Dr. Mahathir understood from his visits to Japan, a competent political and bureaucratic establishment was guiding the country to an economic miracle. With the government and business cooperating closely, industrial action was rare and economic performance did not come at the expense of national solidarity and social stability.[26] If Malaysia could similarly blend economic achievement with local values and nationalistic pride, it would facilitate Dr. Mahathir's aim of transforming the Malay community.[27]

In practice, however, Look East remained a confusing concept. With Dr. Mahathir closing meetings by intoning domo arigato gozaimashita and politely bowing his head in place of the usual "thank you", the government dispatched thousands of students and skilled workers to Japan to learn its secrets.[28] Among them was a disappointed Mukhriz Mahathir, who had obtained a scholarship to study in the United States, but was directed to Japan for five years instead by his father. "I didn't like it at first, but now I have no regrets," he said later.[29] The Japanese view of themselves as culturally unique, and more aligned with the industrial West than developing Asia, made it difficult to transfer some of their practices to Malaysia. With English the widely spoken foreign language in Malaysia, plans to teach Japanese and Korean to workers, and make Japanese an optional language in secondary schools, made little headway.

In a memo to senior government officials in mid-1983, Dr. Mahathir said, "Looking East does not mean begging from the East or shifting responsibility for developing Malaysia" to the East. Nor did it mean "buying all goods from, or granting all contracts to, companies of the East, unless their offer is best".[30] Yet the idea persisted that Malaysia would be doing more business with Japan and South Korea and expected something concrete in return, especially for being such an ardent admirer and willing student of their winning ways. Hoping flattery would soften the hearts of the Japanese, who had built the world's second-largest economy with practices so predatory they were sometimes depicted as "economic animals", was more than a little naive.

Japanese and South Korean construction companies swooped on Malaysia and bagged about RM5 billion in major contracts within three years, frustrating and angering local builders.[31] Making use of official assistance in the form of cheap finance from Tokyo and Seoul, they won not only private contracts but also jobs for Malaysian government-linked agencies. Their prizes included an office block and convention centre for UMNO, a new headquarters for the National Equity Corporation, and a 55-storey tower for state-controlled Malayan Banking Bhd.

None caused more offence than the RM313 million contract awarded by the government to two Japanese companies to build the sprawling Dayabumi complex in Kuala Lumpur, then Malaysia's most expensive building, even though a local company bid RM71 million less. Dr. Mahathir's defence, that the Japanese would introduce new management skills and modern building techniques, proved hollow. The bumiputra engineering company that the Japanese were required to work with subsequently complained that its Japanese partners were using it merely to maintain good relations with the government, and said that no technology transfer was taking place.[32]

Complaints that Malaysia was reaping few tangible benefits from Look East extended into trade, investment, management and shipping. After nearly three years, Malaysia's trade deficit with Japan had widened sharply, and the Malaysians had little success in persuading the Japanese to buy more of their manufactured goods. Japanese companies were slow to invest in skill-intensive industries in Malaysia, and even slower to transfer new technology to their Malaysian units and establish research and development facilities in the country. They also tended to bypass local contractors and suppliers and acquire components, materials and services from Japan. Japanese manufacturing companies employed more expatriate managers and staff than most other foreign investors, locking Malaysians out of decision-making functions and inhibiting their career development. With appeals to Japan to use more Malaysian vessels for their bilateral trade going unheeded, the shipping imbalance contributed to a large and widening deficit in their invisible trade as well.[33]

In a hard-hitting speech in August 1984 that reeked of embarrassment, Dr. Mahathir registered his unhappiness over the way Malaysia's relations with Japan had failed to evolve. Accusing Tokyo of conducting a colonial economic relationship, he said the Japanese economy was extremely protectionist, and the Japanese were guilty of "improper behaviour" over air rights while engaging in "the dishonest and tension-generating" practice of transfer pricing, by which companies show minimal profit, or even losses, to avoid taxes. "We cannot and will not remain merely as hewers of wood and drawers of water," he said. Not for the last time, Dr. Mahathir called on Tokyo to exercise the "duties" of leadership: "I ask the Japanese to look not only at what they can take but also at what they can give."[34]

Malaysia's attempt to duplicate the Japanese-style trading companies known as sogo shoshas — at least six were formed in the early and mid-eighties — also went nowhere. Malaysia lacked the close connections between the banks, government and industry that were needed to facilitate their trading operations. When they did get going, the Malaysian sogo shoshas found themselves competing with the real thing: Many countries preferred to use the services of the Japanese, who provided better marketing information, offered more competitive prices, made loans and opened letters of credit on their behalf.[35] After a few years — in some cases a few months — the imitation sogo shoshas closed down after losing a great deal of money.[36]

Nevertheless, Dr. Mahathir remained enamoured with Japan, basing two of his other major development policy innovations on the Japanese experience: Malaysia Incorporated and heavy industry. His concept of Malaysia Inc., modeled on Japan Inc.,