Cheap is out!!!

It has been many years I have been living in this beloved country of mine, Malaysia. For many years we have been a cheap place. By that I mean, the cost of living is cheap, petrol is cheap, taxes are low, labor is cheap and so forth that have so far been a pull to investors from other nations. For how long can we remain cheap?

For one, the cost of living here is not as cheap as it is hyped up to be. For example owning a car (sorry, I’m really bummed about this). Yeah, gas (or petrol as we call it) is cheap here, the government says that they are subsidizing and slowly increase the price due to the global market. Yup, all this while they’re overpricing cars. So, prices of cars are sky high and the price of petrol is slowly headed in the same direction. Obviously it will not continue being cheap. Then who would want to buy cars? Public transport here is such crap that everyone needs a car. How do you make someone pay those sky-high prices for cars? Easy, introduce a 9-year hire purchase plan and, voila, now everyone can own a car. Some are so blind that they are even proud of the fact that they qualify for a loan. Qualifying for a loan is nothing to be proud of, trust me. Not having to take one is.

Income taxes are low. This is true, we don’t even pay half as much as what those in countries like the U.K. and the U.S. do. However, they get so much in return for their taxes that I feel it is a good thing. Some of the things I’ve heard are that they get free air tickets to a country of their choice yearly. Also, they have a retirement home they can live their old age in, no charge. Education for their children is as good as free. Yup the education some of us are paying fuckin' thousands for. Their roads look way better than ours. There’s more that I can’t recall right now. I guess it’s not about how much you pay for taxes, but more about where that money goes. These are all what I’ve been told, and also what I’ve read. Do correct me if I’m wrong.

Labor here is cheap. No doubt about that. Indeed, labor cost here is cheap. And the worst part is that it’s something that the government is proud of. It’s easy to say that when you are a business owner or a high level executive. But for the rest of us, it’s hella’ scary. We can hardly afford to buy an original music cd (go tell an American to pay $40 US dollars for their cd, see what they’ll say), which is why piracy is on a rampage here. Sometimes I’m not even sure that bosses of companies even spend a minute (be it in their Benz’s and/or Beamer’s or while sipping latte’s at a yuppie hip café) thinking about how their employee’s lives are. Why are employees underpaid? To keep profit margins high? Companies just can’t pay much? Are the workers here all under skilled or unproductive? Could it be that the company is/was undercharging their clients or customers in the first place? This is a rather complicated issue which I hope the more fortunate bosses and high-up execs would take a look at.

I guess the problem lies within us. We’ve got to stop playing the cheap card and start playing the quality card. Make people do business with us because we are competent and deliver quality. Not because we are cheap. Get hired for what you are worth. It’s not easy but we’ve all got to do it. Don’t let them get away with underpaying you, or else, you will suffer and keep suffering the rest of your lives.

Personally, I too need to take steps to make myself competitive globally by improving the quality of my work. I can’t just be good amongst Malaysian’s but I’ve got to be good globally.

With all that said, I still do love my peaceful country. I never want to see this country go down. Therefore it is my hope, that we as Malaysians open our eyes to what’s going on and make a change however we can. I hate to think that moving to another country is the only solution to securing a future for my family and me, but if it is, so be it.