A Doctor in The House: A Memoir of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (53 page)

He also showed me steel fabrication machinery that would bend construction rods for pillars and other ferro-concrete structures. Before that the rods were being bent manually and the vertical and horizontal parts were tied with wires by hand. Using the new machines, the steel rods could be shaped accurately and welded to vertical rods at intervals. They could also be fabricated elsewhere according to specifications and then delivered to the worksite.

Chia was also responsible for introducing a number of small steel industries. For example, he brought in machines that could be set up in a house in the
kampung
, and the villagers literally just had to turn the machines on to produce nails. I thought this was something that could help villagers go into small-scale industries.

Overall I thought he was doing a good job at Perwaja, but I do know that he often rubbed people the wrong way. Chia always talked good sense, but he could be abrasive and this sometimes got him into trouble. During one of his trips through the US, the Immigration officers did not like the way he answered their questions and detained him. He was handcuffed, shackled and thrown into a police van along with common criminals. He asked to be given time to get his insulin jab for his diabetes but they ignored him. He was only released after prolonged questioning.

I was shocked when people started accusing Chia of embezzling funds from Perwaja.
[2]
 Although he was a friend I did not defend him, because if the allegations were true then I felt that he had let me down. As it was, when the UMNO leadership asked me not to campaign for the Barisan Nasional in Terengganu during the 2004 General Election, they told me it was because the people in the state associated me with Chia.
 

When he was alleged to have numbered bank accounts in Switzerland where he kept the money, I spoke to the Swiss President when I was there on an official visit to help Malaysian authorities gain access to information about Chia’s dealings with the Swiss banks. There was a long, drawn-out legal battle and in the end, the court found that prosecutors had not been able to prove Chia had taken any money from the company. After the court decision, I’m afraid I made no effort to meet him, which is something I regret now that he has passed away. After the court case was finally over he practically disappeared from the scene. I think he was brokenhearted over the whole case. It had dragged down his reputation and career as an up-and-coming industrialist.

In between developing these industries, I also had to make sure that Malays were participating at all levels. As far as possible, I wanted these industries to be run by Malay executives so that they could gain experience. They were usually drawn from our government officers, as the Government was usually the biggest, if not the only, shareholder of these ventures. Some government officers learnt quickly and were able to adjust to the ways of the private sector, but many retained their bureaucratic ways and were unable to make quick decisions when needed. PETRONAS, for instance, went through a very difficult period before the officers seconded from government departments acquired management skills.

Making these industries successful was a matter of finding the right people with the right management skills, or at a more fundamental level, with the right attitude to learning. Managing a manufacturing industry is very difficult and there was no substantial industry in Malaysia at that time that we could take our lessons from. We went for foreign investments because we did not have locals who were willing to take the leap. Locals wanted to stay within their comfort zones. When there is no competition in the mix, it is easy to get away with low quality, bad management, dirty processes and inefficiency. But in a competitive environment, you must always be on guard. You have to look for ways to improve your product and be more cost-efficient. If you do not, you can be very sure that your competitors will be doing exactly that. Tax protection may provide some comfort but it should not make things too easy and discourage effort. It should certainly not cultivate bad attitudes and habits.

Overall, towards the end of my premiership, I was satisfied with the state of heavy industries in Malaysia. Things could have been better but we at least had engineering skills we did not have before. That was one of the main aims of the automotive industry: to develop an expanding array of industrial skills and a national repertoire of technical competencies, not simply to produce components and machine parts and to fabricate items using steel and aluminium. Today the engineering industries have spawned a number of new products such as cranes, turbines, electric motors, workboats and ships and so on, which can help increase Malaysian exports.

With proper training, Malaysians have acquired manipulatory skills very quickly and very well. Their Asian hands and fingers are small and this seems to help them do delicate work and assemble small parts easily. Before automation was used in the assembly of microcircuits, Malaysian workers did this with great efficiency. Even the boys and girls from the villages who would have worked in rice fields could acquire great skills in manufacturing. It is a matter of discipline. The Japanese remarked that Malaysian workers were second only to them, which was high praise indeed. We did not even know that we had these skills until we threw our people into the deep end. We had to teach them the hard way, by just doing it.

Yet one problem bothered me a great deal. While we may possess skill, our work ethic left much to be desired. I always noticed a big difference between the people we sent to Japan under the Look East Policy
[3]
 and those who studied elsewhere. Those who went to Japan were very dedicated and hardworking. Japanese manufacturers in Malaysia snapped them up when they returned home because of their good work habits and mastery of Japanese. It was the same with those trained in South Korea.
 

I believe that the key to the Japanese work ethic can be seen in their traditional tea ceremony. At the deep cultural level, it seems part of the training process because the ceremony follows a very precise method of handling the beautiful bamboo implements used. When you have a culture that is so refined, right down to the finest details, everything grounded in that culture is likely to be equally neat and precise. When the Japanese erect a pillar in a building, they wrap it immediately with protective material so that it does not get damaged by workers carrying heavy items. The culture of thoughtful precision may slow things down at first, but speed is achieved very quickly because good procedures and practices are established from the start. When the Japanese decided that they must produce high-quality products, they were able to do so and still maintain their low cost. The amount produced over a given time did not diminish and eventually the profit margins grew bigger.

Malaysians are producing a much better quality of work than before. If we were prepared to improve our work culture just a little, we would do very well indeed. The Koreans once lagged behind the Japanese but they were prepared to work hard. Today Samsung produces goods which, in terms of quality and innovation, can compete successfully with Sony of Japan while maintaining relatively low prices. When you cultivate the right work culture, its values and attitudes spread outwards beyond the workplace and are eventually integrated into daily life. Some worried that this would erase our overall cultural orientation and religious identity, but it has not.

ENDNOTES

[
1
] Incorporated in 1980, HICOM merged in 1996 with Diversified Resources Berhad (DRB) to form DRB-HICOM, the biggest industrial conglomerate in Malaysia.
 

[
2
] Chia was brought to court on 10 February 2004 and charged with misappropriating RM76.4 million from Perwaja Rolling Mill and Development Sdn Bhd.
 

[
3
] The Look East Policy emphasised looking to Japan and South Korea as models of national development rather than to the West. See Chapter 28: Looking East.
 

Most newly-elected leaders spend their first day in office coming to terms with the vast dimensions of their position and responsibilities. I spent my first day as Prime Minister in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office, figuring out how to put together a Cabinet. I did not plan on making major changes, but I knew I needed to shuffle a few Ministers around.

After my swearing-in ceremony, I had taken the car back with Tun Hussein to the office so that he could say goodbye to the people he had worked with for five years. There were many sad faces among the staff who lined up to bid him farewell. After he left, they crowded around to congratulate me. I had decided to retain his general staff, keeping only my personal secretary and political secretaries for myself. I usually did not change personnel as it took time to get to know new people, and I disliked the period of adjustment.

Tun Hussein’s departure from the building symbolised the beginning of my new office. I was the Prime Minister now, and I was alone. I made my way to the Deputy Prime Minister’s office, where I had a discussion with then Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Hashim Aman, on how to go about appointing Ministers. Although the Ministers from Tun Hussein’s Cabinet had already been sworn in during his time, I thought it proper that continuing Ministers should take the oath once again together with those newly appointed to the Cabinet. I doubt whether oath-taking really means much but it is a part of procedure and cannot be ignored.

Even as I mulled over the choice of Ministers for my Cabinet, I was anxious to get on with my work. Having the authority of the Prime Minister was important because it meant you could achieve things you otherwise could not. I was, for example, itching to do something about the neglected appearance of Kuala Lumpur, so when Tun Hussein stepped down and relinquished his positions, including as Federal Territories Minister, I was finally able to make some of these changes.

For example, I wanted to get satay
[1]
 to be sold in proper shops like in American franchised restaurants, instead of roadside stalls. When I was still the Deputy Prime Minister the Datuk Bandar
[2]
 (Mayor) had been able to get Tun Hussein not to approve the idea. The reason given was that if satay was sold in restaurants, the hawkers who were selling it on the roadside along Jalan Campbell (now Jalan Dang Wangi) would protest because it would mean a loss of business.
 

It was an example of the typical Malay mentality—growth and the upgrading of business were alien ideas. If they had been hawkers a thousand years ago, they expected to be hawkers for the next thousand. Satay was hawker food, hence only the lower classes of people would eat it in zinc sheds erected on the roadside. People who go to restaurants, so the thinking went, should eat other food like steak and chicken chop.

I believed the business of the hawkers would not be affected as the restaurant would be patronised by people with slightly more money to spend and who wanted a more congenial ambience. With the country’s wealth increasing, there would be more and more people like these who wanted to eat satay but did not necessarily relish the idea of sitting in a zinc shed.

Once I had the authority of the Prime Minister I decided to move immediately with what I had planned for Kuala Lumpur. A shoddy capital was not something I was going to tolerate. It would reflect badly on both the quality of the Government and Malaysians alike.

I was aware that there was corruption in City Hall, so I issued an open warning that I would come down hard on anyone involved in shady deals. I knew it was not easy to stop the rot, but following my warning the Datuk Bandar resigned. I was able to appoint a new one and to impress upon him the need for greater efficiency and speed in processing applications for licences or permits. When applications were delayed, applicants would be tempted to offer inducements. Obviously, if there was no delay, there would be less corruption so speeding up bureaucratic procedure was given priority throughout my stewardship.

You do not need to be an architect or landscape artist to have ideas about improving a city. For my part, whenever I travelled to other cities I would make note of how they were well-ordered, cultured and clean. I did not see why Kuala Lumpur could not be the same. There cannot be anyone who would not want to live in beautiful surroundings—surely it is a natural desire. And with these observations and thoughts, I decided to make suggestions on how to keep the city clean.

For one thing, I had noticed something strange about our street lamps, most of which appeared unlit. When I looked closely, I discovered that the lamps had transparent plastic covers. The covers were not fitted tightly enough and insects, attracted by the bright light, were able to get in. Over time the heap of dead insects obscured the light bulb completely. I pointed out the problem to the Datuk Bandar and soon enough the covers were cleaned, and more importantly, kept clean. Small things like these reflect the way people work. The workers attending to the lamps had done nothing on their own initiative and had to be told what to do. I also told the relevant Minister that the lamp posts should be spaced regularly, a small visual cue that we attended to details.

Of course, having the Prime Minister see to these things is like using a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito. But it is important that interest is shown by the most senior man so that those below him will be less inclined to be negligent. I contacted the Datuk Bandar directly on all matters including the collection of rubbish and the water supply. I had recommended Tan Sri Elyas Omar to fill the post of Datuk Bandar, admittedly because I knew him personally. Perhaps this was wrong. The Chief Secretary to the Government normally makes a recommendation and I would have the opportunity to reject the nomination. But I was new and not fully aware of all the procedures and protocol.