CHINESE ECONOMY

Without the Chinese, Malaysia won't be where it is now economically speaking. Everything would be backwards. Look at many parts of Kalimantan and Sulawesi in Indonesia where there are not many Chinese or none at all. Those regions are very much undeveloped and economically they are at the lower end of the Indonesian economic scale.

So, what makes the Chinese economically smart and successful? How and why are they different? They are like the Jews but the Jews are few in numbers. The Chinese are everywhere around the world, all the seven continents. And wherever they are they display their business acumen.

What's this business acumen all about?

I spent five hours with my Chinese businessman friend today and he gave me an excellent example.

He made the plunge into business when he was 21; it was a Western engineering firm and he and a friend decided to become partners to run the entity locally. As it went, the government of the day decided to "Look East" and thus my friend and his partner's enterprising venture in this firm was prematurely ended.

At age 23, they both started another enterprise -- and now it was pharmaceutical. With little capital and experience but with the Chinese business acumen, they made it until today... 25 years later they are very successful and "even if i sell my business, I can live comfortably," my friend told me.

Chinese are migratory people. It is in their blood. Historically China may be their motherland but after a certain time they would migrate to another land and live there for four or five generations, and then the migratory process would continue.

This migratory instinct gives them sharp survival skills and among others, economic acumen. They think of their future and what they need to do now. After that they work hard for it. They wait for the result patiently; their principle is delayed gratification. They would also think "whichever or whatever benefits me,I will give my full support and cooperation".

That is why, even though in Malaysia they may not be politically dominant, they control the economy and that is sufficient to keep the migratory cycle alive and kicking.

After four or five generation, they would leave this country and in the end when there's no more Chinese in Malaysia, the country would have to close shop.