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Minting the Royal Mint or Robbing It?

FEW HAD HEARD OF DATO' MEGAT ABDUL WAHAB bin Megat Abu Bakar. The New Straits Times today recounts in loving detail how this near bankrupt former teacher who drew currency notes as a hobby in his youth now owns the Royal Mint. It tells how he conquered the odds, and boldly asked the Malaysian central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, to privatise the Royal Mint to him. And it did. Without hesitation. From then on, it has been a bed of roses. He does so well that he plans to make it the supplier of currency blanks to the region. Who is he? How did he get the privatisation of the Mint? I dare say it had nothing to do with him. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, or the finance minister of the time, Tun Daim Zainuddin, would have instructed the Governor of BNM to give it to him. All he then had to do is to ask for it. BNM then gravely informs him it is his. That is how these things are done in Malaysia. He is the crony extraordinaire. Royal Mints cannot be run as businesses are in Malaysia. But Dato' Megat Abu Bakar tells us it can.

He does not prove anything. The interview does not give hope to Malaysia that its coinage is in good hands, that the normal high security conditions under which it operates is maintained. Several times since the Royal Mint was privatised, police had found bags of currency coins thrown over the fence. No one was arrested, but clearly a syndicate, as the police would call them, is behind it. That story made the newspapers, and quickly disappeared. The security was tight when BNM ran it, but not so after it was privatised. But Dato' Megat Abu Bakar is in no illusions about the future. It is bright. He fancies himself as the supplier of currency blanks for the region."You don't have to loom far ... just (within_ the ASEAN countries alone. We have half a billion people ... the need for blanks and coins is up to nine billion pieces per year." He is a newcomer to the field.

When BNM ran the Mint, it did not look to supply the ASEAN countries. For a good reason. Each had their own mints, some more than a century old. But this is 'Malaysia Boleh' (Malaysia Boleh), where failed teachers, second-hand car dealers, near bankrupts can take on huge projects and show that they could as well be bankrupts handling large businesses as they could a teh tarik stall. What frightens one is that these crony business men believe the rubbish they spout. Dato' Megat Abu Bakar is not alone in this. Look at the major businesses these crony business men ran. All are in debt to billions of ringgit, but with the government bailing them out each time, they laught all the way to the bank. What they do not tell you is who they are cronies to. The politician with the most extensive crony list is the former finance minister and economic adviser, Tun Daim Zainuddin.

In Bolehland, appearance is everything. As the New Straits Times reports: "Among the first things he took care of at the Mint was to beautify the place. Where there is now a garden, Megat Wahab said, was once littered with old-machine spare parts and other junks (sic)." Why? "He wanted the mind to be beautiful to create a sense of pride among his staff, many of whom chose to stay after the Mint was privatised." And show the world that since the Royal Mint has a clean garden, it has earned the right to be the mint of choice for the region? But the more he talks, the more worried one should be. The New Straits Times again: "He has the final say about designs, having in his possession a pair of trained eyes and the passion for craftsmanship." The other Royal Mint, in London, which is run differently, would no doubt quake and quiver in its collective boots about this near bankrupt ex-teacher turned Royal Mint owner "whose trained eyes and the passion for craftsmanship" - with no evidence but his say so - is about to take on the world. But first things first. He is not so ambitious. He will take on ASEAN first.

When national assets are privatised in Malaysia, it sets the stage for a massive ripoff. And while money rolls in as never before, it has fallen into deep debt that the government must take it over. It does not matter what the privatisation is. It is in debt. The North South Highway is only one of a large and rising list of government privatisations that cannot survive unless the government takes them over. In the past 22 years, in the epoch of Dr Mahathir, no privatisation has been a success. The government is forced to take them back, absorb the losses, and then, horror of horrors, return them to the staff which caused the losses in a management buyout.

The next major shock is in the medical services. Let us look at just one example: The Selayang Hospital. A specialist hospital, when the medical services were reorganised a decade ago, it was built as a turn-key project. It was as usual badly built, and cracks and problems showed even before it was commissioned. For the past three weeks, the water mains had burst, putting out of commission the lifts, the operating theatres, and just about the whole hospital because water is not available. All the specialist lifts are shut down. Only two of the nine general lifts work, and into this come the patients, the rubbish, the dead, the sick, the public and the staff. Since the company that built it is linked to people in high places, few would risk their careers to ask inconvenient questions. And this is only one hospital, and only the beginning.

While the leaders are proud of Malaysia's commitment to excellence, and to be at the cutting edge of technology, there is no culture of excellence. The E-Village, a RM3 billion attempt to bring Hollywood to Malaysia, failed because Malaysia does not have a film industry active and extensive so that foreign film makers could hire local production executives and staff. They cannot. Because they aren't any. Typically, it was built to a bureaucratic dream, which could only fail. Malaysia's plan for its own Silicon Valley, the Multimedia Super Corridor, failed because it was solely dependent on foreign capital. Malaysians who wanted to set up office there could not, either because it was too expensive or they were not Malay or bumiputra. And the bureaucrats who run it see it only as an exercise in land development.

Putra Jaya, with its RM20 billions spent, with tens of billions of ringgit yet to, is built in similar fashion: like a government office. Everything is in its ordained place, because that is how it is done in an office, not there for the convenience of those who work, live and visit. Try to look for a toilet or a canteen for a bite before a meeting. Often you cannot afford it. The whole development is a fantasy and, despite the cost, badly built. It is not built for use, but to show the world that Malaysia has an administrative capital. If you do not have a car, just don't think of even going there. The buildings are overdone and badly built. The pink marbled mosque is tatty and must be repaired for tens of millions of ringgit. And it is less than six years old. The Prime Minister's residence is more like a palace fit for the Borgias, but built to Malaysian standards. The Prime Minister's office resembles a Middle Eastern office block, garish and expensive, and aloof. Once inside, one is likely to lose one's way, for it is poorly signposted, and with an unhelpful staff.

When you come down to it, there is much in common with the self-proclaimed success of Dato' Megat Abdul Wahab and the impracticality of Putra Jaya. Both are victims of an unrealisable dream, which Dr Mahathir foisted on Malaysians, and carried out by bypassing the central culture of the Malays. He thought that with expensive projects like privatising government projects and building super structures that would turn Malaysia into a tourist paradise failed, because it was assumed that money was everything. The 21-years of the Mahathir epoch proved that without culture and an understanding of the shortcomings of the dominant culture and group, any attempt at modernisation must fail. But this money culture which superceded the traditional, and it would be doubly difficult to repair the damage done so far. And made difficult when cronies given lucrative projects on a silver platter believe it was their brilliance that gave it to them, when he is no more than a bit player for the manipulative politician who chose him. In other words, a dreamer in dreamland.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my