Ah, Nippon Obsession! Look East Again!

One man more than any other Malaysian had been obsessed with the East (and still is?). And the East meant only Japan.

The Star 11 Oct 2012

So, when he was the prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad initiated the Look East policy where the country were told to look to Japan for inspiration.

But where has the Look East policy brought Malaysia to?

Today, the Malaysian economy is moribund and, frankly, had it not been for oil, we might have been bankrupt already because oil revenue makes up some 40% of the country's annual GDP.

Now, some 30 years later, Pm Najib, perhaps lacking any idea and not being too clever anyway, has decided to look to Japan again for inspiration to help Malaysia become a high income country.

Thirty years ago, that might not have been quite a funny idea. Japan was then undoubtedly an economic colossus and every Tom, Dick and Harry country was trying to emulate the Nipponese miracle.

Today, even a three year young child will laugh at you if you told him to look to Japan for economic inspiration. He will forgive you if you told him about Doremon instead.

The Japanese are as lost as the next person as to how to bring themselves out of their 20 plus year? economic morass! So, of course, there is much confusion Najib can learn from them.

What can you expect from a 糊里糊涂 huli hutu leader like Ah Jib Kor. Look up a Chinese-English dictionary if you need to.

Today if you wanted to look for economic inspiration, you won't do too badly to look to S.Korea or China.

But of course, China won't do for Malaysia, because this may give the wrong ideas to the Malaysian Chinese. You see, it is all about race politics here.

Now, this despite the exhortation to go all the way to China to seek knowledge. Nowhere was Japan even mentioned.

Okay, perhaps Japan as a nation did not even exist then? I don't know, because I am as 糊里糊涂 as Ah Jib Kor.

But you get the drift.