UNIVERSITY MALAYA: AKEPT'S AND AEI'S
SEMINAR ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
- INCREASING COMPETITIVENESS,
ENHANCING RESILIENCE
NOTES FROM THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE SUBJECT OF
'ENTREPRENEURSHIP'
SEMINAR ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
- INCREASING COMPETITIVENESS,
ENHANCING RESILIENCE
NOTES FROM THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE SUBJECT OF
'ENTREPRENEURSHIP'
Dear readers.
After attending a lecture on 25th November, 2011 by H. E. Surin Pitsuwan (Abdul Halim bin Ismail) the Secretary General of Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), organized by Asia-Europe Institute (AEI), University Malaya, in its 'Eminent Persons Lecture Series (EPELS)', at the Pacific Ballroom of Seri Pacific Hotel, I was approached by its Director Dato' Mat Amir Jaafar, an ex-Ambassador and old friend of mine, asking me whether I would be prepared to be on a panel to discuss the subject of 'Entrepreneurship in Higher Education'. I replied in the positive as it was difficult to say no to a senior friend from the same school MCKK.
Since that date I scribbled all thoughts in my stream of consciousness of my experiences and exposures to the subject of entrepreneurship, management and leadership, in business and social activities, particularly those personalities that I have met, and had great impact in shaping my thoughts, on the subject.
As I wrote the notes, in speech form, I paid little attention to the time that will be allotted to me in the panel discussion, as even the date of the seminar was then unknown to me.
When I received the letter of invitation to the seminar on 13th December, 2011, I was ready with lengthy notes to keep me in track while delivering my thoughts, in one and half hours, inclusive of question time, together with three other prominent scholars. These notes are long and boring to read and as such I have written in bold coloured print to enable a reader, who has little time to spare, to glance at the bold prints to provide a glimpse of the contents.
I was scheduled to be the third speaker. Having learned much from the first two speakers, as I listened attentively when they spoke, I requested from the moderator, Dato' Syed Hussien Al Habshee, to be the last speaker, after the German Professor, as I would then know the angles taken by all the other 3 speakers, in order that I do not bore the audience with a repetition of what has been said. It was difficult for the moderator to turn down a request by an old friend.
As reading slowly through the notes would have taken much more than the allotted time, for each panel member, I selected some points from my notes and highlighted those that I thought would be relevant for the purpose of the seminar, without really repeating what had been said by previous speakers.
After the session a few members of the academic staff and students of universities from among the audience asked for my hand-phone contact number as they would like to invite me to their campuses to hear more from me on the subject. As I did not have copies of the randomly selected points that I delivered in the seminar I promised them to put the lengthy notes on my blog. As time passed I forgot about it till the night of 20th December, 2011. After the dinner in honour of Tun Dr. Mahathir's 86th birthday I was met by Professor Dato' Dr. Rodziah Omar, the Director of AKEPT (Akademi Kepimpinan Pelajar Tinggi Malaysia) who told me that the students like my deliberation at the conference.
I then remembered what I promised to the students at the earlier seminar.
Being attracted to other more important issues of the moment I again forgot, due to old age, to post the notes in the blog. Yesterday I met at a mall in Bangsar one of the Sarawak participants of that seminar who appeared enthusiastic on the subject of more then one month old seminar.
I then remembered what I promised to the students at the earlier seminar.
Being attracted to other more important issues of the moment I again forgot, due to old age, to post the notes in the blog. Yesterday I met at a mall in Bangsar one of the Sarawak participants of that seminar who appeared enthusiastic on the subject of more then one month old seminar.
Being reminded again of the seminar I then decided to post the following notes for my speech which I promised the students to put on my blog.
What I delivered at the seminar was only 5 per cent of the piece below.
Thank you.
Sanusi bin Junid
16th January, 2012
NURTURING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
(NOTES FOR 13-12-2011)
'A Brief Glance at a Journey through Business, Politics and Higher Education'
Assalaamu'alaikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakaatuh
H. E. Dato' Syed Hussien Al Habshee
Secretary General National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Malaysia (NCCIM),
as Moderator of the Session,
Respected Panelists,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Selamat pagi, Good Morning und Guten Morgen.
SALUTATION
1. I have asked the Moderator of the Session to allow me to be the last and fourth speaker as I have been learning a great deal from the first two speakers and would like to know more from the German Professor before I say my piece.
2. If what I say does not make sense to you then it is because all the sensible ideas have been said by the earlier speakers.
3. Having seen the list of high ranking and respectable world class academicians, professionals, businessmen, diplomats, top civil servants and graduates are participants in this seminar I feel out of place, as a retired politician, to talk on the subject of entrepreneurship.
4. I am sure you have read all the books on the subject of entrepreneurship, and related subjects, except one, which is a book not yet written by me.
5. First of all I would like to comment on the statement of the last speaker who said that elderly people should listen to the ideas of the young. I would be cautious about this as there are too many young people who have old, or even misguided ideas and there could be elderly people, some of whom I have met, with new or young ideas.
6. I think it is the age of the ideas that matter and not the age of man.
WHO ARE THE ENTREPRENEURS?
7. What is an entrepreneurs? That is the key question to this seminar before we could plan to cultivate, educate, encourage or nurture them.
8. If you see a foreigner doing his own successful business in our country, with many employees, or a Malaysian doing his own successful business, and employing a lot of locals in other countries, then he or she is definitely an entrepreneur.
9. But if one can only succeed in his own country provided the Prime Minister is of his own kind and is known to him, the Chief Minister or Menteri Besar is very well known to him either, the District Officer is related to him and the Bank Manager was his classmate, it is more difficult to classify him as an entrepreneur; as in such circumstances it takes a genius to fail.
10. But many failed even in such favourable circumstances.
11. My opinion today is based on the entrepreneurs and the elders that I know, or used to know, or read about, who had been sources of inspiration to me. I will soon be talking not only on big or small entrepreneurs but also on politicians who make possible the growth of entrepreneurs. Some are managers or leaders in their own fields. Some are graduates of universities or institutes of higher learning while others are even academically, but not businesswise, illiterate
Ideas, Values and Finance
12. I will start off by saying that an entrepreneur needs to have ideas, values, contacts and finance. The moderator had introduced me in glamorous terms as a visiting professor of Nanjing University in China, but I am sure you would like to know on how it all began.
FATHER'S ADVICE
13. The first person who had a great influence on my life was my father who was always in consultation with my mother.
Typing and Short-hand
14. My father died when I was twelve years old. Before he died he advised me, among other things, to learn short-hand, typing, cooking and tennis. At college I noted, by short-hand, all the lectures and typed them for sale to other students.
Cooking
15. At Halle Strasse in Hamburg I cooked for 10 Germans every convenient weekends when they responded to my pamphlets on 'Exotic Asian Dishes'. I was helped by Nordin Ahmad who was the Manager of Jakarta Lloyd in Hamburg and whose hobby is cooking.
Tennis
16. My father chose tennis because in Sumatra, where he studied during the colonial era, he did not see the Dutch playing golf. He said that 'You should start as a tennis ball-picker, in that way you get to know successful people. They all play tennis. Don't waste your time with little boys only. There is a lot of time for that'
17. It was this advise that let me to be able to mix with elderly people and probably resulting in the Principal of Malay College Kuala Kangsar, Mr. N. J. Ryan commenting in my school report card that I was a student 'whose maturity is beyond his years.' I have kept that report till today. It is one of my precious possessions.
18. Yes, I was a tennis ball-picker for teachers playing tennis at Ibrahim School Sungei Petani, even before I was eleven. Ce' Gu Ismail was my best customer. The last time I met him was when, as Minister of National and Rural Development, I visited MRSM Kulim and he was the chairman of the PIBG for the college as his grandson was studying there.
19. It was possible for me to earn some money in this way as there was no movement at that time against the exploitation of child labour.
Assistant Caddy
20. But my father approved my request, besides being a tennis ball-picker, to also be an assistant golf caddy, as I was too small to carry the golf-bags as a caddy. I waited at the end of the fairway to see where the balls sink into the soft ground of the Sungei Petani English Club. Yes, my father said that golfers are very rich in time and money. They could afford to spend many hours on the golf courses while their businesses keep on growing.
21. Assistant caddies were required for golf courses which have very soft ground such as the Sungei Petani golf course, in the rice-growing state of Kedah, or the Taiping golf course, where the town, with another town Jelebu in Negeri Sembilan, had records of having the highest rainfall in Malaysia.
Work and not Position
22. Another advice from my father did not involve learning but attitude. He said that all human beings would go, or fight for positions, but they do not like work. If you join the race for positions, wherever you are, then you will have many rivals or even enemies. You should therefore focus on work. In working hard you have no rivals and will have many friends.
INSPIRED BY THREE ENGLISHMEN
23. I was inspired by three Englishmen for their attitude, their helpfulness, comments and their achievements which remained in my memory till today. They are:
N. J. Ryan,
Howard Sergeant,
and
Lord Pullen
24. N. J. Ryan was the headmaster of Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK) after J. D. R. Howell left the college. Mr. Howell did not allow me to enter the college because I did not have enough pairs of shoes, socks, underpants, singlets, shirts, trousers, sleepers and bed sheets, a certain number of each, were preconditions for entry.
25. It was Howell's strict adherence to procedures and discipline that resulted in the departure of an MCKK teacher, Mr. Wilson (Anthony Burgess) who wrote many books, in English, for the gay communities in the English speaking world.
26. Being unable to join the college, and with no financial provision from my mother for the return journey, I worked at the railway station Mamak's stall in Kuala Kangsar. When Mr. Tara Singh came for breakfast one Sunday morning and found out the reason as to why I was not in school, he asked me to report to the junior science Form One class, of MCKK, the next day.
27. I was surprised to see Mr. Tara Singh, a Brinsford Lodge trained science teacher, in the classroom and I was invited to a seat which he said I should have occupied since more than 3 months ago.
Student cum Caddy
28. Mr. Tara Singh, a modern Sikh without a turban, dared to defy Mr. Howell because he found N. J. Ryan who replaced Howell, being a historian and a rugby fanatic, is more sporting, human and understanding of the problems of rural students.
29. After the science class Tara Singh brought me to see N. J. Ryan. I had a long discussion with Mr. Ryan after which he allowed me to continue the work of a caddy, during weekends, either in Taiping or Ipoh if there are no school assignments for the weekends involved. Being a historian he knew the story of my families in Aceh which I did not know at that time. My father never spoke of his relatives or descendants in Aceh except to remind me to visit his mother, my grandmother, in Lambhuk, Beurawe, Aceh when I have grown up.
30. Mr. Ryan allowed me to be a student and a weekend caddy, once or twice a month, on the pretext of going for eyes check-up first in Taiping and after Form Four in Ipoh. I was never active in sports at the college and never played any game or sing any song.
31. I moved to the Ipoh golf course, where the ground was not wet and soft, to be up-graded from an assistant caddy to a full-scale caddy when I was strong enough to carry golf-bags
Learning to Swim
32. Howard Sergeant, the second Englishman, was a visiting student from Britain when I was at MCKK where I was also a boy-scout. One day our 1st Kuala Kangsar Scout Troop went to the waterfall at Ulu Kenas, near Kuala Kangsar, to have a picnic and to learn how to swim in the river. While I was going in and out of the water on the river bank, imagining on how to float, Howard invited me to the top of a cliff and said that he would teach me how to swim. Howard suddenly pushed me into the river. I struggled and that was the beginning of my being a swimmer.
33. Howard said that one can never learn how to swim if one hesitates to get into the water. It is also true of every venture in this life. I met Howard again when he was a Cadet Planter at Sua Betong Estate in Port Dickson.
34. If a person wants to be a professional, scholar, businessman, politician or an entrepreneur then the person should have the guts to jump into it. Howard taught me that.
33. Howard said that one can never learn how to swim if one hesitates to get into the water. It is also true of every venture in this life. I met Howard again when he was a Cadet Planter at Sua Betong Estate in Port Dickson.
34. If a person wants to be a professional, scholar, businessman, politician or an entrepreneur then the person should have the guts to jump into it. Howard taught me that.
Amalgamation of Banks
35. The third Englishman that I have never met, but whom I admired, was Lord Pullen and his friend whose name I don't even know. Both of them amalgamated The Chartered Bank, whose operation was mainly in Asia and the Middle East, and the Standard Bank whose branches were in Africa and the Middle East.
36. Lord Pullen, who was the Chairman of the Chartered Bank worked out the amalgamation scheme with the Standard Bank whose Chairman was Lord Pullen's colleague in Barclay's Bank where they were both working as office boys, during their younger days. They later left Barclay's Bank for the Chartered and Standard banks respectively.
37. They had kept their friendship over the years until both rose from office-boys to becoming chairmen of their respective banks. Before they retired they amalgamated the two banks to become the Standard Chartered Bank.
38. They did not have university education.
39. It appears that loyalty among hard-working friends is also prerequisites for successful entrepreneurship. It reminds me of the friendships of Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos who founded Amway, and that of Michael Marks and Israel Sief who founded Marks & Spencer.
Motivated by Frustration
40. There is a book on The Chartered Bank entitled 'The Realm of Silver'.
41. During a discussion at a retreat for The Chartered Bank staff, called the 'WILDERNESS', and after reading the book, I discovered that a group of British businessmen in Hongkong failed to obtain credit for the purchase of more ships for their business. They vowed to compete with the Chartered Bank all over the world. They formed the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.
42. They became entrepreneurs because they were angry with their bankers. They were angry and frustrated at the failure in getting a loan and were motivated to be bankers themselves.
GUIDANCE BY THREE SCOTSMEN
44. I was lucky to know and to work for three Scotsmen:
Charles McGregor,
Charles McMillen
and
Charles McCulloch
and
Charles McCulloch
45. It was at Ipoh golf club that I caddied for Charles McGregor who was the area manager of The Chartered Bank.
WHAT IS A BANKER
46. While walking with him along the fairway he offered me to choose banking as a career. I was first not attracted to banking because he explained to me that 'a banker is a person who learns economics but not enough to be an economist, who studies law but not enough to be a lawyer and who does book-keeping and accounting but not enough to be an accountant'.
47. After the second tee-off I asked the Scotsman Charles as to what a banker does. When he replied that 'a banker deals with money' and that was what I was always short of, I straightaway went for interview at his office the next Monday and later reported for duty at The Chartered Bank Seremban as an apprentice.
47. After the second tee-off I asked the Scotsman Charles as to what a banker does. When he replied that 'a banker deals with money' and that was what I was always short of, I straightaway went for interview at his office the next Monday and later reported for duty at The Chartered Bank Seremban as an apprentice.
48. Charles McGregor, a friend of the headmaster N. J. Ryan were responsible for getting me into banking.
FIFTEEN YEARS IN BANKING
49. Although I was promised an officer trainee post at the interview by the Scotsman Charles McGregor, I started of as a subordinate clerk, a post which is slightly higher than an office boy but below a normal clerk, at The Chartered Bank Seremban.
50. I rang up Charles McGregor to complain about my fate and he told me how lucky I was when I should really start off as a cleaner. I then remembered my father who said 'Look for work and not for position.'
51. I sat for my banking examinations and was promoted step by step, moving between departments and branches of the bank, until I went for further studies and training in colleges and universities in Britain and West Germany, and came back to become a bank executive.
West Germany
52. In Hamburg, West Germany I worked under a very hard-working CEO Charles McMillen. This second Scotsman taught me the meaning of thrift and hard work.
53. He jokingly told me that all those working in a bank call themselves bankers whether they are office boys, clerks, accountants or managers. We also realized that there were 'managers' in the banking industry who knew nothing about money lending, but call themselves bankers, when what they do is just public relations work with their rich relatives, and officials of the government or politicians known to the families.
54. He also taught me to know the difference between the management of a company that runs rubber estates and a company which buys and sell shares of rubber companies. Both describe themselves as doing business in rubber. Both are useful to the bank.
55. Over dinner one night he told a story about a very rich painter in Hongkong who specializes in painting scenes of poverty in the world. The painter said that he was very concerned about poor people when what he did was getting rich while the poor that he painted remained poor. The same is true of novelists who are concerned about the poor. Their books sell well but the people they wrote about remain poor.
56. Everyone loves Charles McMillen over dinner tables but dislike his pressure for working harder when in the office. We could not leave the bank's premises until all accounts were balanced, all work was done and all documents were filed. Normally past 10 pm every working day.
Islamic Banking and Finance
57. I read a lot about Islamic banking and finance. I attended lectures by Muslim scholars at Baker Street mosque most weekends when I was in London. The first book on Islamic economics that I came across was written by Professor Mannan and the first book on Islamic banking and finance was written by Professor Siddique.
58. It was when I was working at the Jalan Raja branch of The Chartered Bank that I was visited by Professor Ahmad Al Najjar who was the founder of the most successful Islamic Bank in Mit Ghamr in Egypt, but was closed down in 1951 by President Gamel Abdul Nasser because it was making Islam very popular in the economic sphere. Ahmad Al Najjar was sent to see me by my bank customer who was then the Secretary General of the OIC in Mecca. He was no other than Tunku Abdul Rahman Putera, the father of our independence.
59. I handed a paper from Professor Ahmad Al Najjar to Tun Abdul Razak's office through Dato' Tengku Shahriman who was then the head of Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU). It took many years for the government to digest the idea for an Islamic Bank in Malaysia and it was only realized during Tun Dr. Mahathir's era.
60. As Islamic Banking and Finance was beginning to be popular I decided to resign from my secular banking profession. The decision was stalled when the bank agreed to my request to provide my department or unit with enough revolving funds for the needy rural and urban poor who were trapped by rural and city money lenders or Ah Longs, who charged exorbitant interest rates.
61. When in 1974 Tun Abdul Razak offered me to contest a parliamentary seat in Kedah I rejected as I was running a credit scheme for farmers in Perlis, Kedah and Province Wellesley; for small agro-businessmen in the coastal areas of Selangor and for trishaw pullers in Kelantan to replace their old trishaws with new ones, at low interest rates, compared to the interests charged by money-lenders.
62. It was after more than 11 years in banking that the bank's Chief General Manager, Charles McCulloch who, upon discussion with Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Ismail Ali, the Governor of Bank Negara, that I was allowed to continue for 4 years (1974-1978) with my work at the bank while also being a Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1978.
63. I consulted two ulamaks who are my relatives; they are my grandfather in law Teungku Muhammad Daoed Bereu-Eh and my granduncle Teungku Muhammad Dahan Inderapuri, both hafizs, whether I would be forgiven by Allah if I continue working in the bank, which deals in 'riba', but use the banking funds to lend to padi planters, petty traders and trishaw pullers who are trapped with usurious exorbitant interest rates (riba), in order to release them from the clutches of the Chettiers, Ah Longs and the unlicensed money lenders.
64. They told me my job at the non-syariah bank is still wrong and 'haram' but advised me to stay on at the bank until I free all those borrowers from the clutches of the money lenders who charged exorbitant interest rates. After all they said that Allah is compassionate and merciful. They also told me to resign from the bank when this job is done.
Money Lenders are not Loved
65. There is one incident which is worth telling in order to show the attitude of the borrowers towards the money-lenders.
66. Whether they are called bankers, Chettiers, Ah Longs or just money-lenders people will look after them when they are in need. In the bank I was taught that we only lend umbrellas on sunny days; if it rains we take them away. The umbrellas are not supposed to be wet. That is where securities and or guarantees by creditworthy individuals or institutions are necessary in order to ensure that our umbrellas are not wet when the borrower's businesses get into heavy rainfalls to eventually drown.
67. In those days the clerks and even officials of banks are known to have borrowed from the big, strong and friendly Sikh watchmen who were unlicensed money lenders. One such person is Gurbachan Singh ( the name is subject to correction by those who remember him). When I came to the office one morning I saw a few members of the staff smiling away as if something good had come their way.
68. I found out later that Gurbachan Singh fell down the lift hole as the door lift at the higher floor of the multi-storey building was opened when Gurbachan pressed the button but the lift itself did not come. Gurbachan walked into his death. Gurbachan, who was always mentioned in fondness by the needy staff, as a helpfull money lender, was celebrated after his death with all the smiles on the faces of the outstanding borrowers.
69. But this smile did not last, as a week later Gurbachan's relative came into his place to claim the debts with all the documents of proof. Gurbachan was loved in life but celebrated in death. I learned the lesson that when you lend money you cannot expect love in return.
LIKING SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE
70. From young I have always liked successful people, particularly the rich ones and entrepreneurs who plays tennis and golf. In the bank I met many successful people.
71. As a bank official I have met with customers who were Sultans, Ministers, top Civil Servants, filthy rich people while I worked in Seremban, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Hongkong, London and Hamburg, West Germany.
72. I also learned about the habits and worries of the elderly traditional Chinese businessmen however much money they have. The rice dealer Sin Heap Lee for example, despite being rich, was very worried over his two beautiful daughter's choice of their life partners in marriage. He objected when one of his daughters was placed in the savings department for fear that they might fall in love with men who have only pennies. When the management positioned one of his other daughters to the section that deals with stocks and shares he told us to move the daughter away from a department where not real businessmen frequent but, he said, only those who gamble on the stock exchange.
73. I also remember the humbleness of a Chinese businessman who was rich dealing in scrap metals. In one negotiation for a loan and overdraft facility, I and another friend met two of the executives of the scrap metal dealer, in a coffee shop near Masjid India, chosen by them, as the boss himself will not come for lack of English language. I noted an elderly man in a short pant wearing a singlet, and a wooden sandal, serving us with tea. He introduced himself as the coffee-shop keeper.
74. During the discussion which went on in English, one of the executives translated our discussion into Hokkien for the other executive to understand. I gladly noted that before a conclusion was made on any point the coffee-shop keeper will come around to replenish our tea cups.
75. After we have approved the facilities my friend and I decided to visit their factory and go-down for scrap metal on the way to Subang Airport. I was surprised to see the coffee-shop keeper serving us tea again. This time he was cheerful and smiling. Surprisingly the executive to whom our discussion was translated by the junior executive, spoke fluent English. Obviously the translation was meant for the coffee-shop keeper who owned the coffee-shop and also the factory owner. How rich and humble the scrap metal dealer was. We never meet such characters again or maybe because I am not in the banking world any more.
71. As a bank official I have met with customers who were Sultans, Ministers, top Civil Servants, filthy rich people while I worked in Seremban, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Hongkong, London and Hamburg, West Germany.
Concern for Family
72. I also learned about the habits and worries of the elderly traditional Chinese businessmen however much money they have. The rice dealer Sin Heap Lee for example, despite being rich, was very worried over his two beautiful daughter's choice of their life partners in marriage. He objected when one of his daughters was placed in the savings department for fear that they might fall in love with men who have only pennies. When the management positioned one of his other daughters to the section that deals with stocks and shares he told us to move the daughter away from a department where not real businessmen frequent but, he said, only those who gamble on the stock exchange.
Humbleness of the Rich
73. I also remember the humbleness of a Chinese businessman who was rich dealing in scrap metals. In one negotiation for a loan and overdraft facility, I and another friend met two of the executives of the scrap metal dealer, in a coffee shop near Masjid India, chosen by them, as the boss himself will not come for lack of English language. I noted an elderly man in a short pant wearing a singlet, and a wooden sandal, serving us with tea. He introduced himself as the coffee-shop keeper.
74. During the discussion which went on in English, one of the executives translated our discussion into Hokkien for the other executive to understand. I gladly noted that before a conclusion was made on any point the coffee-shop keeper will come around to replenish our tea cups.
75. After we have approved the facilities my friend and I decided to visit their factory and go-down for scrap metal on the way to Subang Airport. I was surprised to see the coffee-shop keeper serving us tea again. This time he was cheerful and smiling. Surprisingly the executive to whom our discussion was translated by the junior executive, spoke fluent English. Obviously the translation was meant for the coffee-shop keeper who owned the coffee-shop and also the factory owner. How rich and humble the scrap metal dealer was. We never meet such characters again or maybe because I am not in the banking world any more.
76. I left the bank when I heard that John Major, the cricket player at the 'Wilderness', and not the criminals, Blair and Bush, was about to head The Chartered Bank in Kuala Lumpur.
HATING THE RICH
77. The only time in my life when I began to hate the rich, whether they are called leaders, managers or entrepreneurs of big enterprises, was when I listened to lectures at London School of Economics and other campuses in Britain. Professor Joan Robinson was considered as one of the world's top communist theoretician.
78. I also listened many times to the lectures of the racist MP Enoch Powell who was against the immigrants.
78. I also listened many times to the lectures of the racist MP Enoch Powell who was against the immigrants.
74. It was in the university that I began to hate wealthy people's exploitation of labour, and breach of fundamental rights. To them, being a boy caddy was an example of exploitation of labour. They did not know that without being a caddy I would have remained an uneducated kampung boy.
75. Although I was in London on a banking scholarship I followed the Black Dwarf Club and heard Tariq Ali talking against money 'as the root of all evils'.
76. As I was one of the speakers at Hyde Park Speakers Corner I get to know Martin, the Indian who kept our stools at a cost of GBP1-00 per month. I later found out that he was supposed to be working for one of the tourist agencies. The speakers at speakers corner were objects of tourism.
77. How can one become an entrepreneur when one hates money as a medium of exchange and a measure and storage of values.
78. Universities should not serve as umbrellas for the nurturing of hatred against successful individuals if they wish to be centers for education of future entrepreneurs. They should honour the rich and successful so that the rich and successful will be of help to the universities in one way or another. I had that pleasant experience at International Islamic University Malaysia.
WEST GERMANY
79. Everything changed when I was in Germany. Good Japanese books were translated into German just as good German books were translated into Japanese. That's where I got all ideas about Japan.
80. Lectures by Professor Karl Schiller of Hamburg University inspired me. He was said to be one of the world's top capitalist theoretician. He left the university to become the Minister of Economics and Finance in Chancellor Helmut Schmidt cabinet. He was responsible for influencing Helmut Schmidt to bring the Turks as foreign workers to solve the problem of shortage of labour as against the Japanese solution to use robots.
81. In lighter mood it was Professor Schiller who brought my attention to an anecdote whereby a man, late in the night, was seen searching under a street light for something which he might have lost. An approaching stranger, in trying to help, asked the object that the man was searching for. When told that it was a fountain pen the stranger further asked whether he lost the fountain pen under the street light, as the stranger thought that the lost object was sufficiently large and easy to find.
82. The man replied in the negative and said that he lost the fountain pen somewhere else and not under the street light where he was searching. He gave the reason that he could not find the lost fountain pen if he searched in the dark where he lost it. Of course he could not find the fountain pen under the street light.
83. Professor Schiller said that many problems in the world are not solved because we are searching for solutions in the wrong places.
People's Republic of China
and
The Chartered Bank
84. I was working at the bank while attending lectures by Prof. Karl Schiller. I was in-charge of the desk that handled imports of Asian textiles to Europe, particularly from China.
85. The Hamburg branch of the Chartered Bank at Dornbusch was the bank's only branch in Europe, being opened for purposes of China's business with Europe, just as China allowed the Chartered Bank to be the only foreign bank to operate in China for the same purpose at that time.
86. While working and studying I wrote a paper on Japan's economic growth and the future for South Korea and Taiwan.
FAMOUS MALAYSIAN ENTREPRENEURS
87. I personally know three famous Malaysian Chinese entrepreneurs. I am not mentioning the younger ones. They are:
88. Tan Sri Wong Tok Choi was my colleague in The Chartered Bank. He was the owner of Amoy Canning and a comprador or business adviser at the bank. A recommendation for any customer from a comprador is highly regarded by the management. A loan application recommended by him is normally approved without question after all the formalities are looked into. Of course a business adviser gets a little cut from the interest charged on loans.
89. It was through his friend that I was introduced to the comprador of an Asian foreign bank in Kuala Lumpur.
90. I learned from the comprador of the Asian foreign bank in Kuala Lumpur of the method whereby he identified and assisted future entrepreneurs.
91. The first thing one should do is to get to the officer-in-charge of cheque-books and obtain from him a list of about 300 customers who use the most cheque-books over a period.
92. After that you call in the ledger keepers to identify as to how many of the 300 or so customers have insufficient funds in their banks when they issued their cheques. Of those 300 maybe about 250 customers have never had their cheques bounced.
93. One should then ask the ledger keepers to give the totals of debits and credits per month for each of the customer with no returned cheques. If one sees totals of debits and credits increase for each customer from month to month, then the customer is a respectable customer doing a good business and having a cash flow problem.
94. Only then does one call each and everyone of such customers to determine their credit needs. With the comprador's recommendation and a percentage commission from the interest on the credit facilities for him, the customer is allowed to borrow without securities.
95. I was told that at least 50 of them are worth hundreds of millions many years later.
96. In this way the financial system need not lend to relatives, school-mates, and friends working in the same office or department with no reliable or promising business records.
97. There are many books written on Islamic banking and finance and I am aware of only one book written on Christian banking by a Japanese banker Tadahiko Ito of Kansai Bank entitled 'How I Saved A Bank.'
98. While Islamic banking, as I understand it from the banker of the 1st Islamic Bank from Mit Ghamr, Egypt, emphasizes on the abolition of interest or 'riba' from any form of lending, the bank having expertise in the various trade in order to enable it to advise the debtors in their respective trade, the bank also have a 'zakat' department for payment of religious dues, an Islamic bank also shares the profits and losses of the borrower should he fails in bis business.
99. That 1st Islamic bank was opened in 1951 and closed a few months later by the President of Egypt, Gamel Abdul Nassir, who did not politically approve its popularity. In Indonesia, the Islamic Bank Muamalat, survived the financial crises of the 90s.
100. The Kansai Urban Banking Corporation of Osaka was described by it CEO a Christian bank. in Osaka also survived the financial crises of the 80s. The bank had a few branches all over Japan and the management of the bank was classified not on area basis where banks have district and area managers who check on the branches having sufficient securities for loans given out, but instead, similar to the Islamic banks, classify the work of supervision of credit facilities to borrowers according to their business activities whereby a manager is appointed in each and every branch to focus on supervising and solving the problems faced by borrowers of each business. The bank developed a pool of expertise in every trade to enable it to be able to solve the many problems of each trade. However there is an un-Christian practice in the bank whereby normal interests are charged and not considered 'haram' as before the Medici Bankers appointed one of their family members to be the Pope to legitimize interest in Christianity. The Christian character of the bank is more in the character of its officials, particularly its CEO Tadahiko Ito who had written two earlier books entitled 'Spiritual Management' and 'Celestine Lifestyle'. He liked the rich and met with between 2 to 4 businessmen every working day. Entrepreneurs grew in their contact with him.
101. Both the Islamic and the Christian banks focused on solving financial needs and problems and not just on giving loans only against under-valued securities. They are problem-solving banks. We need that in Malaysia.
103. TS Lim was a contractor for building the drainage system in KADA, Kelantan. On his way back from Kota Bharu with his Taiwanese engineer graduate of Waseda University, Tokyo, B. U. Lee ( Kottera - a Japanese name given by his professor), they passed through Genting Highland.
104. B. U. Lee suggested to TS Lim that he grabbed the casino licence that the government had offered to Low Yat for his Langkawi Island Resort. This license was withheld because it was opposed by UMNO Kedah as it would become an issue in the forthcoming election. The candidate for Langkawi-Kuala Kedah constituency was at that time the Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.
105. As they passed the ravine nearest the peak of Genting Highlands, B. U. Lee, who was a civil engineer, looked up the hill and suggested a casino on the hill-stop where Muslims can easily be prevented from patronizing.
106. B. U. Lee then became the consulting engineer for the road built up to the top of Genting Highlands.
107. The rest of Genting Highland's development is history.
CHINESE
87. I personally know three famous Malaysian Chinese entrepreneurs. I am not mentioning the younger ones. They are:
Tan Sri Wong Tok Chai,
Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong
and
Tan Sri Low Boon Siew
Comprador Concept
88. Tan Sri Wong Tok Choi was my colleague in The Chartered Bank. He was the owner of Amoy Canning and a comprador or business adviser at the bank. A recommendation for any customer from a comprador is highly regarded by the management. A loan application recommended by him is normally approved without question after all the formalities are looked into. Of course a business adviser gets a little cut from the interest charged on loans.
89. It was through his friend that I was introduced to the comprador of an Asian foreign bank in Kuala Lumpur.
One Asian Foreign Bank Experience
90. I learned from the comprador of the Asian foreign bank in Kuala Lumpur of the method whereby he identified and assisted future entrepreneurs.
91. The first thing one should do is to get to the officer-in-charge of cheque-books and obtain from him a list of about 300 customers who use the most cheque-books over a period.
92. After that you call in the ledger keepers to identify as to how many of the 300 or so customers have insufficient funds in their banks when they issued their cheques. Of those 300 maybe about 250 customers have never had their cheques bounced.
93. One should then ask the ledger keepers to give the totals of debits and credits per month for each of the customer with no returned cheques. If one sees totals of debits and credits increase for each customer from month to month, then the customer is a respectable customer doing a good business and having a cash flow problem.
94. Only then does one call each and everyone of such customers to determine their credit needs. With the comprador's recommendation and a percentage commission from the interest on the credit facilities for him, the customer is allowed to borrow without securities.
95. I was told that at least 50 of them are worth hundreds of millions many years later.
96. In this way the financial system need not lend to relatives, school-mates, and friends working in the same office or department with no reliable or promising business records.
PROBLEM-SOLVING BANKS
97. There are many books written on Islamic banking and finance and I am aware of only one book written on Christian banking by a Japanese banker Tadahiko Ito of Kansai Bank entitled 'How I Saved A Bank.'
98. While Islamic banking, as I understand it from the banker of the 1st Islamic Bank from Mit Ghamr, Egypt, emphasizes on the abolition of interest or 'riba' from any form of lending, the bank having expertise in the various trade in order to enable it to advise the debtors in their respective trade, the bank also have a 'zakat' department for payment of religious dues, an Islamic bank also shares the profits and losses of the borrower should he fails in bis business.
99. That 1st Islamic bank was opened in 1951 and closed a few months later by the President of Egypt, Gamel Abdul Nassir, who did not politically approve its popularity. In Indonesia, the Islamic Bank Muamalat, survived the financial crises of the 90s.
100. The Kansai Urban Banking Corporation of Osaka was described by it CEO a Christian bank. in Osaka also survived the financial crises of the 80s. The bank had a few branches all over Japan and the management of the bank was classified not on area basis where banks have district and area managers who check on the branches having sufficient securities for loans given out, but instead, similar to the Islamic banks, classify the work of supervision of credit facilities to borrowers according to their business activities whereby a manager is appointed in each and every branch to focus on supervising and solving the problems faced by borrowers of each business. The bank developed a pool of expertise in every trade to enable it to be able to solve the many problems of each trade. However there is an un-Christian practice in the bank whereby normal interests are charged and not considered 'haram' as before the Medici Bankers appointed one of their family members to be the Pope to legitimize interest in Christianity. The Christian character of the bank is more in the character of its officials, particularly its CEO Tadahiko Ito who had written two earlier books entitled 'Spiritual Management' and 'Celestine Lifestyle'. He liked the rich and met with between 2 to 4 businessmen every working day. Entrepreneurs grew in their contact with him.
101. Both the Islamic and the Christian banks focused on solving financial needs and problems and not just on giving loans only against under-valued securities. They are problem-solving banks. We need that in Malaysia.
Genting Highlands
102. I met TS Lim Gong Tong who came to my office in the Ministry of Home Affairs over the suicide attempt by a Singaporean lady after she lost everything, even her car and herself, at his Casino at Genting Highlands.
103. TS Lim was a contractor for building the drainage system in KADA, Kelantan. On his way back from Kota Bharu with his Taiwanese engineer graduate of Waseda University, Tokyo, B. U. Lee ( Kottera - a Japanese name given by his professor), they passed through Genting Highland.
104. B. U. Lee suggested to TS Lim that he grabbed the casino licence that the government had offered to Low Yat for his Langkawi Island Resort. This license was withheld because it was opposed by UMNO Kedah as it would become an issue in the forthcoming election. The candidate for Langkawi-Kuala Kedah constituency was at that time the Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.
105. As they passed the ravine nearest the peak of Genting Highlands, B. U. Lee, who was a civil engineer, looked up the hill and suggested a casino on the hill-stop where Muslims can easily be prevented from patronizing.
106. B. U. Lee then became the consulting engineer for the road built up to the top of Genting Highlands.
107. The rest of Genting Highland's development is history.
Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad's Birthday
108. However, I once had a memorable experience when I had a family weekend at Awana. It was on the 13th July which is my wife's birthday. My wife and I met Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah in the Awana restaurant and we wished her happy birthday as her birthday was on 12th July. She said that they were in Awana for Tun Dr. Mahathir's birthday. When I reminded her that Tun Mahathir's birthday was on 20th December she told me that 20th December is his official birthday, as all birthdays of Mr. Muhammad's children were back-dated to December to enable them to go to school earlier, and that Tun Mahathir's real birthday was on 10th July which means that when he celebrates his birthday he is always 205 days older than he really is. It was then that I knew we have the same birth-date with 18 years difference (of course I am younger though my doctor, who assisted in the heart operation of Tun Dr. Mahathir told me that my heart appears to be as old if not older than Tun's).
112. It was The Chartered Bank of Penang who wrote a letter introducing TS Low Boon Siew to its Tokyo branch requesting the small but respectable bicycle dealer to be introduced to a 'cycle' dealer which was interpreted by the Tokyo bank manager as 'motor-cycle' instead of 'bicycle'. TS Boon Siew ended as a HONDA tycoon in Malaysia.
114. TS Hanafiah Hussain was the first Malaysian, not just Malay, Chartered Account. I would consider him as the man who successfully practices good management just as Peter Drucker was good at thinking about management and writing books on management. He was the owner-operator of MAS Printing which was the biggest privately owned Malay printing press during its time. TS Hanafiah was famous in other areas of business as CEO of a number of Public Enterprises.
115. He was entrusted by Tun Abdul Razak to be the first General Manager of Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA)
116. After FELDA he was asked to head Lembaga Urusan dan Tabung Haji (LUTH) as its first General Manager.
117. When Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) was formed he was asked to lead it as its first CEO.
118. He was The Chairman of Bank Bumiputra and later became the Malaysian Charge D'Affairs in Taiwan before he retired to be a full-time husband and golfer. He is as young as Tun Dr. Mahathir and was in the same hostel as His Majesty the Yang Di Pertuan Agong.
134. Pak Raden was a grateful entrepreneur.
FOUR FAMOUS KOREANS
136. I was Deputy Minister when I met Chung Ju-Yung at the Seoul headquarters of the HYUNDAI company that he founded which is now the leading shipbuilder in the world. I visited his factory to see the small left hand drive Pony Car. Malaysia could not go on joint venture with Hyundai as it was tied to an agreement with Mitsubishi on technical assistance.
137. Whatever is written in his biography Mr. Chung's closest aide told me personally that he was driving a lorry when he heard the President of South Korea announcing the government's intention to purchase 2 ships. He then wrote a letter to the President of South Korea asking for the contract to build, in South Korea itself, the 2 ships that the government intended to purchase. At that time South Korea did not have any shipbuilding industry. When I repeated this version to Mr. Chung he smiled and did not disagree.
138. He sent a copy of the President's letter to the bankers and shipbuilders in Britain. He only received one reply from Barclays Bank. When he met the bankers in London they could not accept the President's letter as a guarantee of repayment but would prefer either Onasis or Niarchos in Athens. It was with Niarchos's letter that the bankers and shipbuilders were prepared to assist Mr. Chung in building the shipbuilding factory in South Korea to build the ships ordered by the South Korean government.
139. Mr. Chung was playing football, as centre-forward at the age past 70 together with his factory workers when I arrived at the headquarters of Hyundai. It is Public Relations, hard-work and determination that makes Hyundai grew so fast to become the largest shipbuilders in the world.
140. Many years earlier while studying and working in Hamburg I met Dr. Kim Woo Chung and his elder brother Prof. Dr. Kim Duk Chung. They are well educated. Their father was the teacher of President Park Chung Hee of South Korea.
141. The two South Korean brothers whom I met in Hamburg are the founders of Daewoo Corporation. They were in Hamburg to sell unbranded ready made shirts of branded quality which were sewn by about 100 seamstresses in their Saemaul Undong factory, with 50 sewing machines, in a village at the border with North Korea.
142. From 100 workers in 1969 Daewoo had about 160,000 employees by 1978 working in Daewoo textile factories making products for Sears Roebuck, J. C. Penny, Woolworth and Marks & Spencer besides the first European importer Otto Versand which we introduced them to.
143. Otto Versandt opened the first red-clause Letter of Credit for Daewoo to buy German machinery and to get a German master cutter to advise them in South Korea.
144. Before I went to Seoul to study their Saemul Undong programme I visited the South Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to ask whether the company whose officials, as in the business card, that I entertained in Hamburg were still doing good business. The next morning my wife and I were invited to The Paddock at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur, for dinner, with the Ambassador. He handed us two first class return tickets to Seoul for immediate departure.
145. When I came out of the airline at the airport in Seoul I thought there was a VIP on the flight as a red carpet was laid from the foot of the first class stairs to a waiting small executive jet. A lady tapped me on the shoulder and told me and my wife to get onto the red carpet to the waiting jet. At Yulsan I was pleasantly surprised to see, waiting at the foot of the stairs, of the aeroplane, the two brothers and 10 others welcoming me to their manufacturing city. That was the first and the last time I was ever received on a red carpet at an airport.
146. As a parting gift, after the visit, I was given a bronze model of a boat in the shape of a turtle and was informed that the boat was a model of the boats used by Admiral Yi Sun-shin (April 28, 1545 - December 16, 1598) when he led the 'Turtle Armada' to defeat the Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Japan.
147. According to Dr. Kim Woo Chung it was Admiral Yi and the Silla kings of a thousand years ago who motivated the Koreans to unity and patriotism by promoting the Hwarang Spirit.
148. I knew H. E. Mr. Lee Myung-bak who is now the President of South Korea when Tun Dr. Mahathir decided on building the Penang bridge.
149. Under the New Economic Policy 30% of the business of building the bridge must be given to Bumiputera. I was asked by the Prime Minister to look for Bumiputera partners to participate in the bridge project. I first contacted Dato' Syed Kecik to consider the offer. After a week of looking for the proposal Dato' Syed Kecik turned down the offer as he said that the Penang bridge was not a profitable venture. The second person I contacted was Tan Sri Ibrahim of Promet. He too said, after a detail study, that the project was a loss to Hyundai and that TS Ibrahim was not interested in having 30% losses. The 30% Bumiputera participation certainly did not mean sharing losses up to 30%.
150. Mr. Lee Myung-bak confirmed that the Penang bridge was to be built at a losss to Hyundai because Hyundai was regarding the loss as public relations expenditure to build the reputation of Hyundai as a builder of bridges.
151. It was from President Lee Myung-bak that I learnt the benefits of losing in order to win in the long term. President Lee was a successful leader, manager and entrepreneur.
152. When Tun Dr. Mahathir cause the award for Shamelin Cooperative a piece of land in Cheras for real estate, before I left Shamelin to join the government, he asked me to find an able partner to jointly undertake the project. President Lee Myung-bak kindly agreed to partner with Shamelin and thus the formation of KIMALI Sdn. Bhd. an Ali-Baba company, which in this case the baba is KIM the Korean. The result of this joint venture is the development of Taman Shamelin Perkasa real estate in Cheras.
THIRTY YEARS AS ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE
TWO TAIWANESE FRIENDS
157. Vice President Vincent Siew was formerly the Prime Minister of Taiwan. Before that he was the Minister of Economic Affairs which included handicrafts. It was from him that I found out that Taiwan marketed handicrafts from the Philippines to the United States
158. As handicraft is one of the major exported products of the Philippines, and Taiwan was probably the biggest marketer of these handicrafts the products were transported from Taiwan to the United States by Taiwan Airlines. The impact of this industry is so great that the Philippines was forced to lift the ban on Taiwan Airlines from landing in Manila, as it was the aeroplane that brought the ousted Aquino back to the Philippines. It was due to economic pressure from the thousands of handicraft producers that cause the change in political decision. With the encouragement of Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah my Ministry was encouraged to form the KARYANEKA handicrafts center.
159. While chit-chatting with Vincent after dinner at his house I saw Vincent's wife going out through the door to the roof-top, with a head-lamp and two buckets. She told me that she was going out to water the padi plants and spray the fertilizer for the roots. She was growing padi on the roof-top.
160. At that time I was the Minister for National and Rural Development and responsible for handicrafts and village industries development. It was when I was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture that I was reminded of growing padi on the roof top as a programme. I asked Mardi to build a structure for that purpose in Province Wellesley. That experiment proved that such method, just as growing padi in a concrete basin will economise the water and the fertilizer by more than 90 percent. Water from dams and fertilizer being sprayed in the open padi fields mainly go to the sea or sipped into the ground.
161. Now, not only padi but other food plants are grown not only on roof-tops but also in multistorey buildings. The western world has found that it is more economic to grow food products in multi-storey building near New York and Paris than to buy them from rural America or to transport them from Italy or Spain having to pay exorbitant transport charges, besides avoiding wastage of water and fertilizer. Even China is now growing padi and vegetables in multi-storey buildings. It is a subject of the future.
162. This idea of growing padi on roof-tops was heavily ridiculed by those who do not see into the future of technology or the future of agriculture.
163. Before I left Vincent Siew I asked him for a reason that Taiwan is very rich and China remains very crowded and poor. He said, 'They are not Chinese, they are communists.' When I asked for the reason as to why one can succeed while the other failed, Vincent informed me that being communists the mainland Chinese become westernised, by the German Jew Karl Marx, in their thinking and therefore they ceased being Chinese.
164. Being Chinese, the Taiwanese, at least a fair number of them, adopt the Jin-sheng principles. With these principles they cannot fail.
165. When Zhao Ziyang, the 3rd Prime Minister of China. visited Malaysia I was the Minister in attendance. He showed me a photo of me demonstrating in London against the American War on Vietnam. I was shocked but pleasantly surprised as that event took place in London more than 10 years ago. After showing my photo we opened up to one another and spoke quite freely. He told me that China was very embarrassed when Malaysia successfully smuggled out of China Musa Ahmad, then chairman of the Malaysian Communist Party, and family, during the time Tun Ghazalie Shafie was the Home Minister,
166. I became more courageous in my conversation with him. I told him that I, not mentioning Malaysia, was intrigued by China's attitude in wanting to be a friend of Malaysia but at the same time supporting the terrorists of the Communist Party of Malaya with their base in China.
167. Prime Minister Zhao replied, 'Comrade Sanusi, by doing that you will like us and trust us as a loyal friend. We cannot just drop or even ignore the Communist Party of Malaya when they were our friends since the British colonised your country. We will keep our friendship with them but will not support their terrorist activities any more. They will fade away with time. We will also not abandon Malaysia should one day one of Malaysia's current enemy becomes our new friend.
168. 'Is this what our Home Minister said a 'sweet sour fish' diplomacy where you become friends with both enemies, with different tastes, sweet and sour, fighting one another?'
169. Zhao replied, 'No. you will understand us better with time. There is a Chinese saying which says 'the strength of a horse is dependent on the distance it can run; the sincerity of the heart is measured by time.'
170. I then told Prime Minister Zhao what Vincent Siew, the Prime Minister of Taiwan, said to me that 'China is communist and not Chinese, but Taiwan is Chinese' as a reason for Taiwan's progress. I was surprised when he replied, 'That is correct. Vincent is a good and clever man.' He paused and continued 'All that will change.' I was really sorry when Prime Minister Zhao was abandoned by the communist party in China after his return from Malaysia.
BACK TO TAIWAN
171. The second Taiwanese friend who was of great help to me was B. U. Lee who was together with TS Lim Goh Tong on their way from Kelantan when they recognized Genting Highlands as a potential site for a casino.
172. It was through B. U. Lee that I was brought to see President Vincent Siew who was a customer of The Chartered Bank in Kuala Lumpur when he was the representative of Taiwan in Kuala Lumpur during his younger days.
173. B. U. Lee, though a Taiwanese, studied at Waseda University in Tokyo. He was introduced to his wife by his Professor and was given the name Kottera. He appeared to be for the Kuomintang.
174. After graduation he did not go back to Taiwan but instead worked in the income tax department in the Japanese Ministry of Finance. It was while he was on that job that he came to know many great businessmen who paid exorbitant taxes.
175. B. U. Lee was introduced to me by Tan Sri Senu Abdul Rahman when I was the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Land and Regional Development. Mr. Lee introduced me to Mitsui Miike who was at that time trying to sell to Felda the machine that they produce in order to refine palm-oil wastes.
176. Felda did not buy any of Mitsui Miikie machineries but B. U. Lee became close friends. He introduced me to a retired General Liu who was then practicing palmistry with an office at Central Hotel, Penang. The general was a palmist for the Taiwan army.
FOUR FAMOUS JAPANESE ENTREPRENEURS
177. It was through B. U. Lee ( Mr. Kottera - a Japanese Taiwanese ) that I was introduced to four Japanese entrepreneurs who were in close contact with him when he was in the Japanese Income Tax Department. They are:
179. I was pleasantly surprised when Tun Mahathir eventually managed to have technical cooperation with Mitsubishi to build the Proton cars.
234. An entrepreneur is certainly a man or a woman with great ambition to succeed. If he is unsuccessful in his studies he will try to do better in life than his successful classmates.
238. An entrepreneur is not an isolated person and that he survives within a network which he is a member of or build the network himself.
242. It is important to be reminded again of what I asked former Prime Minister of Taiwan Vincent Siew, formerly a Taiwan representative in Kuala Lumpur and customer of The Chartered Bank, as to why Taiwan was progressing and China was not. He replied that Taiwan is Chinese while China was not Chinese but communists (paragraph 163 above). They do not appreciate the Chinese values. They try to follow Marx, Engels and Lenin who do not know of Chinese values. I told Vincent that I could not believe all the Taiwanese have all the above values. He confirmed my belief but said that in a small country like Taiwan you need only about 10,000 leaders in the government and the private sector, at all levels of leadership and management. to uphold the above values. With that the country can prosper.
243. The other Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China whom I had long discussions with, besides Zhao Ziyang (paragraph 165 above) was Zhu Rongji. He was in Langkawi to meet Tun Dr. Mahathir when I was the Menteri Besar of Kedah. As he returned to China in the late afternoon of one Wednesday, and as Tun Mahathir left early for the cabinet meeting in Kuala Lumpur I spent about 6 hours talking with Prime Minister Zhu Rongji.
244. I did ask Prime Minister Zhu Rongji as to whether he was going to democratize China. He said that it was the wrong thing to do and suggested that I look at Russia. Russia went into a mess because they tried to reform and democratize their political system first before their economy is reformed. Zhu Rongji told me it would not be possible to accelerate the development of China under a democratic system. There is no workers' strike under communism.
245. To a second question on China's dependency on the U. S. market he said that it is the reason why China cannot democratize so fast. Under a democracy, going on strike is a habit of workers not happy with their job. Some of these strikes could be provoked from outside China in order to slow China's growth. Should the U. S. close its market to China then jobs will be lost in China and workers will go on strike. They cannot do that under a communist system. China needs communism to discipline its population. Being Chinese the entrepreneurs are free to prosper and that will ensure national progress, and not just democracy.
246. Obviously, pragmatism is the political language of China and not ideology. Discipline is of course one of the values prompted by the Jinsheng spirit.
CLEAR-MINDED APPROACH
264. Tun Mohd. Ghazalie Shafie was the Minister in the Ministry of Home Affairs when I was made his deputy. He was an intellectual, and a successful diplomat in the Civil Service. He was the last member, as far as I can remember, of the British Intelligence, from Force 136 who was dropped in Padang Terap when the British was fighting the Japanse.
266. As the communist terrorists were still roaming our forest in those days Tun Ghazalie sent me to the Isle of Wight, Taipei and Seoul to learn the methods that was applied by them in dealing with the threat of Russia, China and North Korea.
108. However, I once had a memorable experience when I had a family weekend at Awana. It was on the 13th July which is my wife's birthday. My wife and I met Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah in the Awana restaurant and we wished her happy birthday as her birthday was on 12th July. She said that they were in Awana for Tun Dr. Mahathir's birthday. When I reminded her that Tun Mahathir's birthday was on 20th December she told me that 20th December is his official birthday, as all birthdays of Mr. Muhammad's children were back-dated to December to enable them to go to school earlier, and that Tun Mahathir's real birthday was on 10th July which means that when he celebrates his birthday he is always 205 days older than he really is. It was then that I knew we have the same birth-date with 18 years difference (of course I am younger though my doctor, who assisted in the heart operation of Tun Dr. Mahathir told me that my heart appears to be as old if not older than Tun's).
Chinese Diplomacy
109. I remembered asking Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, who joined me for breakfast at 8.15 am and ate so little, as to how he could work so hard climbing all the slopes in Genting Highlands when he ate so little. He asked me whether I could wake up at 6 am tomorrow to see something. After Subuh prayers Tan Sri Lim rang up and from the lobby I went together with him to the canteen where I saw him eating a lot of porridge and other dishes in the morning.
110. Tan Sri Lim told me that he ate a lot for breakfast and that his 8.15 am breakfast was the second breakfast, as a matter of courtesy, with VIPs visiting Awana. The second breakfast was not his real breakfast just as there is real birth date and official birth date recorded by Tun Mahathir's father to expedite his children's entry into school.
Is a Cycle a Bicycle or a Motor Cycle?
111. I met Tan Sri Low Boon Siew, the second famous Chinese entrepreneur that I know, as a customer of The Chartered Bank when I was relieving the duties of the branch accountant in Penang.
112. It was The Chartered Bank of Penang who wrote a letter introducing TS Low Boon Siew to its Tokyo branch requesting the small but respectable bicycle dealer to be introduced to a 'cycle' dealer which was interpreted by the Tokyo bank manager as 'motor-cycle' instead of 'bicycle'. TS Boon Siew ended as a HONDA tycoon in Malaysia.
MALAYS
113. Four Malay entrepreneurs, big and small, came to my mind. I will however not write about those who are still active in the business world. They are:
Tan Sri Hanafiah Hussain
Pak Wahi Makam
Haji Ahmad Dobi
and
Pak Raden Salleh
Haji Ahmad Dobi
and
Pak Raden Salleh
Four Firsts in A Row
114. TS Hanafiah Hussain was the first Malaysian, not just Malay, Chartered Account. I would consider him as the man who successfully practices good management just as Peter Drucker was good at thinking about management and writing books on management. He was the owner-operator of MAS Printing which was the biggest privately owned Malay printing press during its time. TS Hanafiah was famous in other areas of business as CEO of a number of Public Enterprises.
115. He was entrusted by Tun Abdul Razak to be the first General Manager of Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA)
116. After FELDA he was asked to head Lembaga Urusan dan Tabung Haji (LUTH) as its first General Manager.
117. When Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) was formed he was asked to lead it as its first CEO.
118. He was The Chairman of Bank Bumiputra and later became the Malaysian Charge D'Affairs in Taiwan before he retired to be a full-time husband and golfer. He is as young as Tun Dr. Mahathir and was in the same hostel as His Majesty the Yang Di Pertuan Agong.
Kampung Aceh Yan
119. I knew Pa' Wahi Makam in Penang, Malaysia since I was a kid. Pak Wahi was illiterate but able to read the Quran. Despite being illiterate at the time of his death he was richer than the sum total of wealth of his 7 graduate children.
120. He started of as a coconut climber in Aceh after which he became a cook in a Medan restaurant before owning it and later migrated to Penang trading in copra and spices. He also owned plantations and real estates , ending his life as a very wealthy man.
120. He started of as a coconut climber in Aceh after which he became a cook in a Medan restaurant before owning it and later migrated to Penang trading in copra and spices. He also owned plantations and real estates , ending his life as a very wealthy man.
Alor Setar
121. I met Hj. Ahmad Dobby ( I don't really know his real name ) by chance when I was running a retail chain-store cooperative before Giant, Tesco, Jusco and Carrefour existed in Malaysia.
122. The cooperative retail shops and mini-markets was in competition with PERNAS EDAR, a government owned agency that came later. After losing RM3m of member's subscriptions we closed shops to be followed by PERNAS EDAR which closed their wholesale cum retail outlets after losing about RM100m of public funds.
122. The cooperative retail shops and mini-markets was in competition with PERNAS EDAR, a government owned agency that came later. After losing RM3m of member's subscriptions we closed shops to be followed by PERNAS EDAR which closed their wholesale cum retail outlets after losing about RM100m of public funds.
123. Haji Ahmad Dobi which I mentioned earlier as a successful Malay entrepreneur was a laundry man as his nickname suggests. As a laundry man he realized that a lot of successful people travel by air. He also learned that the owners of travel agencies are allowed to fly around the world at a big discount of around 90%.
124. Haji Ahmad therefore started a travel agent business. He further learned only the prosperous and the powerful travel in first class when economy seats are still available on airlines.
125. Haji Ahmad always traveled first class and spent his time introducing himself to other passengers and inviting them to come to Malaysia for holidays.
126. One elderly couple whom Haji Ahmad met, on a flight from Hongkong to Singapore, and invited to Kuala Lumpur after a stay in Singapore, actually took the offer
127. This elderly gentlemen returned to the United States just to come again to set up a Motorola factory and Haji Ahmad Dobi had a percentage of the shares before being issued to the public. He was a rich customer of The Chartered Bank in Alor Setar.
Parit Raja
128. If one goes to Parit Raja in Johor you will find a traditional herbal medicine (makjun) processing center manufacturing makjun 'Peladang'. It did not go by this brand name in 1956 when Pak Raden started selling in weekday markets a herbal medicine branded makjun 'Arjuna'. Arjuna is the character in the Indonesian shadow play called 'petrok'. Pak Raden is from the island of Madura in Indonesia.
129. I met Pak Raden selling his herbal medicine in a Wednesday market or 'Pekan Rabu' on Wednesday in the town of Guar Chempedak. As a boy of thirteen I volunteered to rythmicaly beat the drum while he chanted away his selling points to the listeners.
130. I met Pak Raden again when I was the Minister of National and Rural Development which looks after MARA with loan scheme for small and medium scale industries for Bumiputras. I was giving a talk in front of about 300 small businessmen on their responsibilities as borrowers when, in the midst of my speech, the elderly Pak Raden went up the stage to hug me after not having met one another for around 26 years.
131. Pak Raden deserved to have the MARA loan not because of the hugging but because of being a persistent and hard-working entrepreneur.
132. Pak Raden was helpful to me when I became the Minister of Agriculture as he rebutted, on behalf of all the traditional medicine experts, a popular belief, that drinking coconut water reduces the sexual potencies of men.
133. At that time the World Bank had classified coconut as a sunset crop, with its cholesterol contents, and that there would be no more allocations for coconut replanting grants from the World Bank. This prejudice of the World Bank was proven wrong with the success of the drinking coconut water campaign.
134. Pak Raden was a grateful entrepreneur.
FOUR FAMOUS KOREANS
135. I am glad to have also known 4 famous South Korean entrepreneurs:
Chung Ju-Yung
Dr. Kim Woo Chong
Prof. Dr. Kim Duck Chung
and
President Lee Myung-bak
Hyundai
136. I was Deputy Minister when I met Chung Ju-Yung at the Seoul headquarters of the HYUNDAI company that he founded which is now the leading shipbuilder in the world. I visited his factory to see the small left hand drive Pony Car. Malaysia could not go on joint venture with Hyundai as it was tied to an agreement with Mitsubishi on technical assistance.
137. Whatever is written in his biography Mr. Chung's closest aide told me personally that he was driving a lorry when he heard the President of South Korea announcing the government's intention to purchase 2 ships. He then wrote a letter to the President of South Korea asking for the contract to build, in South Korea itself, the 2 ships that the government intended to purchase. At that time South Korea did not have any shipbuilding industry. When I repeated this version to Mr. Chung he smiled and did not disagree.
139. Mr. Chung was playing football, as centre-forward at the age past 70 together with his factory workers when I arrived at the headquarters of Hyundai. It is Public Relations, hard-work and determination that makes Hyundai grew so fast to become the largest shipbuilders in the world.
Daewoo
140. Many years earlier while studying and working in Hamburg I met Dr. Kim Woo Chung and his elder brother Prof. Dr. Kim Duk Chung. They are well educated. Their father was the teacher of President Park Chung Hee of South Korea.
141. The two South Korean brothers whom I met in Hamburg are the founders of Daewoo Corporation. They were in Hamburg to sell unbranded ready made shirts of branded quality which were sewn by about 100 seamstresses in their Saemaul Undong factory, with 50 sewing machines, in a village at the border with North Korea.
142. From 100 workers in 1969 Daewoo had about 160,000 employees by 1978 working in Daewoo textile factories making products for Sears Roebuck, J. C. Penny, Woolworth and Marks & Spencer besides the first European importer Otto Versand which we introduced them to.
143. Otto Versandt opened the first red-clause Letter of Credit for Daewoo to buy German machinery and to get a German master cutter to advise them in South Korea.
144. Before I went to Seoul to study their Saemul Undong programme I visited the South Korean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to ask whether the company whose officials, as in the business card, that I entertained in Hamburg were still doing good business. The next morning my wife and I were invited to The Paddock at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur, for dinner, with the Ambassador. He handed us two first class return tickets to Seoul for immediate departure.
145. When I came out of the airline at the airport in Seoul I thought there was a VIP on the flight as a red carpet was laid from the foot of the first class stairs to a waiting small executive jet. A lady tapped me on the shoulder and told me and my wife to get onto the red carpet to the waiting jet. At Yulsan I was pleasantly surprised to see, waiting at the foot of the stairs, of the aeroplane, the two brothers and 10 others welcoming me to their manufacturing city. That was the first and the last time I was ever received on a red carpet at an airport.
146. As a parting gift, after the visit, I was given a bronze model of a boat in the shape of a turtle and was informed that the boat was a model of the boats used by Admiral Yi Sun-shin (April 28, 1545 - December 16, 1598) when he led the 'Turtle Armada' to defeat the Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Japan.
147. According to Dr. Kim Woo Chung it was Admiral Yi and the Silla kings of a thousand years ago who motivated the Koreans to unity and patriotism by promoting the Hwarang Spirit.
The President of South Korea
149. Under the New Economic Policy 30% of the business of building the bridge must be given to Bumiputera. I was asked by the Prime Minister to look for Bumiputera partners to participate in the bridge project. I first contacted Dato' Syed Kecik to consider the offer. After a week of looking for the proposal Dato' Syed Kecik turned down the offer as he said that the Penang bridge was not a profitable venture. The second person I contacted was Tan Sri Ibrahim of Promet. He too said, after a detail study, that the project was a loss to Hyundai and that TS Ibrahim was not interested in having 30% losses. The 30% Bumiputera participation certainly did not mean sharing losses up to 30%.
150. Mr. Lee Myung-bak confirmed that the Penang bridge was to be built at a losss to Hyundai because Hyundai was regarding the loss as public relations expenditure to build the reputation of Hyundai as a builder of bridges.
151. It was from President Lee Myung-bak that I learnt the benefits of losing in order to win in the long term. President Lee was a successful leader, manager and entrepreneur.
152. When Tun Dr. Mahathir cause the award for Shamelin Cooperative a piece of land in Cheras for real estate, before I left Shamelin to join the government, he asked me to find an able partner to jointly undertake the project. President Lee Myung-bak kindly agreed to partner with Shamelin and thus the formation of KIMALI Sdn. Bhd. an Ali-Baba company, which in this case the baba is KIM the Korean. The result of this joint venture is the development of Taman Shamelin Perkasa real estate in Cheras.
THIRTY YEARS AS ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE
153. I spent thirty years as an elected representative, the first four years while I was still a bank executive and I stayed in active politics for 30 years. I spent the last 2 years of being an elected representative, while simultaneously serving in the academic world. After which I continued to serve as President of International Islamic University till 2008.
154. It was while serving in the bank that I became an elected representative, to Parliament and the State Assembly of Kedah, for a period of 30 years.
155. During the first four years as an elected representative I also operated a chain-store Consumer Cooperative movement, formed and chaired an insurance company (Tugu Insurance which now becomes Arab Malaysia Insurance after having the first name change to Tugu Eagle Insurance) and headed a public unlisted company for the farmers.
TWO TAIWANESE FRIENDS
156. I have enjoyed my friendship with two enterprising Taiwanese leaders in industry and government.
They are:
They are:
Vice President Vincent Siew
and
B. U. Lee (Kottera)
and
B. U. Lee (Kottera)
157. Vice President Vincent Siew was formerly the Prime Minister of Taiwan. Before that he was the Minister of Economic Affairs which included handicrafts. It was from him that I found out that Taiwan marketed handicrafts from the Philippines to the United States
158. As handicraft is one of the major exported products of the Philippines, and Taiwan was probably the biggest marketer of these handicrafts the products were transported from Taiwan to the United States by Taiwan Airlines. The impact of this industry is so great that the Philippines was forced to lift the ban on Taiwan Airlines from landing in Manila, as it was the aeroplane that brought the ousted Aquino back to the Philippines. It was due to economic pressure from the thousands of handicraft producers that cause the change in political decision. With the encouragement of Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah my Ministry was encouraged to form the KARYANEKA handicrafts center.
159. While chit-chatting with Vincent after dinner at his house I saw Vincent's wife going out through the door to the roof-top, with a head-lamp and two buckets. She told me that she was going out to water the padi plants and spray the fertilizer for the roots. She was growing padi on the roof-top.
Roof-top Padi Growing
160. At that time I was the Minister for National and Rural Development and responsible for handicrafts and village industries development. It was when I was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture that I was reminded of growing padi on the roof top as a programme. I asked Mardi to build a structure for that purpose in Province Wellesley. That experiment proved that such method, just as growing padi in a concrete basin will economise the water and the fertilizer by more than 90 percent. Water from dams and fertilizer being sprayed in the open padi fields mainly go to the sea or sipped into the ground.
161. Now, not only padi but other food plants are grown not only on roof-tops but also in multistorey buildings. The western world has found that it is more economic to grow food products in multi-storey building near New York and Paris than to buy them from rural America or to transport them from Italy or Spain having to pay exorbitant transport charges, besides avoiding wastage of water and fertilizer. Even China is now growing padi and vegetables in multi-storey buildings. It is a subject of the future.
162. This idea of growing padi on roof-tops was heavily ridiculed by those who do not see into the future of technology or the future of agriculture.
Being Communist Is Not Being Chinese
163. Before I left Vincent Siew I asked him for a reason that Taiwan is very rich and China remains very crowded and poor. He said, 'They are not Chinese, they are communists.' When I asked for the reason as to why one can succeed while the other failed, Vincent informed me that being communists the mainland Chinese become westernised, by the German Jew Karl Marx, in their thinking and therefore they ceased being Chinese.
164. Being Chinese, the Taiwanese, at least a fair number of them, adopt the Jin-sheng principles. With these principles they cannot fail.
The Strength of A Horse and The Sincerity of The Heart
165. When Zhao Ziyang, the 3rd Prime Minister of China. visited Malaysia I was the Minister in attendance. He showed me a photo of me demonstrating in London against the American War on Vietnam. I was shocked but pleasantly surprised as that event took place in London more than 10 years ago. After showing my photo we opened up to one another and spoke quite freely. He told me that China was very embarrassed when Malaysia successfully smuggled out of China Musa Ahmad, then chairman of the Malaysian Communist Party, and family, during the time Tun Ghazalie Shafie was the Home Minister,
166. I became more courageous in my conversation with him. I told him that I, not mentioning Malaysia, was intrigued by China's attitude in wanting to be a friend of Malaysia but at the same time supporting the terrorists of the Communist Party of Malaya with their base in China.
167. Prime Minister Zhao replied, 'Comrade Sanusi, by doing that you will like us and trust us as a loyal friend. We cannot just drop or even ignore the Communist Party of Malaya when they were our friends since the British colonised your country. We will keep our friendship with them but will not support their terrorist activities any more. They will fade away with time. We will also not abandon Malaysia should one day one of Malaysia's current enemy becomes our new friend.
168. 'Is this what our Home Minister said a 'sweet sour fish' diplomacy where you become friends with both enemies, with different tastes, sweet and sour, fighting one another?'
169. Zhao replied, 'No. you will understand us better with time. There is a Chinese saying which says 'the strength of a horse is dependent on the distance it can run; the sincerity of the heart is measured by time.'
All That Will Change
170. I then told Prime Minister Zhao what Vincent Siew, the Prime Minister of Taiwan, said to me that 'China is communist and not Chinese, but Taiwan is Chinese' as a reason for Taiwan's progress. I was surprised when he replied, 'That is correct. Vincent is a good and clever man.' He paused and continued 'All that will change.' I was really sorry when Prime Minister Zhao was abandoned by the communist party in China after his return from Malaysia.
BACK TO TAIWAN
171. The second Taiwanese friend who was of great help to me was B. U. Lee who was together with TS Lim Goh Tong on their way from Kelantan when they recognized Genting Highlands as a potential site for a casino.
172. It was through B. U. Lee that I was brought to see President Vincent Siew who was a customer of The Chartered Bank in Kuala Lumpur when he was the representative of Taiwan in Kuala Lumpur during his younger days.
173. B. U. Lee, though a Taiwanese, studied at Waseda University in Tokyo. He was introduced to his wife by his Professor and was given the name Kottera. He appeared to be for the Kuomintang.
174. After graduation he did not go back to Taiwan but instead worked in the income tax department in the Japanese Ministry of Finance. It was while he was on that job that he came to know many great businessmen who paid exorbitant taxes.
175. B. U. Lee was introduced to me by Tan Sri Senu Abdul Rahman when I was the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Land and Regional Development. Mr. Lee introduced me to Mitsui Miike who was at that time trying to sell to Felda the machine that they produce in order to refine palm-oil wastes.
176. Felda did not buy any of Mitsui Miikie machineries but B. U. Lee became close friends. He introduced me to a retired General Liu who was then practicing palmistry with an office at Central Hotel, Penang. The general was a palmist for the Taiwan army.
FOUR FAMOUS JAPANESE ENTREPRENEURS
177. It was through B. U. Lee ( Mr. Kottera - a Japanese Taiwanese ) that I was introduced to four Japanese entrepreneurs who were in close contact with him when he was in the Japanese Income Tax Department. They are:
Bumpei Ohtski
Noboru Gotoh
Kazuo Yatsugi
Kazuo Yatsugi
and
Ryoichi Sasakawa
Mitsubishi
178. Bumpei Ohtski was the CEO of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when I was introduced to him by Mr. Kottera. Bumpei confirmed that Mitsubishi had a technical agreement with Hyundai to build Pony cars and that Hyundai cannot have any joint venture with any other company for a period of years. I told Mr. Ohtski that Tun Mahathir was interested in manufacturing small sports cars in Malaysia.
179. I was pleasantly surprised when Tun Mahathir eventually managed to have technical cooperation with Mitsubishi to build the Proton cars.
TOKYU Corporation
180. As I was running a retail cooperative before joining the government I was introduced, on another visit to Japan, to Mr. Noburu Gotoh who was the founder of the Tokyu Group of companies which operated a chain of hotels and chain department stores, at major railway, stations in Japan. Noburu Gotoh agreed to assist Shamelin Cooperative to develop a model department store. The result was Subang Parade although Shamelin was not a partner when it was established. The site for Subang Parade was agreeable to Mr. Gotoh as it is near a railway line which could serve as escalator to department stores as all Tokyu department stores in Japan were at the railway station. Initially he was eyeing the piece of land at the junction to Subang Airport which was said to be owned by Ipoh Garden.
181. One of my friends once asked me as to why there was a small railway station near Subang Parade when it was hardly used. Lack of communication must have been the reason.
181. One of my friends once asked me as to why there was a small railway station near Subang Parade when it was hardly used. Lack of communication must have been the reason.
182. Mr. Gotoh was addicted to golf and he had a putting matt in his office. I was informed that the right time to approach him is when he puts the golf-ball into the hole. Gotoh's secretary was peeping through the peep-hole in the door of Gotoh's office when he called me to go in. Gotoh greeted me with a smile and showed me how he had successfully put the ball into the hole as the matt was such that it was made to be a difficult task to perform.
183. I told Mr. Gotoh my interest in learning from him the way to go to improve and enlarge the Shamelin chain of shops. But he was more interested in having a hotel in Malaysia and talked a lot about his golf hotel in Hawai. He introduced me to Mr. Arai who was in charge of his hotels.
184. Time passed by and nothing happened until I was informed by Mr. Kottera that you should invite him as a state guest as he is a very proud man. As I was in the Ministry of Home Affairs, and after I had the green light from Tun Dr. Mahathir on his interest in building a hotel near PWTC, and with the approval of my Minister, I had a red carpet laid at the airport upon Gotoh's arrival and whisked him off to Tun Mahathir's office escorted by police cars as is always done for visiting VIPs. Gotoh felt honoured and his meeting with Tun Dr. Mahathir resulted in the construction of the Pan Pacific Hotel as part of the Tokyu chain of hotels.
185. Gotoh's relationship with Tun Mahathir spearheaded him to be the Head of Keidanren (The Japanese Chamber of Commerce) as the Japanese loved Tun's 'Look East Policy' which returned the honour to a nation which loss a war but won in peace.
Books Written by Japanese on Japan
186. As always, whenever I travelled, I took the opportunity to buy books from the best known bookshops in the cities. The Maruzen bookshop, in Ginza, was recommended to me as it was the only bookshop in Japan selling books written in English at that time. I was disappointed to find books in English, on Japan and the Japanese, were all written by either British or Americans.
187. At a meeting with Mr. Yatsugi I mentioned my frustration at finding no books written on Japan by Japanese authors and I suggested that efforts should be made to have the books written by Japanese to be translated into English, as I knew that many Japanese written books are translated into German and vice versa.
188. Yatsugi was a very influential intellectual and he was famous to the LDP and other politicians as 'The Underground Emperor'.
Yakuza
189. As I read on Japan I was intrigued by the famous Yakuza underground movement. One day I read somewhere, I cannot now remember, probably in German, that the head of Yakuza Mr. Ryoichi Sasakawa donated US$500 million to UNESCO. I asked Mr. Kottera whether he knew Mr. Sasakawa personally. Within a month I had an appointment to meet Mr. Sasakawa in Tokyo.
190. But, the Sasakawa Mr. Kottera introduced to me was the famous owner of a mechanical workshop whose workers always run around for their repair appointments without using any mechanical vehicles. It was an interesting meeting until Sasakawa was shocked when I asked about his Yakuza network. It was then that I seeked appointment to meet Ryoichi Sasakawa the Yakuza head. Nobody knew how it could be arranged.
191. It was by chance that the head of Yakuza discovered my interest in meeting him through one of his secret informers, probably working at the mechanical workshop of his namesake. I received a phone call from the Head Office of the Yakuza and Mr. Kottera was nervous when we arrived at the lobby of the multi-storey Yakuza head-quarters.
192. As Mr. Kottera was not allowed to follow Mr. Sasakawa up the stairs, on foot, to the 10th or so level where his office was situated, I was alone with Mr. Ryoichi Sasakawi talking about how he loves children and entertain all letters received from them all over the world. He told me on his involvement in 'Waterology' which he described in anything to do with water. He was involved in boat racing, fishing, shipping and the fire brigade which all involved water.
193. The fire brigade was his contribution to society. He earned a lot of money from boat racing. He owned no ship though involved in shipping and fishing. He explained this by saying that he controlled the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and the Straits of Malacca. Any Japanese fishing boats or ships passing through these waterways 'must donate' to his philanthropic funds. He said sheepishly that he appointed himself to this responsibility.
194. Just at that time he had a phone call from Queen Elizabeth II calling her 'My Dear'. The Queen was wishing him for Christmas and expressed her appreciation for his donation to UNESCO.
195. When I was in Kedah as Menteri Besar a Japanese tanker was attacked off the coast of Kedah. I wondered whether the shipowner forgot to donate to philanthropic fund for children of the world.
196. Besides the Japanese entrepreneurs and the head of Yakuza I am also glad to have known personally the Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso who is the son of the founder of Japan Steel, George Masaki the son of one of the founders of Japan Airlines and especially the Emperor Hirohito of Japan. I was introduced to Taro Aso by his brother in law Arafune who was the First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy when I was in the Home Ministry. I was ashamed by the vast knowledge on fishes that the Emperor of Japan showed when he named the few fishes swimming in the stream of The Agriculure Park of Malaysia, when he visited the park. I did not know the names of those fishes even though I was the Agriculture Minister at that time. The parents of these personalities were all great entrepreneurs while the Emperor was knowledgeable.
207. As this programme on entrepreneurship development will be implimented in IPTAs it is also important to know of my experience when I was in one of the IPTAs.
INSTITUTE OF HIGHER LEARNING
227. Those two incidents were the bad experiences that I went through. Some of those behind the Professors and the Jihadists came forward to apologise recently. But these 2 bad experiences were more than compensated by a good experience.
233. You can see from the above narration I have been exposed personally, through long and short discussion, and through my reading, political leaders in countries with many successful managers and entrepreneurs, and managers, leaders and entrepreneurs themselves. Based on all the above contacts I am rather excited to conclude what I think an entrepreneur should be.
196. Besides the Japanese entrepreneurs and the head of Yakuza I am also glad to have known personally the Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso who is the son of the founder of Japan Steel, George Masaki the son of one of the founders of Japan Airlines and especially the Emperor Hirohito of Japan. I was introduced to Taro Aso by his brother in law Arafune who was the First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy when I was in the Home Ministry. I was ashamed by the vast knowledge on fishes that the Emperor of Japan showed when he named the few fishes swimming in the stream of The Agriculure Park of Malaysia, when he visited the park. I did not know the names of those fishes even though I was the Agriculture Minister at that time. The parents of these personalities were all great entrepreneurs while the Emperor was knowledgeable.
BIOGRAPHIES
197. Most of the characters I mentioned above have biographies written on them. None of what I have told you are found exactly in the book.
198. It is not rare with biographies.
Alfred Sloan
199. Alfred Sloan, at one time the CEO who turned General Motors into the biggest and very profitable of companies in the world, was asked to write his autobiography. Eventually he succumbed to the request and wrote 'My Life With General Motors'. Every corporate guy bought the book and it became a bestseller.
200. Many years after the book was published, sold and read by the CEOs and leaders of industries at different levels in their enterprise, corporate America failed.
201. Commenting on this failure and the book, Peter Drucker, the management guru, said that Alfred Sloan wrote on the methodologies of his management of General Motors but did not write on his character which is the most important factor in his leadership and entrepreneurial success.
202. Alfred Sloan was an educated man. He succeeded but could not teach others to succeed.
Forte
203. Lord Charles Forte was the founder of Forte's chain of hotels and catering businesses. He was uneducated but has his own thought on business and education.
204. From Italy Lord Forte's family migrated to Edinburgh. In 1935 he started his own milk bar in Upper Regent Street, London in 1935. He died at 98 with a business empire worth GBP1.8 billion and employed 68,000 people.
205. He sent all his children to the universities except the most brilliant one which he said he will train himself to take over his business empire. His educated children will help his successor.
204. From Italy Lord Forte's family migrated to Edinburgh. In 1935 he started his own milk bar in Upper Regent Street, London in 1935. He died at 98 with a business empire worth GBP1.8 billion and employed 68,000 people.
205. He sent all his children to the universities except the most brilliant one which he said he will train himself to take over his business empire. His educated children will help his successor.
206. My observation so far is based mostly on my personal contact with the entrepreneurs and my reading about them during my period in business (banking, retailing and insurance)
207. As this programme on entrepreneurship development will be implimented in IPTAs it is also important to know of my experience when I was in one of the IPTAs.
INSTITUTE OF HIGHER LEARNING
Disputed Appointment Letter as President
208. When I received a letter of appointment from the Constitutional Head of the International Islamic University Malaysia ( IIUM ), who is the Sultan of Pahang, I was intending to report on duty on the following Monday when I was visited by 4 Professors the night before. Presumably they were law professors or lectures from India, Pakistan and Sudan.
209. They politely told me that I should not report for duty the next day in order to avoid embarrassment. I showed them the Sultan's letter of appointment which they said was constitutionally invalid. According to them the IIUM constitution stated that the Constitutional Head must consult all the ambassadors who sits on the council or Majlis of the university before a president is appointed.
210. I told these professors that as I understand it when the Prime Minister of Malaysia is said to consult the King when appointing his cabinet it does not mean that the Prime Minister need to get the permission of the King but just to inform the King of his choice of Cabinet Ministers. It is also true in Britain. I followed the same ritual when I was the Chief Minister or Menteri Besar of Kedah.
211. I was so provoked by their argument on the difference between the country's constitution and the university's constitution that I asked for their permission to go up into my library for a while. I came back with four envelopes containing 4 short letters terminating each professor's appointment at the University.
212. I politely told them that the envelopes contain similar letters and that they should challenge me in court on the meaning of 'consultation' as those are termination letters of their contracts. If my appointment as President is regarded as improper by the court then the letter of termination is automatically void. I told them to go home for a rest as they have to do a lot of packing before leaving the country.
213. One of the 4 professors did not go home but stayed in his car, the whole night, with his wife, till morning. His wife had earlier advised him against getting involved in the protest against my appointment. It was from this professor that I knew they were fronting for other academicians who were active supporters of the opposition party.
214. It was from this professor that I learnt about the four being used by Malay academicians to disqualify my appointment.
215. I hope there are not too many academicians, of this type, in Higher Education institutions if the institutions are to be centers for entrepreneurship development.
JIHADIST STUDENTS
216. Three days after I started work as President of IIUM a group of 3 so-called jihadists visited my office to assess my commitment to Islam and Jihad. When I was told that a group of them are in the campus I said that I would only discuss when all their members are present. More than 30 of them came a few days later.
217. Having established that all of them were ready to die in the path of Allah, anywhere in the world, I calmly and clearly continued with a discussion on the preparation for their eventual death. I asked them as to the period within which each one of them were ready to die as it would be impossible to die together without an earthquake or a tsunami.
218. If they wish to die immediately or as soon as possible I would then recommend that they go to Aceh, Indonesia who was fighting a war declared by the government against them.
219. If they are ready to die between one week to one month I would recommend that they find their way to the Southern Philippines and work with Abu Sayyaf, and if they are unsure and would like to have a hard life first before their death I recommended that they go to Afghanistan or Palestine.
218. If they wish to die immediately or as soon as possible I would then recommend that they go to Aceh, Indonesia who was fighting a war declared by the government against them.
219. If they are ready to die between one week to one month I would recommend that they find their way to the Southern Philippines and work with Abu Sayyaf, and if they are unsure and would like to have a hard life first before their death I recommended that they go to Afghanistan or Palestine.
220. But before that they must write four letters.
221. One letter to the government of Malaysia offering an apology for having wasted so much time, money and manpower to educate them this far.
222. The second letter should be sent to their parents to tell them that they should continue suffering in this life as their only son, if so, have decided not to come back with a degree, to work and support their parents, and that they promise to take their parents along to heaven as an alternative to providing them with support on this wretched earth.
223. The third letter is to inform the government of each student's own country, if the student had come on a government scholarship.
224. The fourth letter is to the university itself to notify the place for the graveyard and the method of payments for the cost of the burial to also cover transportation cost to the heroes' mousselium.
221. One letter to the government of Malaysia offering an apology for having wasted so much time, money and manpower to educate them this far.
222. The second letter should be sent to their parents to tell them that they should continue suffering in this life as their only son, if so, have decided not to come back with a degree, to work and support their parents, and that they promise to take their parents along to heaven as an alternative to providing them with support on this wretched earth.
223. The third letter is to inform the government of each student's own country, if the student had come on a government scholarship.
224. The fourth letter is to the university itself to notify the place for the graveyard and the method of payments for the cost of the burial to also cover transportation cost to the heroes' mousselium.
225. I told each one of them to register their names to the Imam of the mosque for a training in the preparation and prayer before burial.
226. Looking at the seriousness of my proposal they assumed that I was a Jihadist who needs no help from them. It was probably for this reason that Senior Minister of Singapore once commented that IIUM is the training center for terrorists. He must have had an incomplete intelligence report.
227. Those two incidents were the bad experiences that I went through. Some of those behind the Professors and the Jihadists came forward to apologise recently. But these 2 bad experiences were more than compensated by a good experience.
The Mufti of Bosnia
228. An ex-lecturer of IIUM is now the Mufti of Bosnia. On a visit to Malaysia he stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. He got into a taxi with an English speaking Malay taxi driver.
229. The Mufti sat in the front seat of the taxi and immediately saw a verse (ayat) from the Quran calling for jihad. When asked by the Mufti the driver replied that he knew the meaning of the ayat. Othman confidently asked the Mufti the country he was from and asked about his profession. Being an Al Azhar, Cairo graduate the Mufti wore a rounded head-gear with a red top. You see that type of head-gear worn here by the mosque officials on Friday.
230. Othman said that he was bored of driving and very much like to go to Bosnia, Palestine, Pattani and the Southern Philippines at the time when Bosnia was at war. He wrote to a government official and there was no reply to his letter. He would have gone to one of those places and have been a martyr by now.
231. When the Mufti asked whether Othman would encourage the Muslims to die in the name of religion he had a positive reply. The Mufti then told Othman that it was good that he did not go to Bosnia and all the other places where Muslims were fighting. The Mufti told a surprised Othman that the people in Bosnia, Palestine, Mindanao and Aceh fought in order to live a better life and not because they want to die. If Othman was facilitated by the Malaysian government, and had gone to any of these places, and was successful in his mission than it would make things easy for the enemies of Islam and the Muslims.
232. I forgot to tell the Mufti of my experience with the so called younger jihadists.
SUMMARY
233. You can see from the above narration I have been exposed personally, through long and short discussion, and through my reading, political leaders in countries with many successful managers and entrepreneurs, and managers, leaders and entrepreneurs themselves. Based on all the above contacts I am rather excited to conclude what I think an entrepreneur should be.
234. An entrepreneur is certainly a man or a woman with great ambition to succeed. If he is unsuccessful in his studies he will try to do better in life than his successful classmates.
235. An entrepreneur has to have great accumulative spirit and will grab any opportunity that comes his way.
236. After getting an opportunity an entrepreneur will not stop there but instead will look for more opportunities.
237. An entrepreneur is able to identify and employ talented individuals who can manage his or her enterprise.
238. An entrepreneur is not an isolated person and that he survives within a network which he is a member of or build the network himself.
VALUES OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
239. The Financial Times Magazine of 31st December, 1991 listed the five biggest companies in the world as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Marubeni, Sumitomo and Dai-Ichi Kangyo in that order. All grew under the leadership of Ronins, the Samurais without the Shoguns. They had Bushido spirit (Bumpei Ohtski and Noburu Gotoh), just as the South Koreans had the Hwarang spirit (Kim Woo Chong), the Chinese had the Jinsheng spirit (Vincent Siew) and the early Arabs, immediately after the ascension of Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h, had the Muru'ah which to me is similar with the other spirits, which led to the build up of the Muslim Empire.
Japanese - Bushido
Korean - Hwarang
Chinese - Jinsheng
Arabs - Muru'ah
240. Having read through the literature from the various sources, and interacted with successful people for so many years, it would not be wrong, I think, if we conclude that for a successful leadership, management and entrepreneurship, besides knowledge, you need to focus on the values which include:
Trustworthiness
Courage
Discipline
Hard-working or Diligent
Loyalty.
241. Having read extensively on the Bushido, Hwarang, Jinsheng and Muru'ah spirits of successful people it would not be wrong to conclude that the above universal values are of the utmost necessities.
242. It is important to be reminded again of what I asked former Prime Minister of Taiwan Vincent Siew, formerly a Taiwan representative in Kuala Lumpur and customer of The Chartered Bank, as to why Taiwan was progressing and China was not. He replied that Taiwan is Chinese while China was not Chinese but communists (paragraph 163 above). They do not appreciate the Chinese values. They try to follow Marx, Engels and Lenin who do not know of Chinese values. I told Vincent that I could not believe all the Taiwanese have all the above values. He confirmed my belief but said that in a small country like Taiwan you need only about 10,000 leaders in the government and the private sector, at all levels of leadership and management. to uphold the above values. With that the country can prosper.
243. The other Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China whom I had long discussions with, besides Zhao Ziyang (paragraph 165 above) was Zhu Rongji. He was in Langkawi to meet Tun Dr. Mahathir when I was the Menteri Besar of Kedah. As he returned to China in the late afternoon of one Wednesday, and as Tun Mahathir left early for the cabinet meeting in Kuala Lumpur I spent about 6 hours talking with Prime Minister Zhu Rongji.
244. I did ask Prime Minister Zhu Rongji as to whether he was going to democratize China. He said that it was the wrong thing to do and suggested that I look at Russia. Russia went into a mess because they tried to reform and democratize their political system first before their economy is reformed. Zhu Rongji told me it would not be possible to accelerate the development of China under a democratic system. There is no workers' strike under communism.
245. To a second question on China's dependency on the U. S. market he said that it is the reason why China cannot democratize so fast. Under a democracy, going on strike is a habit of workers not happy with their job. Some of these strikes could be provoked from outside China in order to slow China's growth. Should the U. S. close its market to China then jobs will be lost in China and workers will go on strike. They cannot do that under a communist system. China needs communism to discipline its population. Being Chinese the entrepreneurs are free to prosper and that will ensure national progress, and not just democracy.
246. Obviously, pragmatism is the political language of China and not ideology. Discipline is of course one of the values prompted by the Jinsheng spirit.
Loyalty to Whom?
247. For an entrepreneur loyalty is always to his own success as an employer, and not to his employer's success, whether the employer is the government or the private sector. It is the loyal leaders and the managers that make institutions succeed. They are loyal to their employers. But they are strictly not entrepreneurs.
248. Malaysia have tried to turn government servants into entrepreneurs, and failed miserably. But government servants proved to be excellent managers in the private sector or in privatised public institutions. They are not able look for opportunities as entrepreneurs do but they do manage well, if they so wish, and have made a success of existing and ongoing opportunities.
248. Malaysia have tried to turn government servants into entrepreneurs, and failed miserably. But government servants proved to be excellent managers in the private sector or in privatised public institutions. They are not able look for opportunities as entrepreneurs do but they do manage well, if they so wish, and have made a success of existing and ongoing opportunities.
CLEAR-MINDED APPROACH
249. Institutions of Higher Education can identify entrepreneurs, encourage them, and educate them by providing the supporting experts and management that they needed.
250. But our thoughts should be clear as not to say that we are doing business in rubber when we are actually trading in stocks of rubber companies. We should also not claim to be concerned about the poor when what we do is just writing novels about the poor or paint scenes of poverty thus earning a large sum of money selling novels and paintings when what we write or paint about remain poor.
251. I have never served in rich ministries after 15 years in banking. I therefore have limited knowledge of young entrepreneurs except in the interaction with their friends and old customers.
252. When the World Bank reports on the progress of fishing in any country they will always refer to the increase in fishes being caught and not on improving the livelihood of the fishermen. Fishes can be harvested using big Scandinavian vessels without benefitting our fishermen.
253. When economists become proud of the performance of a nation with increase beef production they are not talking about the breeders. But cattle can be reared in big modern farms with minimum manpower. Our existing breeders do not benefit.
254. Padi planters do not necessarily benefit even if rice production grows.
255. In Malaysia we should try not to do business like politics, by making enemies of those who can help in the growth of our businesses; just as we should try not to practice politics as if it is a business, by just buying support.
256. We should also not think that we are good entrepreneurs when we use the cash, accumulated in the companies or institutions that we control, to buy other people's companies. Those men who sell the shares of their companies in order to have the funds to venture into new business, thus creating more employments, are the entrepreneurs.
257. Once we take over a company we should manage it well to make it profitable and avoid becoming too adventurous thereby making great losses in the company which was profitable when it was bought.
258. We should not rely on consultants who could take the blame when anything goes wrong in the company or institution that we lead. Consultants merely advise us after learning from us.
259. If universities are going to be the centers that nurture entrepreneurs they should also study the way it is done at the Silicon Valley and Massachussetts Route 128 where the venture capitalists finance the innovative potential entrepreneurs who, as they are scientists, are made to study for their MBAs in preparation for their roles in future businesses.
260. GLCs and big corporations should also work with universities to set up joint venture companies whereby the GLCs and corporations own minority shares but provide the supporting knowledge and facilities to the younger entrepreneurs who are made to be the leading majority shareholders.
261. We should not confuse between leadership, management and entrepreneurship. The leader must be brave, the manager must be persistent while the entrepreneur should be cleverly adventurers.
262. In parting I must say that I owe a great deal to the following leaders that I have served while in politics.
OWING TO TWO MINISTERS
250. But our thoughts should be clear as not to say that we are doing business in rubber when we are actually trading in stocks of rubber companies. We should also not claim to be concerned about the poor when what we do is just writing novels about the poor or paint scenes of poverty thus earning a large sum of money selling novels and paintings when what we write or paint about remain poor.
251. I have never served in rich ministries after 15 years in banking. I therefore have limited knowledge of young entrepreneurs except in the interaction with their friends and old customers.
252. When the World Bank reports on the progress of fishing in any country they will always refer to the increase in fishes being caught and not on improving the livelihood of the fishermen. Fishes can be harvested using big Scandinavian vessels without benefitting our fishermen.
253. When economists become proud of the performance of a nation with increase beef production they are not talking about the breeders. But cattle can be reared in big modern farms with minimum manpower. Our existing breeders do not benefit.
254. Padi planters do not necessarily benefit even if rice production grows.
255. In Malaysia we should try not to do business like politics, by making enemies of those who can help in the growth of our businesses; just as we should try not to practice politics as if it is a business, by just buying support.
256. We should also not think that we are good entrepreneurs when we use the cash, accumulated in the companies or institutions that we control, to buy other people's companies. Those men who sell the shares of their companies in order to have the funds to venture into new business, thus creating more employments, are the entrepreneurs.
257. Once we take over a company we should manage it well to make it profitable and avoid becoming too adventurous thereby making great losses in the company which was profitable when it was bought.
258. We should not rely on consultants who could take the blame when anything goes wrong in the company or institution that we lead. Consultants merely advise us after learning from us.
259. If universities are going to be the centers that nurture entrepreneurs they should also study the way it is done at the Silicon Valley and Massachussetts Route 128 where the venture capitalists finance the innovative potential entrepreneurs who, as they are scientists, are made to study for their MBAs in preparation for their roles in future businesses.
260. GLCs and big corporations should also work with universities to set up joint venture companies whereby the GLCs and corporations own minority shares but provide the supporting knowledge and facilities to the younger entrepreneurs who are made to be the leading majority shareholders.
261. We should not confuse between leadership, management and entrepreneurship. The leader must be brave, the manager must be persistent while the entrepreneur should be cleverly adventurers.
262. In parting I must say that I owe a great deal to the following leaders that I have served while in politics.
OWING TO TWO MINISTERS
263. I was lucky to work as Deputy Minister to:
Tan Sri Abdul Kadir bin Yusuf
and
Tun Mohd. Ghazalie bin Shafie
263. Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Yusuf was the Minister in the Ministry of Land and Regional Development when I was his deputy. He was a fantastic lawyer and a very farsighted leader.
264. Tun Mohd. Ghazalie Shafie was the Minister in the Ministry of Home Affairs when I was made his deputy. He was an intellectual, and a successful diplomat in the Civil Service. He was the last member, as far as I can remember, of the British Intelligence, from Force 136 who was dropped in Padang Terap when the British was fighting the Japanse.
265. In those days a Deputy Minister becomes the Acting Minister when the Minister was either on leave or out of the country. Its not that way now.
266. As the communist terrorists were still roaming our forest in those days Tun Ghazalie sent me to the Isle of Wight, Taipei and Seoul to learn the methods that was applied by them in dealing with the threat of Russia, China and North Korea.
OWING THE THREE PRIME MINISTERS
267. Last but not least I must say that I owe so much to these three leaders:
Tun Abdul Razak Hussein
Tun Hussein Onn
and
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed
268. Tun Abdul Razak for making it possible for me to be a Member of Parliament.
269. Tun Hussein Onn for promoting me to be a Deputy Minister
270. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed for upgrading me to be a Minister
271. All the above political leaders has helped to improve, after all my interaction in the world of finance and commerce, my perception of leadership, my assessment of capable management and my views of entrepreneurs.
271. All the above political leaders has helped to improve, after all my interaction in the world of finance and commerce, my perception of leadership, my assessment of capable management and my views of entrepreneurs.
272. Sekian, Wallaahu'alam. Terima kasih and thank you. Wabillaahi Taufik Wassalaamu'alaikum
Tan Sri Dato' Seri Sanusi bin Junid
Tarikh: 13hb Disember, 2011
Masa: Dari 9.15 hingga 10.45 pagi
Acara: Seminar 'Entrepreneurship in Higher Education:
Increasing Competitiveness, Enhancing Resilience
Penganjur: Akademi Kepimpinan Pengajian Tinggi (AKEPT)
dan Institut Asia dan Eropah (AEI)
Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia
Tajuk: Nurturing the Entrepreneurial Culture in Higher Education
Tempat: Royale Chulan Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Saudara Sanusi,
ReplyDeleteThere lots of truth in what you have written "
....it would not be wrong, I think, if we conclude that for a successful leadership, management and entrepreneurship, besides knowledge, you need to focus on the values which include:
Trustworthiness
Courage
Discipline
Hard-working or Diligent
Loyalty...
Nations, institutions and enterprise corporation will collapse when leaders, managers and entrepreneurs lack those qualities.That is is the direction Malaysia seems to be heading.
Tan Sri,
ReplyDeleteShamelin diataskan diatas kosep yang amat teguh.Tetapi gagal. Gagalnya Shamelin yang Tan Sri bertungkuslums untuk meghidupkan adalah disebabkan diwarisi kapada pemimpin,pengurus dan pengusha yang tidak mempunyai ciri2 keushawanan yang Tan Sri sebutkan disini. Setuju?
Tanpa ciri-ciri ini, lebeh2 lagirangkaian Kedai Rucit 1M, yang belandaskan "gimik" politik akan terkubur sapertimana "islam hadhari" apabila pengasasnya tersingkir.
Saya rasa konsep membangun rantaian berasas dari"-pengguna-runcit-penggangkutan-pengilang-bahan mentah-" yang pernah Tan Sri memperjuangkan adalah sesui hingga ka hari ini untuk membangunkan usahawan dan perlu dihidupkan semula.Setuju?
Dear Sir,
ReplyDeleteFascinating piece of writing indeed.You have learnt a lot from alot of people. Perhaps now many can learn from you and they should start by reading this.
Many people who have become successful are those who have the right people around them right from the very beginning to educate and motivate them. These are the people who tell you how and what to do instead of giving reasons why you should not do it.
After reading your text, I realised that there are many things that a politician can learn from an entrepreneur and vice versa. I like the idea that one should seek for work to do instead of positions. Don't tell that to a politician though, for what would they be without positions.
I do not know much about business, but I believe that in politics, the people that you should worry most about are your own closest friends. Maybe for the the simple reason that in business, when you fall, your business partners will fall too. Thus, they would do their very best to ensure that you do not fall. However in politics, your circle of friends will be hoping that you fall because if you do, they will take your place. That is why many politicians die earlier than businessmen, I suppose.
I also believe that business people are better listeners than politicians. In order for their business to succeed, entrepreneurs need to listen because everybody is their customers.
Sadly, many politicians do not listen but love to talk and they want people to listen. That was what happened to our just-resigned PM. Now, nobody wants to listen to him.
Politicians need to learn to manage. Managing needs some knowledge and the values mentioned by anonymous.
I need to listen to and learn from you,Tan Sri. Good day.
Very Nice Post.This Post is very Helpful For me.I like it.
ReplyDeleteWell, perhaps no one is going to give you a fortune, but it is definitely possible to make a fortune on your own, working from home, in your pajamas. Living the good life is everyone's fantasy: fancy cars, world travel to exotic places, a castle for a home, fun and exciting parties every night, and so on.
ReplyDeleteEducation ERP Software
Salam Tan Sri.
ReplyDeleteSaya tak pernah ketinggalan membaca entry2 Tan Sri yang selalunya membakar semangat dan meransang minda. Pengalaman-pengalaman Tan Sri sangat luas dan berharga yang saya rasa patut diterjemahkan dalam penghasilan sebuah buku agar dapat dikongsi bersama oleh anak-anak bangsa dimasa depan. Keep on writing Tan Sri!
Tan Sri,
ReplyDeleteKeep on writing and sharing your great experiences.
young generation.
Tan Sri .... cukuplah dengan cerita dunia
ReplyDeletesejauh mana dunia yg tuan ceritakan itu dapat membahagiakan di akhirat ..
Seribu orang, dengan seribu cerita, tidak ada 2 orang yang punya satu cerita yang serupa, namun apakah nilainya pada akhirat akan cerita cerita itu?? nilainya dosa dan pahala .. tidak ada lain di antara syurga dan neraka .. saya rasa kalau firaun menulis buku sudah tentu ceritanya sangat hebat dan luar biasa ..namun apa kejadahnya??
Wahai Anonymous-Jan 27,
ReplyDeleteSudah-sudahlah dengan kerja munafik abdullah bin ubai kamu itu. dosa, pahala, syurga dan neraka hanya Allah yang mengetahui dan menilai.
Yang jelas dari kisah dan senarai kenalan ini, saudara sanusi, lebih banyak jasanya, lebih bermakna hidupnya dan lebih luas pandangannya dari...
idola anda yang hanya berkawan demi menjaga kepentingan dan berjuang hanya untuk menutup kesalahan.
Perbezaannya bagaikan langit dan bumi. Malah kalau nak dibandingkan, idola anda lebih rendah dari firaun yang sekurang-kurangnya tidak cuba berpura-pura.
Budu
The Malay Insider,
This message is endorsed by paul wolfowitz, al gore, madeleine albright and all of us covetous lobbyist who think that anwar has been a waste of our money. Through Ezam and the other ex-opposition senators we think we think we will now throw our weight on kleinbruder kj for more prosperous years ahead. But not if he\'s as loud, controversial and nonperforming as the the former drama queen. So here\'s the strategy, lets bring the most winnable UMNO candidate; kleinbruder kj to playfight grossbruder anwar in the coming election. now that! will definitely save us some expense(econ crisis anybody?). Now grossbruder anwar, no backstabbing (figuratively or literally). ethos! get this done! kj better start to show genuine antagonism towards grossbruder anwar soon b4 people start to question your motives and abilities.
Yes, it was a sad day for me when Rangkaian Kedai Shamelin collapse. In a small way , l was involved in setting up the shops. It stated in MCKK when we sold toiletries to the students. One of us had a relative working in Colgate and Plmolive and he got supplies through his relative at a bargain price. My prefect room was used as a store house.
ReplyDeleteIn UM, l joined the group to campaign for Shamelin all over Selangor. Due to time constrain, ( l was studying medicine) l was not able to follow to campaign in other states.
When working in KB, l was involved in Shamelin. By that time Rangkaian Kedai Shamelin had spread all over the country. To my mind, the problem for Kedai Shamelin started when we were given the sole agency by Dutch Lady company ( if l am not mistaken) at least for KBPS if not for the whole of kelantan state. Shamelin received an offer of rm1 million for the Rangkaian , but we turned down the offer.
After that it was downhill until it was closed.
Tan Sri, you could get full details from your brother who was CEO at tha time.