The Hawk of Improvisation

Getting the move on ...

In 1984 … Malaysia was still a young country … just 27 years from independence. We needed to grow … especially from agriculture to modern industries. I was 31 years of age … and they had posted me to the Malaysian consulate in Los Angeles … to draw on the investment potentials from American electronic companies.

I found myself in a meeting that year… with the senior vice-president of one such company … going over the decision making … they were engaged in for the selection of international sites to locate their expansion. I thought I handled myself all right until he questioned me about Malaysia's affirmative action policy … called the New Economic Policy … that provided preference to a section of the population for economic advancement.

I replied without hesitation … that it was to create a balance in the economic position of all the peoples in the country. He wanted to know how I felt about it … personally … no doubt to assess possible problems that might have created in society. It was a matter of going with the flow on issues … and most people in the country … simply toed the line. I wasn't prepared for a response … so I improvised.

' I understand what you are saying,' he had replied to my statement … ' its just that I haven't heard it spoken that way before.' I left the meeting with a wedge-like pain driven between my shoulder blades that was forcing me to bend. I was getting a lesson on the balance between pure logic and the social imperatives of care in governance … and it was just beginning.

The man was old enough to have been my father. The investment was worth millions ... and the country's future depended on young people like me to make it work. I had to gird myself like a race horse with blinkers … speak with a flair about big business … and ensuring that I conveyed the right concerns … face to face … with the man of the world. It was tearing up my insides and after 13 years with the organization … I couldn't take it any more … and left.

Today … 55 years after independence … the country imports foreign labor to work in its industries … and scores highly as an exporter of semiconductors … air-conditioners … and processed agricultural products. The story is the same in most other countries … with young people having taken a responsibility early in their careers … without much else to rely on … in the way of guide from past generations. Improvisation is certainly the mother of societies.

In a relative sense … the situation is not very different from other economies … at different times. Britain united the many tribes … fought with foreign invaders … and drew up a constitution of state … that came to define the nation as a living institution of its people. The US built their own engineering equipment after the war with Britain … and spawned a culture of innovation. Japan and Germany rebuilt after the war … with a re-education of its people … regarding human values. Russia continues to grapple with democracy. India faces modernization of an age old culture and China … balances communism with individual initiatives. Africa continues its transformation from hunter gatherer to farmer.

In the homes … we are faced with the young minds of children … curious about the world … and as parents who served on the front lines … we try to persuade them to take to a paced view of life. The result thus far appears mixed.

Leadership in the world at this time … must surely understand the pulse of the people of the world … and from its own past improvisations … bring itself to introduce a new culture of containment and re-consolidation of what we have built over the years. Its best undertaken with an affirmation of values … the cultivation of a norm … and the assurance of the continued expectation of life of the world. We must push for a greater communication of the issues … and less spin management.

Given what the older generation may have put themselves through for God and country … we may not be the ideal candidates for such an undertaking … unless … we bring ourselves to understand the nature of social needs … and while we live … our obligation to smoothen the rough edges of our past responsibilities. Its handed from one generation to another … and we must trade the maverick for the father of the home … to do that.