Daily commentary on Asian business strategy, management, market research, marketing tips, business prospects, economic and culture news. Market prospects. Economic prospects. Short reviews, links, advice, satire and topical coverage for international and Asian managers doing business in Asia.

The Hari Ini column is available daily on the Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine home page. Sure.. go there now for more of the same. At least it's fresher...

This page contains one month of the archives.

The Hari Ini column documents off-the cuff comments, very odd spots, unsubstantiated rumours, misinterpretations, cruel innuendo, limp jokes, dodgy links, tips lacking in credibility, and other material very roughly related to Asian business, marketing, management, culture, politics, economics and why the earth is round.

Some of the items emerge into sections later on; some are contributed by email or word of mouth by friends of the forum, columnists, editorial advisors, and the Chao Phraya River Rat. ..Most of it just ends up here...

Basically it means we can at least comment on happenings that we wouldn't otherwise have the time to.

"Hari Ini" means "Today" in both Malaysian and Indonesian.

..Which means that everything on this page is already outta date...

As the masthead suggests, this column also includes all the news that doesn't fit..

It also means we can add some lightheartedness and CNN type shallowness to our otherwise more serious content. As CNN proves, such content sells...

Mostly the column just reflects the mood of the editors on the day, and gives a potted summary of key issues in the region. If you want it to reflect your mood as well, email us contributions at chiyo@apmforum.com.

Chiyo Hyiuiki (Webmaster, and on behalf of the editors)

Kuala Lumpur: February 22nd 2001

The discreet advantages of being a prison warder in Thailand: Should newly-installed Thailand PM Thaksin Shinawatra eventually find himself transported from the parliament house to the big house, courtesy of the corruption charges presently pending against him, it may not be too big a hassle.

Thailand's The Nation today reported that a prisoner paid off his warder Bt4,000 monthly and shouted other guards free drinks so he could conduct his normal construction business during the day. The scam hit the fan when an associate of the man he assaulted resulting in his "incarceration", spotted him inspecting his sites. The latter complained, voicing concern that the prisoner may still try to do him in seeing they were still business rivals. TV's Channel 9 also videotaped the prisoners daily and nightly activities, including sanook at nightspots when he was just too tired to go back to prison to sleep for the night. He was re-arrested yesterday while riding the warden's motorbike to one of his construction sites.

Of course paying off your warders is not exactly unique world wide. But in Thailand, it will get you more than a few extra cigs, extra conjugal visits, and protection from other felons inside wishing to conjugal up to you. Indeed an Indian mafioso boss led a very pleasant life in a Thai prison, raising the living standards of his warders immeasurably just a few years ago, hosting a real hoe-down thank-you party for his mates just before disappearing to freedom/

Thaksin may well sleep better at night now, knowing that there are ways to still run the country while officially being a felon. At least the cabinet won't have to high tail it down to the prison daily for party whip meetings.

Those attributing the rise in the Thai stock market and currency of the past month to investor approval of Thaksin's victory are displaying a blissful näivity. We predicted 9 months ago that the sharemarket would be listless until the election put an end to the political uncertainty undermining Thailand's recovery. Nobody wanted to put money on the wrong horses given that political and power structures were likely to change, and Thaksin right to the end was paying his cards close to the chest on both details of policy and likely partners. The fact is, that no matter who won the election, as long as it was a definite win, the stock market would have risen significantly, just to make up for pent-up demand and the decisions delayed while uncertainty reigned.

Thaksin is now offically PM, and unveiled a cabinet highly reminiscent of the Chavalit/NAP (New Ex-Aspiration Party) crew that guided Thailand into crisis just over 3 years ago. Chavalit is there of course as Thaksin's deputy, surrounded by turncoats bought off by Thaksin during his pollie buying spree.

To be fair, Thaksin himself recognised that the cabinet was not perfect, and the inevitable result of having to pay off political debts (though these were not his exact words). But only after a few days of honeymoon, Thailand's Nation newspaper today alleged that one of the new Thai Rak Thai (Thai Con Thai) ministers is on a police black-list of drug dealers.

Prison warders must be rubbing their hands together in gleeful anticipation.

In the meantime, business must cool it's heels in the Kingdom and wait for the real Thaksin to stand up in the next few months, before celebrating the revival of business in the Kingdom. Thais will tell you how happy they are with Thaksin's win, but the Thai psyche may well explain much of that. To us it looks like the Emporer is back in new clothes, and we may lose the considerable competitive advantages of the Chuan Democrat reforms if this is the case. Let's hang loose for a while....

Kuala Lumpur: February 13th 2001

Depite polygamy being outlawed in Thailand for many years, a recent university survey claims that one in four Thai men maintain a "mini-wife" (mia-noi), defined as maintaining a separate abode for the aforesaid tilac. Down South, Muslims in Malaysia can legally have 4 wives, providing they can prove they can support them, and the previous wives agree. It would have been a busy Valentines Day for many Thai's and Malaysians.

If you still doubted that the world already had too many MBA's for its own good, the recent spate of "unplain English" and gobbledegook choking the new economy must have finally convinced you. For those of you who wish to use MBA-Speak to put a positive spin on your New Economy Dot Com company's 500% decline in stock prices and dramatic earnings declines may find this BullDust generator useful at http://www.dack.com/web/bull****.html. (Just cut and copy the link into your browser and replace the **** with a synonym for manure.) ...It all goes to prove that you don't have to be a MBA to sound like a MBA.

Andrew Inkpen from Carnegie Mellon University has posted a useful article entitled The management of knowledge in international alliances: the role of collaborative process, based on a longitudinal study of joint ventures between North American and Japanese firms.

It only takes a whiff of recession for 10% of voters in Western Australia to vote for the xenophobic and isolationist policies of "return from the dead" Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party. Western Australia is a rural based state, with Perth being the most isolated large city in the world. One Nation's policies are anti-Asian immigration, pro-guns, and anti-Aboriginal - a scapegoat party for all that blame others for their problems. The conservative WA media must also be blamed for their sensational reporting on Indonesian "boat people". No doubt this will be another excuse for Asian leaders to label Australia as racist, despite Asians reaching some of the highest positions in the land, and places like Sydney and Melbourne being the most vibrant multi racial cities in the world. These leaders may be advised however to wait for later elections this year before shooting their mouth off to avoid any embarassment. One Nation's success in WA is unlikely to be reflected in mainstream Australia.

The Noble Art of Serving the Customer: For many years, Malaysia along with Thailand charmed visitors with a natural, warm hospitality reflected from hotel check in desks to taxis, to the national airline Malaysia Airlines, and even shopping centers. It was different from the more professional and efficient style of their Singapore counterparts, and while the latter was appreciated, the frequent mistakes and inefficiencies in Malaysia and Thailand were forgotten quickly in the context of an informal warm, friendly and genuine motivation to please. Some where along the line, Malaysian service standards got lost. Recent research conducted by APMF associates amongst foreign visitors has characterised Singapore service as "professional and efficient", Thailand as "friendly, though inefficient, but at leaqst they try" and Malaysia as "inefficient, unfriendly, and lazy". Somewhere along the line, Malaysian service staff forgot the customer. Another friend of the forum who is interviewed regularly by the media, continually finds his comments about the state of Malaysian service edited out of final articles published in Malaysian newspapers.

At last however, this glaring competitive disadvantage is being recognized by at least one Malaysian leader.

Deputy PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, co star of yesterday's item "Mahathir and Adbullah go camping" today hit out at service standards in Malaysia and labelled the work ethic as a "disgrace". According to Abdullah, "...we still find ourselves being attended to by an unsmiling, uncooperative, inefficient worker with zero initiative..."

Many exceptions exist, including in this writer's experience the friendly and efficient bank staff at PhilioAllied Bank in Jalan Sultan Ismail, and the Malaysia Airlines cabin attendent who paid for the balance between the day time and after midnight limo fare out of her own purse when I found myself lacking the cash after a flight delay a couple of years back. The situation with hotel front desk staff however is alarming, partly due to a critical shortage of staff and an increasing local perception that service jobs are demeaning and best left to foreign workers from Indonesia, Philippines and Bangladesh.

A Thai associate once commented to his compatriots who were complaining that falangs get better service than locals, that the reason may not all be that foreigners were perceived to be richer, but that foreigners often didnt treat service staff as second class citizens as Thai's did. Foreigners were more polite, waited for service rather than whistling and shouting for service, looked the waiter or waitress in the face while ordering, and usually said thankyou.

Growing pains for Malaysia? We hope not. The substance of a nation can best be measured by their pugnaciousness in retaining positive cultural characteristics while developing and raising living standards. A great start is to get rid of the dangerous perception in Malaysia and other countries that "to serve" is to lose face and social standing.

The Far Eastern Economic Review has recently published an Asian Economic Forecast Overview, covering all countries in the Asia Pacific.

Kuala Lumpur: February 11th 2001

Mahathir and Abdullah go Camping: Well it is the weekend, so some lighter fare today - and its the latest joke being told around the coffee and teh houses in Kuala Lumpur. You may need a modest knowledge of modern Malaysian politics to fully appreciate it.

Malaysian PM Mahathir and his faithful deputy Adbullah Ahmad Badawi recently decided to take a quick weekend trip up to Terengganu, stronghold of the opposition PAS party, to do some campaigning on behalf of UMNO and the federal government.

Alas, when it came to bedding down for the night, all the hotels had the same response, "...We are sorry, but this is a PAS hotel, we cannot put up UMNO leaders here..."

Undeterred, Mahathir and Abdullah decide to buy a tent and put up for the night in the jungle just outside town. They set up their tent, then go to sleep. Some hours later, Adbullah awakens.

"Dr Mahathir, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

The good doctor replies, "I see millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" asks Abdullah.

Dr Mahathir ponders for a minute....

"Well Abdullah, theologically speaking, it's evident that Mohammad is indeed all powerful and we are but small and insignificant, especially PAS, Anwar, and Keadilan. Astronomically speaking, see those falling stars? They are the fading stars of Anwar, Soros, and Gore. See that anarchic mass of faint stars? They represent the foreign devils that are influencing people against us. See the brightest star there? That is the star of Malaysia, outshining all the rest. Time wise the position of the stars tell me its 3:15am. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow, and that Mohammad is blessing our work and knows we are right. What does it tell you, Adbullah?"

Abdullah is silent for a moment, then speaks.

"PAS has stolen our tent."

Singapore and Malaysia have just completed another of their quarterly spats, this time triggered by Singapore's PM Goh commenting that Singapore Malaysa are "better off" than Malaysian Malays. Recent spats, too many to mention, have arisen over use of Malaysian airspace, Singapore's purchase of short range missiles, the positioning of the Malaysian railway station in Singapore, Singapore press criticsim of Malaysia, and so on. The current spat is a sensitive issue as the Malaysian government policy of "positive discrimination" in favour of the Bumiputra Malays in the form of economic privelages is at present under attack for its slowness in raising the competitiveness as well as living standards of Malays generally. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew has been an aggressive critic of the Malaysian approach, preaching that Singapore's "meritocracy" has benefitted his Malays more than Malaysia's patronage approach. Well, as usual, both sides have shaken hands and made up again. Like an old married couple, the most fun thing about these spats is making up.

The Far Eastern Economic Review has recently published an Asian Economic Forecast Overview, covering all countries in the Asia Pacific.

Kuala Lumpur: February 6th 2001

Many of us have seen in our own organizations both the positive and negative effects of "strong leadership" - a vague term that can describe anybody from a man with a vision to an uncompromising bastard.

While "strong leadership" is seen by many as a positive characteristic of Asian leaders, recent events have underlined the considerable downside - that strong leaders are usually not good mentors - leaving a leadership vaccum in their wake. Leaving the politics of patronage aside just for a moment, their style is usually intuitive, making learning by imitation difficult, they usually build their strength on making sure that pretenders to their throne do not shine before their time, and they choose deputies in their own image. The result is either revolution as strong leaders become arrogant, conceited or corrupt, or a long period where a new leader develops in office, as long as he is given the chance by opportunists in the wings. The last highly successful handover after a period of strong leadership in Asia was that of Lee Kuan Yew's handover to Goh, an appointment never expected to last more than a few years at the time.

Long periods where one party dominates politics also causes the bright young power brokers to gain experience from the one party, meaning a dearth of leadership talent in the opposition, even when events call for such.

Malaysia's UMNO, and by default the leadership of the ruling Barisan Nasional government is in a leadership crisis, after Mahathir's chosen successors failed for various reasons over a decade, making the greatest fear not riots nor racial conflict, but the unknown - the unknown being just how that vacuum of leadership will be filled. While Mahathir can claim many leadership victories, succession planning is not one of them. Current deputy Abdullah Badawi, as predicted when he was appointed, has failed to inspire or outline a clear vision, though to be fair to a man who is highly likeable, the conditions have been difficult, and the old man gives him no room to shine. Mahathir passes on short "tests", usually to sort out bar brawls involving pig farmers and illegal workers while the former is overseas. Abdullah passes these "tests" well, but Mahathir fails to come up with anything more challenging.

Still, we will leave the real juicy gossip around town regarding UMNO politicing until tomorrow's Hari Ini, and move to Indonesia for now.

The strong leadership of Soeharto, hailed by observers and commentators worldwide before his fall from grace, has resulted in a leadership crisis in Indonesia that goes far beyond any perceived failings of Wahid Abdurrahman, nor the enormous difficulty of the job.

As we have maintained for two years, Abdurrahman Wahid, with his leadership credentials within the world's largest popular Muslim organisation gave him credentials which others did not have. The best Soeharto's Golkar could come up with was Habibbie, and the current crop don't even meet that standard. Besides, it is hard to justify to many that a Golkar man should lead Indonesia. Those who Soeharto intended as his successors are now either hanging around the family estates or hiding from the law. The people's choice - Megawati - was unacceptable to all other factions due to her gender and religious credentials, and besides, she seems to prefer the backroom jobs anyway. Amien Rais, whose party performed badly in the elections, has had his own eyes on the Presidency from the start, but paved the way for Wahid's victory as a "seat warmer" interim president first to keep Megawati out, and secondly so someone else could do the thankless, dirty job of rescuing an Indonesia still cowering from the rubble of Soeharto's Indonesia. Some see a Rais presidency as a threat to the separation of religion and the state, as well as the racial and transparency reforms initiated by Wahid. One thing is for sure - his leadership skills in a large organization are unproven.

While calls for Wahid's resignation are getting stronger daily, the hard fact of life is that no reasonably acceptable candidate has emerged as of writing, that can truly lead this fractured country and replace him. Furthermore, there has been little progress in developing a successor since Wahid's election. Wahid was always going to be an interim crisis-term President, ready to leave when a long-term acceptable candidate emerged. That none has emerged, is yet another of Soeharto's unwelcome continuing legacies...