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Aussies in "air panas" in Kuala Lumpur
20th February 1999 Back to News Menu
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Case of culture clash in Kuala Lumpur last week with two Australian managers of a multinational soft drink company, later identified as Coca-Cola, being targeted by the Malaysian Human Resources Minister Lim Ah Lek for showing disrespect to their employees. They have been accused of changing collective agreements with workers, ordered a 10% pay cut, altering public holidays and extending working hours to compensate for the time lost due to Friday prayers.Lek has described the actions, if proved true, as "belittling" Malaysia, showing disrespect, and demonstrating that "Australians are not fit to work here". All indications are that the two straying Mat Salleh's will be getting the royal order of the boot quite soon with their work permits cancelled. Both Amatil and the Australian High Commission are very concerned, with Coca-Cola ordering a thorough investigation from their regional headquarters in Singapore, and the High Commission, in deference to the Chinese New Year, running around like startled rabbits peeking out nervously out of their burrow down Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. Later reports from the Sydney Morning Herald confirmed the individuals concerned as the Managing Director of F & N Coca-Cola Berhad Malaysia and the company's National Logistics and Distribution Manager. Even new Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has been drawn in as the minister with responsibility for immigration as the Minister for Home Affairs. Senator Zainal Rampak, president of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress, has requested that the work permits be withdrawn as the managers showed "no respect whatsoever for local customs, manners, traditions and religious sensitivities". He claimed that the managers used various swear words including "bastard" and called one employee a "Pig". While in most countries the epithet "pig" would be seen as childish and banal at the worst, in Muslim Malaysia it is one of the worst things that a Muslim worker could be called. Islam holds that the pig is unclean. Such references therefore are a major insult to the personal integrity of many in Malaysia. Mr Zainal also said that while a Christian group had been able to sing religious songs on Christmas eve, the management had refused permission for a Muslim celebration at company premises. F & N Coca-Cola Berhad Malaysia is part of the multinational Coca-Cola Amatil group that last year reported major losses in their earnings outside the US, and according to our sources here, there has been enormous pressure put on their Asian operation and their subsidiaries to correct the situation. Disputes have been ongoing now for several months over employee contracts. This event is not an isolated one but the culmination of several months of declining industrial relations in the company in Malaysia and other Asian countries. ... And it is not only Coca-Cola... the Asian crisis and concomitant decline in local consumer spending has meant multi nationals are now putting pressure on regional offices to "shape up or ship out". While pre-crisis, laxness in management was forgiven just because profits were looking so good anyway with the high growth of the new Asian economies, regional operations are now having to make fast changes in management practices to get above that red line. Similarly, while the more "relaxed" work ethic of workers in countries such as Malaysia was accepted as something that could be accommodated while profits were still coming in, now serious questions are being asked on how productivity and efficiency can be enhanced. Clearly, the alleged actions in this case are not the correct way to go about it, but they are understandable, if not forgivable... As in this case, tempers are fraying all over Asia.... Australians tend to be more direct than Malaysians, but learn to be more accommodating and patient in order to be successful here. Malaysians (as well as Thai's and Indonesians to name just some neighbours), generally are of a less critical and easy going culture, who dislike confrontation, preferring to keep their real opinions and feelings to themselves. As the effects of the Asian crisis bite, both employees and employers revert to type and the gap between cultures expands further. And as the gap expands, the concern is that countries, like people, may withdraw into themselves further, and that foreign countries may begin to feel that doing business here is more difficult than in their own or other emerging countries. The tensions are at their most obvious in politics, where in Malaysia for instance, foreign individuals, companies, and countries have been made scapegoats for most Malaysian problems. Make no mistake that the same situation exists in business also, though it is less public. Of course, this is no excuse for the behaviour, if proven true, of the two Aussies. But rather than seeking scapegoats, the real problem has to be addressed of how to maintain the good inter cultural relations that have characterised multinational business in Malaysia and other countries..... Another major challenge for the Year of the Rabbit...
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The views expressed here may not necessarily reflect those of Orient Pacific Century or partners of the Asia Pacific Management Forum
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