Would Ismail put his own money into Low Yat 2?

Minister is trying to be controversial: business is about creating value and making money, not about race.

FMT LETTERS

From TK Chua, via email

Minister Ismail Sabri, I think most of us know that you are trying your best to divert attention away from the problems the government is facing. You are probably trying to galvanise support from a certain community. But as a leader and federal minister, please show some decency and civility.

I think you are deliberately trying to be controversial. You are skewing and twisting what are essentially economic, commercial or equity issues into racial issues. Most Malaysians accept that we live based on opportunity, fairness and equitable participation of all communities in the country’s development.

The government and Mara have had more than 50 years to empower the Malay people and bring them into the mainstream of commerce and industry. Help the Malays and other bumiputeras by all means, but don’t make them feel that their problems today are due to non-Malays cheating, sidelining or excluding them.

Business is about creating value and making money. It is never about race. Businessmen who talk about wanting to help their own kinsmen are not genuine businessmen. There is no means to assume that Malay middlemen or wholesalers will help or support Malay retailers. There is no empirical evidence that a Malay retailer will try to make less money from a Malay consumer. That is wishful thinking, only applicable to businessmen doing business using other people’s money.

When Chinese middlemen cheat or profiteer (and I am not denying it because it is possible in most businesses), they cheat or profit from everyone, Malays as well as non-Malays.

A minister should not go around blaming the Chinese for cheating or profiteering. You should concentrate your efforts to make the marketplace more perfect. Educate the retailers and consumers more, so that they are smarter and more savvy when dealing with middlemen and wholesalers.

I remember your directive (when you were Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry) to revoke the licences of pasar tani traders if they continued to buy supplies from middlemen. They buy from the middlemen because there are advantages, not because they love the middlemen. You must understand financing, costing, logistics and supply chain management. My intuition tells me that your directive, in all likelihood, has been forgotten for its impracticability.

When Malay traders lack retail space to do business, think of a comprehensive plan, from space availability in high traffic areas, affordability, skill availability, to business networks and supply chain management. The government and Mara have had more than 50 years to think up a “Low Yat 2”, but so soon after the fracas in Low Yat Plaza it seems to me the intention was not to help the Malay traders and consumers as such, but to get even with Chinese middlemen and traders who have short-changed Malay consumers.

As a Chinese Malaysian, I have been cheated many times by traders and retailers of various races. The reason was always my own carelessness or ignorance, hardly due to race. The government cannot act as a nanny for everybody. The best protection is one’s competence, knowledge, money sense and capability.

Low Yat 2 will not be a success just because it has 90 or 100 per cent Malay traders or wholesalers. Its success will be determined by product range, traffic flow, and competitiveness.

If it were your own money (from your own pocket, not Mara’s), would you want to invest in a venture like Low Yat 2. Be truthful.

TK Chua is an FMT reader