Asiaweek.com | Letters

NOVEMBER 17, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 45 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

Letters
Battling Cronyism: 'Besides giving a privileged few obscenely huge gains at public expense, cronyism discourages investment by the great majority of firms that don't know people in high places.' — cover story, Nov. 3

In "Questioning Our Feudal Loyalty" [cover story, Nov. 3], the author [Sabri Zain] was right in saying that the larger mass of Malaysians did not prosper from the economic growth of the past few decades. While I do not dispute that the government has done a good job of bringing Malaysia to the forefront in development, it has also contributed to inequality among the people. The government should place more emphasis on reducing the inequality gap, especially among the minorities (indigenous groups, farmers, plantation workers). They have lagged behind far too long.
Siria Maniam
via the Internet

Malaysian critics should be wise enough to draw the line between the fight against cronyism and the cause of [jailed former deputy prime minister] Anwar Ibrahim ["Questioning Our Feudal Loyalty"]. While cronyism has been played up in reformasi sentiment, Anwar's challenge against Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was not totally based on his disapproval of it. Some people say that the main cause of the duo's conflict was a struggle for a bigger part of the economic cake between the alleged cronies of Anwar Ibrahim and Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin.

Anwar may be the champion of the rakyat [people], but it would be an overstatement to say that he wanted to replace Mahathir in order to get rid of all activities related to alleged cronyism. In every meeting held at the headquarters of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in Kuala Lumpur, the war cry to ward off money politics became mere mockery in the eyes of the people because, some say, a move against any such activities would tear the fabric (read: money politics) that has patterned leadership elections of the party.

The culture of money politics is so deep-rooted that no potential leaders dare launch a crusade against it. Still, it will be interesting to see how UMNO deputy president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, known as "Mr. Clean," handles this issue if and when he leads the party.
"Danny Sole"
[real name withheld]
Kedah, Malaysia

Prof. Jomo Kwame Sundaram (pictured), the economist turned sociologist, stands out in the fight against cronyism and corruption in Malaysia ["The War Against Cronies," Nov. 3]. Jomo's argument on rent-seeking by politicians and bureaucrats is a derivative one, an overlay of neo-classical economic rationality onto politics. Advanced to explain and describe problems of development in the Third World by Nobel Prize-winner James Buchanan [1986], it duplicates the economic market on to the political. So, men who are assumed to behave as rational, maximizing, self-interested consumers in the market are seen as acting likewise in politics. The outcome is corruption and cronyism, which has implications for development.

The Jomo-style remedy is to institute structural reform of the type advocated by the International Monetary Fund and so-called international NGOs. [In response], one only needs to recall the popular social and political resistance against these very solutions and programs. Given the dynamics of development in Asia, one must go beyond this approach. Western-style democracy in itself may be insufficient. Issues such as resource control, institutional reform and structural factors must be taken into consideration. Alas, the reductionist character of Jomo's contribution stands exposed.
Vejai Balasubramaniam
Kuala Lumpur

Malacanang's Response
It is unfair for Asiaweek to editorialize that the "least painful" option is for President Ejercito Estrada to resign from office ["Estrada's Options," EDITORIALS, Nov. 3]. Estrada's resignation would actually worsen the pain by shoving the country into the depths of political chaos where it may have no way of escaping from in the immediate future. If the president resigns because of baseless accusations by a self-confessed gambling lord, what will prevent his constitutional successor and other future presidents from being victimized by the same kind of destabilization moves? The president was elected in 1998 by the biggest margin in the country's history. He cannot just abandon his electoral mandate to serve until 2004.

We are flabbergasted by your assertion that a popular revolt similar to the EDSA 1986 uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship "cannot be discounted" if the peso continues to plummet. By the same argument, popular revolts are also in the offing in many other economies similarly reeling from the currency meltdown spawned by the overheating U.S. economy and the strong American dollar. Don't you think the leaders of Indonesia, New Zealand, the Euroland countries and Australia must also resign for failing to stop their respective currencies from depreciating?
Michael T. Toledo
Press Undersecretary
MalacaNang
Manila

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