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| Are we worth what we have? By artist Ashaari Rahmat Graphic sourced from www.loyarburuk.com |
They arrive on our
shores and fall in love. Visitors and expatriates are immediately enchanted
with our food and our people. And for
all intents and purposes, the modern metropolis projects a first-world facade.
Yes, Malaysia is
modern. We have skyscrapers that are comparable to the best in the world, and
we have brandished them with great pride. The Twin Towers, together with our
participation in the F1 were both part of a strategic brand plan to put
Malaysia on the map. To a large extent we have succeeded.
But like any brand
plan, Malaysia, who excels in building and creating icons, seems to have
suffered not from a lack of vision but rather from a lack of sustainability.
And sustainability is
a word that many in Malaysia seem to have difficulty with.
Plans are often made
on a quick-win basis and once that has been completed, another plan is hatched
and on it goes. We seem to thrive on the adrenalin of the new with hardly a
thought to managing our treasures and assets,both tangible and intangible.
Once pristine beaches
are now polluted. Our stately buildings
consistently develop holes in their ceilings. Visitors to the Sepang F1 track
say that the conditions near the docks are deplorable, and those who had the
pleasure of working at Istana Budaya would have seen the entropy inside its
bowels. Many of the first-world fittings have been made to fit into a
third-world culture complete with leaky faucets, filthy tunnels and warped wood
carvings.
Does all this have to be definitive of Brand Malaysia?
In short, no.
I mentioned tangible
and intangible assets above for a reason. For any brand to survive the
long-haul and come up on top, we really need to understand the sustainable
interplay between tangible and intangible assets.
All great brands are
high on the intangible or emotional.
They have brand equity – the value and
goodwill they have collected by working hard at being a great brand. People are
willing to go that much further or pay a little more for your product and not
your competitor’s; they would much rather work for you and not your competitor
– because of brand equity.
New York’s brand
equity lies not just in being a great
city filled with iconic buildings, but also the cultural and economic heart of
the US. And poets and writers have waxed lyrical about other great brands,
cities such as Paris and Bali, which have marked their souls indelibly.
The Upside
It is our intangible
assets that compose our soul. Aside from the food, our soul lies in our people;
a wonderful mixed palette of the best of Asia. Our soul lies in being one of
the most tolerant peoples around – we live with numerous customs, cultures,
religious practices, social strata. It is a confluence of too many things to
mention but we navigate them all daily without incident.
The upside of that is
that there is peace. And should there be unrest, it is never the will of the
majority.
But this peace is an
asset we have sadly not managed well.
Instead, our people
are divided and controlled with raced-based politics and an education system
riddled with serious deficits.
The Downside
And the downside of
that are meek, rather insular and ignorant masses who accept not just the good,
but also the bad. While we pride ourselves on our tolerance of racial, ethnic
and religious difference, we also tolerate bad service, bad mobile connections,
shoddy workmanship, continuous breakdowns (from satellite TV to traffic lights
and autopay parking machines to hospital registration), bad on-road behaviour –
the list goes on.
Will We Rise?
While other
destination brands are touting their Creative Class to potential investors and
MNCs, we Malaysians watch with resignation as our own innovators receive
accolades and distinctions elsewhere, whilst residing in another country.
Patents that could
have been owned by Malaysia are now in the hands of others who saw the promise
and invested in them. All this happened while we were busy building our
monoliths.
For Brand Malaysia to
truly rise, we need to first overhaul our HR and education values. The powers
that be keep talking about the importance of innovation, yet contradict
themselves with an education system and dogmatic attitude that is designed to
churn out conformist thinkers.
In a world where
currency resides in creativity and innovation, we have emerged severely
lacking. We need to start encouraging and valuing creativity over uniformity;
independent thinking over conformity, the big picture over the small successes.
Until then, Brand Malaysia will always be like a teenager, awkward, in-between
and full of unrealised promise.
Brand Malaysia Personified
Thankfully there is a
select group of individuals working in GLCs who love Malaysia enough to fully
appreciate the predicament that the Brand faces and are working towards
reversing this trend.
They have been
working tirelessly within the system, consulting both global and local experts.
They have devoted thankless months speaking to economist, professionals,
innovators, visionaries, scientists as well as those in the arts and NGO
communities.
Their self-assigned mandate is to uncover the best way forward and
some of this has already been realised.
Slowly, their efforts
to locate the different facets of Brand Malaysia are being expressed. More and
more, we see social enterprise, exemplifying our recognition that community
must be enriched and our modern mantle of entrepreneurship. We see high-quality
lectures and writing by local and international luminaries who offer the public
of a Malaysia that can be.
To these people, I
salute you and offer you my support should you need it in any way. The time has
come for Malaysia to reclaim its glory and I am optimistic that it will happen
in my lifetime.
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