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Paradise Philippines – Butuan City, located at the Northeastern part of Agusan Valley sprawling across the Agusan River is Butuan City, known for its colorful history and culture. Paradise Philippines BUTUAN is a term believed to have originated from …

UMNOis not a reasonable point of comparison because Phil political parties have not articulated any idology. UMNO does. Whether it walks the talk is a matter for debate but at least it professes a certain ideological outlook that is markedly different from PAS, DAP and REFORMA

Thanks for posting my articles but please correct the spelling of my name. Its Julio Teehankee not Teehangkee.

Cheers!

July

my point was that in the philippines, we have a one party history. regardless of whatever the parties called themselves and renamed themselves. we formalize our factions unlike say, the japanese or even the malays who keep the factions under the bigger single-party tent -which you could say was also our habit from the early 1900s to the war, and revived again in the 70s though the revival could have taken place sooner, had roxas and magsaysay lived. which indicates to me, by broad analogy, that the malaysians are headed in that direction, only we’ve had sixty year’s head start.

mahathir may be a visionary, but what if his vision is the parsley while the rest of the party goes along with it to get a piece of the roast?

However, the point is whether UMNO is a reasonable point of comparison for political parties in the Philippines. My argument was that it is not, as it is an ideologically-driven party dedicated to an interventionist agenda (as opposed to the balimbing, opportunistic groupings that characterize Philippine parties).

To me, what makes Mahathir singularly effective as a leader is that he managed to pull Malaysia together, despite the “corruption” proliferated within UMNO.

It is as you say difficult to make a balanced assessment of Malaysia even today, even with Mahathir gone. The one true apprehension of Europeans is will Malaysia be able to keep those relative gains today with Mahathir gone?

But we certainly cannot deny that Malaysia under Mahathir and even after Mahathir could boast that they had done much better, a lot better for their people than many other countries in the region which till today are still striving to reach half their potential, eg Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar and even perhaps, Thailand with its infant democracy already being throttled.

I lived in Malaysia. from the election right after Anwar’s sacking through Mahathir’s resignation until past the last election where Badawi was able to recover the Malay constituency that Mahathir lost as a result of his split with Anwar.

On the price of corruption – Mahathir went on an infrastructure spree duing the mid-nineties, highways, bridges, rails etc. But many of them were not built well, For example, he elevated portion of the highway that goes through Batu caves on the way to Genting is now closed because cracks started to appear and those cracks were attributed to inferior construction materials? We’re talking of a highway that cost hundreds of millions.

No doubt Mahathir helped Malaysians and Malays. And even the IMF had to admit that Mahathir was correct not following the IMF formula.But it is also undeniable that crony capitalism has prevented Malaysia from achieving its fullest potential.

Also, peninsular Malaysia’s growth is centered in KL, Penang, Johor (because of its proximity to Singapore) and Ipo to a very much lesser extent. A lot of money is now being poured into Sabah, around KK, because Barisan wants to make sure that Sabah secessionist sentiments never flare up again,

After Mahathir left, the country looked very good. It semed to have recovered well from the economic crisis. But, Badawi began cancelling infrastructure projects because he said government had no money. Businesses that depended on government contracts began to suffer.

There was and is still a construction boom in Juala Lumur and Penang when I left but this was private sector driven and it was concentrated on luxury condos, office towers and new developments. And now builders are predicting a glut in rentable space.

It’s not easy to make a balanced assessment of Malaysia because, as you know very well from having lived there yourself, the government is not transparent. If you want to know whagoing on you have to hang out at the polo clubs, Royal Selangor and the other clubs and hotels and other watering holes of the powerful. What you get is gossip about politics and business. But that’s the closest one can get to real news in Malaysia and at least it comes from the horses themselves. For example, the rumors about Badawi’s son in law have been going around KL and Penang for a long time. What Mahathir is now saying publicly only confirmsthose those rumors.

What I’m trying to say is, in my first couple of years in KL, I believed that what I was seeing, the surface, was the real deal. When I finally got to get around, and you know that Malaysians don’t take people in their confidence as easy as Filipinos do, I began to see that graft and corruption in Malaysia, cronyism,is just as endemic as it is here. And like,Malaysia gets away with it because it is fabulously rich in natural resources and very underpopulated. In short, there is enough for everyone even after UNMO and cronies have taken their cut. So I measure Malatsia in terms of opportunities lost because of corruption instead of in terms of gains nade despite corruption.