Proud to be Malaysian

When S&P downgraded the US from AAA to AA, Moody’s defended the US’ triple-A status. Fascinating. I think this presents Malaysia with a unique opportunity to lead. I think it’s time for Asia and the emerging markets to combine forces and expertise to create our own neutral rating agency.

America didn’t confront their problems sooner and now the gap seems too wide for any single president to fix. Europe is stressed and in disarray. Do we want to wait for crisis levels before we act? Why not start now to increase domestic – led consumption and exports to Asia, the emerging, and frontier markets. Buy Malaysian. Promote Malaysian – made. Act now.

Let’s you and I stand up for our economy. Let’s champion Brand Malaysia.

Let’s collaborate with China, India, Africa, and our Latin American friends. Let’s form joint venture alliances to scour the planet for products and services that these huge consumer nations seek and desire. When companies see demand surging for Malaysian – made goods and services will they be inspired to produce more, and produce quality. Everybody wins.

Under the US Dodd – Frank law that was proposed on 2 Dec 2009, there’s the Volcker rule. By this rule, depository banks are prohibited from proprietary trading, meaning they can’t trade with their own funds, only with clients’ money.

Banks forced to curb trading means money looking for new places to go… This gives Malaysia a brilliant opportunity to attract global funds. It’s time for us to modernize our trading systems. We’re well – poised as one of the world’s foremost Islamic Banking centers.

“In the near future I envisage that the Yuan will become the safe haven currency of Asia. Later, the Yuan together with other emerging market currencies such as the Brazilian Rial, Russian Ruble, Indian Rupee, and South African Rand will be in one big gold – backed basket,” predicts Ashwin M Binwani Wealth Strategist at Peak Prosperity Consulting Hong Kong Ltd.

(That means Americans can’t simply print money; create Quantitative Easing 2 and 3 without backing it with a measure of gold!)

Malaysia is in a sweet spot as our Ringgit is the proxy currency for the Chinese Yuan. In fact when the Yuan appreciates, all Asian currencies follow suit.

The entire matrix of business and finance has shifted to the East. It’s time for Malaysians to develop more courage and confidence. Why not use this time to perfect our systems and take measures to decouple from the West. For this to happen our financial and political groundwork must be honed and refined.

Malaysia has a lot going for itself. At this point the stakes are high and primarily we’ve got 2 choices. We can work to do ourselves proud. Or we can let ourselves down. I say we stand for unity. Think National Pride.

I say peace will secure prosperity.

Asia in Full Throttle

China is currently holding more than US$ 800 billion of US treasuries. If a ratings downgrade takes place, China and other investors would be tempted to sell their USD bond holdings. Should the US dollar collapse, the market would probably hedge by buying metals such as gold and silver, and invest in Asian and emerging market currencies like Singapore dollar, Malaysian Ringgit, Korean Won, Thai Baht, Indonesian Rupiah, Chinese Yuan, Australian dollar, and Brazilian Rial.

Between 31 Jan – 8 July 2011 the Indonesian Rupiah climbed by about 6.15% against the USD. Between 15 Mar – 8 July 2011, the Singapore dollar climbed 5.3% against the USD. Since the Thai election on Jul 3, the Thai Baht has climbed about 2.5% against the USD. Between 2 Feb – 8 Jul 2011, our Ringgit climbed 3.1% against the USD.

On Fri 8 Jul the Bloomberg – JP Morgan Asia Dollar Index rose to a 14-year high. In the 5 days leading to July 8, global funds pumped more than USD 1.9 billion into South Korean, Thai and Indonesian equities, Exchange data has showed. The increase in demand for Asian and emerging market equities has increased the demand for its currencies.

Moral of the story: Any exporter wanting to succeed must redesign and realign its market strategy to suit Asia and the emerging markets.

A Directive To Live A New Life

How should we interpret the recent spate of global crises? Not even crises; just occurrences.

Whether we like it or not, we live in an "entanglement" economy --- where one nation's prosperity is inter - connected to another nation's performance. The theme, agree or not, must be "prosper thy neighbor." Or all may perish.

With the US and Europe in financial turmoil, India and China (and other emerging markets) are on the rise --- from overtaking the US and Japan as the world's largest exporters, the world's largest consumers; and the rest of the world have no choice but to sit up and pay attention. What else can we do? Drop out of orbit?

Corruption, commercial breach of trust, nuclear and biological warfare, ecological disasters swirling all around us... what will you and I do about that if the intention is evolution?

I see this as an opportunity for readjustment, for balancing the karmic scales. Western civilization is proving to be obsolete in its approach towards evolution; its practices catastrophic by result - through misuse of power --- eroding the people's trust and confidence. What have Hank Poulsen, Bernanke, Tim Geithner, Alan Greenspan achieved so far, if not to add insult to injury?

Now is the time we have to re-examine and work through our social, economic, political, cultural, and religious structures --- for transformation. We want to create new "spirit" and build up a new society based on new foundations of human thinking and doing.

But first we must be free of our tribal traditions; lose the ego-mind, and come back to our senses.

What are we fighting for? Do we want intellectual, military power? Something to crusade against? Do we need another industrial revolution? Where one culture's strength rises above others and domination occurs? How do we get to achievement, progress, morality, citizenship, and ultimately --- freedom? By passing more laws?

After all this, how much more do we know? This depends on how we see. How we see goes to form our attitudes and our attitudes go to shape our behavior.

What is our identity? Is it that of a harmonious, collective, cohesive society or clusters of tribes led by warlords? They say the leadership of any society is the community's manifestation of its aspirations.

Let's see. If this is so, then we are the movers and shakers, the shape-shifters of our time. We will create our destiny. Dynamic or destructive. Creative or conniving.

We can choose "quantum leap" or humanity's catastrophe.

I opt for life. What about you?

Transformation is about Vision

Transformation is, but a shift in perception. It is being able to see something through new eyes.
Sometimes you can see the shift coming; sometimes it happens within seconds -- like a tsunami.
Not prepared, it can claim lives.
The trick is to be alert and stay ready. As ready as possible.

Here's the scary truth. Our vision --- what we can see at any given moment --- is limited by our interpretations. The moment we assign meanings to events in our lives -- is the moment we limit our view of reality. So we gotta manage our meanings.

What do some of the recent happenings mean? There's been natural catastrophes --- the flooding in Queensland, Brazil, and China. Earthquakes in Chile, Haiti, Indonesia. Draught in Russia. Heatwaves in India. Volcanic ash in Iceland and all over Europe. Snow in London --- in fact the coldest weather in 20 years!

There's political chaos in Egypt, Tunisia, and the Ivory Coast in Africa. Soon to be general elections in Malaysia

There's been the sub-prime crisis, the "Bernie Madoff embarrassment" --- which brought on the financial crash on a global scale and is forcing the restructuring of the markets. Mega economies such as the EU and the US are in shambles and still picking up the pieces. How is this all possible, even fathomable? With bigwigs the likes of Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson, Bernanke, Tim Geithner --- those brainy billionaire bankers at the helm???

Is greed good? Are we being punished for apportioning the wrong meanings? What's the lesson to learn here? Is this a directive from the universe to live a different type of life? If so, what type?