Ust Mohd Zakuan Tak 

“Bertaqwalah kamu kepada Allah menurut kesanggupan kamu, dan dengarlah oleh mu serta taat, dan belanjakan harta untuk kebahagiaan diri kamu, kerana barangsiapa terpelihara dari kebakhilan diri nya, maka mereka itulah orang yang beruntung.  Jika kamu meminjamkan kepada Allah pinjaman yang baik, niscaya Allah akan melipatkan gandakan pembalasannya kepada mu dan mengampuni kamu.  Dan Allah Maha Pembalas Jasa lagi Maha Penyatun.”…….At-Taghaabun a.16-17.

Saudara kaum muslimin yang dihormati sekalian.

Dihari jumaat yang mulia ini, marilah bersama kita mendengar dan menghayati khutbah pendek yang bertajuk “ Membelanjakan rezeki kurniaan Allah kejalan yang diredhainya.”

Sidang jumaat yang dimulikan.

Agama Islam adalah agama yang sentiasa membimbing seluruh umatnya kearah kesejahteraan dan ketinggian hidup serta mengawal dari sebarang perbuatan yang mendatangkan kerugian atau penyesalan dalam hidup sesaorang insane itu. Sebab itu Islam bukan sahaja menyediakan jalan jalan atau panduan panduan untuk mencari rezeki yang halal dimuka bumi ini, bahkan menyediakan pula cara cara atau peraturan peraturan bagi menyalurkan harta benda dan wang ringgit dari orang yang dianggap berada itu untuk disampaikan pula kepada gulungan yang tidak bernasib baik, gulungan fakir dan miskin yang tidak mempunyai harta.  Begitulah sempurnanya ajaran Islam yang diwahyukan dari Allah itu kepada Nabi Muhammad SAW dan menyampaikannya pula kepada sekalian umatnya diatas dunia ini. 

Sidang jumaat yang berbahagia. 

Dari ayat yang dibacakan tadi, Jelas Allah menyarankan kepada setiap umat Islam itu supaya  jangan sesekali bersikap bakhil atau kedekut pada membelanjakan harta benda dan wang ringgit yang kita perolehi itu, kepada keperluan diri dan juga tanggung jawab terhadap keluarga.  Pemberian  makan minum dan menyediakan pakaian yang sepatutnya, juga tempat tinggal yang selesa dan berpatutuan itu adalah tanggungjawab dan kewajipan kita sebagai seorang ketua keluarga.  Ianya perlu dilaksanakan dengan sempurna dan bertanggung jawab dengan sekadar yang termampu.

Perbelanjaan atau penyaraan membiayai keluarga ini adalah diharuskan dalam Islam hanya sekadar keperluan sahaja dan tidak perlu pula dilebih lebihkan sangat.  Malah jika terdapat kelebihan rezeki dan harta, maka hendaklah disalurkan pula kepada orang lain yang menderita yang memerlukan bantuan dari orang yang berada seperti kita.  seperti gulungan fakir miskin, anak anak yatim yang terbiar serta janda janda yang terlantar.  Bahkan ada kanak kanak miskin dikalangan masyarakat kita hari ini yang masih memerlukan bantuan makanan, bantuan pakaian dan perbelanjaan persekolahan mereka.  Mereka mereka ini sangat sangat  memerlukan bantuan dari kita. Maka orang yang bakhil dan kedekut untuk membelanjakan harta dan rezeki mereka kepada gulungan asnaf   ini, SAH mereka ini adalah sebagai musuh Allah yang nyata.  Sepertimana firman Allah SWT  dalam surah Imran ayat 180.

“ Dan jangan sekali kali orang orang yang bakhil dengan harta benda yang telah dikurniakan Allah kepada mereka dari kemurahanNya menyangka bahawa keadaan bakhilnya itu baik bagi mereka.  Bahkan ia adalah buruk bagi mereka.  Mereka itu akan dikalongkan (diseksa) dengan apa yang mereka bakhilkan itu pada hari kiamat kelak dan bagi Allah jualah hak milik segala warisan isi langit dan bumi dan INGATLAH, Allah Maha Mengetahui dengan mendalamnya akan segala yang kamu kerjakan.”…Ali Imran ayat 180.

“ Dan ingalah, orang orang yang menyimpan emas dan perak serta tidak membelanjakannya pada jalan Allah, maka khabarkanlah kepada mereka dengan balasan azab seksa yang tidak terperi sakitnya.  Iaitu pada hari dibakar emas perak itu dalam neraka jahanam, lalu diselar keatas dahi dahi mereka, dan rusuk mereka, serta belakang mereka sambil dikatakan kepada mereka “ Inilah apa yang telah kamu simpan untuk diri kamu sendiri.  Oleh itu rasakan azab dari apa yang telah engkau simpankan itu “…At-Taubah 34-35. 

Haidirin jumaat yang dihormati,

Oleh itu berwaspada dan berhati hatilah tuan tuan sekalian, terutama pada orang orang yang  berharta dan berada.

Sebagai seorang yang beriman yang mengharapkan keredzoan Allah SWT dan kebahagiaan dihari akirat nanti, maka kita  hendaklah berhati hati dan bercermat cermat serta membuat perhitungan dalam membelanjakan harta dan wang ringgit, supaya jangan sampai membawa kepada pembaziran yang sangat dibenci oleh Allah SWT.  Perbelanjaan yang berlebihan atau boros membeli barangan yang dianggap tidak berfaedah adalah dikira membazir.  Sedangkan orang yang membazir itu disifafkan oleh Allah  sebagai saudara syaitan.  Sepertimana firmannya:

Yang bermaksud : Sesungguhnya orang yang pemboros itu  itu adalah saudara saudara syaitan, dan syaitan itu adalah sangat ingkar kepada Tuhannya. “…..Al-Israq 27.

Sidang jumaat yang berbahagia.

Bagi kita yang mempunyai pendapatan bulanan, telah merasai dan akan menerima berbagai nikmat seperti pemberian bonus, kenaikan gaji dan sebagainya.  Kesemuanya itu adalah pemberian Allah yang maha berkuasa yang mana rezeki tersebut perlu wajib disyukuri dengan sebaik baiknya. Oleh itu berhati hatilah ketika kita membelanjakan rezeki tersebut.  Jika dikenakan zakat maka wajib kita mengeluarkan zakat.  Bersifat pemurah dengan memperbanyakan sedekah dan jariah.   Janganlah hendaknya dihabiskan begitu sahaja mengikut kata hati ketika membeli, seperti membeli barangan yang tidak berfaedah, yang tidak memberi pulangan apa apa keuntungan kepada diri dan keluarga sendiri.  Seperti membeli perabut rumah yang mahal dan klasik.  Kadang kadang perabut rumah itu lebih mahal dari harga rumah yang kita duduki.  Keluasan ruang tamu Cuma 60 inci, tetapi membeli juga TV Plasma berukuran 42 inci, yang mengakibatkan hanya berbaki Satu Setengah kaki.  Menyebabkan kita tersepit apabila melalui ruang sempit ini.   Bak kata pepatah melayu “Ukur baju tidak dibadan sendiri “,  malah kadang kadang sanggup berhutang beribu ribu asalkan kehidupan kita berstatus bangsawan yang dihormati.  Sedangkan kita masih memerlukan wang ringgit untuk persediaan menghadapi perbelanjaan persekolahan yang tinggi yang bakal dihadapi awal tahun 2008 nanti.

Saudara seagama yang saya hormati,

Jika pendapatan kita berlebihan sekalipun, maka eloklah menabung atau menyimpannya untuk kegunaan dihari tua.  Simpanan wang dan bekalan itu amat penting diatas dunia ini. Dunia ini berputar tuan tuan, sekejab kita diatas dan sekejab kita kebawah. Manalah tahu, kita diuji jatuh sakit, ketika itu sudah pasti memerlukan belanja yang banyak untuk pembiayaan perubatan,  Bagaimana kalau kita tidak mempunyai bekalan wang simpanan.  Tetapi Lebih  malang lagi diantara kita, sudahlah didunia tiada wang yang disimpan, bekalan akhirat langsung tidak dihiraukan.  Hari akhirat itu tuan tuan sekalian adalah tempoh yang terlalu panjang, yang mana sangat sangat memerlukan simpanan ibadat ketika diatas dunia ini, sebagai bekalan dihari yang amat mendukacitakan sekalian manusia, kecuali yang beramal soleh ketika diatas dunia.Seharusnya kita berlumba lumba membuat amal pahala kerana usia umur manusia hari ini  sudah semakin pendek.  Umur kita jarang melepasi 74 tahun, maka dalam tempoh yang singkat ini, ketika masih berdenyut lagi nadi kita, kita perlu bersungguh mengerjakan amal ibadah untuk bekalan dihari akhirat yang bakal tiba.

Ketahuilah wahai saudara ku, bahawa keperluan harta yang kita punyai diatas dunia ini,  sebenarnya ialah apa yang kita makan dan apa yang kita minum atau apa yang kita pakai juga apa yang kita infakkan atau sedekahkan. Itu sahaja. Yang lain hatta bertimbun sekalipun atau bernilai berbiliun, adalah bukan milik  kita, Ianya milik  waris waris yang kita tinggalkan.  Kita hanya memerlukan kain puteh pembalut badan serta amalan soleh yang berkekalan.

Peringatan ini ditujukan kepada sesiapa sahaja, Saya dan juga tuan tuan yang mulia. Miskin atau kaya, tua atau muda. Terutama kepada yang berada dan berharta.  Diingatkan supaya janganlah hendaknya kita merasa sombong dan bongkak terhadap saudara saudara muslim yang tidak bernasib baik seperti kita.  Seperti saudara saudara kita yang masih bekerja sendiri dikampung atau didesa. Masih menoreh getah dan mengait kelapa. Mereka tidak kenal apa itu bonus dan merit.  Maka hulurkanlah sedikit rezeki kita kepada mereka,  Berilah bantuan ketika mereka meminta.  Ini adalah sebagai tanda syukur kita terhadap kurniaan Allah, lebih lebih lagi jika  terdapat dikalangan kaum kerabat kita sendiri, adik beradik kita sendiri yang ditimpa malang atau jatuh derita, maka bantuilah mereka dengan sewajarnya.  Allah SWT tidak akan mensia-siakan kebajikan yang kita lakukan itu.  Malah akan dilimpahi rezeki dari sumber yang tidak diduga dan disangka.  Dan diakhirat nanti akan mendapat ganjaran pahala yang semulia mulianya.  Bersedekah kepada kaum keluarga itu akan mendapat dua pahala, yaitu kelebihan pahala bersedekah dan keduanya pahala  mengeratkan tali silaraturahim antara keluarga.

Sidang jumaat yang dikasihi.

Didalam mencari pahala berganda, tuan tuan yang mempunyai kelebihan rezeki perlu banyak bersedekah dan melaksanakan ibadah.  Ketika ini, bulan Zulkaedah banyak masjid, surau, persatuan persatuan dan pejabat pejabat sedang mengatur program sembelihan Ibadah korban dan aqiqah bagi tahun 1428 Hijrah.  Disamping merayakan hari raya Aidil Adha nanti, maka berkorbanlah tuan tuan sekalian, dengan menyembelih haiwan ternakan sepertimana mengikut syariat Nabi Allah Ibrahim dan Ismail yang dicatatkan didalam Al-Quran Nur Karim.  Kita akan berpahala besar dan dosa dosa orang yang berkorban itu dijanjikan Allah akan diampuni sebelum titisan darah sembelihan itu jatuh kebumi.   

Carilah lah lokasi dimana mana pelusuk bumi ini yang terdapat orang Islam yang dhoif yang kais pagi makan pagi yang makan daging setahun sekali, untuk diagih agihkan daging mentah dari korban tuan tuan sendiri. Biarkan mereka yang dhoif itu merasai nikmat daging dari sebahagian harta kita yang disayangi.  Kemudian rasakan nikmat dan keberkatan ibadah ini yang pastinya setiap tahun tuan tuan akan menyertai ibadah korban dan Aqiqah ini.

“Ketahulah sesungguhnya harta dan anak pinak kamu itu boleh membawa angkara, sebenarnya pada sisi tuhanmu ialah sebesar besar pahala “

Jika selama ini masyarakat berupaya mengimbangi keperluan terhadap isu anjakan paradigma, maka aliran pemikiran sedemikian juga akan turut memberi kebaikan kepada paradigma perubahan dalam masyarakat. Anjakan paradigma adalah dogma yang membentuk paradigma perubahan.

Kebanyakan tamadun-tamadun besar dunia wujud hasil daripada perencanaan secara total berkenaan istilah perubahan. Jika dilihat secara menyeluruh berkenaan ketamadunan Islam, Nabi SAW menjadi tunjang dalam memberi idea baru berkenaan erti anjakan paradigma kepada masyarakat tanah arab. Islam yang selalu dipandang enteng oleh Barat dan orientalis menjadi negar pertama dunia yang mempunyai perlembagaan yang lengkap dan tersendiri.

Malah dalam ketamadunan India dan China juga, elemen reformasi struktur nilai masyarakat berlangsung saban waktu sebelum mampu membentuk budaya fikir yang konstruktif. Pembinaan watak perubahan begini merupakan langkah paling awal untuk menyanjung budaya negara sebagai sebuah negara bertamadun atau tidak.

Atas landasan hujah demikian, maka langkah BERSIH untuk mereformasikan struktur pandangan awam terhadap Pilihanraya Umum merupakan langkah yang sepatutnya diraikan oleh kebanyakan orang. BERSIH menjadi front dalam membina stamina ini. Marhaen yang selama ini memendam rasa menyimpulkan secara mudah kehendak mereka melalui rapat umum BERSIH.

Dengan suasana perubahan negara yang semakin hari semakin menekan, banyak aspek budaya yang dilupakan, malah yang lebih teruk apabila sistem pentadbiran demokrasi negara kucar-kacir. Eksekutif, Kehakiman danParlimen semakin hari semakin porak-peranda.

Nyata, kontstruk negara yang paling asas iaitu Perlembagaan negara masih belum difahami secara penuh oleh kebanyakan elit sosial negara. Artikel Malaysia Today terbaru, mengeluarkan suatu pandangan yang cukup membina bagaimana individu yang terlibat dalam sistem kehakiman negara turut tidak memahami apa itu perlembaagan negara?

Situasi begini memberi nafas baru kepada pencinta kedaimaian. Suasana damai ketika rakyat ‘mengemis demokrasi’ nyata memberi impak kepada kepimpinan yang sering lena tertidur.

Frasa “…supaya kamu bertakwa…” daripada ekstrak ayat diatas memberi maksud yang jelas berkenaan hasil kemenangan yang bakal diraih setelah sebulan menjalani tarbiah Ramadhan. Walaupun subjektif maksud dan pengamalan ketakwaan kepada Allah, manusia yang beriman memahami betapa tingkat ketakwaan yang dijana selama menghadapi tarbiah Ramadhan merupakan nikmat yang tidak terucap dek kata-kata.

Selesai Ramadhan, Syawal menjelma. Bulan yang penuh dengan keraian yang diberikan oleh Allah SWT kepada para hambaNya yang tekun beribadat dan disiplin menjaga adab sepanjang Ramadhan.

Di sinilah nilai ketakwaan yang disebutkan seperti dalam Surah Al-Baqarah mampu dinilai. Segala tingkah dan perilaku selepas Ramadhan akan dijadikan pengukur sama ada Ramadhan yang telah dilalui itu suatu kemenangan atau sekadar lelah yang tiada akhir penatnya.

Kemenangan Ramadhan adalah titik tolak kepada permulaan segala kebaikan dunia dan akhirat. Premis ini juga menjadi asas untuk membentuk masyarakat yang prihatin dan peka kepada situasi umat semasa. Jika sepanjang Ramadhan, nasib umat di Afghanistan dibantu dengan segala kelengkapan, maka selepasnya juga, nasib umat ini wajib ditangani dengan kadar yang sesuai.

UMAT ISLAM DAN DUNIA

Umat Islam ketika ini menjadi sebahagian daripada hampir 7 bilion umat manusia. Dengan populasi hampir mencecah 25% daripada keseluruhan umat dunia, maka segala tindakan dan perilaku umat Islam akan mejadi ukuran dan contoh untuk dinilai oleh dunia.

Lihat sahaja kepada Turki, sebuah negara Islam asalnya dan ditukar kepada sekularisme dan akhir-akhir ini kembali mengambil Islam sebagai asas bernegara melaui kemenangan Parti AK; sebuah parti Islam di Turki.Semenjak itu, situasi di Turki mula dicerna oleh masyarakat dunia ekoran keprihatinan Turki untuk terlibat sebagai sebuah negara Eropah yang lazimnya dikuasai oleh kebanyakan negara yang jelas mendukung Islamiphobia secara tidak langsung.

Justeru, Syawal ini merupakan yang pertama buat Abdullah Gul sebagai presiden dan juga pertama kalinya Turki meraikan Syawal dengan seoarang wanita pertama yang bertudung.Walaupun sikap kalangan aristokrat berterusan pesimis terhadap tudung, tetapi ini memberi langkah awal untuk mengembalikan Turki kepada landasan dunia Islam yang sebenar.

Insiden ini juga menjadi asas untuk dunia menilai Islam daripada paradigma Islam yang mutlak bukan daripada andaian para orientalis yang pesong dengan fakta dan data.

Selain itu, isu umat yang berterusan juga sewajarnya kekal diberi perhatian. Isu Darfur yang sudah menjangkau bertahun, Palestin yang sudah menjadi intipati perbincangan masyarakat dunia, kestabilan di Iraq dan kemenangan psikologi Iran di Amerika Syarikat sudah tentu mamapu merencana tindakan baru untuk umat Islam di dunia.

Sikap biadap Amerika Syarikat menyambut kedatangan seorang Presiden Iran sebenarnya memberi boomerang effect kepada negara terbabit. Akhlak seorang hamba Allah Iran dinilai dunia dan sekali lagi Syawal yang mendatang akan menguntungkan Iran ketika konflik pelbagi isu terus memuncak.

MALAYSIA BAGAIMANA ?

Umat Islam di Malaysia terus selesa denga taraf dan kemakmuran yang diperolehi. Sedangkan jika dinilai dan diperhatikan betapa kemakmuran yang ada hari ini hanyalah secebia dari rasa kasih Allah kepada umatNya yang taat.

وَمَا بِكُمْ مِنْ نِعْمَةٍ فَمِنَ اللهِ

“Dan nikmat apapun yang kalian dapatkan adalah datang dari Allah.” (An-Nahl: 53)

وَإِنْ تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللهِ لاَ تُحْصُوْهَا

“Dan jika kalian menghitung nikmat Allah niscaya kalian tidak akan sanggup.” (An-Nahl: 18)

Insiden yang berlaku di Malaysia kebelakangan ini amat perit untuk dinilai apatah lagi dihujah melalui perbincangan massa umum. Kes pembunuhan kejam Altantuya Shaaribu dan kematian tragis adik Nurin Jazlin terus menjadi sebahagian daripada renda-renda sejarah hitam negara. Turut menyedihkan ialah nahas Nuri yang berkekalan menjadi ‘medan tempur tanpa musuh’ yang mengorbankan saban anggota pertahanan negara.

Apakah insiden-insiden tragis ini hanya sekadar insiden atau ingatan Allah untuk umat?

Ketika Ramadhan sampai ke penghujung, khalayak umat sepatutnya menjadikan ini sebagai premis muhasabah diri yang terbaik. Jika umat mengambil insiden sebagai rakaman taubat kepada Allah, maka kita akan terus menjadi kelompok beruntung untuk sentiasa melakukan semak nilai kepada apa situasi sekalipun yang berlaku di dalam negara.

Realiti yang terselindung amat memilukan. Umat Islam terus hanyut dek serakah nafsu yang memandu diri. Malah dambaan nafsu ini dijadikan matlamat hidup sehingga lupa pada janji dan ingatan Allah SWT.

Dan pada (kisah) kaum Tsamud ketika dikatakan kepada mereka “Bersenang-senanglah kalian sampai suatu waktu.”

Maka mereka berlaku angkuh terhadap perintah Tuhannya, lalu mereka disambar petir dan mereka melihatnya.

Maka mereka sekali-kali tidak dapat bangun dan tidak pula mendapat pertolongan,

dan (Kami membinasakan) kaum Nuh sebelum itu. Sesungguhnya mereka adalah kaum yang fasik.

Dan langit itu Kami bangun dengan kekuasaan (Kami) dan sesungguhnya Kami benar-benar berkuasa

Az-Zariyat:44-47

Kemenangan Syawal

Kemenangan Syawal ada notasi kepada keamanan sejagat juga kebahagiaan umat hidup bersama. Umat Islam akan mewajarkan pertolongan tanpa mengira batasan sempadan dengan akhlak mahu memberi sumbangan terbaik buat umat sedunia.Umat Malaysia wajar menjadikan Syawal untuk tarbiah diri dan masyarakat supaya iman yang dicari ditemui bukan nafsu serakah yang dibajai.

Pimpinan negara wajib meletakkan keimanan teras kepada kecemerlangan umat, tidak sekadar cogankata terbilang dengan rakyat terus bergelumang dengan dosa maksiat.

Three illustrious former members of the Bench share their views about the current state of the judiciary amid calls for an independent Judicial Commission for the appointment and promotion of judges.

SINCE the 1988 judicial crisis, the judiciary has been beset with allegations of impropriety. Now calls for an independent Judicial Commission for the appointment and promotion of judges have been renewed with the emergence of a video clip showing the apparent brokering of appointments between a lawyer and a senior judge.

Sunday Star talks to three retired judges – considered to be among the most highly-respected to have served on the Bench – for their views on the current state of the judiciary and what can be done to improve matters.

Vohrah: ‘Judges should not be cowed by superior judges if their directions are not consonant with the principles of justice’

The three – Datuk Shaik Daud Ismail, Datuk K.C. Vohrah and Datuk V.C. George – retired as Court of Appeal (COA) judges. Shaik Daud gives training sessions at the Legal and Judicial Training Institute; Vohrah is a Suhakam commissioner, and George is a sought-after dinner speaker and moderator at legal conferences. All also do arbitration.

The Penang-born Shaik Daud, 71, started in the Legal and Judicial Service in 1963. He was appointed to the High Court 1983, and retired from the COA – the second highest court in Malaysia – in 2001. When he was called to the Bar in 2003, Federal Court Justice Md Raus Sharif praised him for “upholding the integrity of the judicial system.”

George, 77, a former Bar Council chairman, was appointed a High Court judge in 1981 after 25 years as a lawyer. He retired in 1995. His judgment in Foo vs TVB Ltd in 1985 put Malaysia on the “world copyright map” because he held that a company making films in Hong Kong was entitled to copyright protection here.

Born in Malacca, Vohrah, 70, was appointed to the High Court in 1986 and COA in 2001. He made the news in 1996 after he overturned the extension of a remand order and ordered the immediate release of the remaining 10 participants of the Apcet II meeting who had been detained after a few hundred Umno Youth members had stormed the conference.

The following are excerpts of the interviews that were conducted separately:

Sunday Star: The Bar points to the 1988 judicial crisis as the start of the problems in the judiciary. How were instances of impropriety dealt with before 1988?

Shaik Daud: When I was a High Court judge, if I received such a complaint I would show the letter to the subordinate judge under my supervision and ask him to tell me the truth. Sometimes there was nothing to the complaint but at times I took action. Unfortunately, I never told any of the complainants my findings. That was wrong.

Vohrah: There weren’t many cases of not writing judgments but if the Lord President got a letter complaining of that he would call up the judge and tell him to get it done. As for errant judges, there were one or two cases but as soon as the LP was aware of it he dealt with it promptly. In that time also action was taken swiftly against errant judicial officers; a number of them were disciplined or sacked.

George: When I was Bar president, I can think of one complaint of corruption involving a magistrate in the 1970s. The then Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Yusof, spoke to the person concerned and told him to resign in the name of ‘national service’. When I heard about it and asked why that person was not prosecuted, Kadir said it had been dealt with quietly because he did not want one black sheep to besmirch the reputation of the entire judiciary.

When I was a High Court judge, I did not hear of any impropriety on the part of any magistrate or Sessions Court judge. And if there was a letter of complaint against any High Court judge, all the Lord Presidents I served under would refer it to the Chief Justice of Malaya or Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak now). The CJM/ CJB would ask for an explanation and dismiss the complaint if they found it to be frivolous after hearing it, as happened once with me.

Shaik Daud: ‘We have many cases where seniors and seniors with merit are not promoted but juniors without merit are’

Whenever you heard allegations of impropriety, what did you do?

Shaik Daud: I was in Pahang when I received complaints that a magistrate in Raub started hearings at 11am or even after lunch. He was also seen having lunches with lawyers in the coffeeshop every day; people in rural towns don’t like that. So I gave him a warning.

Vohrah: In one matter, some lawyers came to see me with an application for a revision. I was horrified at the number of breaches of the Criminal Procedure Code. I fixed the case for revision the next day and instructed my registrar to inform the AG’s Chambers.

The next morning a judge came to see me to pass the message that no one from Chambers would be coming. He added our “chief” had said that if I continued to hear the application for revision, the Special Branch would come. I replied, “So what?” I conferred with Justice Malek (Ahmad) and he agreed that I should tell the Chambers that I would continue with the hearing without them. They sent someone. From that incident I made it be known that I couldn’t be browbeaten. Judges should not be cowed by superior judges if their directions are not consonant with the principles of justice.

George: I did not hear of any specific act of impropriety against any judge, only rumours and talk. If I had I would not have had any hesitation to refer the matter to the powers-that-be.

Has there been any change in the way the top positions in the judiciary are filled and judges selected post-1988?

Vohrah: Before, only one name would be submitted to the Prime Minister. But after 1988, a list of names would be submitted for him to choose from.

Shaik Daud: In the past, appointments by one person seemed to work. But lately, I’ve noticed that some appointments are questionable.

To become a magistrate, a judicial commission interviews the candidate, as I was. There is transparency. But to select a judge, that doesn’t happen. That is ridiculous when this person is given the power to take someone’s life. The fact that you have to appear before a commission means someone is vetting you. In the case of (superior court) judges, the PM will not know who the CJ recommends and accepts the names in good faith.

George: As early as the 1970s I had spoken of the need for a different system of appointments because the existing one was not good enough. In the days of (then LPs) Tun Suffian (Hashim), Raja Azlan (Shah, now Sultan of Perak) and Tun Salleh (Abas) would check up on candidates with the Bar president and other senior lawyers informally. It was possible then because there were only 600-700 lawyers but today there are over 12,000.

But even with such checks, mistakes can happen as in the case of one lawyer who was appointed a Judicial Commissioner. That mistake was “corrected” after the former lawyer’s law firm made serious allegations against him; I believe he was prosecuted. There was also one nomination that was withdrawn after the Bar Council drew attention to the fact that a suit, alleging fraud, had been filed against the candidate.

Cases like these only reinforce the importance of checking thoroughly a potential candidate before they are appointed. Post-1988, there have been fewer or no consultations with the Bar. Tun Hamid Omar (who replaced Salleh) was not on speaking terms with the Bar after it had passed a vote of no confidence against him.

George: ‘If you appoint the right people, You don’t need some code to tell them how to behave’

Does it appear from the delayed appointments for the 2nd and 3rd positions in the judiciary that the Conference of Rulers had conducted their own background research on those nominated?

Shaik Daud: If we have a Judicial Commission, it would take care of that. With the backing of the law and proper guidelines, the commission would be able to do a good job. It could also take care of promotions. Now, you’re not promoted just because you’re senior. We have seen so many cases where seniors and seniors with merit are not promoted but juniors without merit are. The reason would appear to be they are being rewarded.

Vohrah: I disagree with the speculation of tensions between the rulers and the PM. Their role is a throwback to the Durbar (rulers’ conference) dating back to 1897. The Constitution provides for the rulers to call for papers and reports to help them reach a decision and a consultation should mean they also have the power to investigate.

I have seen you at social gatherings where lawyers were present but I have never heard allegations of impropriety made against you. How come?

Shaik Daud: Maybe because of the way we behave and the way we portray ourselves that tell people that we don’t entertain these things. If you want to have a party in your house I will attend but that’s it.

George: In those days there was a lot of free mingling between the Bar and the Bench – everyone knew their place, nobody took advantage of it and it never became an issue. Again, I stress the importance of appointing the right people.

Vohrah: I don’t know (laughs).

How effective has the Code of Ethics been?

Shaik Daud: It was drafted when I was there but it was never implemented as far as I know.

George: It’s an absolute waste of time. It comes back to the character of the person at his appointment. If you appoint the right people, they will do their job and you don’t need some code to tell them how to behave.

Many complaints don’t warrant a removal by a tribunal but do people need a forum to lodge minor complaints and for disciplinary action to be taken?

Vohrah: There was a move when Tun Dzaiddin (Abdullah) was CJ to do just that. I sat on a committee with Tan Sri Richard Malanjum (Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak) and others and we came up with recommendations for amending the Federal Constitution to deal with minor infractions using a code of conduct. I don’t know what happened after that.

But in 2005, Parliament did amend Article 125 of the Constitution so the CJ can “refer a judge who commits a breach of any provision of a code of ethics as prescribed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to a body constituted under federal law.”

There is a need for such a mechanism because the usual complaints are that judges don’t sit on time or postpone cases for the flimsiest of reasons. I have also heard complaints of judges shouting at lawyers or making inappropriate remarks.

Why don’t the lawyers ask the Bar Council to raise it with the judiciary?

Vohrah: I guess they fear reprisals that will affect their clients. It never used to be like this. This is the result of appointing the wrong or incompetent people to the Bench. I want to add here, however, that this only relates to a handful of judges. The majority are good and hardworking.

Are you in favour of a Judicial Commission?

George: I hope there will be an independent Judicial Commission to ensure an independent, incorruptible, and competent judiciary. I cannot stress more strongly the need to investigate and assess a person before they are appointed.

Merit is not an issue in deciding promotions if the person was of good quality, character and morality at selection.

Vohrah: Definitely. After Suhakam’s forum on the right to an expeditious and fair trial in 2005, we called for a commission in our report, saying the competency of judges had a bearing on the efficiency of the judicial system. I want to add that there have been some good people in the AG’s Chambers who should have been made judges but they were not appointed.

Shaik Daud: A Judicial Commission would be a good start (to restoring public confidence in the judiciary). It can enforce the code.

A panel of inquiry is investigating the video clip but do you think there is a need for a royal commission of inquiry to examine the affairs of the judiciary in light of all the complaints that have arisen since 1988?

George: The panel is only looking at one issue. I think the Bar is on the right track in calling for a royal commission to look into all aspects of the judiciary.

Vohrah: Yes. A royal commission could explore all aspects of the ills besetting the judiciary. The problems are far-reaching and something has to be done fairly quickly before the judiciary slides further down the track.

What do you say to de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz who insisted that everything was all right with the judiciary?

Vohrah: I think he’s probably not aware of what is happening on the ground. In many commercial contracts, parties are including an arbitration clause to resolve disputes instead of the courts. That is a terrible blow to the judiciary because apart from a handful, the rest are good judges. In some states, there may be three or four judges but you will find that only one or two are doing all the work and carrying the whole burden. Vohrah: ‘Judges should not be cowed by superior judges if their directions are not consonant with the principles of justice’Shaik Daud: ‘We have many cases where seniors and seniors with merit are not promoted but juniors without merit are’ George: ‘If you appoint the right people, You don’t need some code to tell them how to behave’

Terbaru, insiden Ahmedinejad dikecam di New York memberi inspirasi baru buat pendokong kebebasan sejagat. Peristiwa sebegini sebenarnya mengajar umat, betapa perspektif kebebasan yang dilaung-laungkan selama ini punya cacat cela yang banyak. Ketika barat mengangkat kebebasan sebagai tonggak demokrasi, Amerika Syarikat secara khusus melemparkan pelbagai tuduhan palsu kepada Ahmedinejad. Malah lebih memualkan lagi, menafikan kebebasan yang dijulang oleh massa negara itu.

Ketika dijemput untuk memberi syarahan umum di Columbia University, Ahmedinejad disambut dengan pelbagai slogan jahat yang menghakimi pandangan Iran secara langsung. Walhal, dalam diskusi akademik yang berlangsung di universiti tersebut, sebarang provokasi jahat yang menidakkan perbincangan secara intelek sewajarnya dijauhi.

Ahmedinejad menyambut kesemua slogan jahat dengan bersahaja dan penuh bijaksana.

Adab Barat Yang Dilupakan

” I think the text read by the dear gentleman here, more than addressing me, was an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here. In a university environment we must allow people to speak their mind, to allow everyone to talk so that the truth is eventually revealed by all.

We’ll just leave that to add up with the claims of respect for freedom and the freedom of speech that’s given to us in this country.any parts of his speech, there were many insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully. “

Ekstrak daripada ucapan Ahmedinejad seperti diatas memberikan satu signifikasi kepada khalayak umum, betapa dalam menangani ‘kebebasan’ dari perspektif barat, khalayak sewajarnya meletakkan idealisme intelek dan akedemia mendahului suasana emosi.

Selaku seorang yang lantang bersuara dan mengecam barat, sudah pastilah Ahmedinejad bersedia menerima sebarang kritikan terbuka mahupun ancaman pedas yang mengutuk amalan kepimpinan yang diamalkan beliau.

Dalam suasana sebegini, interpretasi khalayak yang menghadiri perhimpunan di Universiti Columbia sedikit sebanyak akan menilai fakta dan data yang dikemukan oleh beliau secara intelek dan penuh ilmiah. Atas dasar memertabatkan kedaulatan ilmu, Ahmedinejad langsung membicarakan soal pokok perbincangan dengan tidak terjebak dalam isu-isu besar yang melibatkan Iran.

Perbincangan sedemikian akan mampu menjana pespektif baru buat penuntut dan warga akademik Universiti Columbia untuk menilai sama ada pandangan umum mereka terhadap Iran dan Ahmedinejad selama ini benar atau sekadar dorongan pandangan serong yang ditaja oleh kelompok besar media barat.

Israel dan Hak Kebebasan

Dunia tidak pernah lupa betapa Presiden Iran yang bertubuh kecil ini adalah individu yang paling lantang mempersoalkan tindakan monopoli Amerika Syarikat dan kebiadaban Israel dalam mewacana keganasan dunia hari ini.

Kebebasan yang dilaungkan dunia hanyalah sebuah slogan palsu yang ditaja Zionis dalam menegakkan negara bangsanya sendiri. Amerika Syarikat, sebaliknya pula hanyalah patung-patung yang bermain dengan cita-cita palsu sebagai sebuah negara bertamadun.

Maka, tidak hairanlah jika isu Holocaust yang selama ini menjadi ‘insiden ekslusif’ turut disentuh oleh beliau.

My question was simple: There are researchers who want to approach the topic from a different perspective. Why are they put into prison? Right now, there are a number of European academics who have been sent to prison because they attempted to write about the Holocaust or research it from a different perspective, questioning certain aspects of it.

Persoalan utama yang bermain dibenak fikiran Ahmedinejad bukanlah isu pokok sama ada Holocaust ini berlaku atau tidak. Sebaliknya penjelasan benar dari perspektif ilmiah betapa kejadian Holocaust ini disokong oleh fakta dan data yang sahih dan diyakini.

Tetapi, hampir sebarang diskusi yang membicarakan soal ini dihalang langsung ditutupi sumbernya. Malah, tiada langsung sebarang fakta untuk menjustifikasikan betapa Holocaust ini wajar menjadi ‘insiden ekslusif’ dan ini memberi gambaran betapa Holocaust hanyalah sebuah insiden yang diletakkan sebagai isu untuk meraih pendapat awam sahaja. Tidak lain untuk menanam rasa simpati Barat kepada Israel.

Justeru, apabila perbincangan berkenaan sebarang isu, kebebasan dalam perspektif barat tidak dapat tidak, hanyalah berkitar kepada soal selain daripada ego Israel dan ‘insiden ekslusif’ ini. Jika ada sebarang premis menyentuh perkara ini, maka perbincangan tadi akan langsung dilabel sebagai menyimpang,hatta diskusi ilmiah sekalipun.

Daripada kekangan ini, nyata kebebasan yang dijana oleh Barat hanyalah sebuah khayalan semata dan ilusi buat khalayak umum yang mendokong prinsip kebebasan sejagat. Ia hanyalah satu elemen justifikasi untuk mendorong Barat merampas hak dan kebebasan sebenar masyarakat awam.

Premis ini juga menerangkan betapa Amerika Syarikat yang kononya menjadi jagoan dunia dalam hak kebebasan tidak lebih daripada anjing salakan Israel untuk membenarkan sebarang justifikasi berat sebelah yang membelakangi ego Israel.Lihat sahaja kepada veto Amerika Syarikat dalam resolusi yang tidak menyebelahi Israel.

Maka, tidak menghairankan jika Ahmedinejad dikecam sebegitu hebat oleh massa Amerika Syarikat. Cuma kebijaksanaan dan nilai yang diaplikasikan untuk menangani kebebasan ‘perspektif’ barat ini diambil dalam suasana yang cukup-cukup menguntungkan Iran.

At the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Thirtieth Annual Economic Symposium, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

August 25, 2006

When geographers study the earth and its features, distance is one of the basic measures they use to describe the patterns they observe. Distance is an elastic concept, however. The physical distance along a great circle from Wausau, Wisconsin to Wuhan, China is fixed at 7,020 miles. But to an economist, the distance from Wausau to Wuhan can also be expressed in other metrics, such as the cost of shipping goods between the two cities, the time it takes for a message to travel those 7,020 miles, and the cost of sending and receiving the message. Economically relevant distances between Wausau and Wuhan may also depend on what trade economists refer to as the “width of the border,” which reflects the extra costs of economic exchange imposed by factors such as tariff and nontariff barriers, as well as costs arising from differences in language, culture, legal traditions, and political systems.

One of the defining characteristics of the world in which we now live is that, by most economically relevant measures, distances are shrinking rapidly. The shrinking globe has been a major source of the powerful wave of worldwide economic integration and increased economic interdependence that we are currently experiencing. The causes and implications of declining economic distances and increased economic integration are, of course, the subject of this conference.

The pace of global economic change in recent decades has been breathtaking indeed, and the full implications of these developments for all aspects of our lives will not be known for many years. History may provide some guidance, however. The process of global economic integration has been going on for thousands of years, and the sources and consequences of this integration have often borne at least a qualitative resemblance to those associated with the current episode. In my remarks today I will briefly review some past episodes of global economic integration, identify some common themes, and then put forward some ways in which I see the current episode as similar to and different from the past. In doing so, I hope to provide some background and context for the important discussions that we will be having over the next few days.

A Short History of Global Economic Integration

As I just noted, the economic integration of widely separated regions is hardly a new phenomenon. Two thousand years ago, the Romans unified their far-flung empire through an extensive transportation network and a common language, legal system, and currency. One historian recently observed that “a citizen of the empire traveling from Britain to the Euphrates in the mid-second century CE would have found in virtually every town along the journey foods, goods, landscapes, buildings, institutions, laws, entertainment, and sacred elements not dissimilar to those in his own community.” (Hitchner, 2003, p. 398). This unification promoted trade and economic development.

A millennium and a half later, at the end of the fifteenth century, the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and other explorers initiated a period of trade over even vaster distances. These voyages of discovery were made possible by advances in European ship technology and navigation, including improvements in the compass, in the rudder, and in sail design. The sea lanes opened by these voyages facilitated a thriving intercontinental trade–although the high costs of and the risks associated with long voyages tended to limit trade to a relatively small set of commodities of high value relative to their weight and bulk, such as sugar, tobacco, spices, tea, silk, and precious metals. Much of this trade ultimately came under the control of the trading companies created by the English and the Dutch. These state-sanctioned monopolies enjoyed–and aggressively protected–high markups and profits. Influenced by the prevailing mercantilist view of trade as a zero-sum game, European nation-states competed to dominate lucrative markets, a competition that sometimes spilled over into military conflict.

The expansion of international trade in the sixteenth century faced some domestic opposition. For example, in an interesting combination of mercantilist thought and social commentary, the reformer Martin Luther wrote in 1524:

“But foreign trade, which brings from Calcutta and India and such places wares like costly silks, articles of gold, and spices–which minister only to ostentation but serve no useful purpose, and which drain away the money of the land and people–would not be permitted if we had proper government and princes… God has cast us Germans off to such an extent that we have to fling our gold and silver into foreign lands and make the whole world rich, while we ourselves remain beggars.” (James, 2001, p.

Global economic integration took another major leap forward during the period between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the beginning of World War I. International trade again expanded significantly as did cross-border flows of financial capital and labor. Once again, new technologies played an important role in facilitating integration: Transport costs plunged as steam power replaced the sail and railroads replaced the wagon or the barge, and an ambitious public works project, the opening of the Suez Canal, significantly reduced travel times between Europe and Asia. Communication costs likewise fell as the telegraph came into common use. One observer in the late 1860s described the just completed trans-Atlantic telegraph cable as having “annihilated both space and time in the transmission of intelligence” (Standage, 1998, p. 90). Trade expanded the variety of available goods, both in Europe and elsewhere, and as the trade monopolies of earlier times were replaced by intense competition, prices converged globally for a wide range of commodities, including spices, wheat, cotton, pig iron, and jute (Findlay and O’Rourke, 2002).The structure of trade during the post-Napoleonic period followed a “core-periphery” pattern. Capital-rich Western European countries, particularly Britain, were the center, or core, of the trading system and the international monetary system. Countries in which natural resources and land were relatively abundant formed the periphery. Manufactured goods, financial capital, and labor tended to flow from the core to the periphery, with natural resources and agricultural products flowing from the periphery to the core. The composition of the core and the periphery remained fairly stable, with one important exception being the United States, which, over the course of the nineteenth century, made the transition from the periphery to the core. The share of manufactured goods in U.S. exports rose from less than 30 percent in 1840 to 60 percent in 1913, and the United States became a net exporter of financial capital beginning in the late 1890s.¹

For the most part, government policies during this era fostered openness to trade, capital mobility, and migration. Britain unilaterally repealed its tariffs on grains (the so-called corn laws) in 1846, and a series of bilateral treaties subsequently dismantled many barriers to trade in Europe. A growing appreciation for the principle of comparative advantage, as forcefully articulated by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, may have made governments more receptive to the view that international trade is not a zero-sum game but can be beneficial to all participants.

That said, domestic opposition to free trade eventually intensified, as cheap grain from the periphery put downward pressure on the incomes of landowners in the core. Beginning in the late 1870s, many European countries raised tariffs, with Britain being a prominent exception. Britain did respond to protectionist pressures by passing legislation that required that goods be stamped with their country of origin. This step provided additional grist for trade protesters, however, as the author of one British anti-free-trade pamphlet in the 1890s lamented that even the pencil he used to write his protest was marked “made in Germany” (James, 2001, p. 15). In the United States, tariffs on manufactures were raised in the 1860s to relatively high levels, where they remained until well into the twentieth century. Despite these increased barriers to the importation of goods, the United States was remarkably open to immigration throughout this period.

Unfortunately, the international economic integration achieved during the nineteenth century was largely unraveled in the twentieth by two world wars and the Great Depression. After World War II, the major powers undertook the difficult tasks of rebuilding both the physical infrastructure and the international trade and monetary systems. The industrial core–now including an emergent Japan as well as the United States and Western Europe–ultimately succeeded in restoring a substantial degree of economic integration, though decades passed before trade as a share of global output reached pre-World War I levels.

One manifestation of this re-integration was the rise of so-called intra-industry trade. Researchers in the late-1960s and the 1970s noted that an increasing share of global trade was taking place between countries with similar resource endowments, trading similar types of goods–mainly manufactured products traded among industrial countries.² Unlike international trade in the nineteenth century, these flows could not be readily explained by the perspectives of Ricardo or of the Swedish economists Eli Heckscher and Bertil Ohlin that emphasized national differences in endowments of natural resources or factors of production. In influential work, Paul Krugman and others have since argued that intra-industry trade can be attributed to firms’ efforts to exploit economies of scale, coupled with a taste for variety by purchasers.

Postwar economic re-integration was supported by several factors, both technological and political. Technological advances further reduced the costs of transportation and communication, as the air freight fleet was converted from propeller to jet and intermodal shipping techniques (including containerization) became common. Telephone communication expanded, and digital electronic computing came into use. Taken together, these advances allowed an ever-broadening set of products to be traded internationally. In the policy sphere, tariff barriers–which had been dramatically increased during the Great Depression–were lowered, with many of these reductions negotiated within the multilateral framework provided by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Globalization was, to some extent, also supported by geopolitical considerations, as economic integration among the Western market economies became viewed as part of the strategy for waging the Cold War. However, although trade expanded significantly in the early post-World War II period, many countries–recalling the exchange-rate and financial crises of the 1930s–adopted regulations aimed at limiting the mobility of financial capital across national borders.

Several conclusions emerge from this brief historical review. Perhaps the clearest conclusion is that new technologies that reduce the costs of transportation and communication have been a major factor supporting global economic integration. Of course, technological advance is itself affected by the economic incentives for inventive activity; these incentives increase with the size of the market, creating something of a virtuous circle. For example, in the nineteenth century, the high potential return to improving communications between Europe and the United States prompted intensive work to better understand electricity and to improve telegraph technology–efforts that together helped make the trans-Atlantic cable possible.

A second conclusion from history is that national policy choices may be critical determinants of the extent of international economic integration. Britain’s embrace of free trade and free capital flows helped to catalyze international integration in the nineteenth century. Fifteenth-century China provides an opposing example. In the early decades of that century, the Chinese sailed great fleets to the ports of Asia and East Africa, including ships much larger than those that the Europeans were to use later in the voyages of discovery. These expeditions apparently had only limited economic impact, however. Ultimately, internal political struggles led to a curtailment of further Chinese exploration (Findlay, 1992). Evidently, in this case, different choices by political leaders might have led to very different historical outcomes.

A third observation is that social dislocation, and consequently often social resistance, may result when economies become more open. An important source of dislocation is that–as the principle of comparative advantage suggests–the expansion of trade opportunities tends to change the mix of goods that each country produces and the relative returns to capital and labor. The resulting shifts in the structure of production impose costs on workers and business owners in some industries and thus create a constituency that opposes the process of economic integration. More broadly, increased economic interdependence may also engender opposition by stimulating social or cultural change, or by being perceived as benefiting some groups much more than others.

The Current Episode of Global Economic Integration
How does the current wave of global economic integration compare with previous episodes? In a number of ways, the remarkable economic changes that we observe today are being driven by the same basic forces and are having similar effects as in the past. Perhaps most important, technological advances continue to play an important role in facilitating global integration. For example, dramatic improvements in supply-chain management, made possible by advances in communication and computer technologies, have significantly reduced the costs of coordinating production among globally distributed suppliers.

Another common feature of the contemporary economic landscape and the experience of the past is the continued broadening of the range of products that are viewed as tradable. In part, this broadening simply reflects the wider range of goods available today–high-tech consumer goods, for example–as well as ongoing declines in transportation costs. Particularly striking, however, is the extent to which information and communication technologies now facilitate active international trade in a wide range of services, from call center operations to sophisticated financial, legal, medical, and engineering services.

The critical role of government policy in supporting, or at least permitting, global economic integration, is a third similarity between the past and the present. Progress in trade liberalization has continued in recent decades–though not always at a steady pace, as the recent Doha Round negotiations demonstrate. Moreover, the institutional framework supporting global trade, most importantly the World Trade Organization, has expanded and strengthened over time. Regional frameworks and agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union’s “single market,” have also promoted trade. Government restrictions on international capital flows have generally declined, and the “soft infrastructure” supporting those flows–for example, legal frameworks and accounting rules–have improved, in part through international cooperation.

In yet another parallel with the past, however, social and political opposition to rapid economic integration has also emerged. As in the past, much of this opposition is driven by the distributional impact of changes in the pattern of production, but other concerns have been expressed as well–for example, about the effects of global economic integration on the environment or on the poorest countries.

What, then, is new about the current episode? Each observer will have his or her own perspective, but, to me, four differences between the current wave of global economic integration and past episodes seem most important. First, the scale and pace of the current episode is unprecedented. For example, in recent years, global merchandise exports have been above 20 percent of world gross domestic product, compared with about 8 percent in 1913 and less than 15 percent as recently as 1990; and international financial flows have expanded even more quickly.³ But these data understate the magnitude of the change that we are now experiencing. The emergence of China, India, and the former communist-bloc countries implies that the greater part of the earth’s population is now engaged, at least potentially, in the global economy. There are no historical antecedents for this development. Columbus’s voyage to the New World ultimately led to enormous economic change, of course, but the full integration of the New and the Old Worlds took centuries. In contrast, the economic opening of China, which began in earnest less than three decades ago, is proceeding rapidly and, if anything, seems to be accelerating.

Second, the traditional distinction between the core and the periphery is becoming increasingly less relevant, as the mature industrial economies and the emerging-market economies become more integrated and interdependent. Notably, the nineteenth-century pattern, in which the core exported manufactures to the periphery in exchange for commodities, no longer holds, as an increasing share of world manufacturing capacity is now found in emerging markets. An even more striking aspect of the breakdown of the core-periphery paradigm is the direction of capital flows: In the nineteenth century, the country at the center of the world’s economy, Great Britain, ran current account surpluses and exported financial capital to the periphery. Today, the world’s largest economy, that of the United States, runs a current-account deficit, financed to a substantial extent by capital exports from emerging-market nations.

Third, production processes are becoming geographically fragmented to an unprecedented degree.⁴ Rather than producing goods in a single process in a single location, firms are increasingly breaking the production process into discrete steps and performing each step in whatever location allows them to minimize costs. For example, the U.S. chip producer AMD locates most of its research and development in California; produces in Texas, Germany, and Japan; does final processing and testing in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and China; and then sells to markets around the globe. To be sure, international production chains are not entirely new: In 1911, Henry Ford opened his company’s first overseas factory in Manchester, England, to be closer to a growing source of demand. The factory produced bodies for the Model A automobile, but imported the chassis and mechanical parts from the United States for assembly in Manchester. Although examples like this one illustrate the historical continuity of the process of economic integration, today the geographical extension of production processes is far more advanced and pervasive than ever before. As an aside, some interesting economic questions are raised by the fact that in some cases international production chains are managed almost entirely within a single multinational corporation (roughly 40 percent of U.S. merchandise trade is classified as intra-firm) and in others they are built through arm’s-length transactions among unrelated firms. But the empirical evidence in both cases suggests that substantial productivity gains can often be achieved through the development of global supply chains.⁵

The final item on my list of what is new about the current episode is that international capital markets have become substantially more mature. Although the net capital flows of a century ago, measured relative to global output, are comparable to those of the present, gross flows today are much larger. Moreover, capital flows now take many more forms than in the past: In the nineteenth century, international portfolio investments were concentrated in the finance of infrastructure projects (such as the American railroads) and in the purchase of government debt. Today, international investors hold an array of debt instruments, equities, and derivatives, including claims on a broad range of sectors. Flows of foreign direct investment are also much larger relative to output than they were fifty or a hundred years ago.⁶ As I noted earlier, the increase in capital flows owes much to capital-market liberalization and factors such as the greater standardization of accounting practices as well as to technological advances.

Conclusion
By almost any economically relevant metric, distances have shrunk considerably in recent decades. As a consequence, economically speaking, Wausau and Wuhan are today closer and more interdependent than ever before. Economic and technological changes are likely to shrink effective distances still further in coming years, creating the potential for continued improvements in productivity and living standards and for a reduction in global poverty.

Further progress in global economic integration should not be taken for granted, however. Geopolitical concerns, including international tensions and the risks of terrorism, already constrain the pace of worldwide economic integration and may do so even more in the future. And, as in the past, the social and political opposition to openness can be strong. Although this opposition has many sources, I have suggested that much of it arises because changes in the patterns of production are likely to threaten the livelihoods of some workers and the profits of some firms, even when these changes lead to greater productivity and output overall. The natural reaction of those so affected is to resist change, for example, by seeking the passage of protectionist measures. The challenge for policymakers is to ensure that the benefits of global economic integration are sufficiently widely shared–for example, by helping displaced workers get the necessary training to take advantage of new opportunities–that a consensus for welfare-enhancing change can be obtained. Building such a consensus may be far from easy, at both the national and the global levels. However, the effort is well worth making, as the potential benefits of increased global economic integration are large indeed.

Criscuolo, Chiara, and Ralf Martin (2005). “Multinationals and U.S. Productivity Leadership: Evidence from Great Britain,” Centre for Economic Performance, Discussion Paper No. 672, January.

Doms, Mark E. and J. Bradford Jensen (1998). “Comparing Wages, Skills, and Productivity between Domestically and Foreign-Owned Manufacturing Establishments in the United States,” in R.E. Baldwin, R.E. Lipsey, and J. David Richardson, eds., Geography and Ownership as Bases for Economic Accounting, NBER Studies in Income and Wealth, vol. 59, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, pp. 235-58.

Findlay, Ronald (1992). “The Roots of Divergence: Western Economic History in Comparative Perspective,” AEA Papers and Proceedings, vol. 82:2, May, pp. 158-61.

Findlay, Ronald, and Kevin O’Rourke (2002). “Commodity Market Integration 1500-2000,” Centre for Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper No. 3125, January.

Grubel, Herbert, and P.J. Lloyd (1975). Intra-Industry Trade, New York, New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hanson, Gordon, Raymond Mataloni, and Matthew Slaughter (2005). “Vertical Production Networks in Multinational Firms,” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 87:4, November.

Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to Present (Millennial Edition) (2006). New York, New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hitchner, Bruce (2003). “Roman Empire,” in Joel Mokyr ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, vol. 4, pp. 397-400.

James, Harold (2001) The End of Globalization: Lessons from the Great Depression, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Kurz, Christopher (2006). “Outstanding Outsourcers: A Firm- and Plant-Level Analysis of Production Sharing,” Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2006-04, Federal Reserve Board, March.

Maddison, Angus (2001). The World Economy: A Millenial Perspective, Paris, France: OECD Development Centre.

Standage, Tom (1998). The Victorian Internet, New York, New York: Walker Publishing Company.

4. See, for example, Hanson, Mataloni, and Slaughter (2005). Return to text

5. Some of the key empirical papers in this literature are Doms and Jensen (1998); Criscuolo and Martin (2005); Corrado, Lengermann, and Slifman (2005); Bloom, Sadun, and Van Reenen (2006), and Kurz (2006). Return to text

6. See, for example, Bordo, Eichengreen, and Irwin (1999). Return to text

THE government of Malaysia has laid on all sorts of grand pageantry this weekend, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Malay peninsula’s independence from Britain. There is much to celebrate. Living standards and access to education, health services, sanitation and electricity have soared during those five decades of sovereignty. The country’s remarkable modernisation drive was symbolised, nine years ago, by the completion of the Petronas twin towers, in Kuala Lumpur, then the world’s tallest buildings.

Yet there will be a hollow ring to the festivities. Malaysia’s 50th birthday comes at a time of rising resentment by ethnic Chinese and Indians, together over one-third of the population, at the continuing, systematic discrimination they suffer in favour of the majority bumiputra, or sons of the soil, as Malays and other indigenous groups are called. There are also worries about creeping “Islamisation” among the Malay Muslim majority of what has been a largely secular country, and about the increasingly separate lives that Malay, Chinese and Indian Malaysians are leading. More so than at independence, it is lamented, the different races learn in separate schools, eat separately, work separately and socialise separately. Some are asking: is there really such a thing as a Malaysian?

The pro-bumiputra discrimination was laid down in the country’s first constitution, in 1957, to ease Malays’ fears of being marginalised by the Chinese and Indian migrants. These had come, supposedly temporarily, to work in the tin mines and plantations but were settling permanently and increasingly dominating business and the professions. The perks were extended greatly after race riots in 1969. Malays get privileged access to public-sector jobs, university places, stockmarket flotations and, above all, government contracts. The most notable result, as with South Africa’s similar policy of “black economic empowerment”, has been “encronyment”—the enrichment of those well connected to the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the party that has led all governments since independence. Malays as a whole, like other races, have got richer but the gap between the Malay haves and have-nots has widened. The corruption and waste these policies engender seem to have got worse in recent years.

As criticism has grown, UMNO’s leaders have resorted ever more frequently to growling that nobody should question the “social contract”. This is a reference to the metaphorical deal struck between the races at independence, in which the Malays got recognition that the country was basically theirs, while the Chinese and Indians were granted citizenship. The veiled threat of violence lurking behind calls to uphold the social contract was made explicit during last year’s UMNO conference, at which one delegate talked of being ready to “bathe in blood” to defend Malay privileges and the education minister, no less, brandished a traditional Malay dagger.

The hypocritical Malay dilemma

The social contract may once have seemed necessary to keep the peace but now it and the official racism that it is used to justify look indefensible: it is absurd and unjust to tell the children of families that have lived in Malaysia for generations that, in effect, they are lucky not to be deported and will have to put up with second-class treatment for the rest of their lives, in the name of “racial harmony”. When the mild-mannered Abdullah Badawi took over as prime minister from the fire-breathing Mahathir Mohamad in 2003, there were hopes of change for the better. Mr Badawi preached a moderate, “civilisational” Islam and pledged to crack down on corruption.

Four years on, corruption, facilitated by the pro-Malay policies, is unchecked. The state continues to use draconian internal-security laws, dating back to the colonial era, to silence and threaten critics. UMNO continues to portray itself to Malays as the defender of their privileges yet tries to convince everyone else that it is the guarantor of racial harmony. One commentator this week gently described this as a “paradox”. Hypocrisy would be a better word.

The damage caused by this state racism is ever more evident. Malaysia’s once sparkling growth rate has slipped. Racial quotas and protectionism are scaring away some foreign investors. While Malaysians celebrate having done rather better than former British colonies in Africa, they must also notice that South Korea, Taiwan and their estranged ex-spouse Singapore have done much better still. The economic consequences alone justify ending Malaysia’s official racism. Even without them, it would still be just plain wrong.

Ke Bawah Duli Duli Yang Maha Mulia Raja Raja Melayu,

All temporal power in the land is derived through the will of the people.

After 50 years of being sidelined, and with the country now being hijacked by the corrupt, the mentally inept, the sleepy, and the cowards, the Malay Rulers are at last being recognised as that other necessary arm of power sharing in our Constitutional Monarchy. We have always called ourselves a Constitutional Monarchy based on the Westminster model of Parliamentary Democracy. Only now are we beginning to appreciate the value of the Malay Rulers.

The power to rule the country is divided between the Executive, the Parliament, the Judiciary and, last but not the least, the Malay Rulers. Due to the skewed nature of our election results (caused by our skewed voting behaviour) the Parliament has become completely subservient to the Executive. These two combined have totally overwhelmed the Judiciary. The end result is that the Executive is supreme.

But all this is possible only and only with the connivance of the population. The population expresses its willingness in this connivance through the ballot box. It is the will of the people that gives the Executive complete rubber stamp authority over Parliament as well as the Judiciary.

Until now, the will of the people ignored the role of the Malay Rulers. Until now, of course. The populace now recognises that it has created a monster and the populace has little chance of getting rid of this monster that it has helped create. Hence the will of the people is changing.

The will of the people is now reverting to the Malay Rulers to save the people from the clutches of the mentally inept, the corrupt, the sleepy, and the cowards. The country is most certainly going down the toilet.

Bus drivers will not be driving buses for the Merdeka weekend and the Hari Raya holidays because too many are on drugs, have serious traffic violations, or even have criminal records. A corrupt system kept them driving buses right off the road. When people start dying in large numbers, the breakdown in the system comes into the open.

The tuition teachers are on strike because a corrupt and inept system which makes a mockery of the schools made it necessary for tuition centres. Now, with the tuition centres being shut down, who is going to teach the children?

The Police are caught between a rock and a hard place. They do not know whether to work for the good of the people or for the crooks and the gangsters.

The Prime Minister has made Australia his second home. He has also gone overseas 83 times (and counting) in just three years in power. The Prime Minister’s favorite phrase is ‘I dont know’.

The Ministers and the high and mighty are robbing the country blind. The Iskandar Corridor is a fake. The Northern Development Corridor is another fake. The Prime Minister’s son, son in law and their cronies are set to make billions from land development in these areas.

Vast amounts of tax payers savings in EPF, SOCSO, Tabung Haji, LTAT and in the GLC’s are being used to speculate on the Stock Market which is now crashing. The Prime Minister who is also the Minister of Finance says ‘I dont know’.

The Government machinery only works when enough money is used to grease its rusting wheels. Hawker permits, building approvals, college accreditations, drivers licenses, lorry permits can all be had for a price. Pay and you shall get.

Murder cases can be totally and completely mishandled if you can pay enough money. The Judges and the Public Prosecutors can all be bought.

The country is going to the dogs. It is a question of time before there is complete break down of law and order.

The Malay Rulers cannot wait for the situation to worsen further. The Malay Rulers cannot wait for the people to get down on their knees and beg the Malay Rulers to save them.

The Executive has no power. Parliament has no power. The Judiciary has no power. Power resides only with the people. Power resides where the people decide to place it. Right now, the people are turning to the Malay Rulers to intervene to save the country. The people will empower the Malay Rulers. The Malay Rulers cannot ignore the people at this most crucial time.

The Malay Rulers have it in their power to dismiss the Executive. There are sufficient provisions in the Federal Constitution to allow the Malay Rulers to fire the Executive. If the Malay Rulers choose to exercise this authority, the people will support the Malay Rulers.

If the Malay Rulers do not intervene now, the population will suffer. The country will be thrown into chaos. If that happens, history will ultimately question the role of the Malay Rulers.

The Prime Minister is not a leader. He is a monyet. He has to be replaced and all his henchmen thrown out.

To be born into real leadership is not a privilege. It is a commitment, a duty, and an awesome responsibility. That shall be the Daulat. To save the nation is paramount. The Malay Rulers must act decisively now.

Daulat Tuanku.