Right, bring back English schools would be a smart move for Malaysians

Tweet

Bring back English schools

It is unhealthy for race relations when the student population in Chinese schools is 99.9% Chinese, Tamil schools is 100% Indian and national schools, dubbed Malay schools, is 80% to 90% Malay.

SERIOUSLY, the government should allow the use of English as a medium of instruction in schools again. If there are Chinese and Tamil primary schools alongside national schools, there is no reason for Malaysians not to have other options.

At present, the other option for better English proficiency is in private schools, which allocate more time for the teaching of English despite following the national school syllabus. However, it is an expensive option that only a few can afford.

Why should the right of Malaysians to study in English-medium schools be enjoyed only by those who can afford to study at international schools?

There are many good reasons for English-medium schools to be reintroduced, chief of which must surely be the language’s neutral status whereby no one can claim ownership to it.

Older Malaysians who went to English-medium schools can testify that it was in such an environment that they made many friends of all ethnic backgrounds.

The English schools, as they were popularly referred to, were neutral grounds and were real cultural melting pots.

Friendship cultivated at primary school level among Malaysians of different races and religions would always be strong and deep. Our current primary school system basically does not provide such opportunities for our young ones to mix.

We do get to mix with one another later on in life, but working relationships that are untested or superficial are not true friendships.

Older Malaysians can narrate long stories of how they used to sleep over at their friends’ homes, eating with their friends’ families and parents of their friends treating them like their own children. These friendships continued even after they went to university, entered working life, and got married.

These are the kinds of friends who would be part of the wedding entourage, either on the side of the bride or bridegroom.

I am now 52 years old. I believe I was among the last batch of Malaysians who had the privilege of being taught in English.

While some may dismiss what I have said as elitist or an attempt to glorify English at the expense of the national language, let me set the record straight. In Form 6, I opted to study Malay Literature and sat for the exam in Upper Six, which was then called Higher School Certificate and is the equivalent of the STPM today. It was also the entrance exam into local universities. I also studied Islamic History.

During my first year at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, I also chose Malay Letters as one of my three majors. At UKM, it is also compulsory to pass the Islamic Civilisation course, which was a basic course on Islam. I have also amassed a huge collection of books on Islam in my private library, and the works of Malay artists like Yusuf Ghani and Ismail Latiff continue to inspire me.

I dare say many of our politicians and leaders of so-called non-governmental organisations, who loudly make statements with racial overtones, do not even have such credentials.

But the point I am making is that more and more Chinese parents are sending their children to Chinese primary schools because they believe the standard of teaching and discipline in these schools is better. For the same reason, the number of Malay students at such schools has also increased.

But most Malay parents send their children to national schools where they form the bulk of the student population. Over the years, the national schools have been seen by many Chinese as becoming more religious in nature.

It’s a Catch 22 situation. If the Chinese are shunning national schools, then the students in these schools would be predominantly Malay.

The Federal Constitution guarantees the position of Chinese and Tamil schools. No politician, whether in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, would dare to make any statement against these vernacular schools.

But the reality is that it is unhealthy when the student population in Chinese schools is 99.9% Chinese, Tamil schools is 100% Indian and national schools, dubbed Malay schools, is 80% to 90% Malay!

It is meaningless to talk about 1Malaysia when our children have no friends of other races in their formative years! Many Malaysians in their 30s and 40s now are already in this situation.

Just ask Malaysians at random how many real friends of other races, not colleagues, customers or bosses, they have. Be honest.

Is it any wonder then that the Malays are incredulous when they see Chinese Malaysians who can’t speak Bahasa Malaysia well or even refuse to speak Bahasa among themselves?

The Chinese, on the other hand, still wonder why some Malay quarters continue to ask what else the Chinese want when they find that some policies are working against them and make them feel discriminated.

This is happening because race relations have taken a beating. The various races are not talking or trying to understand one another. Each side only sees its own viewpoint without appreciating that in a complex and plural society like ours, no one group can have its way completely.

We have churned out bigots in our schools. It also doesn’t help that the various races are only watching channels in their own languages on Astro. The only time they probably watch the same channel is when an English Premier League football match is on.

If we are serious about restoring the standard of English in schools and improving race relations in this country, bring back the English-medium schools. Let Malaysians choose.

On the Beat by WONG CHUN WAI

Yes, bring back English schools

I AGREE with Wong Chun Wai’s views as expressed in his On The Beat column to “Bring back English schools”.

It is timely for our Prime Minister and his new Cabinet to seriously consider bringing back English-medium schools to help foster racial unity among Malaysians.

Racial unity begins in the most formative years of our children, which is the time when they are in primary and secondary schools.

This is the time when they can easily relate to one another as true friends without even thinking of race, religion or social background.

I am 51 years old and a practising Buddhist. I was educated in a mission school, the St Xavier’s Institution in Penang, of which I am very proud of until today.

During our formative years, we had many close friends of all races. We played games together with the Malays and Indians after school, and usually ended up enjoying their families’ home-cooked food and hospitality.

It was during such moments that we not only appreciated the spicy curry dishes, but we also learned about their cultures.

These fond memories and happy moments with classmates like Mohd Farid, Mohd Salmi, Razak, Ismail Manaf, Chandran, Ravi, Richard Clarence and many others are still vivid in my mind.

But my own children, who are now in their teens, are not able to share similar moments.

Another good reason to bring back English-medium schools must surely be to improve our command of the language, both written and oral.

Many of our local university graduates have a very poor command of the language.

As a human resource practitioner for more than 15 years, I have met many of these fresh graduates who cannot speak properly, or even complete a conversation in English during interviews.

They prefer to speak either in Bahasa Malaysia or Mandarin because they did not grow up in an environment where they could use English more frequently.

It appears to me that those who go to government schools are greatly disadvantaged in this respect when compared to their peers who go to private or international schools.

In my time, we have no choice but to speak in English, as that was our common language in school.

Bringing these schools back will also give us a global competitive edge and help the nation in its economic transformation programme.

By MICHAEL HEAH Penang

English-medium schools seen as right move 

   The Penang Free School is the first English School in Malaysia that was started in 1816 (It’s still around!). As the population grows, more schools were built ranging from the Straits Settlement of Penang, Perak, Selangor, Malacca and Singapore. This has benefitted the urban people as they received education from these English schools.

PETALING JAYA: Bringing back English-medium schools as an option would be a smart move, say many groups.

Sarawak Teachers Union president William Ghani Bina said English is a global language.

“If we want our children to be global citizens, there are no two ways about it,” said Bina when commenting on The Star executive director and group chief editor Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai‘s On the Beat column on bringing back English-medium schools.

In his column yesterday, Wong said that the Government should allow the use of English as a medium of instruction in schools again.

Wong added that if there are Chinese and Tamil primary schools alongside national schools, there is no reason for Malaysians not to have other options.

At present, he said the other option for better English proficiency is in private schools, which allocate more time for the teaching of English despite following the national school syllabus.

Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) Malaysia chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said English is the language of knowledge.

“As our students are not being taught in English, what we see is a loss of opportunity to acquire knowledge,” she said.

Microsoft Malaysia Legal and Corporate Affairs director Jasmine Belum said English is the language of business and technology.

“We want to make sure that Malaysians are proficient so that they are not at a competitive disadvantage,” she added.

Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (Melta) president Dr Ganakumaran Subramaniam agreed, saying that English-medium schools does not mean converting to a non-Malaysian curriculum.

“We also need to remember that if English is the medium only at international schools, then we are polarising our students further.

“There needs to be equal opportunity,” he added.

StarEducate columnist Mallika Vasugi said the neutrality of the English language also acts as a binding agent.
“What we see now in secondary schools is that different races tend to remain separate, based on their language.

“But what we also see is that those who mix around the most are the ones who speak English,” said Mallika who is also an English language teacher.

By LUWITA HANA RANDHAWA educate@thestar.com.my

Online banking Trojans going after your money!

Tweet

Online banking users in Malaysia need to be wary of sophisticated Trojans. 

IMAGINE a burglar hiding in your house and slowly cleaning out your valuables, bit by bit, without you even realising it.

According to security firm Symantec, that is the common modus operandi of banking Trojans today, which have grown so sophisticated that they are almost impossible to detect and very difficult to get rid of.

As its latest white paper the World of Financial Trojans reveals recently, malware (short for malicious software) attacked over 600 financial institutions worldwide last year.

With this growth, bank hold-ups or ATM robberies, the bank heist of choice in Malaysia these days will soon be a thing of the past.

The phenomenon is no doubt partly due to the growing trend of online banking. As banks move online to make their transactions fast, easy and convenient for customers, cyber criminals are also finding the digital route the faster, easier and more convenient mode for looting.

A big threat, the report highlights, is the rate at which banking Trojans are now developed: with state-of-the-art mechanisms to circumvent the more complex security systems and exploit their weaknesses.

“Trojans have indeed evolved and the attackers have become more specialised and sophisticated,” Symantec Corporation (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd director (systems engineering) Nigel Tan concurs.

Most worrying, is that while the United States and Japan remain top of their target list, the banking Trojans are increasingly targeting emerging economies with high Gross Domestic Products (GDP) in Asia and the Middle East like Malaysia.

Tan notes, “Malaysia is on the radar of these cyber criminals and our financial institutions experienced attacks out of the 600 reported globally last year. We are not in the top 10 of countries attacked but the threat for Malaysia is no less dangerous.”

Internet banking has grown steadily in Malaysia since it was first launched in June 2000, and is now offered by 29 banks in Malaysia. As of September last year, there were 12.8 million registered users, rising from 3.2 million in 2006 and eight million in 2009.

Predictably, cyber crimes in Malaysia have also increased, with some RM2.75bil losses recorded over five years, from 2005 to 2010, especially in the financial sector.

The fact that cyber criminals are starting to eye Malaysian banks means we need to be more vigilant and tighten up our cyber security, says Tan.

End-users need to keep abreast with what security measures there are. – Nigel Tan

“They need to look at the malware threats they are risked to and look for measures to mitigate them because any organisation will face these threats.”

However, one problem is that many of these institutions cannot keep up with the constantly evolving sophisticated attacks. Another is the gap in the ability of certain organisations to detect threats on customers systems, according to the report.

Tan concedes that the security of our financial institutions can be improved.

Another challenge is that the Trojans are beginning to work out which banks have less security, and going after them, he warns.

“There is a difference in quality between the different banks in terms of how much of the protection and fraud detection methods they put in place.

“And if you are a robber trying to decide between two houses one big house with full security or one smaller house with minimal security; it is secured with only a padlock and chain which one will you target?” Tan quizzes.

As the report sums it, banking Trojans now “enter through the backdoor, strike with clinical precision, and have evolved to a degree of sophistication that allows attackers to conduct high-value transactions while evading traditional fraud-detection measures.”

It is not that banks have been unaware of this growing threat. Since online banking was first introduced in 1994, cyber criminals have looked for various ways to attack them. By 2003, around 20 distinct banking Trojans have existed including simple keylogging Trojans and phishing, said the report.

In response, the banks bolstered their security and fraud detection capabilities.

The problem is, the cyber criminals started adapting, until most security systems and measures were neutralised.

Tan calls these cyber criminals a specialised hacking community that is no longer searching for notoriety and fame, but is in it for the money.

“Hackers now are less noisy than five years ago, but just because there is less noise right now, it does not mean that they are not there. Trojans now stay in your computer as quiet and as long as possible to steal as much money as possible,” Tan cautions.

As mentioned, an attack technique increasingly used is called “man-in-the-browser” which basically involves an application hooking into the browser and manipulating data before it is displayed.

Sophisticated thievery

The report explains, the users will not be able to detect any malicious activity but the Trojan will intercept their transactions and inject a form in the browser requesting sensitive information. Once the user submits the requested personal information, it steals the data for future thievery.

The more sophisticated Trojans can automatically execute transactions in the background, the report highlighted.

What makes it difficult to notice with the naked eye, says Tan, is that “the domain is legitimate and the security page is accurate. It is your computer that is affected, so it can steal your personal data or attack your bank.”

One thing that makes it difficult to clamp down on the attackers behind these Trojans is that it is not easy to pin the crime on them.

“Just writing malware is not an offence. It is hard to pin it as a crime, as long as the writer does not go out and sell it,” Tan points out.

It also does not help that they are reportedly organised underground groups who are not only experts at scripting and automating attacks, but are also knowledgeable about the sophisticated global financial industry and supported by a service industry of widely available malware.

It is akin to organised crime, he opines.

As the report puts it, “The financial fraud marketplace is also increasingly organised. It is a service industry where a wide variety of financial Trojans, webinjects, and distribution channels are bought and sold. Services being offered are dedicated to each aspect of a financial fraud campaign. These offerings will improve effectiveness of established techniques.”

The Top Three of the “Most Wanted” malware list in 2012 were the Zeus Trojan, also known as Zbot (+ Gameover), having compromised more than 400,000 computers worldwide; followed by Cridex at more than 250,000 computers compromised and Spyeye at more than 50,000.

Symantec also points to third-party remote webinjects which can circumvent security countermeasures, targeting a large number of financial companies “concurrently and intelligently” as posing a threat to financial companies.

According to the report, it is not only the main financial organisations like commercial banks that are high on the list of targets, but also organisations that perform online financial transactions such as automated clearing house payments systems and payroll systems.

It is thus crucial for the “good guys” to be alert all the time. They can’t slip up and must put in place adequate security mechanisms and take strong measures to deter attackers from targeting these institutions, Tan urges.

Ultimately, users cannot leave the responsibility for security solely to the institutions, he warns.

“End-users need to raise their awareness of the threats out there as at the end of the day, the criminal will go through the end-user to attack the financial institutions.”

The best measure, he stresses, is not to get infected in the first place, so installing a good anti-malware programme on your personal devices is crucial.

As he puts it, anti-malware solutions can stop the malware, even if you were already infected, shares Tan.

“The scanning will pick it up and delete it off your system.”

Tan also emphasises ongoing education in security, as the threats are constantly evolving.

“There will not be a point where you can say this is it. This is what everyone should do. End-users need to keep abreast with what security measures there are.”

Good practice needs to be adopted such as reading the message box or running an anti-virus before downloading anything from a website.

“Most of the time when people get a pop-up to say that you have a malware, they just cancel it or click it close, or when it says your computer is infected, they just ignore it.”

Significantly, Tan says this is not a call to say that Internet banking is bad.

“Quite the contrary. Internet banking has a lot of benefits.

“But as we embrace any new technology or media, we just have to be aware of what the threats are on the Internet. As long as we take adequate protection, we will be safe.”

By HARIATI AZIZAN sunday@thestar.com.my

Tap your phone’s potential with NFC technology

Tweet

Make your Android device smarter using a little-known technology called NFC.

 
HANDY: If you have an NFC tag in your car, you can quickly turn on or off functions (like Bluetooth) on your smartphone.

 NFC stands for near-field communication, a short-range wireless communication technology that enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10cm distance.

In certain countries, NFC has already been used to turn smartphones with embedded NFC chips, into mobile wallets.

Instead of using cash or credit/debit cards, the part of the smartphone where the NFC chip is located (usually on the back cover or in the battery) is tapped on the scanner for the transaction to be charged to the user’s account.

Some countries have trialled the usage of NFC as a means of payment for public transportation too. Think of NFC as using your smartphone as a Touch ‘n Go card and you’ll get the picture.

Tag it

There are more and more NFC-enabled Android smartphones landing on our shores. While the use of it here hasn’t reached the same level as some other countries, it is not without its usefulness.

The most publicised use of NFC is the ability to transfer files at breakneck speed by just bumping two smartphones against each other.

While it’s impressive, the true potential of this technology lies in an external accessory known as an NFC tag.

NFC tags are basically stickers that are able to store information inside them. With the aid of any NFC app, which can be found in abundance in the Google Play Store, users can design a set of actions for their device to execute and then save the commands on the tags.

Whenever an NFC-enabled device is tapped on the tag, it will execute the commands.

The good news is that the tags don’t cost a bomb. Even better news is that as long as you don’t select to permanently lock the tag, you can always rewrite the tags, so they’re pretty good value for money.

A popular app for customising tags is NFC Task Launcher by Tagstand (bit.ly/GMNn32). Available for free in the Play Store, the app allows users to include two different sets of actions in one tag. For example, tapping it the first time will enable a feature, and tapping it again will disable it.

There are many practical uses for NFC tags. We most commonly use it in our cars. Previously, we used to have to go through the hassle of manually switching on our smartphone’s Bluetooth each time we entered our car. Now, it can be done easily just by tapping our gadget on an NFC sticker that we have pasted on the dashboard.

Besides Bluetooth, we have also set it to switch off WiFi, make the ringtone louder, and screen brighter. Tapping it again once we have reached the destination will reverse all the actions that were enabled earlier.

Sleep on it

While it is not advisable to have a mobile phone by your bedside due to the radiation it is said to emit, most people will still stubbornly insist on having it around as it doubles as an alarm clock.

We are guilty of this unhealthy practice, but have an NFC tag pasted beside our beds to hopefully mitigate the adverse effects. The tag is set to switch the phone to flight mode, as well as to dim the screen to the lowest brightness level. When it’s time to rise and shine, the tag will re-enable cellular data and increase the screen brightness.

 
REMINDERS: You can set timers for tasks you do often like washing your clothes.

An interesting way to utilise the tag is by placing one on home appliances which require a specified amount of time to complete, such as a washing machine. If you’re as absent-minded as us, once you start the machine, you can tap your Android on the tag to automatically start the timer so that you won’t forget about collecting your laundry.

Sharing WiFi

Another use for NFC, which will be more practical once more smartphones have it, is the marketing possibilities it opens up. Instead of using QR codes, businesses can require their customers to just tap on an NFC tag to get more information about a promotion or their business.

Notice how most eateries offer free WiFi, but require a password to be entered? NFC tags have the capability to store wireless network settings, so all the consumers need to do is tap their devices on the tag and it will automatically connect to a wireless network, despite requiring a password.

This benefits the shop owners because customers will have to be physically present to connect to the WiFi, thus preventing non-customers from “stealing” their wireless connection.

This can also be used at home or the office when you want to allow guests to use the WiFi but don’t want them to know the password. The tags can do more than just changing settings.

Users can prepare a text message and write it on the tag. Whenever your phone taps the tag, it will automatically send the text message direct to your desired recipient.

Very useful for those of you who usually report to your other half, or parents whenever leaving from work or school.

For those who aren’t willing to spend or have no means of acquiring NFC tags, head to the Play Store and download AnyTAG NFC launcher by XtraSEC (bit.ly/ZEsf8l). Developed by Malaysians, this app enables NFC smartphones to detect any cards or devices that have NFC chips in them and associates an action with that device.

This means that us users won’t have to specifically use NFC tags. We can make use of everyday cards around us, such as our MyKad and Touch ‘n Go.

The good thing is that it only remembers the chip’s ID and associates the desired actions with it, so it doesn’t overwrite anything on the chip.

So don’t worry about the card’s chip getting messed up.

For those who are keen to make use of the NFC technology for the first time, do take note that it does not work when your Android’s screen is locked.

That means that you will have to first unlock your device’s screen before attempting to connect with another NFC device or tag.

By DONOVAN QUEK bytz@thestar.com.my

 Hidden in plain sight

 

INSTANT GRATIFICATION: You can mirror content from your smartphone to your HDTV.

NFC technology is most prevalent in smartphones but it is also being implemented in an increasing number of products, from toys to HDTVs.

Here’s a list of products with built-in NFC which you may already have in your home.

HDTVs and cameras

Most new HDTVs come with the chip but it’s not always in the TV itself. Sony is one of the companies that has integrated it into the remote control of selected Bravia HDTVs.

Just tapping the remote with your smartphone will allow you to mirror the smartphone’s display on the big screen. This will allow you to browse the Web, share pictures and watch videos together with those around you.

If your Bravia doesn’t come with one, you can still purchase the remote separately.

 

USEFUL: Sony Bravia 2013 LED TV has an NFC chip in the remote control.

Sony also makes speakers with NFC. One such model is the SRS-BTV5 wireless speaker. The compact model can double up as a speakerphone and has a rated battery life of up to five hours. Meanwhile, on the camera front, Samsung’s NX300 allows photographers to easily transfer images to a smartphone or tablet via NFC.

Panasonic’s DMC-GF6 camera also uses NFC for sharing images with a smartphone or tablet by touching them together. As soon as a photo is shot, the camera will send the image to the paired device. NFC also allows the camera to be remotely controlled.

Consoles and toys

One of the most popular toys on the market today is Activision’s Skylanders. They are essentially figurines that are released in conjunction with the Skylanders games available for most consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

 

NFC TOYS: Skylanders fingurine with the Portal of Power.

The game comes with an NFC device called the Portal of Power which is plugged into the game console. When a figurine, which also comes with built-in NFC, is placed on the Portal, a virtual version of the character appears in the game.

The interesting thing about the NFC in Skylanders is that it actually can store a limited amount of information, specifically the character’s bio. When the figurine is taken to a friend’s house to play, it will have all the levelled-up powers and customisation.

Of the popular videogame consoles, only one features NFC.

The chip is currently integrated into the Wii U’s GamePad controller, and while it holds a lot of promise for future games, none actually make use of it.

 

PROMISING: The NFC chip is integrated into the Wii U’s GamePad controller and holds a lot of potential for future games.

However, this is likely to change as game developers will inevitably find a use for it.

Notebooks

Lenovo has launched its ThinkPad Helix, a 11.6in Ultrabook powered by Windows 8.
It allows users to transfer data from compatible devices by just placing them close to it.

Lenovo ThinkPad Helix

The company plans to add more features such as allowing customers to make online purchases by tapping a credit card on its notebooks.

Sony, on the other hand, has announced that its latest Vaio Fit Ultrabook will also use this technology for sharing website URLs and other information with NFC-enabled devices

Related posts:

Enter Android in the smartphone operating system titans
 Chinese smartphone innovators shrug off Android dominance…

We need competent leaders!

Tweet

Competent leader vital for Information, Communications and Culture Ministry  

The candidate should be someone well rounded, well experienced, not too old or too young

FOR some time now, there has been talk on whether culture is a good fit for the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry (MICC). Some believe culture would be better off parked under the Tourism Ministry.

Culture and tourism, to them, are lines out of the same song not quite jiving with communications or information.

Then, there is talk of some areas of duplication between MICC and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti). Both should merge as there are common areas, it has been said.

These ministries aside, some folk have been lobbying that a new ministry, the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Ministry, be set up with the MICC being done away with.

All this talk has resurfaced now that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, fresh off his election win, is busy selecting candidates for his new Cabinet line-up that might be announced in the coming days.

There is certainly some overlap between Mosti and MICC, making sense for them to be merged into one entity. Arts, on the other hand, could be part of the Youth and Sports Ministry or spun off into a new ministry under Arts and Heritage.

It is not an easy decision, but whatever the outcome, one things is for sure Malaysia’s Cabinet should not be bigger than China’s, which has a population of 1.6 billion, as opposed to our 28 million.

Australia and Singapore have gone though the same phase that Malaysia is going through now in terms of merging and segregating its various ministries. In 2001, Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) was expanded to include Arts.

Over a decade later, the Arts and Heritage portfolios became a part of the culture ministry. At present, the role of the MCI is to oversee the development of the ICT, media and design sectors, public libraries and the government’s information and public communications policies.

On a similar note, Australia expanded its Communications Ministry to include Arts in 1994. Four years later, the ministry expanded to include information technology (IT).

However, in 2007, Arts became a part of the Environment/Heritage Ministry. The Communications/IT Ministry was renamed as the Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy.

Even the United Nations has a specialised agency to deal with technology in the form of the International Telecommunication Union because the role of the Internet and broadband transcends all boundaries.

The vision of Malaysia’s MICC is to be a pioneer in promoting the 1Malaysia Concept based on national principles to achieve a harmonious and gracious nation. The ministry’s main aspiration is to enhance Malaysia as a global ICT hub in the region, to ensure information from all sources of media is accurate and precise and to preserve and promote Malaysia’s heritage and culture to the world.

Culture preservation is vital in the era of the social media, but once there is widespread awareness, culture can be placed under the Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry, or could even be one of the units under the Prime Minister’s Department or the Tourism Ministry.

There are even suggestions that MICC be part of the Prime Minister’s Department so that it would fall directly under the Prime Minister’s purview. However, whether this is feasible remains to be seen.

Communications and information have become vital because of the digital era, and their role in Malaysia might need to be reviewed. Australia and Singapore felt the “need to change because of the need to redistribute and re-focus its ministerial workload to improve public communications and engagement for an increasingly diverse society in the age of social media and rapid technology progress”.

All this brings us to the next question: Who is best to lead the MICC?

There are many talented people out there, but the industry feels the choice of candidate should encompass someone “well rounded, well experienced, but not too old or too young”. The person, while having sound knowledge of Law and Economics, should also fulfil the most important criterion being savvy enough about the workings of the Internet and the new/social media.

The choice of candidate is important because there is no room for mistakes, unlike the blunders made in the past over spectrum allocation and technology choices. Most importantly, the candidate should not regress but rather, take the nation forward on the digital path.

Friday Reflections – By B.K. Sidhu

● Deputy news editor B K Sidhu has some candidates in mind, but they are not politicians.

 Related posts:

IPTV market in Malaysia

This is what the Malaysian Chinese want

IPTV market in Malaysia

Tweet

The more the merrier in the IPTV market

Hopefully the battle gets fierce so that quality and content will improve to offer more choices to consumers.

IT has taken two companies – Astro and Maxis – within the same stable a long time to come out with their Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) offering.

The Maxis/Astro IPTV/broadband services were originally expected to be launched by end-2012 but were postponed to the end of the first quarter in 2013.

Astro and Maxis entered into partnership for IPTV/broadband collaboration in September 2012.

The good news is that both companies launched the Astro B.yond IPTV offering this week, riding on Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) high speed broadband (HSBB) network.

Now there is another choice in the market place and Astro/Maxis will compete head-on with TM for market dominance in the IPTV segment. There are several other smaller players offering IPTV but not on the scale of these two.

A report said the continuous improvement on the speed of broadband and the availability of interactive applications would play a crucial role in the expansion of IPTV market around the globe.

Broadcasters and telecoms players globally have a new way to increase customer average revenue per user with the expansion of broadband and IPTV. The forecast is that the global IPTV market will rise to about US$106mil (RM323mil) in 2014. European countries are the biggest markets for IPTV, with France, the UK, and Germany leading the growth.

Asia is also responding strongly to this new phenomenon. This week, South Korea’s SK Telecom saw its earnings rise, with its media business securing 600,000 paid subscribers for its mobile IPTV service in the first quarter. Astro claims to have a subscriber base of 3.5 million households representing 52% of Malaysia‘s total households of 6.7 million.

It is entrenched in the market place and TM’s UniFi subscribers are readily accessible market for the Astro B.yond IPTV product as both are carried on the same HSBB network.

The caveat is that TM UniFi residential subscribers are locked in a two-year contract.

TM has to date activated more than 548,000 UniFi subscribers on the back of 1.39 million premises passed, covering 102 exchanges nationwide which translates to a 38% take-up rate. TM offers IPTV via HyppTV.

The choice is out there today, hopefully the battle gets fierce so that quality and content will improve to offer more choices to the consumers. As for pricing, it is still steep despite the value propositions and for a wider mass market appeal, the rates need a review.

And while Astro/Maxis claim they have a value proposition, TM may want to look to getting a bigger content library, and certainly, a cellular tie-up is recommended to counter the bundling that Astro/Maxis is offering.

Celcom Axiata is waiting on the sidelines. It also needs to get into the IPTV game and both TM/Axiata should begin talking seriously.

Deputy news editor B.K. Sidhu is still thinking about how and when the digital cable TV operator will enter the fray.

Friday Reflections – By B.K. Sidhu

Astro upgraded on IPTV potential 

Target price: RM3.38

ASTRO Malaysia Holdings Bhd has finally launched its Astro B.yond Internet protocol TV (IPTV) with Maxis Bhd, which could complement its services to subscribers with more value proposition and significant savings.

Although the Maxis-Astro IPTV offering enjoys lower earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margin compared to Time-Astro IPTV, synergistic benefits to be reaped from this collaboration should be more than enough to offset the shortfall.

It was reported that Astro Malaysia Holdings has officially launched its Astro B.yond IPTV with Maxis Bhd as an alternative for consumers to have access to home fibre broadband internet and home voice services.

On this Maxis-Astro IPTV offering, we understand that the fibre broadband packages provided by Maxis will range from 10Mbps to 30Mbps.

The B.yond IPTV content packages provided by Astro will be on SuperPack, Value Pack and Family Pack with prices ranging from RM37.95 to RM100 per month with an optional Home Voice Package of RM20 per month.

We understand that Astro will recognise 100% of the average revenue per user (ARPU) from this IPTV collaboration.

For instance, assuming customer A subscribes to the basic 10Mbps broadband package with a SuperPack1 content selection, the total ARPU will be RM248 per month (RM148 from the broadband package and RM100 from the content package) and Astro will recognise 100% of this total ARPU of RM248

Subsequently, in the cost of sales component, Astro will recognise 75% of the broadband ARPU (which is equivalent to RM111 in this case) as the cost to be distributed back to Maxis.

Based on our back-of-the-envelope calculation, the EBITDA margin of the Maxis-Astro IPTV collaboration will be circa 29% versus the circa 38% of the Time-Astro IPTV’s EBITDA margin.

This implies that with a likely increasingly higher take-up for the Maxis-Astro IPTV offerings, the EBITDA margin of the group on the overall will be diluted on a percentage basis.

As this Maxis-Astro IPTV will be complemented by Maxis’ extensive reach of 1.3 million homes compared to Time’s reach of 100,000 homes, we believe that it could immediately give a boost to its revenue.

This should increase its absolute profit despite the EBITDA margin dilution should the product be well taken up.

We also understand that 1.1 million (or 85%) of the current high-speed broadband (HSBB) home premises are on Astro’s subscribership.

That said, for current Astro subscribers who are also having the TM Unifi package, they could achieve better value propositions and cost savings by subscribing to this new IPTV packages.

We are sanguine on this collaboration as it has bundles of win-win benefits for the subscribers and synergistic benefits for Astro and Maxis.

In conjunction with that, we are assuming circa 65,000 and circa 175,000 subscribers to take up this IPTV offering (mainly on SuperPack packages), taking cues from the management’s guidance of circa 60,000 to 70,000 and 170,000 to 180,000 subscribers in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Consequently, our net profit has been increased by 2.4% to 9.9% in 2014 and 2015 despite a lower EBITDA margin of 32.4% (from 32.7%) and 33.4% (from 34.2%) for the two years.

Consequently, our DCF-derived target price has now been increased to RM3.38 from RM3.10.

As the target price offers a decent capital upside of circa 15%, we are upgrading our “market perform” call on Astro to an “outperform.”

By Kenanga Research

Related post:

Which player can steal more eyeballs in pay-TV market?

 

Enter Android in the smartphone operating system titans

Tweet

In the clash of the smartphone operating system titans, we take a look at what Google has brought to the table.

BRINGING IT: A Google Android figurine sits on a welcome desk at the new Google office in Toronto. – Reuters

FANCY having a Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, or Jellybean?

While the list above seems like a mouth-watering spread of sinful desserts, it can refer to something else in the technological world today.

For the uninitiated, those are also the names of the different update versions of the Android smartphone operating system (OS).

Before we touch on the topic of Android, let’s first start with smartphones and how they have become an integral part of our lives in this day and age.

It wasn’t too long ago when the sheer mention of the word ‘smartphone’ brought to mind an image of a busy businessman holding a personal digital assistant (PDA) phone to check and send work e-mail messages on the fly.

Aside from businessmen and those with deep pockets, it was uncommon to see an average consumer owning a smartphone. Among my peers during my time as a student, anyone who owned a smartphone was deemed to be a rich spoilt brat.

Fast forward to today, the advancements of technology has made it so much easier to own a smartphone.

What is a smartphone? By Oxford dictionary’s definition, a smartphone is a mobile phone that is able to perform many of the functions of a computer, typically having a relatively large screen and an operating system capable of running general-purpose applications.

The early smartphones came into existence in the 1990s, although the early incarnations of smartphones were basically mobile phones incorporating PDA (personal digital assistant) features, and not necessarily with large screens.

Throughout the years, there have been various operating systems supporting the vast multitude of smartphones that have reached the hands of consumers. Among the operating systems that we have come to know and love are Symbian, Palm OS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Android and iOS.

As the title suggests, this column will be all about Google’s Android operating system.

Meteoric rise

The first ever smartphone sold running on the Android operating system was the HTC Dream, which was released in 2008.

Since then, Android has come a long way, climbing up the ranks and capturing the biggest share of the pie in the smartphone operating system market. Aside from smartphones, the operating system is also widely used on tablet computers.

With a whole plethora of Android devices being unleashed into the market, the operating system from Google overtook long-time leaders Symbian at the end of 2010 to be the world’s most widely used smartphone operating system, according to online sources.

It is growing at an estimated 1.5 million activations per day. This means that everyday, 1.5 million Android devices are powered on by consumers for the first time. Android leads the smartphone OS world, with a market share of 75% during the third quarter of 2012.

Being a product of Google, Android smartphones come readily available with a staple of Google applications (apps), such as Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google+ and Google Chrome browser.

Interestingly, every update version of the operating system is named after a form of dessert, and in alphabetical order. The first system version was named Donut (1.6), followed by Eclair (2.0 – 2.1), Froyo (2.2), Gingerbread (2.3), Honeycomb (3.1 – 3.2), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0), and Jellybean (4.1 – 4.2).

Unlike the other main operating systems in the smartphone market, Google has made its Linux-based OS open source. This means that the software can be freely distributed and modified by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and developers.

This move has successfully attracted a large community of app developers, as can be proven by the whopping 800,000 apps available for download on the Google Play store as of January.

In October 2012, the Google Play store celebrated a milestone of 25 billion app downloads.

Tailor made

Android has become a favourite choice for manufacturers as it is easy to adopt and implement, rather than having to develop a whole new operating system from scratch. We can find this operating system from Google being adopted by a diverse range of manufacturers, ranging from big brand names such as Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG to smaller, upstart Chinese companies.

However, not every Android smartphone provides the same experience. Different hardware manufacturers have different “skins” or add-ons, above the base Android software, to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. Samsung’s Touchwiz user interface and HTC’s Sense user interface are examples of the types of “flavoured” Android offerings by other manufacturers.

Google also collaborates with different hardware manufacturers to release their flagship Android smartphones under the Google Nexus line. The Nexus phones provide the original “vanilla” Android experience for users and are the first to receive the latest Android version updates.

Because of this diversity, we can find Android smartphones for every segment of the market. Aside from the pricier high-end smartphones, there is also a wide selection of mid- to low-end Android smartphones which are more affordable, hence making it easier for more consumers to own a smartphone.

Android has been so popular that we are seeing it in more and more electronic products and not just smartphones or tablets. There are even manufacturers who are starting to incorporate Android into their microwave ovens!

Among the advantages of the Android operating system are its ability to multitask, the huge amount of options for devices, the notification bar, homescreen widgets, and the connectivity to the Google brand. The advantages and disadvantages of the operating system will be delved into in future editions of this weekly column which will appear on TechCentral.my.

This weekly column will be a medium to share about everything Android. Expect to read about news on the operating system updates, app reviews or the new devices running on Google’s operating system. Stay tuned!

(Donovan is a full-time auditor and big-time gadget lover who discovered the wonders of the Android world after a chance encounter with Samsung’s Galaxy S back in October 2010.)
Related post:
Chinese smartphone innovators shrug off Android dominance.

Danger of the single story

Tweet

SOMETIMES (most of the time) it’s probably wiser to resist commenting on Facebook posts.

In the last week or two there have been posts, written by two Facebook friends, about women who admit to regretting having children. You can imagine the responses, including to my comments saying that I can relate to such feelings. It’s just not the done thing to admit that parenthood may not be the smartest choice you’ve made.

We go on about how it’s OK to make mistakes, but heaven forbid that the mistakes should be baby-shaped. I may be wrong but it also feels like that it’s especially shocking if a woman says that she’s doesn’t like being or doesn’t want to be a mother.

Why, she might as well be admitting to infanticide.

Why am I bringing this up in a column about books for children and teens? It’s because I think books play a part in shaping the way society views girls and the women they grow up to be. For girls, it’s hard to avoid the traditional stereotypes of women as mothers and wives.

Look, even kick-ass Katniss in The Hunger Games Trilogy ends up with a partner and a child. And most of my favourite fictional female characters become wives, or at very least, fall in love by the final page of their stories.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with falling in love, marrying and having children, but I am saying that authors should portray alternative routes to a happy and fulfilled life. I’m trying hard to think of fictional heroines who skip happily into the sunset, alone and joyful, but right now I can only think of Tove Jansson’s Little My, Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, and two nannies: Mary Poppins, the titular character from P.L. Travers’ books, and Nurse Matilda from the trilogy by Christianna Brand.

All four are decidedly unconventional females, but My and Pippi are just children, while Mary and Matilda, although unmarried and childless, are still given the traditionally female role of care-giver.

Even my beloved harum scarum Jo March (from Little Women) becomes totally domesticated, marrying an older man (in Good Wives), running a school and playing mother to a whole brood of children (in Little Men and Jo’s Boys) and committing the unforgivable sin of keeping an ex-student and her niece, Bess, apart because she feels the working-class lad is not a suitable match for the prissy young lady.

There is Nan, a young girl in Little Men, who remains unmarried and goes to medical school, but characters like her are rare and don’t get much space on the page.

New fiction continues to be full of female characters who spend a great deal of time wondering when their prince will come. Codename Verity is a recent exception, but the girls in that book seemed more interested in one another than in men. It’s as if lesbians are the only women who might safely avoid being married with children.

In fact, as I’ve mentioned earlier, young women who don’t desire motherhood and marriage are often viewed as freaks. It’s unlikely the authors of young adult and children’s fiction think this way, but they are, by and large, products of a world still very much fixed in its ideas of gender and gender roles. Also, romance (and sex) sells.

The problem is, of course, what Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie calls the “danger of the single story”: if just one version of something – a people, a culture, a religion, etc – is portrayed then it soon becomes the only version that is believed and accepted and taken for granted as the truth. The “danger of the single story” is that it creates and reinforces stereotypes.

So, in terms of describing what girls want, it just supports the already firm belief that we are naturally maternal creatures who crave the love of a good man (or any man, really) and the cosy feeling of a child at our breast … or simply being asked to the prom and being kissed by the time we’re 16.

I’ve just thought of a female character who resists the conventions of marriage and motherhood to go to university: Mattie Gorkey from Jennifer Donelly’s A Gathering Light is more interested in reading than dating. For Mattie, words are the key to a new life and to freedom. I wish there were more female characters like Mattie.

Also, more female characters who have more interesting things to think about than romance; female characters who grow up and don’t get married and are happy; female characters who choose to be childless and never regret it. These women exist, we know they do, they just need to appear more in books, that’s all.

Tots to Teens
By DAPHNE LEE
Daphne Lee is a writer, editor, book reviewer and teacher. She runs a Facebook group, called The Places You Will Go, for lovers of all kinds of literature. Write to her at star2@thestar.com.my.

Related post:
Facebook paparazzi

Life like video games?

Tweet

Video games may be considered adolescent, but imagine if our lives were like video games where you constantly get rewarded for small accomplishments? Great, no?

ALWAYS looking to validate my gaming addiction, I checked out TED talks – everyone’s go-to source for out-of-the-box, forward-thinking smart talk to drop at dinner parties – to see if I could find any ammunition.

As usual TED talks didn’t disappoint.

A speaker named Jane McGonigal, an American game designer (and a woman as well, meaning she gets her choice of gaming geeks), not only argues that video games are good, but goes as far as to advocate spending more hours playing video games because that will make the world a better place.

That’s definitely an argument that I can get behind.

McGonigal argues that games like World Of Warcraft encourage users to tackle seemingly insurmountable tasks, and not only do players accept these epic mission but they work hard to achieve it. She then hits us with the crazy-sounding stat that collectively we have (some of us more than others) spent 5.93 million years playing World Of Warcraft.

Did you know that homo sapiens have spent a total of 5.93 million years alone playing World of Warcraft? Makes you wonder what Darwin would have thought of this feat

McGonigal then puts that in perspective by saying 5.93 million years ago, humans stood on two legs for the first time.

Playing video games for the same amount of time that it takes a species of primate to go from dwelling in trees and dining on insects to building metal mega-cities and flirting with space travel really does put things into perspective. Yeah, suddenly that seems like a heck of a lot of wasted time on gaming.

But McGonigal is undaunted, saying the amount of time a person spends on video games by the time they are 20 years old is 10,000 hours, the same amount of time that that person will have spent in school – and also, incidentally, the same amount of time author Malcolm Gladwell cites as necessary for someone to become really good at something. To quote rapper Macklemore, who was basically quoting Gladwell, “The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint; the greats were great because they painted a lot.”

Well, McGonigal is saying we’re playing a lot of games, but what is it exactly that we’re getting good at?

She’s not quite sure but she knows gamers are Super Empowered Hopeful Individuals. Yeah, SEHI is the acronym for that. That doesn’t really roll off the tongue.

She then goes on to conclude, somewhat uninspiringly, that if we could only create educational games we could start to harness some of the millions of years we’ve wasted on games.

Yeah. Except McGonigal forgot that educational games are pretty much terrible across the board.

It may seem like I’m denigrating McGonigal’s talk but what I really found interesting was the idea that we are in a period of mass exodus into gaming. There are 500 million gamers in the world, and this number is only growing.

McGonigal talks a bit on why games are so inviting, basically saying that it’s because reality sucks. She’s right.

In games, at any moment you could gain any number of seemingly random achievements.

Your characters can gain in skills any time. Maybe you’re attacking zombies, and suddenly get a +1 strength. Jumping over barrels, +1 agility. Read a science book, +1 science. Basically video games give us a ton of positive feedback. What if life was like that, McGonigal quips. The crowd laughs.

But seriously, what if life was like that?

What if when I submitted this article, I received the 60th Article Submitted but only 4th prior to the Official Deadline Achievement? What if we could get the Constant Bus Rider achievement for taking the bus for the 100th time? What if at work we didn’t get rewarded for huge seemingly unachievable goals but for small daily completed tasks?

Wouldn’t it feel great to field a call from an irate customer, hang up, and get the 50th Complainer Customer Achievement? At least it’d put a positive spin on an experience that is otherwise fairly unpleasant.

With smartphones and their ability to track our movements and activities, it’s not very far-fetched to think that this sort of reward system could become possible sometime in the near future, while employers would probably be able to implement some sort of reward system right now. Not that I want this kind of reward system to be used by corporations to manipulate people into work, but it’s sort of inevitable, isn’t it?

It works so well in video games to hook people.

The entire idea of “gamifying” life may sound nuts but if we’ve spent 5.93 million years playing video games, games are doing something right. Maybe it’s time for life to imitate art.

And if this idea sounds like something that would come from a Super Empowered Hopeful Individual, then maybe McGonigal is on to something.

Big Smile No Teeth
By JASON GODFREY

> Jason Godfrey can be seen hosting The Link on Life Inspired (Astro B.yond Ch 728). Write to him at star2@thestar.com.my.

Related posts:
 Why do some youngers resort to extreme violence?
 Video games turned casinos gambling in Penang
 Get rid of illegal casinos gambling now !
Cyber crooks target gamers; E-gambling dens menace, raid in Penang … 

Facebook paparazzi

Tweet

People should exercise a little consideration and common sense when uploading photos of others. 

 I RECENTLY saw some extremely unflattering photos of a friend on Facebook.

One photo shows her at a party with a drink in one hand and a cocktail sausage on a stick in the other. Her mouth is half open as she guides the sausage towards it, and her eyes have a wild, glazed look about them. The caption reads, “Come to Mama!” In another photo, she’s drinking her wine with one eye closed and the other rolling upwards, as she hovers around the half empty platter of sausages. In yet another photo, she’s sitting on a sofa with her blouse unflatteringly bunched up over her stomach, giving the impression that she’s just about to give birth – possibly to a giant sausage.

If you didn’t know this woman, you’d probably mistake her for a humongous wine-glugging sausage scoffer.

Damage

In reality, she’s a moderate drinker of average weight who only ate one sausage that night. But the damage has already been done. The Facebook friends of the woman who posted the photos, many of whom probably don’t know my friend all that well, will have already formed an opinion of my friend just by looking at those photos.

Like who cares what strangers might think about us? Some of you might be saying just about now. And you do have a point, to a certain extent. But what if you’re going for a job interview and the person responsible for hiring you doesn’t know you but remembers seeing you in a Facebook photo stuffing your face and looking as if you like to lubricate yourself way too much? And what if the job you’re after entails operating heavy, dangerous machinery; or dispensing potent medication; or anything to do with air traffic control? Jobs that require a clear head at all times.

All I can say is that you’re screwed. You might as well burn your interview clothes, delete the carefully worded résumé and drown your sorrows in a bottle of chardonnay.

In the same way that celebrities are wary of the paparazzi, who take great pleasure in snapping them falling out of bars and nightclubs in the wee hours of the morning in a dishevelled state, or going to the grocery store for a loaf of bread without any make-up, regular, everyday people now need to be extra careful when someone whips out a camera or an iPhone at a social function.

I have nothing against my photo being taken and subsequently being posted on Facebook, but I wish that people would exercise some consideration and common sense when uploading photos of others.

We all know Facebook is full of narcissistic, egocentric, self-absorbed photographers. We see evidence of their activities in newsfeeds every day. For example, I’ve seen photos of a certain young woman (who shall remain nameless) buying a pair of shoes, photos of her feet in the new shoes, photos of her wearing a dress with her new shoes, photos of her dancing at a party with her new shoes, and photos of her delicately eating sausages and consuming alcohol with her new shoes.

What she doesn’t show you are the photos of her wincing in her bunion-forming shoes after two minutes dancing, photos of her in her new shoes throwing up in the toilet bowl, and photos of her with just one new shoe on, passed out on her bedroom floor …

Such people are usually very careful when it comes to selecting photos that show them in a good light, but when it comes to others, they don’t always accord them the same respect.

Offending photo

Whenever I want to upload a photo that includes other people onto Facebook, I ask myself if those people would be happy seeing themselves as they are depicted. And if the answer is no, I simply delete it. I know it’s easy to remove your tag from a Facebook photo, but the photo still remains online for all to see.

Of course, you could write to your Facebook friend and ask him or her to remove an offending photo. But that would make you sound a bit like a narcissistic, egocentric, self-absorbed twat. And makes you a possible future target for such photographers, who might claim that they’re only having a bit of harmless fun. And besides, where’s your sense of humour?

It would be enough to make you choke on your sausage.

BUT THEN AGAIN
By MARY SCHNEIDER

Related posts:
Laws of attraction
Pretty woman picture all it takes for Netizens to reveal all
FB postings became street fight!

Looming danger on contrast and competition of economic models

Tweet

The successful East Asian model of ‘state-driven capitalism’ is being threatened by TPPA proposals.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive, multi-national trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement.

MANY articles and books have been published on the contrast and competition between the present Western and the Asian-style economic models.

Western countries are said to have the free-market model based on competition among private firms, with the government taking a hands-off approach.

East Asian countries are branded as practising “state capitalism” in which the government plays a major role in helping the local private sector and the state also fully or partially owns many enterprises.

The Western countries are increasingly attacking the Asian model, claiming that state-owned companies or state-aided commercial firms have an unfair advantage vis-à-vis foreign firms competing with them.

In our region, countries with a substantial role of the state include China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore. Of course, in Japan and South Korea, their domestic firms grew to become world-beaters with the systematic backing of their governments.

For these countries, the so-called state capitalism (or in the case of socialist countries, market-oriented socialism) have worked well through industrial development and relatively high and sustained economic growth.

Some Western countries have been trying to curb or even eventually eliminate the Asian model of state-owned or state-aided capitalism.

This is largely hypocritical because the America, European and Japanese agricultural sectors are highly subsidised and protected; many of their farms could not survive without massive state aid and high import tariffs.

Many of their banks and industrial firms are also subsidised in various ways, including through multi-billion dollar bailouts in the wake of the recent financial crises.

This has not stopped these countries from attacking the Asian model. The latest attempt to curb this model is through the negotiations in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), a trade and investment treaty involving the United States, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Peru, Chile, Australia and New Zealand.

The TPPA contains an important section on State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), championed by the United States and Australia.

The TPPA drafts are secret, so the text of the SOE section is not known. However, it can be anticipated that the section will contain disciplines to curb and shape the behaviour of three types of SOEs.

The recently concluded US bilateral FTAs contain a competition chapter that deals with two types of SOEs. For example, the US-Peru FTA has disciplines on designated monopolies and state enterprises, and it is likely that the United States will propose something similar in the TPPA.

That FTA says that government monopolies shall act solely in accordance with commercial considerations, including with regard to price, quality, availability, transportation, when buying or selling the monopoly goods or services.

They shall provide non-discriminatory treatment to investments, goods and services of other TPPA members. And they shall not use their monopoly position to engage in anti-competitive practices through its dealings with its parents, subsidiaries or other enterprises with common ownership in a non-monopolised market that adversely affect the investments of other countries.

State enterprises shall similarly provide non-discriminatory treatment in the sale of goods or services to investments of other countries.

More importantly, the United States and Australia are proposing a third type of SOE to be subject to disciplines. According to press reports, Australia has also introduced the principle of “competitive neutrality” to discipline the SOEs.

How this principle will apply can be anticipated from the Australian government’s competitive neutrality guidelines.

This is based on the concept of a “government-owned business”. The state-owned business enterprise which competes with private companies may obtain advantages, impeding the ability of the private sector to compete on equal terms.

According to the Australian guidelines, these advantages include exemptions from taxes; cheaper debt financing (because of the low-risk classification or government guarantees); absence of need to make a commercial rate of return; and exemption from regulatory constraints or costs.

To offset these advantages, the Australian guidelines cover how government businesses should pay taxes in full; pay back to the central government the difference in their loan costs vis-à-vis private sector loan costs; pay licence fees equivalent to the central government; and ensure they obtain a commercial rate of return.

It is likely therefore that the draft of the TPPA will have disciplines along the lines above on a third category of SOEs, government-linked business entities involved in commercial activities that compete with the private sector.

The proposed disciplines could be along the line that “advantages” enjoyed by government-linked businesses such as those mentioned in the Australian guidelines be disallowed.

The implications for Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore would be serious because their national economies are characterised by important roles of state-owned enterprises or government-linked companies.

The countries would have to move away from their successful development model and economic structure.

Moreover, SOEs have many functions including providing social services to the public, ensuring that poor and vulnerable groups are given special consideration.

This often means that SOEs cannot operate on solely commercial grounds; and that several of them depend on government subsidies and assistance, and there are also cross-subsidies in that the profitable aspect of an SOE may finance non-profitable (but socially important) activities. There is a danger that the TPPA section on SOEs will prevent or hinder the socially useful functions of SOEs.

The TPPA negotiations are still going on, and a text on the SOEs section is not yet final, so there is scope for different views to be expressed.

GLOBAL TRENDS By MARTIN KHOR

Related posts:

The US Pacific free trade deal that’s anything but free? 
US launches financial attacks against its allies!