Sunday, October 17, 2010

human development seminar, melbourne: oct 13 2010

By al-Din on October 14, 2010 3:41 PM

As an ordinary person I could easily mumble away if I am not sure what to say. Hardly anyone want to listen to me anyway. But as a leader, the content must be well thought of before making any pronouncement. The mark of statesmanship is not only what need to be said but also those best unsaid.

We have a penchant to use catch phrases to catch public attention and thus fashionable for politicians to quickly ape foreign statements (1Israel, We are One, ...) in a "desire to be linked with other countries" as Tun mentioned.

The PM is leading us into a fuzzy world of IMalaysia as he defined very loosely and let the politicians, communities and individual rakyat seek its meaning and direction. Rais started by conducting senamrobik. DPM said he is a Malay first. PM has to fire his political aide. My immediate reaction to 1M is a feeling of insecurity that dulled my brain how to make sense ot it.

Now many are getting into the bandwagon of 1 (ONE). Rais got 1B for broadband development.Then how much the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries got to strengthen food security? Our rice production is till at 60%. I suggest that he should be aiming for 1B+1B+1B+1B+1B.

The severe flooding in many countries seems to be a global trend. The omen is that rice production in Thailand and Vietnam, our main suppliers, also in Malaysia may be ravaged by above normal flood during the coming monsoon.

My guesstimate is that the Ministry of Agriculture would require 1B+1B+1B+1B+1B (5billion) to open up major rice bowls especially in Sarawak and Sabah, and to set up a national rice research institute/board to coordinate all development - land, water, crop, processing, by-products, marketing etc on rice industry. Indonesia and Japan can be self-sufficient why not us?

Food security is national security for 1Malaysia. Perhaps that is how I define 1Malaysia!

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