Singapore F1 GP - Malaysia unsure if it's an egg or an omelette

The Singapore-phobic Malaysians will have a field day with this. The Malaysian Sports Minister just voiced the long-standing thinking of Malaysian politicians and not a few citizens with regards to it's relationship with Singapore. That the two countries should not compete with each other.


It also demonstrates Malaysia's greatest fear: The fear of competition. Malaysia is paralysed by it. It is the main reason why Malaysia's relationship with competitiveness-obsessed (kiasu) Singapore is so antagonistic.

Malaysia believes in patronage, quotas and monopolies where money is made with minimum or no effort. It's believes in carving up the economic loot and dividing it amongst the stakeholders according to political & ethnic lines. That's why Malaysia's economy has official % ratios determining how much of it, each ethnic group should own. We call it the social contract and a guarantee of peace and prosperity for all. Others call it racial discrimination, cronyism and institutional corruption.

On the other hand, Singapore believes that economics is a warzone, where friendly fire is healthy and some acceptable losses are inevitable. It believes that it's one's own fault if one should starve because of the lack of work hard. It is a country where top professionals and civil servants legitimately earn over a million dollars a year, but there is no social welfare, minimum wage or union labour agreements. Nothing describes Singapore better than the phrase... "to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs."

So, Malaysia... are you an egg or an omelette?


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Singapore F1 GP - only a matter of time.
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