Kit, get the facts right before you shoot!
Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 | 7:14 pm @ SK
[UPDATED VERSION] During the parliament session, Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang was questioning on how successful the Government effort in attracting 20,000 to 25,000 top K-workers to work in Malaysia for the past four to five years. Quote:
"I just came across an article mentioning that there are approximately one million information technology (IT) professionals now employed in India and "the number is rising rapidly". One million IT professionals in India and 26,434 K-workers in MSC, proclaimed at one time as Malaysia “gift to the world” – this should be serious food for thought not only by the policymakers but by all Malaysians."
Apparently, the gap is really huge!
Then again, Kit Siang is dead wrong for not knowing the fact that, India has the second largest population in this world at 1.08bil. while Malaysia with a population of 24mil. OK, let’s do some maths now:
India: 1 mil / 1.08 bil = 0.0009%
Malaysia: 26434 / 24 mil = 0.0011%
While the Minister of Technology and Innovation Jamaluddin Jarjis was merely reporting on the figure and being critisized for the growth factor of K-workers in Malaysia among 1354 MSC status companies, he has only himself to blame for not learning how to utilize the power of "Internet at your finger tips" and reduced to endure the blatant attack by Kit Siang.
As for Kit Siang, just one question: 0.0009% or 0.0011%, which is higher?
Next time, learn how to get your facts right before you decide to convince MPs and public which is right or wrong, or else a laughing stock you’re.
So Kit, what say you now?
Related Link:
- Brand New Malaysia | Weapons of mass discussion - gone awry
October 26th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
haha, good point there mate!
October 26th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
hmm.
October 26th, 2005 at 10:42 pm
You wanna talk about the percentage,then that’s your choice But how can you say him got the wrong facts in the end? you might wanna point out which facts he got wrong, is it the 1million IT pros in India or the 20k+ in Msia?he only mentioned the 2, so which ons is it?
annyway, about the % hor,only 0.0002% diff between both nations, me thinks its a little different only leh…consider India got 1 billion ppl, shit man, they must be doing very well after all!!
1 billion vs 20m and the difference only 0.0002%…wahlau ehh…damn power this India. i don’t think thats something Msia can be proud of.
frankly, i think this is just pathetic, the next thing u know those buggers in the parliament will start using your tactics and tell weird lies.
October 26th, 2005 at 11:11 pm
I think that it is not fair to say YB Lim Kit Siang has used a wrong fact. However, he have chosen an unsuitable figure for comparison. He should have used countries like singapore which probably beats us in term of IT competitiveness.
October 27th, 2005 at 8:21 am
Where is the lie here?
All I see is a DAP supporter trying to hedge the issue.
October 27th, 2005 at 8:50 am
Your mathematics are correct as you chose to use % as the resultant comparative figure. Kit is also using mathematic of volume comparative study.
However, if you are to use %, and justifying proportions to population, then use you also use Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Phillipines, etc to provide a far justifiable contention to rebut a hypothesis.
Your contention seems legless. Kit is drawing a discussion on the hypothethical contention by the Minister JJ that Malaysia’s MSC had been "SUCCESSFUL" in attracting 25,000 ICTKW to Malaysia. Were we successful, or is it a fallacy? That’s the hypothesis we should test in order to derive axixomatic conclusion.
October 27th, 2005 at 8:51 am
I too don’t see how he "didn’t get the facts right"… The difference is just that he used figures and not in terms of percentage.
We can compare in terms of developing countries like India and China because we are still one of the many in the "developing world". Unlike Singapore, Japan and Korea, which has already attained developed status.
October 27th, 2005 at 10:20 am
If you want to look at numbers over population. Based on a population of 1billion in India, and 24 Million in Malaysia.
Based on the CIA factbook’s data from 2001, Malaysia GDP (PPP Adjusted) / Population is triple that of India’s. ($9554.17 vs $3319).
Malaysia per capita GDP (without PPP Adjustment) is also roughly 3 times that of India’s. ($9700 vs $3100)
In terms of number of Internet Users (2003) Malaysia’s ratio stands at 36.217% of total population (8,682,100 users) while India’s is at 1.511% of total population (18,481,000 users).
Food for thought?
The point is, in terms of developing nations go, India as a whole lags far behind in many aspects when compared to Malaysia. Malaysia, a supposedly modern, succesful, ICT savvy Nation, has only managed to attact a meagre 26,434 ICT workers is i would say, dissapointing. The comparison with India might be flawed, but you can’t deny that the point made was pertinent.
October 27th, 2005 at 11:22 am
IMO, you’re making a big fuss over a small piece of shit.
October 27th, 2005 at 11:27 am
I think the fundamental question that really needs to be asked is:
"What are we supposed to do with 1 million IT professionals?"
They might probably end up hogging bandwidth and publishing flame blogs.
October 27th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
As ed says here
What the author of that comment fails to see is that India exports IT professionals because they have created a competency so vast that it outscales the demand within.
This is not a bad thing but it’s a sign of unbalanced economic financing.
Please do not quote economic data if you are neither an economist nor one who understands the nature of economics.
October 27th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
i perfectly agree with what JackRyan just said, but the thing is, i don’t get his point.
It is true that India’s IT workforce far outstrips domestic demand, it is true that it is due to unbalanced economic financing. So? What is the relevance to the context of the the current blog posting in which his comment falls under? Maybe i’m just to thick to get it.
My point was just to demonstrate that SK’s method or manipulating the facts is inherently flawed, he is as guilty of what he is accusing LKS of, not thinking before shooting. Showing the ratio means nothing.
The fact is still that the self proclaimed oh-so-great Malaysian product, the MSC isn’t so great after all. After many years, development in the MSC is still slow at best, and the workforce numbers is just one of the things that highlights it’s deficiencies.
October 27th, 2005 at 5:36 pm
I would say Kit’s basis of comparing how successful Malaysian MSC to India based on quantity (ie. num of K-workers) is completely irrelevant. It is like saying, "Malaysia as a whole is not as successful as India because our people (population) is less than India". It is not the quantity but the quality that counts.
Let’s look at quality then. Perhaps we can start to talk about what Malaysia has developed in terms of ICT compared to India or perhaps our neighbours.
For my 2 cents worth, Malaysia grand scales MSC project is not going exactly where it is projected to be. Why did I say such a thing?
1. MSC status company is not exactly MSC status. You can dig deeper on how companies get MSC status and you will understand. Thus, how can such company grow.
2. Being an IT grad from Cyberjaya, and seeing the development in Cyberjaya, it is really depressing. Until now, it is like a dead town. I dare say that, if not because of the 2 universities, it might as well be dead.
3. Most buildings you see in Cyberjaya is call centers not R&D centers. One of most prestigious R&D center, InventQJaya is now in law suit. Damn!
3. Running around as sales in the IT industry, I have seen many softwares developed locally, and that includes my company. And sorry to say, it is not very impressive. Over priced and under deliver! How many of our softwares are household names!
4. Many magazines and articles focuses on India as a destination to get K-worker, either to bring them in as expat or to outsource their projects to them. Where is Malaysia?
In conclusion, I would say that Malaysia MSC is still very slow, compared to our neighbours, in fact I felt as if it is going backwards at times, not based on quantity of K-workers but the quality of products and development that spurs from the MSC.
October 27th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
JL that’s a great summation. One which Kit was better of using. I cannot agree with you more.
October 28th, 2005 at 2:24 am
This blogger accused LKS of using the wrong fact, which he never used.
and i have to say i deeply disappointed with this, it’s like pot calling kettle hitam now. He knew what LKS said, but still he choose to do this so i really wanna see him to show us the wrong facts LKS used. Can ah? C’mon,u put the title big big, at least show one wrong fact by him.
JackRyan,
Calling me a DAP supporter is just so stupid ,ok?
Then can i say you anti DAP? or you’re the only wise guy here?
and talk about those weird lies, oh well, you know, there’s an perfect example in Selangor Maju 2005.
and where is the wrong fact LKS used? if you are so free, pls help this blogger to show us all here. This is a challenge, take it.
p/s:oh well, in the end u still agree that MSC sucks, so you’re just [DELETED by SK - DEFAMED].
October 28th, 2005 at 3:12 am
limpehkalugong, you reply proves that you are not interestewd in a civil discourse. You are more interested in cursing, and are driven far too much by emotions and anger. Under such duress, I refuse to take up a barbed challenge to engage in a flame war.
Trying to prove anything is pointless as your tone and manner proves a lot about your manners and attitude. It’s self explanatory without going into too much details.
October 28th, 2005 at 3:34 am
[…] What do I make of Mack’s piece on Kit Siang’s gaffe- which was a respond of MageP’s post. Mack, what you posted is nothing I haven’t heard about. Or constantly think of. And I’m a baby in the corner of party politics. Quite often I wonder if it was better in some ways that Parti Rakyat Malaysia had not merged with KeAdilan - and under the circumstances it was forced upon PRM members. […]
November 5th, 2005 at 3:07 am
[…] 60,000 is already a big sum to cause immense problems , how about a staggering 1 million mark? […]