Here’s something that should be required reading for our politicians back home: While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry.

It’s basically The Age’s take on our constant feud regarding race and the NEP. What they’re saying is, whilst we keep on bashing each other over how much of the country’s wealth we own, the rest of the world is moving on.

So true.

Who, outside Malaysia (expat Malaysians excepted), cares if Malays own 100% of Petronas? Or whether Celcom is 46% owned by the Chinese and 54% Malay (as an illustrative point; I don’t know what the figures are, neither do I care)?

Ask any non-Malaysian what would make him invest overseas, and I bet you the same questions will crop up: Does this country have transparent business practices? Are property rights respected? Is there clear recourse to the local laws should things go wrong?

Interestingly enough, the hubby and I had this conversation with my father and brother when they were in town. We compared Malaysia with Singapore. All agreed that Malaysia was losing out, because doing business in Malaysia - particularly if you’re a foreigner - is still a case of who you know.

Say I wanted to buy property for investment.

Over here, it’s easy (well, insofar as the steps are clear), even as a foreigner. I get a mortgage. I find something I like. I buy it. End of story.

In Malaysia though, it’s not quite that easy. First of all, the last time I checked, foreigners could only buy property that was worth RM250,000 or more. Fair enough - Malaysia has the right to impose such conditions, of course. But then I’d have to get a mortgage, or a housing loan. Now, let me tell you, this is not a piece of cake unless you are resident in Malaysia.

So first off, let’s assume you’re resident. Getting residency in Malaysia is a major pain in the arse. You could be married to a Malaysian, but that means fuck all to the immigration authorities (unlike here in Britain, where you can qualify for residency as the spouse of a British national). Being married to a Malaysian doesn’t mean you can legally get a job in Malaysia; you need a special permit that would allow you to do this. And say, you’ve lived in Malaysia for seven years and now qualify for permanent residency. Well, off you go to the immigration department, only to find that the PR process is opaque, and really, your application depends on the whims of the officer dealing with your case (and you could be dealing with a myriad of officers during the process!). Contrast with Britain - there are clear rules for PR qualification, and so long as your papers are in order, you’ll qualify. I got mine in under two hours when I applied for PR here (having prepared everything myself - with no input from any immigration official - beforehand).

So OK, assuming you’ve got residency in Malaysia, and you have a job somehow, you will probably qualify for a housing loan. But I bet the road to that is a long, aggravating one.

Now, let’s assume you don’t have residency. I don’t know about non-resident foreigners, but let me tell you, getting a housing loan when you’re not resident in Malaysia, even for a Malaysian citizen, is also a pain in the arse. When I bought my condo in KL, my poor brother had to hunt high and low to find a bank that would give me a housing loan. Just because I don’t live and work in KL. Never mind that he had my pay slips and everything.

I’m not saying getting a mortgage in Britain is easy, but the fact is, in Britain the difficulty lies in choosing the right mortgage for yourself because there are so many different types out there. In Malaysia I dare say there are also loads of different types of housing loans (am I right?), but I’ve found that the difficulty is getting the bank to loan you the money in the first place, even if you have proof (albeit in a different currency) that you are solvent.

That’s just buying property. Imagine setting up a big business in Malaysia as a foreigner. All of us agreed that Singapore wins hands down if you’re a foreign investor because rules in Singapore are clearer. Never mind business and property law, even getting the right visa to enter Singapore as a businessman is clearer. Whilst we in Malaysia … well, I know of someone who already had a job offer in Malaysia, but eventually had to use his wife’s cousin or uncle (who worked in immigration) to get immigration to speed up his visa application. It’s ridiculous, the way we run things.

Now this. We squabble over how much of the economy the Malays/Chinese/Indians/others hold. When an economist (who people pointed out is Chinese, as if it mattered!) came up with a different figure from the Government, his methodology was vociferously questioned in some quarters - until he resigned in protest. As if we knew better than a highly-trained economist how to calculate such things. It’s disgusting, the way we treat academicians who don’t toe the Government line.

And so, we expend (and waste) our energies on such issues. Our country is now 49. Does it really matter (still) if the Chinese hold 80% of corporate equity? Does it really matter (still) that we Malays, after more than 30 years of hand-holding, still cannot rise up to the 30% figure for corporate equity?

A part of me says yes, it does. The solution though, is not to be found in petty squabbling about economic methodology. The solution is not to be founded in squalid arguments about the Chinese holding so much of our economy in their hands (how dare they!). Still, would anyone dare ask the right questions - why do the Chinese still hold so much equity after all these years? Why do the Malays still lag behind after all the NEP’s done?

A part of me though, says screw all that. What matters now is how our country as a whole does. So what if equity is largely in the hands of the Chinese, so long as all Malaysians can enjoy the fruits of that? Does it matter if, say, Celcom is wholly owned by a Chinese person, so long as all Malaysians can have access to its network?

I read the other day that the Bangsa Malaysia idea is being floated again. Hmm. Good idea in principle, and I’ve no doubt people like Pak Lah and Najib sincerely believe in the idea. The problem is all those people underneath them - your MPs, your Menteri Besar, your UMNO reps, your MCA/MIC functionaries, your Takaful officials - who pay lip service to the idea, but when push comes to shove, shamefully retreat back behind the communal or religious lines.

If we truly believed in Bangsa Malaysia we wouldn’t care which race owns which proportion of corporate equity.