Westports Malaysia executive chairman Tan Sri G. Gnanalingam has made a name for himself as an entrepreneur but he and is also a member of Pemudah, the special task force to facilitate business in Malaysia. He speaks to K.P. WARAN about everything, from the lack of interest in local sports among Malaysians to what local companies have to do to stay ahead in the age of globalisation

Q: What is a major unifying factor that is not given enough importance in our country?

A: It has to be sports. In those days, Malaysians rooted for their local teams. And when the team did well, they celebrated together. Sports is a great unifying factor. Malaysians forget about race and religion when they support their team. During the Thomas Cup, the whole nation sat glued to their television sets.

Somewhere in the last 20 years, we started the blame game. The officials and athletes started the culture of blaming each other for poor performances. It became so ridiculous that many Malaysians turned their backs on the local sports scene, preferring instead to watch television and support foreign teams such as the English Premier League.

You cannot blame the people because quality sports are available at the touch of a button. Our teams play poorly and fare badly in the international arena. There is a lack of analysis and realisation on what has gone wrong.
Those days, it was teachers and parents who pushed their children to greater heights in sports. Headmasters used to clamour for good sports masters. This is the reason why people like Tiger Woods, Nicol David and the Sidek brothers excelled -- their parents were behind them.

What the government can do is to emulate what is being done in the United States and Britain and offer sports scholarships to outstanding athletes. Oxford, Cambridge and the top US universities are doing it. We tend to reward our high achievers too quickly and kill their hunger to excel further.

Q: How do we get Malaysians to love local sports all over again?

A: We need to create champions, those with a passion for excellence and who will be role models for youngsters and sports fans. The people behind these associations should not be politicians, but those who are passionate about sports and genuinely interested in taking the game to greater heights.

Malaysian athletics was at its peak when we had foreign coaches such as Bill Miller and football coaches such as Dettmar Kramer. Even England has a non-English coach for its national team in Italian Fabio Capello.

What we should do is to look for the best coaches in the world to bring back the glory days of sports. This will restore the interest of Malaysian fans in supporting the national teams, and bring about the closeness and camaraderie which cannot be inculcated in classrooms or through lectures.

Everyone will cheer as Malay- sians, without a thought to race, religion, creed, colour or upbringing. Steps should be taken to keep this spirit going on forever.

Q: What about excellence in business and entrepreneurship? Can Malaysia keep pace with the world?

A: The main ingredient of competitiveness and productivity is the development of human capital. You can see China and India reaping the benefits of their education systems, which were put in place 20 to 30 years ago. The two countries produce a million engineers a year. All over the world, there is a focus on private education, which produces quality human capital to meet the needs of the market.

We need to liberalise the education system, with added focus on private education. This would mean bringing in top lecturers and teachers, which would improve the education system.

Those with a passion for teaching will excel in this environment and dedicated and hardworking teachers will be sought after and paid better. There are 300,000 Malaysian students overseas and their parents would not mind keeping them here if they could get quality education.

In the United States, 30 per cent of the lecturers are Indians and 10 per cent are Chinese, so with the focus on a private education system, schools, colleges and universities can source teaching staff from anywhere in the world for quality education.

There is also a need to develop skilled labour and wages should be performance-related. The Malaysian labour market needs to re-orientate itself. There is resistance to this from both public and private sectors. If this continues, Malaysia will be further left behind by other emerging economies.

Workers should be given incentives for tasks performed and for increasing productivity. Those who do not pull their weight should not be taking home salaries equivalent to those who do more.

Q: What is the make-up of your staff in Westports?

A: Our staff strength is 100 per cent Malaysian. We have 70 per cent Malays, 28 per cent Indians and two per cent Chinese. In case you think I don't like Chinese, I want to inform you that I am married to one (he laughs).

We have 2,500 workers and over the next two years we have a recruitment plan to get another 1,000 workers more -- all Malaysians. They will be provided training before they are exposed to the work environment.

Ninety-nine per cent of our staff have not worked in ports before, which is a clear indication that anyone can be trained to handle the available jobs. The workforce has equal opportunities for upgrading.

Thirty of our staff members have moved on to shipping lines and another 10 work in management capacities in ports around the world. We have 12 lawyers, who are not in the legal sector, and 20 engineers who are in operations. This shows that Malaysians are intelligent, easily trainable and can adapt to work conditions that differ from the basic education they have received.

Q: Are Malaysian graduates choosy?

A: In the US and Europe, fresh graduates spend three to four years as trainee executives before they take on added responsibilities. Here, many graduates want to be appointed managers a week after they walk out of their campus. In most cases, the training employees receive at their workplace is more valuable than their years of study.

Q: Why do other companies depend on a foreign workforce?

A: From the outset, Westports did not want short-term employees. We prefer to provide training, offer better job prospects and promotions so that most of them remain in the company. There are employers who offer low wages, no training and have little to offer in terms of living conditions.

Malaysia's foreign workforce may disappear one day because employers in other Asian countries and the Middle East offer foreign workers better wages, prospects and treat them better.

Apart from poor living conditions, legal foreign workers here are also subjected to harassment from the authorities. This will turn them away eventually.

Q: How do you keep employee productivity high?

A: We studied why Malaysians working in Singapore are very productive and realised that it was "vitamin M". If you pay your workers well, give them incentives for being productive and take care of their welfare, they will work harder.

There is no business without people. Everything is run by people. Who built the Taj Mahal? People say it was Shah Jehan, but I say it was the workers. For many bosses, productivity is mere lip service.

In the case of Westports, we realised that workers tended to get into financial problems because a member of the family fell sick, homes were affected by floods, there was a wedding to organise or university fees to be paid .

There were also cases of some 200 workers who were absent and did not go home at the end of the month because loan sharks were waiting for them.

To overcome these financial woes, we introduced a two-month advance for workers who needed cash immediately. They did not have to provide a reason and the repayment was deducted from the salary. We found that the rate of absenteeism and medical leave dropped.

Q: According to the World Bank, Malaysia ranks 25 for the most business-friendly nation. What can be done to improve this ranking?

A: Malaysia has targeted 10th place but I am convinced we can be better than that. We have made numerous changes in operating procedures and the delivery system since the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business (Pemudah) was formed 11 months ago.

The 24 members of the task force are committed to identifying the key areas. The 12 civil servants in the group have been receptive and responded well to recommendations.

Pemudah is a catalyst in pushing for improvement. The secretaries-general of the various ministries and other high-ranking officials have been open to the idea of introducing reforms.

The results that have emerged and the increased number of issues that are discussed have prompted the task force to continue its work even though it was supposed to complete its task within six months.

Q: Where are these changes most evident?

A: In Immigration, the Inland Revenue Board, land matters, business licences and in several other areas. We have excellent infrastructure, roads, airports, ports, telecommunications, access to the Internet, power and water which can push us ahead in the World Bank's assessment of our delivery system and services.

Most countries rate the success of the economy to five to eight per cent unemployment, but in Malaysia we have 115 per cent employment as we have 2.5 million foreign workers. So, we have all the ingredients to do well. Pemudah will merely highlight the improvements that need to be made.

Q: Any other words of wisdom?

A: When I was in my third year in university, my father died. I had to make a decision whether to continue my studies or quit since I had no one to financially support my education.

I took part in The Malay Mail crossword puzzle competition and won RM7,000, which paid for my studies. I got my degree, otherwise I would have been a dropout. So, what I am trying to say is everyone has a chance in this country.

It may come with a stroke of luck or through a helping hand, but if we put our minds to succeed in life, the opportunities are there, and it is all up to individuals how they grab it. There are times we have to create our own destiny. And when you make it, you will be in a position to better the lot of your fellow men.

The NST, 06.01.2008