Khir insists to declare Selangor a fully developed state in DIY fashion despite many questions raised by DAP and other right-minded Malaysians
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Media Statement
by Ronniu Liew Thian Khiew
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(Petaling Jaya, Friday): In an unprecedented move, Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo wrote an article to defend his position on the issue of calling Selangor a fully-developed state.

His article was published in The Star on 13 July 2005. On the same day, Khir Toyo has also insisted to make the declaration on 27 August 2005 unless “something crops up”.

In the article, Khir Toyo has indirectly admitted that the declaration will be done in a do-it-yourself fashion, as he claims that “There is no one body that ascertains or accredits any nation as a developed nation.”

“In order to ascertain our achievement, we commissioned the National Productivity Corporation (NPC) to conduct a study benchmarking us against 30 nations and regions using 75 indicators developed by the International Institute for Management Development for its World Competitiveness Report measuring economic growth, business, public sector delivery system and infrastructure.”

One may wonder why Khir Toyo has chosen to ignore the statements issued by both National Productivity Corporation and the International Institute for Management Development for its World Competitiveness.

The Swiss-based IMD World Competitiveness Centre and the NPC have earlier disassociated with the claims made by Khir Toyo through official statements issued by Senior Economist Suzanne Rosselet McCauley and Deputy Director-General Dr Abdul Wahab Muhamad respectively.

In my statement issued on June30 2005, I have suggested Khir Toyo to postpone announcing Selangor as a fully developed state, as the state is unlikely to achieve its target for Zero Squatters Program by 2005.

He was obviously angered by such assertions, judging from what he has written in The Star. In the said article, he charged that “why is it that so-called Western developed nations can be both developed and have homeless people in their parks, whereas Selangor, which has successfully relocated 31,925, or 66.8%, out of 47,781 squatter families (more than 80% will be relocated by August) to low-cost homes with all the basic amenities, cannot declare itself developed?”

We were not very sure which are the fully developed nations have homeless people in their parks unless Khir Toyo wishes to elaborate. But it’s certainly wrong to call Selangor a fully-developed state when so many urban pioneers will become homeless by end of this year.

Listen to what he has got to say…

“When we declare Selangor a developed state we are not declaring that our state has achieved perfection and that there are no more faults or problems to solve; instead our declaration recognises an achievement that is plain for all to see.”

“What is wrong with admitting that we have achieved something to be proud of? Are we to say that for more than 40 years since our independence Malaysia has not progressed?”

“Is progress only the providence of the Western world? Do Asian nations aspiring to achieve developed status need to be perfect with no faults to be recognized as developed?”

Dear Khir Toyo must keep his cool and stop going on and on with “accusations” which were never made by the DAP or any other groups.

Let us now look at his real arguments on why Selangor a fully-developed state…

“Consider these facts: Selangor is the most industrialized state in Malaysia with 60.8% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contributed by the industrial sector, which provides employment to 36.5% of the state's workforce. The second biggest contributor is the services sector (36.5%), which employs 60.8% of the state's workforce.” 

“From 2000 to last year, Selangor received investment from foreign and domestic sources totaling RM28.54bil, creating nearly 100,000 jobs in the manufacturing sub-sector.”

“This year, Selangor was the top destination for investment in this sector, receiving more than RM6bil in investment, which created 24,146 jobs.”

Hello, Dr Khir Toyo. If Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) alone can be used as benchmark for a fully-developed nation, that China, Vietnam and Thailand must have attained the status of fully-developed nations long before Selangor!

Khir continues to argue that “The state's GDP is nearly US$60bil (RM228bil), with Selangorians enjoying a per capita income of US$12,876 (RM48, 928.80), measured using the purchasing power parity method.”

This argument is totally meaningless if one knows that the income disparity in Malaysia (including Selangor) happens to be the highest amongst the ASEAN countries according to the latest UNDP report. (http://www.dapmalaysia.org/english/2005/july05/lge/lge149.htm)

For instance, Khir should know that many urban pioneers (squatters) families living in Kg Cempaka, Petaling Jaya Utara, could not even qualified for housing loan for low cost units (RM42,000 each) offered by the Selangor State Government. If you add the income of one of them with the income of Ong Ka Ting (living in Damansara Jaya, also PJ Utara), would you be surprised to get on paper, an income per capita to the tune of RM 1, 000, 000?

Khir also argues that “Selangor's infant mortality rate at 3.7 per 1,000 live births is better than that of Australia, Austria, New Zealand and Switzerland.  Its teacher-to-student ratio for schools is 1:19 for primary schools and 1:16.8 for secondary schools, comparable to Japan.” 

We really do not know how he arrived at those figures. Does Khir know that most of the classrooms were packed to the brim with 50 students or more in most of the Chinese primary schools in Petaling Jaya? How I wish that Selangor actually has overtaken these countries in such areas.

Khir went on to argue that “If membership in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is the criterion for developed status (there are currently 30 nations) then what about the other 54 high-income countries that are not members but, according to the World Bank, are high-income economies? 

“One of these non-OECD members but a high-income economy is Singapore. Is Singapore not a developed country?”

“Turkey is an OECD member, but according to the World Bank it is a lower-middle-income country. Malaysia also is not an OECD member but it is an upper-middle-income economy. 

His argument clearly shows that he does not understand that high income alone was not good enough for a nation to attain the fully-developed status. There were more than 300 indicators to measure a fully-developed state. Khir should not have stopped at 70 indicators. It’s also morally and technically wrong for him to treat all export values going through the sea port and airport in Selangor (from other Malaysian states) as solely Selangor contribution. This is cheating! He must get real and be honest enough to admit his mistake.

In conclusion, Khir declares that “We will be doing things differently, more efficiently and more effectively. We want to create an environment in Selangor where each citizen will be able to optimise his potential to the fullest, where we can raise our families peacefully and where hard work, initiative, playing by the rules and being creative will have their own reward.”

Beautiful !Wonderful! But we want to remind Khir Toyo that actions speak louder than words. High-sounding rhetoric alone would not convince Selangorians that the State Government under his leadership would actually move towards such direction. Knowing some of the state scandals( Bukit Cerakah, Templer’s Park, Bungalows for EXCO members) and what he has done to the Sg Chua villagers and Ulu Yam farmers, he certainly lacks credibility.

If the school children living in Kg Cempaka (they were forced to leave their homes with their families by end July this year without knowing where to stay) were asked to comment, what do you expect them to say, Dr Khir Toyo?