The financial crisis in Wall Street rapidly spread worldwide. This market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits. This then led to a general loss of confidence in the economic future of the nation, and its citizens got trapped in lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. Many top minds profferred explanations which included factors such as high debt, the lack of high-growth new industries, and growing wealth inequality, all of which interacted wickedly to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending, falling confidence, and lowered production. Industries that suffered the most included construction, agriculture, shipping and durable goods like automobiles and appliances, the purchases of which could be postponed.

Sounds familiar? No, this is not now and this is not Malaysia. What I described above happened in the US during the Great Depression in the 1930s.

It all fell on the shoulders of the leaders of the nation, and one leader in particular — the president — to navigate the country out of the doldrums. That leader was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or FDR.

FDR is the only American president elected to more than two terms, during which he forged a durable coalition that realigned American politics for decades. Elected during the depths of the Great Depression, FDR launched a variety of major programmes. In his first term (1933–36), FDR led Congress to enact the New Deal, a large, complex interlocking set of programmes designed to produce relief (jobs for the unemployed), recovery of the economy, and reform of key industries, finance and transportation, in particular.

But what really made the New Deal succeed — besides it being a very well thought-through plan (building on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes) — was that it was accepted and supported by the people.

FDR’s combination of optimism and activism revived the national spirit. Throughout his leadership he repeated the maxim: “The only limit to our realisation of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”

In this column, I have brought to your attention various deficiencies we face as a country, as an economy. It would be remiss (not to mention irresponsible) of me not to also talk about our ability to make it happen, to pull ourselves out of our current quagmire.

So while I empathise with “Distressed reader” below who responded to my last column [“Can we make it happen?”, Management@Work, July 5, 2010] in which I drew a comparison between Thailand and Indonesia and Malaysia, I continue to maintain that we still have (but probably not for too long) an edge over our neighbours. And we need to take this window of opportunity to do the right thing. We need to be ready, able and willing. But how willing are we?

Hi 42,
I read your article “Can we make it happen?” with much dismay.

In it, you compared our education standard with Thailand, and our health system as being good enough for the Indonesians.

Granted that Thailand and Indonesia are both more advanced than Myanmar, why can’t we for once set the benchmark higher? Isn’t that what progress is all about? Why can’t we, say, at least look across the Causeway and compare ourselves with the Singaporeans who are by leaps and bounds the most developed nation in Southeast Asia?

Our education standard is so poor that I have a friend who earns a mere RM4,000 a month looking to place his son in a private school! That surely must tell us something, doesn’t it?

As for Indonesian patients, that is called medical tourism. The wealthy ones only need to cross the Straits of Malacca to get some medical treatment. Thousands more visit Singapore for the same reason.

Writers like you have the ability to shape and influence readers’ minds and thinking, so please use it wisely.

As for your article, sad to say, I couldn’t finish reading it.
Distressed reader

As a nation, have we lost faith? How many more distressed readers are out there?

There is no doubt the transformation has to be driven by able and courageous leaders. But nothing will materialise if the troops do not follow.

Although the Democrat ideology and Keynesian economics ultimately prevailed, in the deeply partisan society of the US, FDR certainly had his fair share of critics. And it was not just because of the political divide between the left and the right. There were various schools of thought among economists as well on how best to revive the economy.

FDR had, however, enough people who had faith in what he wanted to do. Our national and corporate leaders need the same from all of us. And no less, from people who read this paper.

Like the New Deal, our national transformation plan has been well strategised, encompassing the:
•Government Transformation Programme (with its much needed focus on perform-ance);
•Economic Transformation Programme (to take advantage of our core advantages and build on them); and
•NEM and 1Malaysia (which expresses how Malaysia will take care of all Malaysians).

Malaysians are famous for formulating good, even great, grandiose plans. What remains is to get it done.

As a Malaysian, all I can hope for is that enough of us will take the spirit and letter of these plans to heart and will these into existence. If this has to be done, in spite of the leadership, then let’s do that as well!

After all, we’ve heard for decades now that this is the Asian Century. Post the global financial crisis of 2008-09, there is no doubt that this is our time. We are still (marginally) ahead of Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Asian neighbours. Let’s make sure we grow with our neighbourhood.

With this, Vincent Chin will conclude his 42 column. He will return occasionally next year to comment on the latest developments in management and leadership.His previous columns in Management@Work can be found under the Management section at www.theedgemalaysia.com

This article appeared in Management@work, the monthly management pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 817, Aug 2-8, 2010