The Way Forward? : The Political Economy of Development Policy Reform in Malaysia

An inaugural lecture delivered at the University of Malaya on Tuesday, 20 July 1993

The doctoral research abstracts. Vol:8 2015 / Institute of Graduate Studies, UiTM

Foreword: THIRTY FIRST October 2015 marks the celebration of 47 PhD doctorates receiving their scroll during UiTM 83rd Convocation Ceremony. This date is significant to UiTM since it is an official indication of 47 more scholarly contributions to the world of knowledge and innovation through the novelty of their research. To date UiTM has contributed 471 producers of knowledge through their doctoral research ranging from the field of Science and Technology, Business and Administration, and Social Science and Humanities. This Doctoral Abstracts epitomizes knowledge par excellence and a form of tribute to the 47 doctorates whose achievement we proudly celebrate. To the graduands, your success in achieving the highest academic qualification has demonstrated that you have indeed engineered your destiny well. The action of registering for a PhD program was not by chance but by choice. It was a choice made to realise your self-actualization level that is the highest level in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, while at the same time unleashing your potential in the scholarly research. Do not forget that life is a treasure and that its contents continue to be a mystery, thus, your journey of discovery through research has not come to an end but rather, is just the beginning. Enjoy life through your continuous discovery of knowledge, and spearhead innovation while you are at it. Make your alma mater proud through this continuous discovery as alumni of UiTM. As you soar upwards in your career, my advice will be to continuously be humble and ‘plant’ your feet firmly on the ground. Congratulations once again and may you carry UiTM as ‘Sentiasa di Hatiku’. Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar, FASc, PEng Vice Chancellor Universiti Teknologi MAR

The feasibility of an international tropical plywood futures contract

This paper explores the potential for futures contracts in tropical (hardwood) plywood, one of the few major internationally traded commodities for which there is no yet a futures market. Commodity characteristics and market structures and practices that have an impact on the feasibility of a futures market are examined in detail, and conclusions drawn as to the way forward if one wishes to create such a market.commodity futures market, plywood

A success model for the Malaysian government e-procurement system: the buyer perspective

In Malaysia, there has been a tremendous effort in implementing e-government as a national agenda with the aims to increase public transparency, improve the sector efficiency and effectiveness and reduce public expenditure through lower operational costs. One of the e-government applications is the ePerolehan, a government-to-business (G2B) system that enables online public procurement coordination and transaction between government and businesses. However, there has been a lack of empirical research findings in evaluating the success and actual value of the system, and understanding the usage factors among government users. Hence, this research was undertaken to investigate the level of ePerolehan system success and the factors that contribute to this success, as perceived by the government users. The structural equation modeling results suggest the use of the Malaysian public e-procurement system has significant and positive influence to success, measured as transparency, service performance, efficiency and information quality The results also indicated that the main significant success factors of the ePerolehan system are found to be system compatibility, user attitude, organizational learning, mimetic pressure and supplier expectation. The findings provide several important implications not only for the government-to-business discipline, but also for e-government research and practice

Computeralization of Seaport Operation Management: Competitive Issues and Need of ICT Advancement

In the perspective of seaport management, computeralization is the top priority issues as related on sustaining their operation and profitability. The dramatically change of global operation of seaport management with un-predictable situation has potential to exposed the seaport management with the major challenges where Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has play a vital role. In the one hand, ICT has potentially to bring the seaport management into the right way in order to face the current change of business environment. However, in the one hand, ICT has potential to brings risks, damage and any kind of negative impact to seaport operation if they miss-implement the suitable strategy to faced in the current practice of operation. As a fundamental of discussion, there are some current trends on seaport management issues will analyzed. The main objective of the paper is to discussed some current trends on competitive advantages issues that faced by seaport operation firms. Secondly, the paper is discussed the sophistication of Information and Communication Technology as used in the operation of seaport management. In the unpredictable business environment, ICT should integrate with seaport management strategy which can help the firms to strengthening their business in the global market position. Finally, some suggestion was made to guiding the seaport authority in integrating ICT sophistication with traditional management of seaport operation as alternatives way

Exchange rate misalignments in ASEAN-5 countries

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the exchange rate misalignments for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand before the currency crisis. By employing the sticky-price monetary exchange rate model in the environment of vector error-correction, the results indicate that the Indonesia rupiah, Malaysian ringgit, Philippines peso and Singapore dollar were overvalued before the currency crisis while Thai baht was undervalued on the eve of the crisis. However, they suffered modest misalignment. Therefore, little evidence of exchange misalignment is found to exist in 1997:2. In particular, Indonesia rupiah, Malaysia ringgit, Philippines peso and Singapore dollar were only overvalued about 1 to 4 percent against US dollar while the Thai baht was only 2 percent undervalued against US dollar

Malaysian bilateral trade relations and economic growth

This paper examines the structure and trends of Malaysian bilateral exports and imports and then investigates whether these bilateral exports and imports have caused Malaysian economic growth. Although the structure of Malaysia’s trade has changed quite significantly over the last three decades, the direction of Malaysia’s trade remains generally the same. Broadly, ASEAN, the EU, East Asia, the US and Japan continue to be the Malaysia’s major trading partners. The Granger causality tests have shown that it is the bilateral imports that have caused economic growth in Malaysia rather than the bilateral exports

Uneven development and the commercialisation of public utilities: a political ecology analysis of water reforms in Malaysia

Water policy reforms introduced in Peninsular Malaysia have yielded relatively positive improvements in the operational and financial performance of water utilities. This article analyses contemporary water governance in the context of the historical origins of uneven water development in Malaysia and national heterogeneity in the political economy of water provision. The investigation builds on political ecology scholarship in urban water policy and reaffirms postcolonial critiques of neoliberal inspired water reforms in developing countries. Our study analyses the impact of the ‘asset light policy’ – a policy introduced in 2008 with the aim of commercialising public water utilities and centralising water sector investment and ownership. It is found that notwithstanding evidence of improved financial health and technical efficiency in certain states, the asset light policy has accentuated uneven water development across the country. Thus despite the policy’s relatively narrow focus on technical and financial matters, it is shown to have a fundamentally political outcome. This in turn explains the current ‘policy impasse’ in five of the eleven states in Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, the omission of environmental considerations within the policy framework is argued to undermine the overall ambition of the policy. It is recommended that water policy makers give greater consideration to the embedded social, political and economic inequalities that characterize many former European colonies

Using competing models to evaluate the role of environmental pressures in ecommerce adoption by small and medium sized travel agents in a developing country

This study investigates the factors that influence e-commerce adoption in SME travel agents in a developing country. The research is based upon a questionnaire survey of travel agents in Egypt and employs advanced statistical techniques to test a conceptual framework that extends the technology acceptance model. Using competing models the study examines the relationship between e-commerce adoption, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and environmental pressures. The results indicate that environmental pressures significantly affect the perceived benefits and barriers of e-commerce adoption, in addition to having an indirect effect on adoption behaviour. Insights are provided into the nature of relationships between the key factors that determine e-commerce adoption and the extent to which they can be used to develop effective strategies for SME travel agent re-intermediation in the global travel market. Implications are identified for practice and government policy in relation to the use of e-commerce in SME travel businesses in developing countries

Boat design deriving from ethnographic study: a transdisciplinary approach to Malaysian fishing boat design.

The goal of the project is to further the positivist discourse of design by ascertaining whether ethnographic analysis contributes to the design process. To this end, the project provides 1) a culturally appropriate conceptual fishing boat design and 2) an industrial design case study. This project identifies mechanistic and non-mechanistic design elements and presents the results of thematic analysis. This project develops a 40 GRT (gross register ton), Malaysian Class B fishing boat design based primarily upon ethnographic study of stakeholders, which includes fishermen, boat builders, designers and owners. The design concept is evaluated by fishermen regarding perceived performance as a fishing boat, aesthetics, safety, and comfort. The concept boat is compared with the visual stereotype of a traditional Malaysian fishing boat and a Western style, deck forward design. The conceptual design is evaluated with a creative product analysis matrix (CPAM) followed by a questionnaire based evaluation by fishermen. This project is intended for students and practitioners of industrial design interested in culturally appropriate design. It provides insights into design methodology and ethnographic methods for developing an understanding of indigenous design sensitivities of a client or end user. This study provides an example of product development that integrates the designer’s creativity with the stakeholders’ requirements and material culture. This project also demonstrates the technique of superimposing photographs via computer aided design (CAD) drawings to develop a visual stereotype. Moreover, this project demonstrates the benefit of employing visual models in charcoal and clay in ethnographic fieldwork