Who you know, not what you know

My elder brother used to say that Malaysia is the most regulated country in the world where you can get away with anything. Being the heavy weight financial investor that he is, he was of course talking about our KLSE. It's the only place, he would say, that would purposely make it so difficult for you to list your company on the stock market and yet at the same time allow back door listing via a reverse take over. It is when faced with difficult prospects like this that Malaysian get ingenious and start to take advantage of the most known asset we have, which is, "who you know more than what you know".

Talking about being ingenious, i read recently in the newspaper that our political leaders, when addressing the need for the country to be matured, are calling for the development of towering youths, by investing more effort and time in building a more pronounced Modal Insan or Human capital. A lot of money is being poured into programmes that encourage the youth to be better at what they do, teaching them more new things, basically preparing them to make more money so they can spend more domestically to beef up the local economy.

In fact, the government is embarking on a latest initiative to get all students in rural area to be computer literate by giving away netbooks to students in Terengganu. A very nobel gesture, i must say, for not everyone can afford to get connected to the world wide web, let alone buy a PC. And now, thanks to the smart people, going to the internet cafe is a difficult as booting up the netbook on your lap.

Soon, all the people in T'ganu will be connected and this will turn it into a small place. Economy will boom and young upstarts will have new internet based businesses that will rake them millions. In fact, i believe it's already starting..

The universities in the east coast are mushrooming with internet based businesses as we speak. Just last week, a student from one of the varsity was quoted as saying sex toys are readily available as long as you know what you want and be willing to pay the asking price. Amrie Amanah, a graduate from a university in T'ganu claimed sex gadgets are bought from Thailand and stored in a house in Gong Badok. All you need is an email and they'll mail it to you. Or if you are brave enough, they can be hand delivered by one of the seniors in school.
The thing is though, they are never too contented with small money, these youngsters, are they? Soon enough after the sex toys, they started with prostitution, gambling and back door listings and now it has bloomed into a full fledged sex trade worthy of putting a brand name.

These clandestine operators are brilliant, so good in fact that the university and the authorities have no idea who they are, only that they are students of the varsity. It even prompted Khaled Nordin, the higher education minister, to issue a statement to all students to turn them to whistle blowers and give up the names of the perpetrators! If i was a student, i don't think i would, but then again, maybe some people are just not that interested in sex.
If i was the perpetrator though, i won't worry as much because it's up to the university authorities to decide whether to punish or hand me over to the police. (today's Star page N12)

The sex trade is probably the oldest trade in the world, so it's no surprise that it's present in T'ganu even though its one of the most pious state with the most stringent Islamic views on law in Malaysia. What surprises me more than anything is that its been going on in the varsities for more than two years without anyone catching wind. Or maybe the law does know about it but they are just closing one eye? Its such an established operation now and the ingeniousness of the varsity students has led it to be profitable enough for the cake to be shared by many, law makers and lecturers included probably. Again, its who you know, not what you know i suppose. Or maybe a bit of both.