Look East Policy

I still remember how Tun Dr.M when he just assumed the premiership in 1981, set out to look for values and practices which could be emulated for the benefit of the country and thus the "Look East Policy" was born. By default, I attended that meeting where he announced the policy. My Secretary-General and Director-General of Education were away overseas, and the next most senior official was the Deputy-Secretary General at that time, the late Tuan Hj. Yang Amri Kamarudin for some strange reason asked the PM's Chief Private Secretary whether he could send a representative, and the reply was in the affirmative. So I found myself amongst the top senior civil servants and also top officials from statutory bodies including from Petronas. As I understood it then, the PM wanted the sponsoring agencies, responsible in sending students and trainees for all sorts of courses and training to shift their focus from the West to the East. He believed that there are some very positive values such as hard work, efficiency and effectiveness and loyalty to the organisation which could be adopted by sending them to Japan and Korea. To cut the story short, I came back to the Ministry of Education (where I was serving at that time) and told my superior that I was given a tall order by the PM. He wanted the first 100 in-plant trainees to be sent to Japan for attachment to various well-established companies, as early as possible. Without further ado, I set the motion in recruiting students who had just finished their schooling from Technical and Vocational schools for language training before they are sent to Japan. When the Minister came back from his overseas trip, he somehow came to know about the directive and said that Pak Lah who was the Minister in PM's Dept. was also given a similar directive but nothing happened. So when the Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam was informed that the Education Ministry had already started to make arrangements for the first group to attend the Japanese language training, they just joined in the bandwagon. I had the opportunity to be included in the first group of officials headed by Pak Lah to Japan to explore the places where we could send our trainees and students. The most senior official from the JPA was then Tuan Hj. Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid (now TanSri) and another two representatives from UM and UKM. It was interesting to note that even the Japanese was unaware about the 'Look East Policy' and they were keen to know more details. By now there are tens of thousands of our trainees and students who had graduated from institutes and universities in Korea and Japan, and they have been recruited by big Japanese and Korean companies operating in Malaysia and even on their own shores. At the national level we have yet to see the impact in terms of how the virtues and values which are much bandied about have transformed our students and trainees when they come back home. Maybe there are some small incremental improvements at the organisational level happening, but it all depends on how persevering one can be. No amount of total immersion methods would change their attitude if deep in themselves they don't have the commitment to make a difference when they have completed their courses in Japan and Korea and return to their familiar surroundings.