Two weeks ago.

Pascal Najadi, President at Najadi & Partners AG wrote rather strong letter directed towards the Malaysian government, stating:-

International Observers and Investors alike are waking up to the fact that Dictatorship and total absence of Justice will bring down the Malaysian Ringgit into its obliteration.

_{For the whole article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/malaysian-ringgit-disappearing-currency-pascal-najadi}

The truth hurts.

I have long perceived the Malaysian culture as a lethal concoction of its own demise. With that, I'm not saying that I'm not cultured by Malaysian society. As much as I am a child of the Internet, half of my waking life remains being in contact with family and friends around town.

We're generally tolerant / non-confrontational, and that's arguably the same in pretty much any Asian countries. Being in the sales line for years conducting business with property developers, there's a reason why I did not "succeed" as much as others who are in the same industry. I simply avoided getting myself deals that involve bribery (or more pedantically, unnecessarily inflating costs for end-users).

Corruption is pretty widespread in Malaysian society, so much that a lawyer friend of mine said that Malaysia is the place to be, especially if you're okay buying your way up to gain competitive edge over others. Most of us are just too laid back and too tolerant to call out on anyone really.

I don't think it's necessarily wrong to go for easy money like that. Every man for himself, and private business is private business. I just have a problem with this practice when it's at the expense of others in a public landscape.

Over the past few years, numerous documents detailing theft of funds from a state-owned investment firm have been released to expose the failings of the country's Prime Minister. But of course, nothing really happens because the authorities have all been shuffled or bought out. You may read more here.

There are just too many obvious cover-ups. Even my confidant with insights into the mainstream news industry can confirm various accusations. Major news outlets here are entirely state-controlled.

The recent years saw a rise in social unrest, especially amongst the urbanites - those who are more well-informed about state affairs. Now there's a massive street protest every year in the city center to call for cleaner elections, and more recently, the resignation of the Prime Minister.

The moment when I saw people I know (who are corrupt themselves) attending street protests against the corrupt government.. that was when I know the problem is way bigger than that few powerful people at the top.

We have a middleman problem.

The middleman problem exists everywhere, but corruption amplifies the problem to whole new levels. If every middleman along the supply chain is corrupt, the end consumers will be the ones bearing the inflated cost. Add cronyism, kleptocracy, and state-corporation monopoly into the mix and shit is going to hit the fan sooner or later.

Real estate in Malaysia is extremely expensive at the moment, and personally I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. The usual arrangement is to sign a 20-30 years contract, just to pay for one apartment!

Here's what happens in most backdoor dealings in property development - 20-100% markup is the norm for those thinking about kickbacks and easy money. And that's just one party, one contractor. Think about all the other middleman and levels of hierarchy in-between.

Unfortunately (or not), rarely anybody honours the tender system despite state enforcement and corporate preference. It's more of a formality in practice, which all ends up as wasted time and effort. I remember going through 50 textbook-sized tender documents for a nation-wide project. Ultimately lost because the other party offered something extra special.

While I'm not a big fan of the state, I see regulations such as the open tender system being one way to secure good contractors without all the excess costs of human greed. But again, it's actually anything but open book! The perception is different if you're out of the loop.

Thank Satoshi for cryptocurrencies.

And of course, thanks to all the cypherpunks involved with the ideas and projects that predate the Bitcoin implementation. Technical hurdles aside, investing in cryptocurrencies has been a no-brainer for me considering that crypto-market is only at 0.25% of the 6-8 trillion dollar forex-market.

I'm not saying that blockchains will be the cure-all for state corruption. It's merely a tool, but one that may be powerful enough to make a difference.

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